Int. J. Sustainable Manufacturing, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2018 79 Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. House of sustainable waste management: an implementation framework G.P. Kurien* Institute of Management, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India Email: georgy.kurien@christuniversity.in *Corresponding author M.N. Qureshi Industrial Engineering Department, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia Email: mrnoor@kku.edu.sa Abstract: Manufacturing industries consume large amounts of natural resources as inputs to production in order to generate much lower amounts of useful products, leaving a major part of the inputs as by-products which are wastes. Waste disposal, in the present form, has significant adverse impacts on the environment as it can result in pollution of many forms. The present research critically examines the various revolutionary concepts of ‘cradle to cradle (C2C)’, ‘design for green (DfG)’, ‘triple top line’ and ‘waste is food’ as applied to industrial waste management. The exploratory study examines the prevailing practices and suggests approaches for sustainable industrial waste management. The paper proposes the ‘house of sustainable waste management’ which is a reference framework for industrial waste management which comprises three parts, ‘the hierarchy’, ‘the pillars’ and ‘the foundations’. The proposed framework is conceptual in nature and provides a direction for implementation of sustainable industrial waste management. Keywords: cradle to cradle; C2C; design for green; DfG; hierarchy of waste; house of sustainable waste management; industrial waste management; waste management; waste is food. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Kurien, G.P. and Qureshi, M.N. (2018) ‘House of sustainable waste management: an implementation framework’, Int. J. Sustainable Manufacturing, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp.79–96. Biographical notes: G.P. Kurien obtained his PhD from the MS University of Baroda, India and PGCBM from XLRI Jamshedpur, India. He is presently working as Associate Professor in Lean Operations and Systems, Institute of Management, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India where he teaches MBA students. He has varied experience of 20 years as an Army officer in the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering in the Indian Army. He has published 15 papers in international and national journals and conference proceedings. His areas of interest are sustainable business management, performance measurement in supply chain, terramechanics and vehicle systems.