Sustainable Development.

Sustainable development is understood as satisfying the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations.

Sustainability includes taking into account three aspects:

1. Economic: we need economic growth; to assure our material welfare.

2. Environmental: we need to minimize environmental damage, pollution, and exhaustion of resources.

3. Social: this is equity; the world's resources should be better shared between the rich and the poor.

Sustainability can be seen as a triangle, each of its cornerstones being environmental, economic and social elements

SUSTAINABILITY

SOCIALACCEPTANCE

ECONOMICALFEASIBILITY

ENVIRONMENTALEFFICIENCY

The three elements of sustainability (Nilsson-Djerf y McDougall, 2000).

Sustainable development- Eco- efficiency - Pollution Prevention

Concepts Green Chemistry Cleaner Production Total Quality Management Life Cycle Thinking Design for Environment Industrial Ecology

DATA

Analytical tools Cost-Benefit and -Effectiveness Analysis Life Cycle Assessment Environmental Risk Assessment Impact Pathway Analysis Process Simulation Accident Prevention

Procedural tools Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental Management Systems Environmental Auditing Eco-labelling

Technical elements

Political instrumentsand

Standards

Material Flow Accounting Substance Flow Analysis

• Eco-efficiency :

“Is reached by the delivery of competitively priced goods and

services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life

while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource

intensity throughout the life cycle to a level at least in line with

the earth's estimated carrying capacity.”

Wow to achieve eco-eficiency?

The seven actions to attain eco-efficiency:

Reduce material intensity of goods and services.

Reduce energy intensity of goods and services.

Reduce toxic dispersion.

Enhance materials recyclability.

Maximize sustainable use of renewable resources.

Extend product durability.

Increase service intensity of goods and services.

Pollution Prevention.

Pollution Prevention entails avoiding pollutant production right before pollutants are issued at end of pipes, through stacks or into waste containers.

The waste management hierarchy list:•1.- Whenever feasible, pollution or waste should be prevented or reduced at the source.

•2.- If the pollution or waste cannot be prevented, reuse or recycling is the next preferred approach.

•3.- If the pollution or waste cannot be prevented or recycled, safe treatment must be carried out.

•4.- Disposal or other release into the environment should be employed as

a last resort and accomplished in a safe manner.

Examples of pollution prevention?

Raw material replacement

Product replacement

Process re-designing

Equipment re-designing

Waste recycling

Preventive maintenance (i.e. pump-end lock leaks)

Stock minimization to prevent future wastes

Solvent adsorption or distillation in water and later

recycling

Examples of Pollution Prevention measures

Concepts

•Green Chemistry: is aimed at designing chemical

substances and, at the same time, production processes

respectful of the environment. This includes reducing or

eliminating use and production of dangerous substances.

•Cleaner Production: It is applied to processes, products

and services to increase Eco-efficiency and reduce risks to

population and the environment.

•Life Cycle Thinking

A product or service system is evaluated with the goal of

reducing potential environmental impacts over its entire

life cycle.

Life Cycle Thinking implies that everyone in the whole

chain of a product’s life cycle, from cradle to grave, has a

responsibility and a role to play, taking into account all

the relevant external effects.

Recycling

Refining

Manufac-turing

Exploration

Consumption/Use

Extraction

Return to theenvironment

Re-Use

Society’s Needfor Products and

Services

Obsolescence

The life cycle of a product system (UNEP/ SETAC, 2001).

•Design for Environment

Eco-design, or Design for Environment (DfE), allows approaching environmental problems associated to a given product within its phase of design.

That is, it implies considering the environmental variable as one of the many product requirements, besides taking into consideration the rest of conventional design goals: cost, utility, functioning, security, etc

•Industrial Ecology

Industrial Ecology (IE) entails an approximation of industrial systems to natural systems.

It deals with the systematic analysis of material and energy flows in industrial systems with the purpose of minimizing waste generation and negative environmental effects.

Industrial Ecology may be defined as a network of industrial systems that cooperate in reusing waste energy and material within the same network: a waste flow from one of the industrial members becomes a source of raw material useful for another member of the network.

ToolsTools

Political Instruments and Standards.

Law on Chemical SubstancesEuropean Parliament and Council Directive 1999/45/EC, May 31st, which serves as a means to homogenize standards among EU member countries concerning classification, packing and characterization of dangerous substances. (Federal Environment Agency Ltd. of Austria, 2000)

Law on Process Security The "Chemical Security Act" (S.1602) of the US was designed to protect communities from terrorism and accidents involving hazardous industrial chemicals.

ISO International Standards

• ISO 14001,04: Environmental management systems - General guidelines on principles, systems and supporting techniques.

• ISO 14010,11,12: Guidelines for environmental auditing

• ISO 14020, 21,22,23,24: Environmental labels and declarations

• ISO 14031: Environmental performance evaluation - Guidelines

•ISO 14040,41,42,43:Life cycle assessment

Procedural Tools:• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Is a set of research papers and technical systems used to

estimate the effects of implementing a given project, work or

activity into the environment.

Environmental impact research is a technical

interdisciplinary assessment aimed at foreseeing, identifying,

determining and correcting the environmental impact or the

consequences given activities may cause on human life quality

and the environment:

FIVE STEPS

1. Define the scope of the Environmental Impact Assessment

2. Inventory community natural resources, their quality and current use;

3. Compile and review existing community environmental management standards and guidelines;

4. Assess the extent and significance of environmental impacts resulting from the proposed development; and Evaluate the potential cumulative impacts associated with the proposed development

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

7. Environmentalimpactsevaluation

9.Environmentalsurveillance plan

submission

11. Final reportsubmission10. Public

evolvement

8. Correctivesdefinition

Thematicand

geographic

geographicinformation

3. Projectanalysis

2. Environmentdefinition

1. Effectsprevision

5. Factors

identification

6. Impactsidentification

4. Actionsidentification

EVALUATION

QUALITATIVE SIMPLIFIEDQUANTITATIVE

General structure of an Environmental Impact Assessment

• Environmental Management and Audit System (EMAS)

Is an ensuring effective implementation of an environmental management plan or procedures in compliance with environmental policy objectives and targets

An environmental management system allows businesses to:

Assure a high-level of environmental protection.

Continuously improve their environmental performance.

Obtain competitive advantages out of these improvements.

Communicate their progress with the publication of an

environmental declaration showing their efforts

• Eco-label.

May provide consumers with better information on green products and promote the Design for Environment

Analytical Tools

•Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Is a tool standardized according to ISO series 14040 for

product-oriented environmental impact assessment and will

be further explained by Dr. Frances Castells.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a product comprises the

evaluation of the environmental effects produced during its

entire life cycle, from its origin as a raw material until its end

usually as a waste

Figure 2.2: Product Life Cycle span steps.

PrimeMaterial

Extraction

PrimeMaterial

TransportManufacture Distribution Disposal

CRADLE GATE 1 GATE 2 GATE 3 GRAVEGATE 4

•Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) and Impact Pathway Analysis and (IPA)

Are the tools generally used for the impact analysis in site-

specific environmental impact assessment. These tools will be

described in more detail during this curs.

•Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA)

Are techno-economic tools to support decision-making towards sustainability.

The cost-benefit methodology shines a light brightly on "efficiency attributes" attendant to environmental decision making--namely the tasks that could be accomplished if the specific project, program, or activity under consideration were foregone.

PhasesUnits Examples

Emission

Transportationof pollutants

Natural processes

Impact

Damage

Particles

Changes inconcentration

Deposition in therespiratory system

Asthma

Change in health

kg

g/m³

g/d

Number ofpatients

Euros

Impact Pathway Analysis (IPA) scheme (EC, 1995).

Material Flow Accounting / Substance Flow Analysis

Refers to accounting in physical units (usually in tons) the

extraction, production, transformation, consumption, recycling

and deposition of materials in a given location (i.e., substances;

raw materials; products; wastes; emissions into the air, water or

soil).

Aire atmosférico

aSuelo Vegetación

tmo

a

s

c

c

Sedimentos

Fuentes antropogénicas

Peces Animales

Hombre

Materiales

Pl. tratam. de residuos sólidos urbanosi

Pl. tratam. de aguas residuales

11,3-63,8

0,00-0,010,00-0,008

0,06-1,39

0,05-0,09

0,11-29,5

1,1-4,1

0,00-0,003

0,01-0,04

-3,2-12,619,3-82,5

0,08-0,10

4,9-5,8

2,5-2,8

0,00-0,01 0,00-0,01 0,03-0,05

0,02-0,03

0,001

0,07-0,350,00-0,004

-3,26-12,3

0,00-0,02

A: 35,0-80,8

G: 0,27-1,2

A: 27,9-74,6

A: -0,35-4,0

D: 0,00-0,01

G: 112,6-239,1

A: 0,04-0,06

D: -0,007-0,02

-0,05-0,10

0,01-0,04

0,0-0,02

110-204

0,04-0,28

50,7-130,4

0,00-0,01

0,01-0,02

-0,36-4,0

0,03-0,55

3,7-4,9

1,3-1,6