Low-carbon manufacturing

The document argues that South Africa must shift from a carbon-intensive export model to low-carbon manufacturing to avoid international trade barriers and leverage a global market for low-carbon products estimated at US$5 trillion. It details several technical approaches to achieve this, including eco-design, material substitution, additive manufacturing, and remanufacturing, while highlighting the systemic challenges of R&D, cost, and technological lock-in.

• South Africa's export economy is highly vulnerable to global climate shifts because approximately 29% of its carbon emissions are exported to other countries, the highest percentage of any country.
• Eco-design, which integrates environmental considerations at the design phase, can determine up to 80% of a product's environmental impacts. Optimizing for material-use rather than cost could potentially save one-third of all materials used.
• Material substitution can significantly reduce embodied carbon across various sectors: light-weight structural solutions in construction can achieve up to 20% emissions reduction, and replacing steel or concrete with wood in mid-rise residential buildings in British Columbia, Canada, avoided approximately 92,000 tonnes of CO2e across 145 buildings.
• In the transport industry, replacing cast iron and traditional steel with lightweight materials like carbon fiber or aluminum alloys can reduce a vehicle's body and chassis weight by up to 50%, with a 10% weight reduction leading to a 6%–8% improvement in fuel economy.
• Additive manufacturing (3D printing) reduces emissions by eliminating material waste associated with subtractive methods and decreasing transport emissions and packaging waste by localising the production of components.
• Remanufacturing is highly energy-efficient, requiring only 15% of the energy needed to produce a new item, though it risks 'technological lock-in' where the market remains dependent on older products despite the availability of newer, lower-emission technologies.

APA

Gulati, M., & Naudé, L. (2018). Low-carbon manufacturing. WWF South Africa. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_2018_low_carbon_manufacturing.pdf

Chicago

Gulati, Manisha, and Louise Naudé. Low-carbon manufacturing. WWF South Africa, 2018. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_2018_low_carbon_manufacturing.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gulati |first1=Manisha |last2=Naudé |first2=Louise |title=Low-carbon manufacturing |publisher=WWF South Africa |date=2018 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_2018_low_carbon_manufacturing.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gulati2018lowcarbon, author = {Gulati, Manisha and Naudé, Louise}, title = {{Low-carbon manufacturing}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2018}, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_2018_low_carbon_manufacturing.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }