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"Putting Cleaner production in its place

-classifying environmental management tools"

by

Dr. Annik Magerholm Fet[1]

INTRODUCTION

Industrial companies are to an increasing extent faced with requirements for better environmental performance. A company’s environmental performance is not only a measure of the impacts caused by the production processes, it is a total measure of the environmental impacts caused by the processes, the products and the activities, idealistically seen in a life cycle perspective. Companies need methods for evaluating and improving their environmental performance, but many companies have difficulties in finding the most appropriate tools in order to analyse, evaluate and document this in a systematic way. Therefore there is a need to classify the tools so that companies becomes more aware of which tool they can use in different situations. This paper demonstrates how environmental management tools can be systematised and taken into use to improve the environmental performance. It also shows that Cleaner Production principles are central at several levels.

CLASSIFICATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE LEVELS

One model of presenting the levels of environmental performances is shown in Figure 1. The horizontal axis is the time axis, the system’s lifetime with its phases planning, manufacturing, use and disposal, human lifetime and the civilisation span. The vertical axis indicates the scope of the environmental concern, ranging from a single product life cycle, to x products within one manufacturer and towards x manufacturers and the society. The areas in Figure 1 represent environmental performance efforts at different levels. Level (1) includes various types of engineering and production, e.g. Environmental Engineering. Level (2) takes system thinking into account and the planning process (or design phase) is essential. From level (1) to (2) it has been a shift towards Pollution Prevention. Level (3) are related to product design and improvement of products concerning the manufacturing process, the distribution, the use and final disposal of the products, so called Environmental Conscious Design and Manufacturing. Level (4) comprises many products and producers in a long-term perspective. Level (4) may therefore be viewed like "Industrial Ecology" (defined like the broad framework for thinking and organising production and consumption in ways that it resembles natural ecosystems). Level (5) represents Sustainable Development in its broadest sense taking environmental, economic and social aspects into consideration.

Figure 1:Classification of environmental performance levels. Modified after Bras (1996).

A company may find itself within one of these areas. A shift or movement from one area to the next represents a change towards more holistic thinking and focus on the life cycle performance. The shift is often a result of systematically use of appropriate environmental management tools and improved environmental performance.

Classification of Tools for environmental performance improvements

Environmental management and performance improvements tools can be classified according to their relevance for products, processes and other activities, see Figure 2.

Figure 2: Environmental management tools / methods[2]

The environmental management tools can also be classified relative to macro, meso and micro levels, see Table 1. There are no stringent boundaries between these levels, and tools placed at one level may be appropriate at other levels as well.

Table 1: A classification of methods and tools for improvement of environmental performance at different levels.

Levels / Appropriate tools
Macro - level (society - level) /
  • International Protocols and Agreement, Agenda 21, Policy Frameworks.

Meso - level (industry - level) /
  • CP Strategies, Legislation, Industry Specific Agreements

(company - level) /
  • EMS, EA, EPE.

Micro/meso - level (product - level) /
  • LCA, LCS, MET, MIPS, LCC, DfE, CP Products

Micro - level (process/activity - level) /
  • CP Assessment, EAc

As observed from Table 1 the principles of CP are central both for improvements of processes and product, and also for policymaking. This means that CP is the strategy at meso level towards sustainable production and consumption, while CP Assessment is the tool on how to implement the CP strategy at micro level (products, processes and activities).

Figure 3 shows a systematisation of the environmental management tools in a framework similar to the one shown in Figure 1. Area 1 represents the manufacturing processes where the process-oriented improvement tools are relevant. Area 2 is related to products and their life cycles. Appropriate improvement tools are the product-oriented tools as shown in Figure 2. Area 3 represents one organisation (company). To systematically improve an organisation's environmental performance over time, the management-oriented tools like EMS, EA and EPE are important.

For companies that have committed themselves to overall environmentally sound strategies, each one of the methods introduced may be of assistance for the improvement of its environmental performance. If a company has understood and adopted the CP philosophy as a part of its overall strategy, a working-method that takes into consideration the various aspects of the respective methods, is very often wanted. For this purpose a systematic approach, like e.g. the Systems Engineering method (Fet, 1997), can be helpful. This is illustrated by area 4 in Figure 3. The main steps in this method are (a) identifications of needs, (b) definition of requirements, (c) specification of environmental performance, (d) analysing and optimisation, (e) improvements and (f) reporting. The needs and requirements can be defined in accordance with CP Strategies, (c) and (d) in accordance with CP Assessment practice, LCA, or other tools, and finally improvement goals can be established and reported ((e) and (f)) e.g. as a part of a formal EMS.

Area 5 in Figure 3 represents the society and global system level where policy programs and international regulations are drawing up the guidelines for how to improve environmental performance in broader term perspective.

Figure 3: A classification of methods and tools for environmental performance improvements (Fet, 1997).

CONCLUSIONS

Different environmental management methods (or tools) are classified relative to processes, products and management intended use. They are also systematised in accordance with the classification model of different environmental performance levels, see Figure 1. By using the tools relative to manufacturing processes, to products’ entire life cycles, or to a company's organisation as shown in Figure 3, a company will most likely be in a position to achieve a better environmental performance. Mine experiences from the implementation of environmental focused projects in industry are that simple and economic beneficial results from CP Assessment can be used as a carrot for getting interest from the companies (Fet et al, 1994). With reduced emission from their processes, with improved products and implemented environmental management systems they have improved their true environmental performance. Companies that start with the goal of optimising a few processes with the purpose of reducing pollution may end up with improved products and formal environmental management systems implemented after a time period. Figure 3 shows that they are all rooted in CP Assessment.

References:

Bras, B. 1996, Current Educational Status, Interaction with Industry, and the Future of Sustainable Development, NTVA-report 2: Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Product Design, The Norwegian Academy of Technological Science, Norway.

Fet, A.M., Oltedal, G. 1994, Renere produksjon i verftsindustrien i Møre og Romsdal, Report Å 9418, Møre Research, Aalesund, Norway.

Fet, A.M. 1997, Systems Engineering methods and environmental life cycle performance within ship industry, Ph.D. thesis, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.

[1] Professor at Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

[2] * are ISO 14000 standards.