Environment Concepts

The Staircase of Concepts

The concepts of environmental management practice should be understood to be a kind of staircase. The various concepts make up the steps. Concepts higher up the staircase include the concepts below, and add additional elements of scope and complexity. The art and science of business management increases as one moves up the staircase

 There are three types of concepts on the staircase. The macro-scale concepts of sustainable development and industrial ecology extend far beyond the firm and include relationships between companies, social institutions, the public and the environment in all its facets. The firm-wide concepts of environmental management systems and cleaner production address all aspects of the firms operations, from use of natural resources to suppliers to production to product use to product disposal. The remaining operational concepts address specific functions of the business.

Macro-Scale Concepts

Sustainable Development
Definitions: Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of "needs", in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs. Thus the goals of economic and social development must be defined in terms of sustainability in all countries -- developed or developing, market-oriented or centrally planned.

 Sustainable development is thus the longterm goal of individual companies rather than a business practice.

Industrial Ecology
Definition: Industrial ecology is the means by which humanity can deliberately and rationally approached and maintain a desirable carrying capacity, given continued economic, cultural and technological evolution. The concept requires that an industrial system be viewed not in isolation from its surrounding systems, but in concert with them.

 It is a system view in which one seeks to optimize the total materials cycle from virgin material, to finished material, to product, to waste product, and to ultimate disposal. Factors to be optimized include resources, energy and capital.

 The aim of industrial ecology is to interpret and adapt an understanding of the natural system and apply it to the design of the manmade system, in order to achieve a pattern of industrialization that is not only more efficient, but that is intrinsically adjusted to the tolerances and characteristics of the natural system. The emphasis is on forms of technology that work with natural systems, not against them...

Applied industrial ecology is an integrated management and technical program including:

1. The creation of industrial ecosystems 2. Balancing industrial input and output to natural ecosystem capacity 3. Dematerialization of industrial output 4. Improving the metabolic pathways of industrial processes and materials use. 5. Systemic patterns of energy use 6. Policy alignment with a long-term perspective of industrial ecosystem evolution. The concepts below industrial ecology are all fundamental to making industrial ecology successful.

Firm-Wide Concepts
These are concepts that affect the whole scope of the business enterprise, not just parts of it. They are essentially management philosophies and practices rather than technical practices and as such are best directed to the top levels of management.

Cleaner Production
Definitions Cleaner production means the continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy to processes and products to reduce risks to humans and the environment. For production processes, cleaner production includes conserving raw materials and energy, eliminating toxic raw materials, and reducing the quantity and toxicity of all emissions and wastes before they leave a process. For products, the strategy focuses on reducing impacts along the entire life cycle of the product, from raw material extraction to the ultimate disposal of the product. Cleaner production is achieved by applying know-how, by improving technology, and by changing attitudes.

 The conceptual and procedural approach to production that demands that all phases of the life-cycle of products must be addressed with the objective of the prevention or minimization of short and long-term risks to humans and the environment.

Pollution Prevention
The term ''source reduction'' [or pollution prevention] means any practice which (i) reducesthe amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment (including fugitive emissions) prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal; and (ii) reduces the hazards to public health and the environment associated with the release of such substances, pollutants, or contaminants.

 The term includes equipment or technology modifications, process or procedure modifications, reformulation or redesign of products, substitution of raw materials, and improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training, or inventory control. The term ''source reduction'' does not include any practice which alters the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics or the volume of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant through a process or activity which itself is not integral to and necessary for the production of a product or the providing of a service.

 Pollution prevention is the use of materials, processes, or practices that reduce or eliminate the creation of pollutants or wastes at the source. It includes practices that reduce the use of hazardous materials, energy, water, or other resources and practices that protect natural resources through conservation or more efficiently use.

Operational Concepts

Waste Minimization
Definition Waste Minimization (WM) is the reduction, to the extent feasible, of hazardous waste that is generated or subsequently treated, sorted or disposed. It includes any source reduction or recycling activity undertaken by a generator that results in either (1) the reduction of total volume or quantity of hazardous waste, or (2) the reduction of toxicity of hazardous waste, or both, so long as such reduction is consistent with the goal of minimizing recent and future threats to human health and the environment.

Recycling
Recycling is a step on the staircase below waste minimization. There are almost always some wastes created by production processes, so they need to be recycled as much as possible. Recycling can be broken down into closed-loop recycling (which is really just a production process extension rather than recycling), on-site recycling and re-use, off-site recycling, and reclamation. Reclaiming wastes usually involves some kind of separation technologies such as distillation, filtration, etc., whereas straight recycling usually is understood to mean that the waste is simply reused somewhere else or back in the original process.

 There is an important distinction to be made between on-site and off-site recycling. Asking others to recycle for you is risky. Many toxic waste sites in the U.S. were created by poorly managed firms recycling other companies wastes, and now the companies are faced with cleanup costs. Off-site recycling is really a form of waste disposal for the company which creates the waste and so is a low priority for action compared to preventing the waste in the first place.

Pollution Control
Pollution control systems to reduce waste volume or toxicity are a necessity to manage wastes that cannot be prevented or exchanged. Pollution control requires high capital and operating costs, and there are numerous risks associated with system failures and the use of treatment chemicals. Pollution control options should be considered only after all the higher level concepts have been thoroughly investigated. Compared to the cost of buying, installing and operating pollution control systems, improving production processes and other cleaner production strategies may be quite affordable and of course they also usually provide a return on investment. In contrast, pollution control always remains an operating cost with no payback.

Waste Disposal
The bottom of the staircase of industrial environmental management is waste disposal. Since some waste is an inevitable part of almost any operation, wastes need to be managed responsibly. This requires careful consideration of what will happen to the wastes once they have been disposed, and selection of the best disposal options to minimize risks to people and the environment.