Green industry: the complete guide to a sustainable industrial sector

Industry accounts for a major share of global resource consumption and CO2 emissions. Faced with the climate emergency and growing regulatory pressure, a model is essential: green industry, which aims to decouple industrial growth from excessive resource consumption and pollution.

It is no longer an activist posture, but a trajectory framed by laws and public funding. What exactly is green industry, what are its pillars, and what levers can an industrialist activate today? This guide takes you from concept to implementation.

What is green industry?

Green industry is an industrial production model that minimizes waste in all its forms, uses renewable resources as raw materials and energy, and takes every precaution to avoid harm to workers, communities, and the environment. Promoted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) since 2009, the concept aims to decoupling economic growth from resource consumption and pollution.

Concretely, it involves moving from linear systems to closed loops, more efficient and less resource-intensive; an issue that is all the more pressing given that, according to UNIDO's Green Industry program, less than 10% of extracted resources end up in a final product. Green industry directly addresses this inefficiency.

Green industry or green economy: what is the difference?

The two concepts are related but distinct. The green economy is the overall macroeconomic framework: an economy that improves human well-being while reducing environmental risks. Green industry is the component applied to the manufacturing sector; the concrete implementation, at the factory and process level, of the principles of the green economy.

In other words, the green economy is the big picture; green industry is its execution on the field of production. This is why UNIDO presents green industry as a prerequisites to achieve sustainable consumption and production.

The pillars of the green industry

Green industry is based on a three-dimensional approach, which UNIDO calls Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP):

• Production efficiency : optimize the use of natural resources; materials, energy, water.

• Environmental management : reduce environmental impact by reducing waste and emissions.

• Human development : minimize risks to people and communities.

These three dimensions only work together: it is their balance that guarantees industrial development that is both sustainable and profitable. An industry is only truly “green” if it progresses simultaneously on all three fronts.

Why green industry is needed now: regulatory pressure

Beyond voluntary action, the green industry is now supported by a restrictive regulatory framework. Several countries have legislated to accelerate the decarbonization of their industry and direct funding towards green technologies, a dynamic amplified by international competition on these technologies, particularly in response to the American Inflation Reduction Act.

This issue directly relates to the modernization of the industrial park: greening your production requires rethinking equipment management, as explained in our article on the ecological transition in the management of industrial equipment.

The green industry law: three key axes

As an illustration, the Green Industry law adopted in France (promulgated on October 23, 2023) structures this ambition around three axes, which offer a good reading grid for green industry policies:

• Finance green industry : mobilize private savings towards the transition, in particular via new savings products dedicated to the decarbonization of SMEs and ETIs.

• Facilitate industrial establishments : halve the deadlines for setting up factories (identified as the main obstacle by manufacturers) and rehabilitate wastelands for industrial use.

• Greening public procurement : integrate environmental criteria into public procurement, with the possibility of excluding operators who do not publish their emissions report.

Objectives and financing: what is at stake for manufacturers

The issues are quantified. Still following the French example, the approach aims to reduce 41 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030, or around 1% of the country's total footprint. On the obligations side, companies benefiting from public transition aid must measure their impact via a greenhouse gas emissions report (BEGES); companies with 50 to 500 employees are subject to it in a simplified form.

For an industrialist, the message is clear: greening one's production is no longer just virtuous, it is increasingly a condition of access to public markets and financing.

Examples of green industry in practice

Concretely, an industry becomes greener by acting on its processes: use of renewable energies, reduction of waste and emissions, extension of the lifespan of products and improvement of the energy efficiency of equipment. The guiding principle is the transition from the linear model (extract, produce, throw away) to closed loops where resources flow.

Concrete levers: reconditioning, retrofit and circular sourcing

Among the most accessible levers, extending the lifespan of equipment is one of the most effective. Rather than replacing obsolete equipment with new ones, reconditioning and the retrofit (modernization) extend the use of facilities while reducing waste and consumption of raw materials.

It is a direct application of the closed loops advocated by the green industry, and a concrete lever that any industrialist can activate without overhauling their production tool. This logic joins the management of obsolescence of industrial equipment : source reconditioned industrial parts is a green industry gesture, which reduces the material footprint while controlling costs.

FAQ — Green Industry

• What is green industry?
  A production model that minimizes waste and emissions, uses renewable resources and decouples industrial growth from resource consumption. The concept has been promoted by UNIDO since 2009.

• What is the difference between green industry and green economy?
  The green economy is the overall macroeconomic framework; green industry is the concrete application to the manufacturing sector, at the factory and process level.

• What are the axes of a green industry policy?
  Generally three: finance green industrial projects, facilitate industrial establishments, and green public procurement; as illustrated by the French Green Industry law of 2023.

Green industry is no longer a distant horizon: it is a model governed by regulations, financed by public schemes, and measurable. It is based on three pillars (resource efficiency, environmental management, human development) and is translated into concrete levers on the ground. Among them, the reconditioning and retrofitting of equipment are immediately accessible and reduce both the environmental footprint and costs.

Do you want to green your production tool? Discover Spare-Place’s reconditioned industrial parts to extend the life of your equipment while reducing your material footprint.