Cleaner Production: A
Business Tool with Environmental Benefits
By Parag Bijukchhe
BACKGROUND
The United
Nation Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, held
in Rio de Janeiro marked a shift in the development process towards a
more harmonious relationship with the environment. In Agenda 21, UNCED
gives high priority to the introduction of Cleaner Production (CP)
methods and preventive and recycling technologies in order to achieve
Sustainable Development. However, CP is not by itself a new concept,
as many other concepts with more or less the same scope have been
discussed in the past decade under different terms like; Pollution
Prevention, Green Productivity, Eco-efficiency, Waste Minimization,
Waste Reduction, Source Reduction, Responsible Care, Green Chemistry,
Green Engineering, Green Technology, Clean Technology, Environmental
Technology, Low and Non - Waste Technology, Environmentally conscious
Manufacturing, Sustainable Manufacturing and so on.
Most of us
consider CP to be a strategy only for environmental benefits and many
of us consider it to be, detrimental to economic growth. We will in
the course of this paper try to look at whether this is true or
whether CP is in fact, a business tool with environmental benefits.
DEFINITIONS
The terms CP
and Pollution Prevention (P2) are the most common terms used to
represent the concept of waste minimization at the source and are
often used interchangeably. The distinction between the two tends to
be in most cases merely geographic, as the term Pollution Prevention
tends to be used in North America, while CP tends to be used in other
parts of the world.
he US
Environment Protection Agency (EPA) defines P2
as the "source reduction -- preventing or reducing waste where it
originates, at the source -- including practices that conserve natural
resources by reducing or eliminating pollutants through increased
efficiency in the use of raw materials, energy, water and land."
Source: http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/p2home/
UNEP defines
CP as "continuous
application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied
to processes, products and services to increase overall efficiency and
reduce risks to humans and the environment."
Source: http://www.uneptie.org/pc/cp/understanding_cp/home.htm
In short, CP
and P2 are about preventing and reducing waste generation at the
source, to increase overall efficiency, in contrast the pollution
control and end-of-pipe treatment strategies are about reducing waste
that has already been created.
CLEANER PRODUCTION TOOLS
Some
important tools that can be used by businesses to achieve CP are:
-
Industrial
Ecology: involves the incorporation of CP principles into
the planning of industrial developments and other projects to optimize
environmental protection and cost effectiveness. Industrial Ecology
attempts to emulate the natural ecosystem, where materials and energy
constantly circulate, and there is no such thing as 'waste' by for
example allowing waste from one industrial process to be used as the
raw materials for another. This not only reduces the effect on the
environment but also reduces transportation as well as disposal costs.
-
Environmental
Audits: are carried out normally before the
implementation of CP to identify all of the environmental impacts made
by a business firm so that changes to practices and processes can be
identified and assessed. It may also assess the level of compliance to
relevant legislation and guidelines such as ISO 14000,
EMAS and document past activities at a location (to assess
contamination.) After making changes, environmental impacts can be
re-assessed to document progress.
-
Environmental
Accounting: involves implementation of
accounting systems that take into account environmental costs, such as
waste treatment and disposal costs and the costs of a poor
environmental reputation. Environmental Accounting is a method for
evaluating the true environmental costs of operating a business, so
these costs can be considered in business decisions. When a business
firm understands the financial benefits that can arise by reducing
environmental impacts, it is more likely to adopt CP practices.
-
Design
for Environment: is the systematic
consideration during product design of issues associated with the
environment over the entire life cycle of a product. This approach
attempts to create financial and environmental savings by redesigning
products to reduce environmental impact. The object is to minimize or
eliminate anticipated waste generation and resource consumption in all
life cycle phases: production, use, and disposal. DFE applies the
concept of pollution prevention to products before they are made.
-
Environmental
Management Systems: ISO 14000 and Eco-Management
and Audit Scheme (EMAS) are the two main Environmental Management
Systems. The International Organization for Standardization defines an
Environmental Management System as "a systematic approach to
dealing with the environmental aspects of an organization. It is a
'tool' that enables an organization of any size or type to control the
impact of its activities, products or services." The EMS doesn't
specify how environmental targets should be met but rather provides a
framework in which organizations can examine their practices and then
determine how these can be managed.
-
Life
Cycle Assessment: is a decision making tool
for businesses and governments. It attempts to provide a systematic
approach to measuring resource consumption and environmental releases
to air, water and soil associated with products, processes and
services. It takes into consideration that all product life-cycle
stages (extracting and processing raw materials, manufacturing,
transportation and distribution, use/reuse, and recycling and waste
management) have environmental and economic impacts.
-
Public
Environment Reporting: is the process by which
businesses, factories, governments and other organizations examine
their environmental performance and publish the information to the
general public. It generally includes background information about the
organization, the organization's environmental policy, progress made
towards specific targets established in previous reports, and new
targets or actions to improve the organization's environmental
performance in the future.
Other tools
that can be helpful in achievement of CP are; Eco-efficiency, Codes of
Practice, Performance Based Contracting, Environmental Taxes,
Environmental Indicators, and Environmental Labeling.
Source: http://www.environment.gov.au/epg/environet/eecp/tools.html
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CLEANER PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES |
CLEANER PRODUCTION ASSESSMENT
CP
assessment should be done to identify, where and why waste and
emission is generated and how it can be minimized. CP assessment for
businesses basically involve six phases:
-
Planning
and Organizing Phase: Getting started by
recognizing the need for CP, management commitment and organizing a
project team and setting desired goals.
-
Assessment
Phase: Creating process flow diagram to identify sources
of waste and emission generation and investigating all the factors
that influence the volume and composition of the waste and emissions
generated for cause diagnosis.
-
Option
Generation Phase: Creating CP option to
eliminate or control the causes of waste and emission generation by
using generic prevention practices like, on-site recovery and reuse,
creation of by-products, process changes (material, technology, etc),
good house keeping practices and product modification.
-
Option
Selection Phase: Undertaking feasibility study
with the help of preliminary, technical, economic and environment
evaluation, to select the best CP options.
-
Implementing
Phase: Prepare CP plans and implement feasible CP
Measures.
-
Maintaining
Phase: Monitor, evaluate and sustain CP through continuous
improvements and repeating processes.
CLEANER PRODUCTION APPLICATIONS
CP can be
applied to the processes used in any business, to products themselves
and to various services provided in society.
Processes:
CP results from one or a combination of conserving raw materials,
water and energy; eliminating toxic and dangerous raw materials; and
reducing the quantity and toxicity of all emissions and wastes at
source during the production process.
Products:
CP aims to reduce the environmental, health and safety impacts of
products over their entire life cycles, from raw materials extraction,
through manufacturing and use, to the 'ultimate' disposal of the
product.
Services:
CP implies incorporating environmental concerns into designing and
delivering services.
Source:
http://www.uneptie.org/pc/cp/understanding_cp/home.htm
RESULTS & BENEFITS
CP not only
reduces the impact on the environment but in most cases yields
economic and social benefits. CP is a very cost-effective approach to
environment management. Generally speaking the main benefits of CP are
as follows:
·
Decrease in production costs
through greater efficiency
·
Decrease in energy consumption
·
Decrease in waste of material
inputs
·
Decrease in waste disposal and
treatment costs
·
Recovery of valuable
by-products
·
Increase in productivity and
often improved products
·
Decrease in liability risks
·
Creation of new opportunities
and markets
·
Decrease in environmental
impacts and risks
·
Better compliance with
environmental regulations
·
Better working conditions,
staff morale and service
·
Better public image
BARRIERS
FOR CLEANER PRODUCTION FROM BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Despite
attractive economics and significant reductions in environmental
impacts, the widespread adoption of CP still remains limited. Several
studies have addressed the barriers for the adoption of CP at the
level of individual businesses as follows:
-
Financial:
Perception of high risk and improper valuation of CP, lack of funding.
-
Economic:
Perception of not being cost effective in comparison and immature
practices and procedures in cost calculation, budgeting and
allocation.
-
Policy:
Insufficient focus on CP in development strategies, immature policy
framework.
-
Organizational:
Lack of leadership and limited experience.
-
Technical:
Absence of a sound operational basis, complexity of CP, limited
accessibility of equipment and technical information.
-
Conceptual:
Indifference, narrow interpretation or misunderstanding of the CP
concept and resistance to change.
Source: http://www.uneptie.org/pc/cp/understanding_cp/cp_industries.htm
CASE
STUDY
Fuyang
Chemical General Works: A Cleaner Production Success Story**
Fuyang
Chemical General Works is located in Fuyang City, in Anhui Province of
China. At the beginning of the project in 1996, the plant employed
1300 people to produce annually 200,000 tons of ammonium bicarbonate
and urea fertilizers with a gross value of $250 million Renminbi
(1 Renminbi = 0.18 Canadian $). As is typical of fertilizer
plants, the facility also generated large amounts of air and water
pollution, especially ammonia and sulphur.
Engineers
and process specialists worked closely with Fuyang plant personnel to
identify practical no, low and medium cost ways to improve
productivity and profitability and to reduce pollutants by applying
following principles of CP:
·
Minimize water consumption
·
Efficient use of raw materials
and energy
·
Recover, Reuse and/or Recycle
losses of raw materials and finished products from the process
·
Improve housekeeping
procedures
·
Safe and carefully handling of
raw materials, intermediate products and finished goods.
CP Methodology: CP began
with an audit. 28 Process Flow Diagrams (PFD) were prepared to
describe a specific unit process, including all major pieces of
process equipment and process streams. Environmental emissions (liquid
effluents, air emissions and wastes) from every item of process
equipment were systematically assessed and a list of all environmental
emissions were prepared, indicating the sources, the nature, the point
of discharge, the general composition and frequency of emission.
PFDs were
used to identify the sources of process emission and to select major
streams and sampling points to be included in the field sampling.
Results of PFDs and field sampling led to Water balance and pollution
load analysis that helped in determining 2 priority process areas and
7 priority process streams responsible for up to 60% of the pollution,
for which CP measures had to be developed.
CP Measures and Benefits: some
no and low-cost solutions like; generating revenues from waste,
eliminating or preventing leaks, aesthetic site improvement,
minimizing discharge, maximizing recovery for reuse and recycling and
other medium cost measures like; installation of new equipment for
recovery, reuse and recycling of ammonia and sulphur were developed
and implemented. About 10 other CP recommendations may be implemented
in the near future.
In the first
full year of implementing no and low-cost CP measures, production
increased three percent, with savings of 15 million RMB. The plant
used less, raw materials and generated less pollution. The plant has
made important productivity improvements, has reduced production
costs, has seen improved energy efficiency, and has reduced the load
of pollutants discharged to the environment. This is an excellent
example of how a focus on implementing CP can make a significant
difference not only in environmental emission but also economic growth
of a company.
CP measures
in Fuyang Chemical General
Works were a success mainly because of: management
commitment, employees participation and support, implementation of no
and low cost measures first, good policies and guidelines, capacity
building through training and information sharing, gender equity
recognition and partnerships with government agencies and others.
INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS
No matter
what terms and definitions are used to describe the concept of CP. The
scope of CP remains mainly to prevent and reduce waste generation at
the source instead of treating it at the end of the pipeline and thus
increasing efficiency and productivity and reducing costs and risks to
humans as well as the environment.
Certain CP
tools and CP techniques are used during the assessment process to
select and implement the most feasible CP measures, for application in
different process, product and service oriented businesses, in order
to maximize the results and benefits of CP implementation.
As mentioned
above and as shown by the case study of Fuyang
Chemical General Works, CP not only reduces the impact
on the environment but also yields economic benefits. Yet,
implementation of CP has not been widespread mainly due to certain
real and many perceived barriers.
CONCLUSION
In most
businesses, inputs are processed to get desired products or services.
Most processes generate waste, which is responsible for increase in
production costs and environmental pollution. CP reduces waste
generation and in the process cuts production costs, increases
efficiency, productivity, profitability and competitiveness, creates
new opportunities and markets and gives better image along with
obvious environmental benefits. Thus, there is no doubt about the fact
that CP is indeed, A BUSINESS
TOOL WITH ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS.
Yet, most of
us consider CP to be a strategy mainly for environmental benefits and
many of us consider it to be detrimental to economic growth. This is
mainly due to lack of awareness and comprehensive knowledge about CP
and due to misconceptions about some aspects of CP arising mainly
because of too little focus on the economic benefits of implementing
CP measures.
Hence, it is
necessary to inform and educate the general public about CP, to
increase awareness and put positive pressure on industries and
businesses. At the same time, it is necessary to market CP as a
business tool by highlighting its economic benefits among business
personalities and institutions. It is also necessary that concerned
government or non-government organizations facilitating CP should
develop sound policy frameworks and increase accessibility to
technical equipment's and information's necessary for better
assessment and implementation of CP.
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