Synergies and trade-offs between ecological and productivity-enhancing measures in industrial production – a systematic review

Purpose: Improving productivity and efficiency has always been crucial for industrial companies to remain competitive. In recent years, the topic of environmental impact has become increasingly important. Published research indicates that environmental and economic goals can enforce or rival each other. However, few papers have been published that address the interaction and integration of these two goals. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, we identify both, synergies and trade-offs based on a systematic review incorporating 66 publications issued between 1992 and 2021. We analyze, quantify and cluster examples of conjunctions of ecological and economic measures and thereby develop a framework for the combined improvement of performance and environmental compatibility. Findings: Our findings indicate an increased significance of a combined consideration of these two dimensions of sustainability. We found that cases where enforcing synergies between economic and ecological effects were identified are by far more frequent than reports on trade-offs. For the individual categories, cost savings are uniformly considered as the most important economic aspect while, energy savings appear to be marginally more relevant than waste reduction in terms of environmental aspects. Originality/value: No previous literature review provides a comparable graphical treatment of synergies and trade-offs between cost savings and ecological effects. For the first time, identified measures were classified in a 3 × 3 table considering type and principle.