According to the International Energy Agency, the Manufacturing sector is at worldwide level responsible for approximately 37% of primary energy consumption being, in most of the developed countries, it is the largest energy consumer and CO2 producer. In this new competitive scenario, European manufacturers have to rethink the current ideas of manufacturing and factories, to be prepared for the new resource and energy efficient, sustainable factories of the future. The EMC²-Factory project will develop a radically new paradigm for cost-effective, highly productive, energy-efficient and sustainable production systems, by using a breakthrough approach in:• defining economically and ecologically oriented requirements for processes, equipment and management strategies, and provide system solutions to meet these requirements;• definining enabling technologies to provide resource and emission reduction in manufacturing systems;• providing integration technology reference models enabling and supporting new sustainable production;• devising new factory design tools aimed at increasing overall energy/resource efficiency;• providing standards for economically and environmentally sound factory infrastructures.The Project will improve and develop new technologies and processes, combining existing tools and methods in an overall integrated framework, in order to achieve the highest impact in terms of environmental sustainability of manufacturing systems. It will focus on main energy intensive processes within the most relevant industrial sectors in Europe (automotive, rail and aerospace), developing tangible and industry relevant results to be easily implemented in manufacturing environments. The project results will therefore lead to a sustainable green factory framework, oriented towards a highly resource and energy efficient production, as well as economically profitable. The new established paradigm will become a permanent reference point in European Manufacturing.