Exploring the Idea of Ethical Sustainability for Digital Manufacturing

The paper examines the notion of sustainability and proposes a definition of ethical sustainability on the basis of ethics viewed as a practice of removing contradictions and promoting value in processes. Digital manufacturing is then described and engaged in a specific case to show that the aspects of ethical sustainability outlined can be used to analyse and suggest improvement of the digital manufacturing process. Ethical sustainability goes beyond a ‘parsimonious with resources’ paradigm, to adjust action, rethink and rescale temporal relations, embed creativity, and bring the human individual and human society back into the manufacturing process. Being at an early and developing stage, digital manufacturing holds the promise of overcoming some of the regulatory and economic constrictions which tend to hold back true ethical sustainability.