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This book is a selection of the most relevant contributions to the LCM 2011 conference in Berlin. The material explores scientific and practical solutions to incorporating life cycle approaches into strategic and operational decision making. There are several sections addressing methodological topics such as LCSM approaches, methods and tools, while more application-oriented sections deal with the implementation of these approaches in relevant industrial sectors including agriculture and food, packaging, energy, electronics and ICT, and mobility.
The environmental life cycle of a product consists of all the stages from raw material extraction through production and use to waste management. Life cycle assessment (LCA), then, is the assessment of the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. The holistic perspective that LCA provides on the environmental performance of products has made it a central concept for both environmental management in industry and environmental policy-making in public government. This is a textbook on LCA for those who want to learn the practice of LCA, e.g. environmental engineers, environmental managers and eco-designers. The title paraphrases Douglas Adams' famous story 'The Hitch Hiker's...
This book gives a selection of contributions from the 6th Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) Conference in Pescara, Italy. S-LCA is a social (real and potential) impact assessment method that aims to drive improvements in order to increase the value of products and services. It helps organizations to plan better, implement more effectively, and promote scale initiatives. More in general, the assessment activity also facilitates accountability and supports stakeholder communication. Consumers are greatly aware of the provenance of the goods they purchase. They have greater access to product information than ever before, also thanks to the new digital platforms. They are also empowered to ma...
The relationship between environmentally sustainable development and company and business law has emerged in recent years as a matter of major concern for many scholars, policy-makers, businesses and nongovernmental organisations. This book offers a conceptual analysis of the principles of sustainable development and environmental integration in the EU legal system. It particularly focuses on Article 11 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which states that EU activities must integrate environmental protection requirements and emphasise the promotion of sustainable development. The book gives an overview of the role played by the environmental integration principle ...
1.1 Life Cycle Assessment (LeA): a fascinating and sophisticated tool The greening of the economy is not a new task, but it is a challenge for which a lot of tasks still have to be done. It is known that the main source of environ mental deterioration by industry is not any more the chimneys and other process related emissions, but the products and services produced. Products are regarded as carriers of polIution: they are not only a potential source of polIution and waste during their use; they are also a cause of resource depletion, energy consumption, and emissions du ring their life starting with the extraction of the raw materials and ending with their disposal (i.e. connecting production and consumption stages). The challenge of these decades is now the greening of products and services. The new focus on products (cp. OosterhuislRubik/ScholI 1996) was introduced as a policy approach of shared responsibility in which different actors are in volved along the life-cycle of a product, each having specific responsibilities.
The Business of Sustainability is a core resource for policy makers, members of the development community, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives, as well as business and economics students and their professors. It contains rich analysis of how sustainability is being factored into industries across the globe, with enlightening case studies of businesses serving as agents of change. Contributing authors provide a groundbreaking body of research-based knowledge. They explain that the concept of sustainability is being re-framed to be positive about business instead of being tied to the old notion of a trade-off between business and society (that is, if business wins, society and the environment must lose), and they explore how economic development can contribute to building our common future.
Based on qualitative interviews with sustainability-oriented parents of young children, this book describes what happens when people make interventions into mundane and easy-to-overlook aspects of everyday life to bring the way they get things done into alignment with their environmental values. Because the ability to make changes is constrained by their culture and capitalist society, there are negative consequences and trade-offs involved in these household-level sustainability practices. The households described in this book shed light on the full extent of the trade-offs involved in promoting sustainability at the household level as a solution to environmental problems.
The focus of Handbook for Cleaning/Decontamination of Surfaces lies on cleaning and decontamination of surfaces and solid matter, hard as well as soft. Bringing together in a 2-volume reference source: - current knowledge of the physico-chemical fundamentals underlying the cleaning process; - the different needs for cleaning and how these needs are met by various types of cleaning processes and cleaning agents, including novel approaches; - how to test that cleaning has taken place and to what extent; - the effects of cleaning on the environment; - future trends in cleaning and decontamination, for example the idea of changing surfaces, to hinder the absorbance of dirt and thus make cleaning...
Securing the future of the human race will require an improved understanding of the environment as well as of technological solutions, mindsets and behaviors in line with modes of development that the ecosphere of our planet can support. Some experts see the only solution in a global deflation of the currently unsustainable exploitation of resources. However, sustainable development offers an approach that would be practical to fuse with the managerial strategies and assessment tools for policy and decision makers at the regional planning level. Environmentalists, architects, engineers, policy makers and economists will have to work together in order to ensure that planning and development can meet our society's present needs without compromising the security of future generations. Better planning methods for urban and rural expansion could prevent environmental destruction and imminent crises. Energy, transport, water, environment and food production systems should aim for self-sufficiency and not the rapid depletion of natural resources. Planning for sustainable development must overcome many complex technical and social issues.
Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; Part I. Approach, Method and Concepts: 2. Explaining environmental performance; 3. Preferences in environmental politics; 4. The institutional settings in 21 OECD countries; Part II. Environmental Performance in 21 OECD Countries: 5. Measuring environmental performance; 6. Aggregating environmental performance data; Part III. Analysis: 7. Domestic politics; 8. International politics; 9. The nexus of domestic and international politics; 10. Conclusion