Sustainable development

The long term goal of environmental management is a movement towards “sustainable development”. This is defined as development which meets our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.

Many of our current practices are not sustainable. For example, transport based on fossil fuels is using a resource which is finite as well as taking carbon from the earth and emitting it into atmosphere where it can contribute to global warming.

If manufacturing industry is to become more sustainable, it will be necessary to develop technologies which allow more goods to be produced with fewer resources. Such practices are being encouraged by the vast majority of European and UK based environmental policy.

The practical reality of achieving sustainable development at a site level is much more complex than the theory, requiring an economy-wide shift towards more efficient patterns of resource use. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has developed six key principles of “eco-efficiency”. The latter is defined as

“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 through the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the earth's estimated carrying capacity.”

The six key principles of eco-efficiency are:

Increase service efficiency - can the method by which the service is delivered be optimised. E.g. the service efficiency of this environmental management manual might be greatly increased by electronic publishing.
Reduce material intensity - minimise the amount of resources needed for a given product. E.g. specify timber of correct size to minimise wastage and use residue for heating.
Optimise material selection - ensure the sustainable management of renewable resources and select less environmentally sensitive resource. E.g. timber from sustainable sources.
Increase the useful lifetime of embodied resources - design for long life and reuse, ie in a way that “borrows” resources from the environment and returns them to the economy as a usable resource. E.g. produce a bed with a long working life which can be dismantled / refurbished for reuse at the end of its first life.
Increase energy efficiency - increase the amount of product per unit of energy consumed
Reduce releases - minimise the quantity and environmental impact of any production residues and by-products. E.g. use water based coatings on the desk rather than solvent based coatings.