Understanding Cleaner Production

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 What will we learn here?

1 Understanding Cleaner Production

The Concept of Cleaner Production

The Evolution of Cleaner Production

The Definition of Cleaner Production

Other Terminologies and their relationship to Cleaner Production

Barriers to Cleaner Production

Mainstreaming Cleaner Production

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The Concept of Cleaner Production

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 The Concept of Cleaner Production

History of Responses to
Pollution

• Ignore the Problem

• The solution to pollution is

dilution

• Treat pollution by end-of-pipe

approach

• Prevention of pollution and

waste generation at source

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 Understanding through case studies

Case study 1 Reactive Chemical Industries Corporation

Manufacturing

Case study 2 PAC Foods Inc.

Products

Case Study 3 Relax Hotels

Services

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 Case Study 1 – Reactive Chemical Industries
Corporation

RCIC specializes production of additives for the processing of high

polymer materials

The story…….

Wastewater discharge kills fish in the river

Monitoring and assessment reveals high Chemical Oxygen Demand
(COD) in wastewater
RCIC builds Wastewater Treatment Plant (WTP) – high capital cost
Tightening of COD standards
RCIC goes for dilution, lays down an outfall in river
Standards are further tightened
Corresponding upgradation in WTP not economically feasible
Change of perspective needed in looking at the problem
In-plant cleaner production assessment
Implements pollution prevention options within 6 months
RCIC now meets the effluent discharge standards and improves
productivity by 15%; Saves on water and raw materials consumption
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 Case Study 1 – Reactive Chemical Industries
Corporation

What can we learn from this case study?

If reactive approach had been avoided,

substantial amount time, land, money and other resources could
have been saved

Pollution management need not be a liability if proactive approach is

employed

Minimizing resource use, reducing wastes can improve productivity

and profitability

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 Case Study 2 – PAC Foods

PAC Foods supplies food-packaging solutions to restaurants.

The story…….

Father starts company three decades ago

Son takes over to find a difficult situation at hand
Solid waste management becoming an important issue
PAC Foods’ packaging waste is very high
In response, introduction of ‘LessWaste’ Initiative, through team work
First six months sees elimination of 7500 tons of superfluous packaging,
Innovative ideas on redesign of napkins, shipment boxes and paper
containers bring in major waste reduction and toxics elimination
Community appreciates the move
Net savings of US $250,000
Staff involved in ‘LessWaste’ Initiative are awarded
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 Case Study 2 – PAC Foods

What can we learn from this case study?

Cleaner production not limited to manufacturing alone but also for product
design

LessWaste initiative at PAC Foods was not driven by regulations!

PAC Foods focused on proactive approach

Teamwork and Profit sharing amongst employees lead to better results

Benefits of initiative not limited to PAC Foods premises

- Trees were saved, fuel consumption was reduced, lesser environmental risk
and better worker health and community safety due to toxics use reduction

Improved market image means more business

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 Case Study 3 – Relax Hotel

Smiths operated a 40-room hotel called Relax at a hill station The story…….

Lately, Relax was losing its business to increasing competition

Operating costs were high
Smiths began with an energy and water audit
Several options were implemented that lead to savings of US$ 26,000 and 3.4
MWh of energy
Operating costs came down
Sharing of these achievements improved hotel image

Smiths realized that there was much more they could do using a preventive
approach and further improve their profits

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 Case Study 3 – Relax Hotel

What can we learn from this case study?

Cleaner production is not limited to manufacturing alone but also for the
Service sector

Cleaner production can be practiced based on findings of a water and energy

audit.

Audits should not be looked at as one time activity but as a recurring action in a
larger continual improvement process

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 What next?

All three case studies suggest a strong link between productivity

and cleaner production:

Improvement in Productivity means increase in outputs and

decrease in inputs

To be able to understand this linkage, lets look at how both

productivity and cleaner production have evolved over time

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Evolution of Cleaner Production

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 Evolution of Productivity

Milestones in Productivity

Quantity (cost reduction approach)

Quality and customer satisfaction (growing customer preferences

and competition)

Consistency in production (better quality in larger quantities on a

continuous basis– TQM, TPM, ISO 9000)

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 Evolution of Environmental Management

As productivity concepts expanded, environmental management also

matured and broadened
Forces
influencing the
Tightening of
change Community
- resource availability and pricing, pressures on
environmental
regulations
- competition in business defaulters
- need towards image-building,

Milestones in environmental
management Environmental management internalized in
businesses through EMS / ISO 14001
- Ignore,
- Dilute, Environmental factor integrated into productivity
- Treat, to improvements (TQM to TQEM)
- Cleaner Production

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 Tracking the paths of productivity
improvement and environmental management

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Definition of Cleaner Production

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 Cleaner Production Definition

Cleaner Production is defined[1] as the

continuous application of an
integrated preventive environmental
strategy applied to processes,
products and services to increase
overall efficiency, and reduce risks to
humans and the environment. Cleaner
Production can be applied to the
processes used in any industry, to
products themselves and to various
services provided in society.

[1] United Nations Environment Programme

(UNEP) - Cleaner Production. Available at:
http://www.uneptie.org/pc/cp/understanding_
cp/home.htm

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 Key elements of the CP Definition

• Encourages continuous application

• Is not limited only to manufacturing industries or businesses of a certain

type or size

• Does not deny or impede growth but insists that growth can be
ecologically sustainable

• Considers life cycle impacts of producing goods and providing services

• Includes health and safety and emphasizes risk reduction

• Improves immediate efficiency as well as long term efficacy

• Win-Win-Win situation – for environment, community and business

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 Cleaner Production Options

• Housekeeping Improving inventory management, material

storage, material handling, organization of
workplace, awareness and training to staff

• Process Optimization Rationalize and optimize production processes or

operational practices, modify process sequence,
modify operating parameters

• Raw Material Substitution Substitute hazardous / banned raw materials with

safer and eco-friendly alternatives in the processes

• New Technology Replace outdated, inefficient technologies with

innovative, more efficient technologies

• New Product Design Redesign products & byproducts to lessen damage

to environment during manufacturing or useful life
of products, improve product packaging
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Cleaner Production and Other Terminologies

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 Cleaner Production and other Terminologies

Reactive Preventive
approaches approaches
1. End-of-the-pipe
technology
Regulation
driven 2. Recycle, reuse
CLEANER
1 and recover
3 PRODUCTION
3. Waste
minimization
2
4 5 4. Pollution
6 Prevention
Responsibility
driven 5. Design for the
Environment
6. Eco-efficiency
Waste focus Facility Life-cycle
focus focus

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 Cleaner Production and EMS

• ISO 14001 offers a common standard

approach based on the PDCA cycle

• While ISO 14001 integrates the basics

of impact assessment and scenario
building it does not clearly distinguish
between pollution control and pollution
prevention

• Thus, ISO 14001 certification is

possible with end-of-pipe efforts alone
and need not mandate improvement in
environmental performance

• Cleaner production places emphasis on

pollution prevention rather than control
with clear improvement in environmental
Use Cleaner Production within
performance EMS framework
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Barriers to Cleaner Production

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 Barriers to implementing Cleaner Production

• Resistance to change

• Lack of information, expertise and adequate

training

• Lack of communication within enterprises

• Competing business priorities - in particular,

the pressure for short-term profits

• Perception of risk

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 Barriers to implementing Cleaner Production

• Difficulty in accessing cleaner technology

• Accounting systems which fail to capture

environmental costs and benefits

• Difficulty in accessing external finance

• Overwhelming regulatory approaches

• Perverse economic incentives e.g. subsidies on

resources

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 Overcoming barriers to cleaner production

Strong need to mainstream cleaner

production to overcome the barriers

Role of CPCs / NCPCs has been crucial in

mainstreaming cleaner production in many
countries

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 National Cleaner Production Centres /
Cleaner Production Centres around the world

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 Role of CPCs / NCPCs in Mainstreaming
Cleaner Production

CPCs have conducted numerous awareness programmes, training / capacity

building activities and established partnerships with key institutions

CPCs have successfully used Cleaner Production Assessments and

Demonstration Projects as tools to promote and establish cleaner production

One of the important roles the CPCs have played is information sharing. In
many cases, CPCs have operated clearinghouses to provide case studies,
contacts and guidance materials

CPCs, especially in the CEE region have taken a lead interfacing with financial
institutions. Here, CPCs have played a role in developing CP projects as well as
for carrying out project appraisals to promote CP investments

More recently, CPCs have started to play a catalytic role to orient the policy and
regulatory framework towards cleaner production. Some CPCs have worked
closely with the government to develop national CP policies and action plans

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 Key questions: Revisiting cleaner production

1. Isn’t cleaner production an obvious concept? Will it not be practiced by businesses and
communities some time some day? Does it need to be marketed at all?

2. Based on your experience, which stakeholders and sectors of economy in your country
are currently least aware of the cleaner production concept? What can be done to
influence them?

3. What are the other concepts, tools, management systems etc according to you are close
to cleaner production that make communicating cleaner production difficult? Why?

4. There are more than 1000 cleaner production demonstration projects completed all
over the world today with hundreds of cleaner production case studies. Is there a need
to demonstrate today that cleaner production actually works? Have you come across
instances where cleaner production hasn’t worked?

5. Unsustainable Consumption is an issue of great concern today. How can cleaner

production be promoted to influence the current consumption patterns?

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