Sustainability and Innovation

The Next Global Industrial Revolution

Salah M. El-Haggar

• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781617976933
• Topic: Economía
• Subtopic: Desarrollo sostenible

One of the most urgent problems facing the world today is environmental sustainability. Current practices of pollution control, waste treatment, and environmental protection are not only hugely expensive and a burden on development but also unsustainable in the long run for their steady depletion of the world's natural resources. Any solutions must have proven economic benefits, be technologically viable, and meet prevailing environmental and social perspectives.The main objective of this new set of studies is to describe methods that help to protect the environment and conserve natural resources. This can be achieved by applying the 'cradle-to-cradle' concept, which aims to use materials in closed cyclic loops without generating any type of waste or pollution. The authors provide the reader with an introduction to basic concepts of sustainable development, describe the mechanisms and benefits of related technologies, and suggest potential uses on a practical level by examining innovations developed in the mechanical engineering laboratories of the American University in Cairo. Particular focus is placed on innovation as a vital means of attaining sustainability.A timely contribution to the debate on environmentally sustainable practices, this book will be indispensable to environmentalists, scientists, economists, engineers, development specialists, and policy-makers, as well as being of interest to the lay reader.

CHAPTER 1

Sustainability and the Green Economy

---

Salah M. El-Haggar

“The earth offers enough for everyone’s need, not for everyone’s greed.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Introduction

Sustainable development is a dynamic process that enables people to improve their quality of living in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the earth’s life support systems and preserve these resources for generations to come. In essence, sustainable development is about five key principles: quality of life, fairness and equity, participation and partnership, care for our environment, and respect for ecological constraints (Ben-Eli, 2009).

In 1987, the United Nations–sponsored Brundtland Commission released Our Common Future (WCED, 1987), a report that highlighted widespread concerns about the environment and poverty in many parts of the world. The Brundtland report noted that while economic development cannot stop, it must change course to fit within the planet’s ecological limits. It also popularized the term ‘sustainable development’ (SD), which the report defines as “development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability includes economic, environmental, and social development. SD is not defined as “a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, direction of investments, orientation of technological development, and institutional change are made consistent with future as well as present needs” (WCED, 1987). In engineering, the term ‘sustainability’ focuses primarily on the process of using energy and resources at a rate that does not dramatically affect the performance of the natural environment and the demands of future generations.

SD has become more of an issue in recent years due to depletion of both renewable and non-renewable resources, increases in human population, and problems such as climate change, deforestation, desertification, and species loss that they are causing. Therefore, any new or existing project has to be studied carefully to ensure its sustainability.

As can be seen, the definitions for the concept of sustainability seem to be very broad and not necessarily specific enough for everyone, or even professionals in the industry, to agree upon. As a result, it is important to understand how the word was initially derived, and then see how it developed. The word ‘sustainability’ is derived from the Latin word sustinere. The word tenere means ‘to hold,’ and the prefix sus- is a variant of sub-, meaning ‘under’ or ‘below.’ ‘Sustain’ thus means ‘to support from below.’ This simple dissection allows us to understand the idea of the term rather than the literal meaning, and that is to care, to protect, to maintain, to support, and so on.

The four pillars of SD are the technological, social, economic, and environmental aspects, which, if satisfied, may help to ensure sustainability. To help this become reality, a number of changes, such as new paradigms, values, visions, policies, education and training, indicators, facilitators, and formulas, will be needed to make the societal journey toward sustainability.

Cradle-to-Cradle System

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology for examining the environmental impacts associated with any product, from the initial gathering of raw materials from the earth until the point at which all residuals are returned to the earth (‘disposal’). This is known as the “cradle-to-grave” (C2G) approach (ISO 14040:2006). Unfortunately, most manufacturing processes since the industrial revolution have been based on this one-way, C2G flow of materials. The C2G flow of materials has proven to be inefficient because it depletes natural resources. The “cradle-to-cradle” (C2C) concept promotes SD in a wider approach. It is a system of thinking based on the belief that human endeavors can emulate nature’s elegant system of safe and regenerative productivity by transforming industries to sustainable enterprises and eliminating the concept of waste (El Haggar, 2007).

Figure 1.1. Traditional cradle-to-grave life cycle analysis

Environmental protection is very important for SD as well as for conservation of natural resources. In other words, transforming waste or emissions into by-products or co-products is a must for sustainability. Unsustainable human activities are creating an open-loop cradle-to-grave cycle (fig. 1.1) that cannot continue and has to be removed from the conceptual and operational framework of our societies. Closing the loop for renewable resources and producing zero waste can be managed by changing from the cradle-to-grave (C2G) system, where waste is disposed of, to a cradle-to-cradle (C2C) system, where waste is recycled into usable resources, as will be discussed in detail in chapter 2.

The C2C system depicted in figure 1.2 is one where item production is changed from a one-way process into a cyclic system. This method helps to ensure that the products, after use, are returned to the original manufacturer or to other manufacturers to reprocess them into a new product, thereby reducing the amounts of raw materials needed for production. A proper life cycle assessment (LCA) must be conducted to decide how they will be managed throughout all phases of their cycle: product design, materials and energy acquisition prior to production, transformation into products, usage of wasted resources from production in other processes, the consumer usage phase, and the transformation of the ‘dead’ product into other products for subsequent cycles. All of this can make contributions toward societal SD. But energy is needed at every step and it is never possible to transform 100% of the materials into other products. Furthermore, there is always some degree of contamination and a consequent downgrading of the quality of the materials being recycled. But, through innovations, downcycling can be converted to upcycling, as will be discussed throughout the book.

A new hierarchy for waste management reflecting the C2C concept was developed at the American University in Cairo in 2001 and upgraded in 2003. Named the “7-R rule” or “7-R cradle-to-cradle approach,” the concept starts from developing regulations for reduction at the source, reuse, recycle, recovery by sustainable treatment for possible material recovery (rather than waste-to-energy recovery). The last two Rs are rethinking and re-innovation, in which people should rethink their waste (qualitatively and quantitatively) before taking action for treatment or disposal and develop a renovative/innovative technique to solve the waste problem (El-Haggar, 2007). The 7-R approach is based on the concept of adopting the best practicable environmental option (from not only the technical but also the economic and social point of view) for individual waste streams and dealing with waste as a by-product. But while the approach can help society make some progress on its journey toward a more sustainable society, it cannot do so on its own. So what else is needed? Certainly major paradigm shifts, new visions, values, ethical standards, climate neutrality based upon renewable resources, renewable energy, improved energy efficiency, sustainable stewardship ethical standards, and so on may help societies to make further progress. This 7-R rule will ban disposal and treatment facilities and transform what was previously wasted into new products in a much more responsible management of renewable and non-renewable resources.

Figure 1.2. Life cycle analysis according to a cradle-to-cradle system

Figure 1.3. Proposed sustainable development road map

Natural resources are a crucial issue for SD because finding new sources of raw material is becoming costly and difficult. Thousands of species are going extinct due to ignorance, greed, and global human overpopulation far beyond the ecological carrying capacity of the earth. Concurrently, the cost of treatment and safe management of waste is increasing exponentially and locating waste disposal sites is becoming more and more difficult. The impact of waste disposal on the environment is significant since it can contaminate air, soil, and water. To make waste management more sustainable, it should be moved from the traditional LSA following the C2G system to a new system, not relying on disposal facilities, to become an integrated and multi-life-cycle C2C system.

Proposed Sustainable Development Road Map

The proposed SD road map is shown in figure 1.3. The elements are regulations; environmental management systems (EMS); cleaner production (CP); occupational health and safety (OHS); industrial ecology (IE) according to C2C; and moving beyond compliance (BC) with regulations. The initial procedure in the proposed road map is developing a set of environmental regulations, the strict enforcement of which would force investors to implement the EMS (ISO 14001) within the organization’s policy and decision-making strategies so as to identify waste and pollution. The information gathered from the EMS analysis determines whether the goals have been met or not. The main goal is not only compliance with regulations but BC for conservation of natural resources, which will finally lead to SD.

Regulations

Regulations are a basis for achieving SD. These regulations are set by governments to provide organizations and projects with the policies they must abide by to reach sustainability. The regulations provide for fines and other incentive mechanisms to encourage 100% sustainability by providing monetary rewards to those who meet sustainability requirements, funded by fines collected from those who fail to meet them.

Beyond Compliance

Beyond Compliance (BC) is a new concept whereby an organization aims not merely for compliance with regulations or requirements but to target efficiency. BC is a shift in perspective toward pursuing sustainability, a shift from a reactive attitude to proactive innovation. The paradigm shift will start with compliance. Compliance with the regulations does not mean that a particular industry has achieved sustainability; it is only the first step in the journey.

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and Cleaner Production (CP)

One of the main elements of SD is integrating environmental management systems (EMS) or ISO 14001 within the day-to-day activity of an operation. An EMS consists of a systematic process that allows an organization to assess, manage, and reduce environmental hazards. The continuous monitoring of the environmental impacts of an organization’s activities is integrated into the actual management system, guaranteeing its continuation as well as commitment to its success.

The EMS is a part of the overall management system of an organization, which consists of organizational structure, planning, activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, process, and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing, and maintaining the environmental policy (El-Haggar and Sakr, 2006).

Continuous development and implementation of an EMS provides a number of benefits to a company:

• financial benefits (through cost savings as well as increased competitiveness in local and international markets)

• improved performance and image for the company

• reduced business risks

• compliance with environmental regulations

Figure 1.4. EMS model (El-Haggar, 2007)

Figure 1.5. Cleaner Production techniques (El-Haggar, 2007)

Periodic EMS audits must be carried out to check that the EMS is effectively implemented and maintained. An EMS is also a necessary tool for Cleaner Production (CP), which focuses on the prevention of waste generation at the source. This is achieved by adopting the CP techniques shown in figure 1.5 to enhance processes, products, or services that will lead to savings in energy, raw material, and costs, as well as protection of the environment and natural resources in order to reach C2C.

EMS integrated with CP are the primary SD tools. Major efforts are made in applying these concepts worldwide, especially in developing countries, because of the immediate environmental and financial benefits they generate if properly applied.

Applying EMS across...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• 1. Sustainability and the Green Economy
• 2. Cradle-to-Cradle and Innovation
• 3. The Next Industrial Revolution
• 4. Innovation in the Plastic Industry 1: Upcycle of Plastic Waste: Plastic Rejects
• 5. Innovation in the Plastic Industry 2: Upcycle of Plastic Waste: Natural Fiber Reinforced Plastics
• 6. Innovation in the Glass Industry: Upcycle of Glass Waste: Foam Glass
• 7. Innovation in the Plastic Industry 3: Upcycle of Plastic Waste: Natural Fiber Plastic Composites
• 8. Innovation in the Marble and Granite Industry: Upcycle of Marble and Granite Wastes
• 9. Beyond Sustainability for the Production of Fuel, Food, and Feed
• 10. Science and Technology Parks for Sustainable Development