1 - Introduction

Abstract

The recent world has encountered the introduction of standards for environmental management in industries and green accounting. The most widely applied standards today for industrial environmental management are the ISO 14000 series. These initiatives attempt to analyze the production systems to find new ways and methods to make production more environmentally friendly. More than 100 countries have backed up the international standards for effective management of the environmental impacts. In many cases, the production methods have not been charged the actual costs in relation to the impacts on the environment and the depletion of resources. A new tax, named “green tax,” attempts to charge the real environmental cost to production. Because of these additional production costs, which are often significant, the industries are forced to find new and more environmentally friendly production methods. Environmental technology offers a wide spectrum of methods that are able to remove pollutants from air, water, and soil. These methods are particularly applicable to cope with point sources. Ecotechnology covers the use of ecosystems to solve pollution problems, including the erection of artificial ecosystems. It also encompasses the technology that is applicable to restore more or less deteriorated ecosystems.