Social, environmental and economic challenges such as poverty, sub-standard working conditions, climate change, resource scarcity or environmental depletion lead to a rising importance of a multi-dimensional consideration of sustainability in manufacturing companies. The strong impact of manufacturing on humans and the environment necessitates the integration of social and environmental aspects in addition to the currently predominant focus on economic results. This paper exploits the potential of approaches with a cost, result and life-time perspective in order to obtain a well-balanced and measurable view on sustainability of manufacturing companies in industrial practice.