Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Business Practices
Table of Contents
Introduction
Sustainable Business Practices (SBPs) means designing your business to reduce or eliminate reliance on finite resources. That includes a wide range of activities ranging from sustainable development that conserves land around cities to using sustainable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal or biofuels. It means designing products that reduce waste and are recyclable, and buying materials that are recycled from other sources. Sustainability also includes designing closed-loop systems both within and external to the production process.
The principles of sustainability apply to all aspects of business from construction, to development, to production. Sustainability issues have long been associated with conservation of resources and protecting the environment. The old view was that to embrace sustainable business practices meant making sacrifices for the greater good. The new view is that sustainable practices increase long-term efficiency, and provide long term security. SBPs can guarantee that a business will be here for many years to come. Sustainability is not only good public relations, it is also sound business sense and can save money.
Pollution prevention (P2) is the "gateway" to sustainability. Pollution is waste. Understanding how waste is generated and how it can be minimized is the first step to eliminating waste, increasing efficiency and developing sustainable production methods.
Useful Definitions
Life Cycle Assessments(LCA) - an assessment tool to identify environmental risks in the production or service life cycle and looking at the environmental threats to our business partners and customers, and not measuring what goes in and out. LSA is done before looking at the internal environmental aspects.
Sustainable Value Chains - a model to determine which specific functions in your business need to become more sustainable and how those who perform those functions can see what their profession is doing about it and how to develop sustainability skills relevant to their jobs.
Environmental Management Systems (EMS) - a continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the actions that an organization takes to meet its environmental obligations. Most EMS's today are based on the recently issued ISO 14001 Standard. Pollution prevention is an integral component of an EMS. P2 identifies opportunities to reduce waste, allows flexibility and effective long term planning and increases efficiency.
Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM) - A process used to understand the environmental aspects of production processes and why pollution is created in the first place.
Waste Management - A process that identifies waste streams and potential waste reduction or minimization and also for managing any wastes and pollution that are not prevented.
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) - Purchasing products that use less toxic materials, generate less waste, are recyclable, and or are made with recyclable materials. EPP reduces long-term costs and liabilities associated with: waste treatment/disposal; human health risks; environmental compliance and remediation; and/or raw material costs.
P2 Regulatory Integration (P2RI) - Pollution prevention regulatory integration serves as a model for building incentives into environmental regulatory systems. P2RI focuses on developing programs and policies that reward businesses for implementing newer more sustainable technologies and building practices rather than just penalizing them for failed compliance. Contact OCAPP For more information.
OCAPP Projects
Important Sustainability Links
Training Opportunities
Disclaimer: Some of the hyper-links contained in this document point to pages generated outside of Ohio EPA. Please note that inclusion of this information does not constitute endorsement by Ohio EPA or the State of Ohio. Ohio EPA makes no guarantees expressly or implied regarding data generated outside of the Agency.
page last updated: May 24, 2005 |
