Life Cycle Assessment Ein Life Cycle Assessment (LCA, deutsch Lebenszyklusanalyse, auch bekannt als Ökobilanz) ist eine systematische Analyse der Umweltwirkungen von Produkten während des gesamten Lebensweges (from cradle to grave ‚von der Wiege bis zur Bahre‘) oder bis zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt der Verarbeitung (from cradle to factory gate ‚von der Wiege bis zum Fabriktor‘). Unterscheidung[Bearbeiten] Allgemein wird unterschieden zwischen: einer Ökobilanz, die den Umweltaspekt eines einzelnen Produkts berücksichtigt,einer vergleichenden Ökobilanz, die eine Gegenüberstellung mehrerer Produkte verfolgt, sowieeiner ganzheitlichen Bilanzierung, die wirtschaftliche, technische und/oder soziale Aspekte mit einbezieht. Mit der Norm ISO 14040 ist der Begriff Ökobilanz zwar ausschließlich auf produktbezogene Ökobilanzen anwendbar. Im betriebswirtschaftlichen Umfeld kann die Ökobilanz zu den ökologieorientierten Planungsinstrumenten des Controlling gezählt werden. Zweck[Bearbeiten] Aufbau[Bearbeiten] Am 30.
Toxics Release Inventory TRI-ME, the TRI computer reporting program The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available database containing information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities in the United States. Overview[edit] Summary of requirements[edit] The database is available from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and contains information reported annually by some industry groups as well as federal facilities. Origins of TRI[edit] The inventory was first proposed in a 1985 New York Times op-ed piece[1] written by David Sarokin and Warren Muir, researchers for an environmental group, INFORM. Revisions to reporting requirements[edit] Proposed changes in late 2005 would have lowered the reporting standards for the TRI program. However, EPA went forward with another part of the plan that initially did not receive much attention. Accessing TRI data[edit] Mapping Systems There are several tools for mapping the TRI data to particular locations. Public Portals
Life Cycle Assessment The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines life cycle assessment (LCA) as the following: "Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle" (ISO 14040: 1997)[1]. Among the tools that life cycle management (LCM) offers, LCA, or environmental balance, is one of the most comprehensive and high-performance methods. Life cycle assessment is the only method that assesses the environmental impacts of a product or activity (a system of products) over its entire life cycle. It is therefore a holistic approach that takes into account: The main goal of the method is to lessen the environmental impacts of products and services by guiding the decision-making process. Regulated by the ISO 14040 series[2] standards, LCA consists in four distinct phases: The following figure illustrates the life cycle assessment framework as described by ISO. LCA has however certain limitations:
Supply chain sustainability Supply chain sustainability is a business issue affecting an organization’s supply chain or logistics network in terms of environmental, risk, and waste costs. Sustainability in the supply chain is increasingly seen among high-level executives as essential to delivering long-term profitability and has replaced monetary cost, value, and speed as the dominant topic of discussion among purchasing and supply professionals.[citation needed] Background[edit] Many companies are limited to measuring the sustainability of their own business operations and are unable to extend this evaluation to their suppliers and customers. One of the key requirements of successful sustainable supply chains is collaboration. Three Tiers of Sustainability[edit] In 2008, The Future Laboratory produced a ranking system for the different levels of sustainability being achieved by organization. Tier 1: Getting the basics right[edit] This is the base level and is the stage in which the majority of organizations are at.
Applications of life cycle assessment to NatureWorks™ polylactide (PLA) production Abstract NatureWorks™ polylactide (PLA)1 is a versatile polymer produced by Cargill Dow LLC. Cargill Dow is building a global platform of sustainable polymers and chemicals entirely made from renewable resources. Cargill Dow's business philosophy is explained including the role of life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool used for measuring environmental sustainability and identifying environmental performance-improvement objectives. Keywords Cargill Dow; Sustainability; Life cycle assessment (LCA); Eco-profile; NatureWorks; Polylactide (PLA); Polylactic acid
ISO 14000 ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations (processes, etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e., cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); (b) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements, and (c) continually improve in the above. ISO 14000 is similar to ISO 9000 quality management in that both pertain to the process of how a product is produced, rather than to the product itself. As with ISO 9000, certification is performed by third-party organizations rather than being awarded by ISO directly. The ISO 19011 audit standard applies when auditing for both 9000 and 14000 compliance at once. The requirements of ISO 14001 are an integral part of the European Union‘s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Brief history of environmental management systems[edit] Development of the ISO 14000 series[edit] ISO 14001 standard[edit] Benefits[edit]
How Green Is That Product? An Introduction to Life Cycle Environmental Assessment About the Course Paper or plastic? Local or imported food? Which is better for the environment? To answer these questions, one must take a holistic systems view using a quantitative approach known as life cycle assessment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a fundamental method for assessing the environmental impacts of products and technologies from a "cradle to grave" systems perspective. The course will provide an introduction to LCA methods and applications. Course Syllabus - The basics of energy and mass flows and exchanges with the environment - Working with unit processes and unit process inventory data- Study design: goal definition, system boundaries, and functional units - Compiling the data: life-cycle inventory methods (process-based and input-output methods) - Understanding impacts: life-cycle impact analysis for land, air, water, and health - Building a simple LCA model using spreadsheet software- Results interpretation and reporting Recommended Background Suggested Readings Yes.
Equality impact assessment An equality impact assessment (EqIA) is a process designed to ensure that a policy, project or scheme does not discriminate against any disadvantaged or vulnerable people.[citation needed] Definition[edit] The EqIA process aims to prevent discrimination against people who are categorised as being disadvantaged or vulnerable within society. women;black, Asian and ethnic-minority people;young people and children;older people;disabled people;Lesbian people, gay people, bisexual people and transsexual people; andpeople from different faith groups. Previous EqIAs have included other categories of people such as people on low incomes and Gypsies and Irish Travellers. Within the UK, EqIAs are still popular as a means of ensuring that the public-sector equality duty is met. Examples of EqIA in the UK[edit] London Low Emission Zone EqIA Islington Sustainable Transport Strategy EqIA Crossrail EqIA Uncertain Future[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Walker, G.
Introduction to Sustainability About the Course This course introduces the academic approach of Sustainability and explores how today’s human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations. The course focuses on key knowledge areas of sustainability theory and practice, including population, ecosystems, global change, energy, agriculture, water, environmental economics and policy, ethics, and cultural history. This subject is of vital importance, seeking as it does to uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet. As sustainability is a cross-disciplinary field of study, this foundation requires intellectual breadth: as I describe it in the class text, understanding our motivations requires the humanities, measuring the challenges of sustainability requires knowledge of the sciences (both natural and social), and building solutions requires technical insight into systems (such as provided by engineering, planning, and management).
Ethical Positioning Index (EPI) EPI (Ethical Positioning Index) is an Index which measures, how ethically a brand is positioned. Ethics have been a highly debated and controversial element in branding exercises. Marketers' opinion on this aspect have been varied from time to time. Using ethical practices to build brand equity and brand positioning have been taken by different marketing experts, differently based on their cultural, ethical value system. Sagar et al.,[1] through their research in this area, came up with an innovative framework to measure the ethical positioning through an index called EPI (Ethical positioning Index).
Thermodynamics and the Destruction of Resources - Cambridge Books Online Reference Title: References Reference Type: reference-list J. G. S. R. E. J. S. E. M. A. J. de Swaan Aarons, H. van der Kooi, and K. D. J. N. R. A. G. C. M. I. H. H. R. E. E. D. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. B. H. E. E. R. E. N. E. D. E. E. G. G. G. S. E. M. L. G. I. M. Y. G. M. H. E. T. A. A. J. E. J. H. I. F. S. G. H. J. R. M. A. E. J. E. D. E. L. G. J. T. R. R. E. J. S. L. R. E. W. J. R. N. J. Reference Title: Additional Readings Reference Type: further-reading A. R. N. P. B. A. J. I. H.T. E. R. A. Reference Type: notes J. I. Z. F. J. T. G. J. B. M. M. J. International Organization for Standardization, Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, 1998). 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis (Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2005). E. E. F. R. J. R. G. A. S. C. B. D. J. A. R. R. A. J. J. R. J. M. H. M. B. H. S. Y. R. C. W. G. J. N. H. F. K. H. L. A. B. J. E. S. J.
Sullivan principles The Sullivan principles are the names of two corporate codes of conduct, developed by the African-American preacher Rev. Leon Sullivan, promoting corporate social responsibility: The original Sullivan principles were developed in 1977 to apply economic pressure on South Africa in protest of its system of apartheid.[1] The principles eventually gained wide adoption among United States–based corporations. For more, see #The Sullivan principles below.The new global Sullivan principles were jointed unveiled in 1999 by Rev. Sullivan and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.[2] The new and expanded corporate code of conduct, as opposed to the originals' specific focus on South African apartheid, were designed to increase the active participation of corporations in the advancement of human rights and social justice at the international level. The Sullivan principles[edit] In 1977, Rev. Sullivan, looking back on his anti-Apartheid efforts, recalled: The original principles[edit]
Manufacturing inefficiency Modern manufacturing methods are spectacularly inefficient in their use of energy and materials, according to a detailed MIT analysis of the energy use of 20 major manufacturing processes. Overall, new manufacturing systems are anywhere from 1,000 to one million times bigger consumers of energy, per pound of output, than more traditional industries. In short, pound for pound, making microchips uses up orders of magnitude more energy than making manhole covers. At first glance, it may seem strange to make comparisons between such widely disparate processes as metal casting and chip making. "The seemingly extravagant use of materials and energy resources by many newer manufacturing processes is alarming and needs to be addressed alongside claims of improved sustainability from products manufactured by these means," Gutowksi and his colleagues say in their conclusion to the study, which was recently published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T).
Social responsibility Social responsibility is an ethical theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems. A trade-off may[citation needed] exist between economic development, in the material sense, and the welfare of the society and environment. Social responsibility means sustaining the equilibrium between the two. Critics argue that Corporate social responsibility (CSR) distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses; others argue that it is nothing more than superficial window-dressing; others argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful corporations though there is no systematic evidence to support these criticisms. Student social responsibility[edit] Student social responsibility is the responsibility of every student for his/her actions. Notes[edit]