The aim of this paper is to provide a systemic view on the recent sustainable-thinking wave in manufacturing with regards to conceptual approaches. The methodology is based on a wide scientific literature analysis reflecting the most up-to-date achievements in different sectors for sustainable manufacturing. The findings include a new classification of most of the recent scientific results on conceptual approaches to sustainable manufacturing according to theory of games. The novelty is in considering two players – namely the earth and the mankind – that rarely are involved in the approaches available in the recent scientific literature.