Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the comparison of sustainability characteristics of conventional and computer numerical control (CNC) turning process. The sustainability performance measures of both the processes were also being evaluated. Design/methodology/approach: The study discusses the achievement of sustainability characteristics at the manufacturing process level of widely used industrial process, mechanical machining. Sustainable development includes improvements in material, product design and manufacturing process orientations. The present study narrates the sustainability characteristics at the process level. Findings: The results confirm that the overall sustainability characteristics of CNC machining are potentially high considering the economic and environmental aspects of the machining parameters. A detailed life cycle analysis for both conventional and CNC turning was performed to evaluate the environmental impact and benefits. Research limitations/implications: The study contributed in the paper is limited to process dimension of sustainability. The economic and environmental aspects of machining were also being discussed. Practical implications: The conduct of the study enabled the comparison of sustainability characteristics of conventional and CNC-turning processes. The approach could also be expanded for the comparison of sustainability characteristics of other manufacturing processes also. Originality/value: The study is an attempt to explore the process sustainability by the comparison of environmental impact of making processes. Hence, the contributions are original. © 2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.