Category:Sustainable Manufacturing
New section to focus on the link between open hardware, distributed manufacturing, and ecological/sustainability concerns
or, as they say so well in French:
* "Pour un mode de production, libre, durable et solidaire". i.e. for a free, fair and sustainable mode of production.
Introduction
Commons-Based Peer Production and the associated 'open source stack', are a key ingredient for our sustainable future. Here's a summary of the arguments:
- design in market entities entails planned obsolescence as market goods have to remain scarce; open design communities inherently design for sustainability, interoperability, inclusion, etc ..
- shared design is crucial for a circular economy, which can't really develop easily with privatized knowledge
- mutualization of intrastructure, through a well understood Sharing Economy based on Communitarian Provisioning, has huge benefits in terms of the re-use of idle resources
- the Cosmo-Localization of production allows for a relocalization of production based on expressed local need, and avoids huge transportation expenditures as well as the systematic over-production of supply-driven mass markets
Some introductory material:
- Presentation at Degrowth 2014, video: Michel Bauwens on The Transition to a Sustainable Commons Society
Cosmo-Local Production
Cosmo-Local Production is a methodology for creating value and products and services that are inspired by the following basic rules: it marries the planetary globalization of knowledge, the 'smart' localization of production, and both local and planetary mutualization, i.e. marrying distributed making and global open innovation:
1) the subsidiarity of material production: i.e. localizing production where sensible, in order to bring production closer to the places of need, support the local economy, and substantially diminish the human footprint
2) global knowledge collaboration through open and global design communities, that bring innovation to bear on all participating distributed places of production
3) the choice for 'generative' models of entreprise in terms of property and governance mechanisms, to give all producers and stakeholder communities a voice
For an extensive framing but also many detailed case studies, see:
* The Cosmo-Local Reader. Ed. José Ramos, Sharon Ede, Michel Bauwens and Gien Wong. P2P Foundation, 2021.
URL = https://clreader.net/
- See also this new model of cosmo-local production: Multifactory Models for the Community Economy
- Article: The rise of community economy : from coworking spaces to the multifactory model. By Lorenza Victoria Salati, Giulio Focardi. - Sarajevo : Udruženje Akcija, 2018. [1]
"We want to understand and to show this new idea of workplaces: local, fast, easy, versatile, sustainable under a social and environmental point of view. ... The result of this research is the Multifactory Model, a model of intervention designed to be a guide for all those who want to create, from scratch, a shared workspace based on concepts of collaboration, mutual aid, social innovation, sustainability, and the free flow of knowledge"
Introductory Discussion
On the concept of the ReMaker Society, by Stephen Quilley, Jason Hawreliak, Kaitlin Kish:
The model of the reMaker society is potentially significant for two reasons.
Firstly, decentralised, participatory ‘low overhead’ production models make it conceivable that at least some of the material culture that defines modern societies might be sustained and reproduced outside of the integrated formal economy that currently straddles the globe. By substituting for this globally integrated market, a series of networked and more embedded (in Polanyi’s sense) bioregional economies, the reMaker model would not obviate the cycling of growth, collapse and reorganization phases. But it would eliminate the possibility of large scale systemic collapse, whilst i.) reducing the local and regional ecological impacts of growth and ii.) the social consequences of periodic retrenchment.
Secondly, the reMaker model would allow alternative structures of political economy to emerge in tandem with more communitarian models of care, welfare and the provision of local public goods. Re-embedding economic activity and livelihood could conceivably see the re-emergence of the gift economy and reciprocity as important ‘planes of integration’ (Polanyi, 1968) and a reduced emphasis on mechanisms of both market and state. Examples might include public involvement in hospital care, familial and community home-schooling or community involvement in the repair and maintenance of public infrastructure. Because strategies for social emancipation have historically been so entwined with the expansion of both market and state in highly complex societies, such re-embedding scenarios raise difficult questions. Nevertheless, the reMaker society intimates a hitherto unacknowledged ‘adjacent possible’ i.e. a combination of state, (formal) market and (informal) communitarian reciprocity that could conceivably deliver modern technology and levels of innovation at a much lower ecological cost, and in the context of a much less individualistic post-consumer society." (http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-9-alternative-internets/peer-reviewed-papers/finding-an-alternate-route-towards-open-eco-cyclical-and-distributed-production/)
Key Report on a infrastructure for sustainable production
* P2P Accounting for Planetary Survival: Towards a P2P Infrastructure for a Socially Just Circular Society. By Michel Bauwens and Alex Pazaitis. Foreword by Kate Raworth. P2P Foundation, 2019.
URL = Draft text ; draft illustrations
How shared perma-circular supply chains, post-blockchain distributed ledgers, protocol cooperatives, and three new forms of post-capitalist accounting, could very well save the planet.
Quotes
"The present political economy is geared entirely toward "value-added" operations within a worldview of exponential growth. As you identify policies or activities that are geared toward *value-restored* or *value-replenished* operations within in a framework of logistic growth (e.g., carrying capacity), I think we may find the leverage points we are seeking."
- James Quilligan [2]
Ruben Nelson: Contemporary Civilizational Change needs to be global, conscious, and relatively fast
“In the past, all transitions in the forms of civilization were slow, local/regional, exclusive, optional and unconscious. Today, we are faced by the need to undertake a GT in our dominant form of civilization that, in contrast, must be fast (by any historic standard), scalable to the whole planet, inclusive of all 7.4 billion of us, recognized as required and conscious. This last requirement also implies that today we must not only be conscious about change at every scale, but must develop a capacity for meta-consciousness about change at every scale.” (http://www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/178-journey-to-earthland/reply/2125)
Jose Ramos on Cosmo-Localization
"Cosmo-Localization describes the dynamic potentials of the globally distributed knowledge commons in conjunction with emerging capacity for localized production of value. The imperative to create economically and ecologically resilient communities is driving initiatives for ‘re-localization’. Yet, such efforts for re-localization need to be put in the context of new technologies, national policy, transnational knowledge regimes and the wider global knowledge commons." (http://actionforesight.net/cosmo-localization/)
On the Value Revolution that is taking place
"Under the radar of mass media and mainstream academia, a value revolution is taking place that is promising to transform humanity’s very notions of wealth and economic development. Expressed in an explosion of both traditional academic indicators and innovative new quality-of-life and sustainability measures, this value revolution is not simply revealing previously invisible “full costs” of production, but also “redefining progress” more positively—from quantity to quality. Economically, our ways of growing and distributing food, providing & using energy, building buildings, making and exchanging clothing, etc. are being reexamined not only to reduce their negative impacts, but also to more fully express their social and ecological potentials. They are geared not simply to the sustainability of communities and ecosystems, but to their regeneration—to make economic development, as eco-architect Bill McDonough would say, “not just less bad, but good.”
- Brian Milani [3]
The inherent sustainability of distributed manufacturing
"Personal-scale manufacturing machines ... enable small manufacturers to make one product at a time in response to customer demand, and scale up production as the product sells. ... Regular people and small manufacturing companies that lack investment capital will be able to set up low investment, “start small and scale up as it goes” businesses. With local, onsite production, long-distance shipping of the completed item is no longer necessary. Products and parts can be made only when they’re needed, saving on storage space and the costs of maintaining un-used goods and products."
- Hod Lipson & Melba Kurman [4]
A green economy is a knowledge-intensive economy
"A green economy is the ultimate knowledge-based economy: by definition, it replaces materials and energy with human intelligence. Both EPR and the non-governmental certification systems are based on the life-cycle approach and, increasingly, rigorous life-cycle assessment (LCA). But qualitative development involves far more than simply new values and information; it also demands a market and regulatory revolution, entailing a gradual—but fundamental—shift in the form, content and drivers of economic development. For a growing number of green thinkers, the main elements of this restructuring come down to (1) an increasing focus on producing services rather than products, and (2) reorganization of production and consumption in closed-loops, either integrated with, or imitating, ecosystems—what’s been called “economic biomimicry.” This cannot be achieved simply by beefing up environmental protection against nasty brown markets and production processes, but by a transformation that increasingly establishes social and ecological values as the prime driving forces of a new kind of market."
- Brian Milani [5]
Visualizations
- Graph One: Corporate versus Open-Source Technics. Source

- Graph Two: The Modern Industrial System vs Open Source Production. Source

Key Resources
Read this first: Simon Michaux on Why the Green transition and the Circular Economy Cannot Work As Advertised
Key Articles
- Vasilis Kostakis, Kostas Latoufis, Minas Liarokapis, Michel Bauwens. "The convergence of digital commons with local manufacturing from a degrowth perspective: Two illustrative cases". Journal of Cleaner Production. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Journal-of-Cleaner-Production.pdf
- Finding an Alternate Route: Towards Open, Eco-cyclical, and Distributed Production. By Stephen Quilley, Jason Hawreliak, Kaitlin Kish. Journal of Peer Production, Issue #9: Alternative Internets, 2016
- PhD Thesis: Building Materials in a Green Economy: Community-Based Strategies for Dematerialization. Brian Milani. OISE-UT AECDCP / U. of T. Institute for Environmental Studies [7]
- Anticipated Environmental Sustainability of Personal Fabrication. By Cindy Kohtala and Sampsa Hyysalo. Journal of Cleaner Production, Issue 99, 2015, pp. 333-344 [8]
- Addressing Sustainability in Research on Distributed Production: An integrated literature review. By Cindy Kohtala. Journal of Cleaner Production
- Reaching Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by Mid-Century: Reaching net-zero carbon emissions from harder-to-abate sectors by mid-century. Energy Transitions Commission, 2018
- * The Matrix of Convivial Technology – Assessing technologies for degrowth. By Andrea Vetter. Journal of Cleaner Production. Volume 197, Part 2, 1 October 2018, Pages 1778-1786 [10]
P2P Foundation Project on the Thermo-Dynamic Efficiences of Commons-Based Peer Production
General Resources
- World History as a Thermodynamic Process; longer text for background: Mutation of Economics into the Fifth Integral-Arational Structure of Consciousness
- The Role of Technology in Current Ecological Problems. Interview of Alf Hornborg interviewed by Adam Robbert & JP Hayes.
- Information Technology is Good for the Environment and for the Climate. Joe Romm. vs. How Sustainable is Digital Fabrication?
- Paul Mobbs: 1) The “Limits to Technology”: Ecological Boundaries of the Information Age.: [11] 2) Practical Guide to Sustainable IT.
- Thermodynamic Perspectives on the Role of Technology in the Circular Economy: A systems and thermodynamics perspective on technology in the circular economy. By Crelis F. Rammelt and Phillip Crisp
- Against wasted politics: A Critique of the Circular Economy. By Francisco Valenzuela and Steffen Böhm. Ephemera, volume 17(1): 23-60
P2P Foundation Authors
- Why is Open Hardware Inherently Sustainable? Michel Bauwens; however, the current practices still fall short of the promise: Potential of Open Design for Eco-Efficient Product Development. But, there is hope: 10 Open Hardware Projects to Save the Earth.
- Vasilis Kostakis, Kostas Latoufis, Minas Liarokapis, Michel Bauwens. "The convergence of digital commons with local manufacturing from a degrowth perspective: Two illustrative cases". Journal of Cleaner Production. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Journal-of-Cleaner-Production.pdf
- Kostakis, Vasilis, Niaros, Vasilis, Dafermos, George, and Bauwens, Michel. 2015. “Design Global, Manufacture Local: Exploring the Contours of an Emerging Productive Model”. Futures, 73, 126-135. http://www.p2plab.gr/el/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Futures.pdf
- Kostakis, Vasilis, Roos, Andreas and Bauwens, Michel. 2015. “Towards a Political Ecology of the Digital Economy: Socio-environmental Implications of Two Value Models”. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Env-Innov-and-Soc-Trans.pdf
- Kostakis, Vasilis and Papachristou, Marios. 2014. “Commons-based peer production and digital fabrication: The case of a RepRap-based, Lego-built 3D printing-milling machine”. Telematics and Informatics, 31, 434-443. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/TI.pdf
- Kostakis, Vasilis, Fountouklis, Michail and Drechsler, Wolfgang. 2013. “Peer Production and Desktop Manufacturing: The Case of the Helix_T Wind Turbine Project”. Science, Technology and Human Values, 38(6), 773-800. http://www.p2plab.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/STHV1.pdf
Key Books
- David MacKay [13]. Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air.
(calculats whether the UK could transfer to a 100% renewable energy economy. His answer: 'yes, but'.)
- Vaclav Smil [14]. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. [15]: dematerialization works but is systematically offset by growth imperative.
Key Documentaries
- System Reset to Sustainable Manufacturing: "Imagine if we built an economic system built on abundance rather than scarcity. Taking advantage of the latest digital tools, computational power, material science, biomimicry and a somewhat older idea - the commons - this new system could have the power to transform how we live and work. System Reset is a feature-length documentary which explores this story of change in our economy." [16]
Key Movements
- The MakerNet Alliance is "a global network of people and organizations building the knowledge and tools to enable a future of sustainable, globally networked local manufacturing". [17]
Key Research Projects
- The Thermodynamic Efficiencies of Peer Production. A project of the Blaqswan's Collective in collaboration with the P2P Foundation.
- Evaluating Open Hardware From an Ecological Economics Perspective. A project of the P2P Lab
- Open Source Technology in Agricultural Production: a research project of the P2P Lab
- Phygital Research Project (P2P Lab)
?
Key Statistics
Pages in category "Sustainable Manufacturing"
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 387 total.
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A
- Addressing Sustainability in Research on Distributed Production
- Advancing Environmental Disclosure in Sustainability Reporting
- Anders Koefoed
- Answering the Attraction of Trump by a Massive Investment in Relocalized Community Production
- Anticipated Environmental Sustainability of Personal Fabrication
- Appropedia
- Arrival - Zero Emissions Mobility
- Assessing Technologies for Degrowth
- Association Valeureux
- Associative Sustainable Business Model
- Associative Sustainable Business Models
- Automation for the Artisanal Economy
B
- Barcelona 5.0 Plan
- Barcelona MADE Project
- Basic Income as a Minimum Claim to Basic Resources
- Benjamin Tincq on EcoHacking
- Bike Kitchen
- Biomimicry as a New Enclosure of Nature
- Blair Evans on the Synergy between Permaculture, Digital Fabrication and Autonomous Production by Disadvantaged Communities
- Blockchain-Based Corporate V-Networks
- Blockchain-Based Ethical Coffee Project
- Business for the Environment
C
- Ca La Fou
- Can Peer Production Make Washing Machines?
- Carbon Farming
- Carla Cargo
- Center for Community Production
- Charline Ducas, Alysia Garmulewicz and Mike Werner on Safe and Circular Materials Design
- CHON Theory of Materials Usage for Sustainable Manufacturing
- Circle Economy
- Circular City Open Labs
- Circular Farming Dashboard
- Circular Makerspaces as Seen by their Founders
- Circular Makespaces in Redistributed Manufacturing
- Circular Phone
- Circulation of the Commons
- Cities and the Circular Economy for Food
- Climate Beneficial Production and Accounting
- Co-Manufacturing and New Economic Paradigms
- Commodity Ecology
- Commodity Ecology Mobile Platform
- Commodity Ecology Model for Achieving SDGs
- Commodity Frontiers Initiative
- Commons For Cocoa
- Commons for Supply Chains in the Post‐COVID‐19 Era
- Community Economy
- Community Supported Industry White Paper
- Community Supported Supply Chains
- Community-Based Strategies for Dematerialization
- Compression
- Consignment-Level Carbon Reporting Guidelines
- Constructive Metabolic Processes for Material Flows
- Convergence of Digital Commons with Local Manufacturing from a Degrowth Perspective
- Convergence of Digital Commons with Local Manufacturing from a Degrowth Perspective:
- Cosmo-Local Production
- Cosmo-Localization
- Cosmo-Localization and Leadership For the Future
- Cosmo-Technics
- Cosmolocalism Research Project
- Cosmopolitan Localism as a Transition Design Strategy
- Cost of Transportation vs Cost of Manufacturing
- Cradle to Cradle
D
- Daniel Wahl on the Regenerative Supply Chain
- David Li on Open Source Electronics Manufacture and Recycling in Shenzhen China
- Demand Sensing
- Dematerialization of Production
- Design Factory Global Network
- Design Global, Manufacture Local
- Designing for Integrated Local Production with the Food-Energy-Water Nexus in Mind
- Digital Right to Repair Coalition
- Digital Supply Chain
- DIME Lab
- Disruptive Innovation Festival
- Distributed Bio-Based Economy
- Distributed Car Manufacturing and Sustainability
- Do It Together Factories of the Future
- Documented Growth in Number of Citizen Collectives that Produce Goods or Services Themselves in Belgium
- DURGA Energy
E
- E-Reuse
- Earthworks
- Eco-Cacao
- Eco-Digital Platforms
- Ecological Production in a Post-Growth Society
- Economic and Energy Consumption Aspects of Additive Manufacturing
- Effective Abundance Platforms
- Egg Supply Chain as Demonstration of the Advantages of Localization
- Ellen McArthur Foundation on Circular Economies
- Embodied Energy of Digital Technology
- Emergence of Open Construction Systems
- Energy Consumption of Distributed Manufactured Goods
- Enterprise Resource Planning for the People
- Envienta
- Environmental Impact of Mobile Phones
- Environmental Sustainability of the Collaborative Economy
- Environmentally Extended Input-Output Model
- Ethical and Sustainable Electronics
- Ethical Filament Foundation
- Ethical Metalsmiths
- EthicHub
- Evaluating Open Hardware From an Ecological Economics Perspective
- Evaluating Open Hardware from an Ecological Economics Perspective
- Evaluation of Potential Fair Trade Standards for an Ethical 3-D Printing Filament
- Exploring the Contours of an Emerging 'Design Global, Manufacture Local' Productive Model
- Extractivism
F
- Fab Chain
- Fab City
- Fab City Hamburg and its Mission-Oriented Coalition for Digital Transformation
- Fab City House - Hamburg
- Fab Market
- Fabernation
- Fair Mouse
- Fair Tracing
- Fair Trade Filament
- Fair Trade Filament for 3D Printing
- FairCap
- FairChain Foundation
- FairPhone
- FarmHack
- Fermalab - Distributed Food Processing for Farmers
- Fibers Fund
- Fibershed
- Fibreshed
- Fixer Movement
- Foundations of a Theory of Distributed and Open Value Creation
- Four Post-Globalization Scenarios in Xavier Ricard Lanata's Tomorrow the Planet
- Fourteen Design Principles for DIY Production
- French Roadmap for the Circular Economy
- From Redistributed Manufacturing to a Circular Economy
- Furnitecture
- Futures of Production Through Cosmo-Local and Commons-Based Design
G
- Gauthier Guerin
- Gazelle Tech - Sustainable Mobility
- General-Purpose Decentralized Collective Learning Algorithm
- Giulio Focardi
- Global Footprint Network Finance for Change Initiative
- Global Material Flows Database
- Global Top 100 Environmental Externalities
- Global Village Construction Kit
- Glomo
- Grassroots Contributions to Sustainability
- Grassroots Innovation and the Circular Economy
- Grassroots Innovations for Agroecology
- Green 3D Printing
- Green Capitalism
- Green Chemistry
- Green Machine
- Green Web Foundation
- GreenWave
- Greg Campbell
- Gunter Pauli about the Blue Economy
H
- Hacking Households
- Hamburg’s Current Situation With Regards To Digital Fabrication and Commons-Based Peer Production
- Hannah Jones on Sustainable Supply Chains
- Higg Index
- Hilde van Duijn on Textile Recycling as Part of a Circular Economy
- How Corporate Organizations Translate Climate Change into Business as Usual
- How Fab Labs Address Environmental Issues
- How the Design Industry Perpetuates Unsustainable Development
- How To Thrive In the Next Economy
I
- Ian McKee of the Carrot Network on Revolutionizing Resource Management Through Re-Using Waste
- Impact of New Technologies on Scale in Manufacturing Industry
- Impact-Weighted Accounts Project
- Implications of Open Source Design for Sustainability
- In the Circulation of the Commons, Waste is Naturally Recycled
- Increasing Local Economic Sustainability
- Interchain Foundation
- International Learning Network of Networks on Sustainability
- Internet of Production
- Internet of Production Alliance
- Invisible Factory
- IPO Tables
- Is Earth Recognized as a Finite System in Corporate Responsibility Reporting
- Is Green Growth Possible
J
K
L
- Landfill Economy vs Repair Economy
- Large-Scale Industrial Symbiosis
- Lars Zimmermann's Introduction to the Open Source Circular Economy
- Leakage Analysis
- LeNSin Project
- Library of Things Movement
- LM3D
- Local Food Movement in Belgium
- Locally Owned, Import-Substituting Businesses
- Lorenza Victoria Salati
- Los Angeles Ecovillage