Sutherland (pictured left), a Fellow of CIRP, led the development of a paper that underpinned the keynote presentation.  The paper was entitled “The role of manufacturing in affecting the social dimension of sustainability,” and was authored by a diverse, international group of eleven scholars: Sutherland and Justin Richter - Purdue University; Margot Hutchins – Sandia National Laboratories; David Dornfeld, Rachel Dzombak, Jennifer Mangold, and Stefanie Robinson – University of California, Berkeley; Michael Hauschild and Alexandra Bonou – Technical University of Denmark; and Paul Schönsleben and Felix Freimann – ETH Zurich.

The paper explored the current state of knowledge with respect to how manufacturing affects the social dimension of sustainability. The paper covered a wide range of topics including a history of social issues, indicators and frameworks for social issues, and the range of social needs and affected groups that are influenced by manufacturing.  Also addressed were life cycle social assessments and decision approaches that consider social factors as well as other key objectives. The full paper can be accessed at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007850616301901

CIRP was founded in 1951 with the aim to address issues related to modern manufacturing engineering, science, and technology. CIRP brings together over 600 eminent researchers from more than 50 countries representing industry, government, and academe to provide leadership in addressing production engineering challenges.  The flagship event of CIRP is its annual General Assembly.

To learn more about CIRP, visit: https://www.cirp.net/

To learn more about Professor John W. Sutherland, visit: https://engineering.purdue.edu/EEE/People/ptProfile?resource_id=57089

To learn more about Purdue Environmental and Ecological Engineering, visit: https://engineering.purdue.edu/EEE