Labelling is important for the consumer to decide if a product is green. Customers are more likely to buy environmentally friendly products if they know about those attributes in the use phase which are both environmentally friendly and of high quality [ABEL05, p. 173].
9.2 Conclusion on Abrasive Tool Sustainability
Global trends on raw material pricing and availability drive tool manufacturers and raw material suppliers to strive for new materials and tool designs. Research alliances with universities and research institutions boost these efforts.
Sustainability can be regarded in four dimensions: economics, environment, society, and technology. Different stakeholders are interested in the grinding tool life cycle. Most important stakeholders are the grit manufacturers, other raw material suppliers, tool manufacturers, tool user, society and local communities. Machine tool manufacturers have similar concerns as the tool user. Table 9.2 summarizes the most important aspects for these stakeholders along the four life stages of abrasive tools.
Today, environmental sustainability in tool use or social sustainability in tool end of life are rarely regarded (Table 9.2). Tool manufacturers who incorporate these aspects can therefore gain a competitive edge.
Furthermore, raw material manufacturers are rarely concerned with tool use and tool end of life. The tool manufacturer is also only involved in few tool use and end of life aspects (Table 9.2). A close cooperation between material suppliers, tool manufacturers, tool users and machine tool manufacturers help to enhance overall tool sustainability. In particular, the functionality of the machined part is very important to consider for resource efficiency and offers a new perspective to global sustainability in production engineering.