Assessing and Improving the Eco-Efficiency of Manufacturing: Learning and Challenges from a Polish Case Study

Magdalena Rybaczewska-Błażejowska and Aneta Masternak-Janus
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Magdalena Rybaczewska-Błażejowska: Department of Production Engineering, Kielce University of Technology, Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego 7, 25-314 Kielce, Poland
Aneta Masternak-Janus: Department of Production Engineering, Kielce University of Technology, Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego 7, 25-314 Kielce, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-20

Abstract: Manufacturing offers substantial opportunities for economic growth after COVID-19, as long as it delivers competitively priced goods while simultaneously reducing pressure on the environment. In this study, we present the methodological feasibility of the joint application of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for assessing eco-efficiency at the sector level. We employ this methodology to assess the environmental profiles of manufacturing in Poland in relation to their gross value added, and subsequently calculate the improvement targets for the eco-inefficient manufacturing industries. The study reveals that only the chemical industry is relatively eco-efficient, whereas the remaining industries have considerable room for improvement due to their very low eco-efficiency, and thus should follow the best practices established by the chemical industry. Although there are always individual paths for manufacturing industries to achieve the decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressure, activities such as the transformation of manufacturing methods to be less energy and material intensive and/or to be low-emission, the reincorporation of waste into the manufacturing processes, and the implementation of environmental management systems should become common targets of manufacturing in Poland.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; life cycle assessment; processing industry; circular economy; Poland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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