Cleaner Production for Sustainable Industrial Development: Concept and Applications

Abstract

In the 21st century, no business can successfully operate in an economic and social vacuum. Enterprises can achieve enduring success only by meeting the needs and the expectations of all their key constituents: customers, investors, employees, and the greater society. Sustainable development (SD) demands attaining the three-dimensional balance between economic growth and social and environmental responsibility; therefore, sustainability entails the continuous fulfillment of the varying needs and sometimes-conflicting objectives of the multiple stakeholders. Cleaner production (CP) is a proactive environmental strategy, a step beyond waste handling or management (based on the “cradle-to-cradle” approach). It deals with the source of the problem (i.e., pollution prevention, P2), rather than the effects and consequences (i.e., end-of-pipe treatment and/or corrective remediation). CP is also a practical approach of moving towards SD by allowing industries and service providers to produce more with less: fewer raw materials, less energy, less waste and emissions, and normally, less environmental impact and greater sustainability. CP, by definition, promises greater profits to industries by reducing costs (i.e., reduced material requirements, reduced disposal fees, and reduced environmental liabilities and cleanup costs) and by raising revenues through perhaps greater sales, exports, and better public relations (PR). CP has been applied to develop more environmentally benign (or even friendly) processes, products, services, and impacts. The implementation of CP involves specific methodologies for integrating environmental issues and sustainable development in a particular industry, employs applications of relevant analyses and syntheses, and above all challenges the traditional procedures for design, manufacturing applications, and services. This paper provides an overall view of CP as a concept, its principles, methods, and tools; its wide applications; and indeed its impediments. Several industrial examples of CP applications for conserving resources, minimizing wastes and emissions, reducing risks, and curtailing costs and generating profits are presented. Case studies from the chemical, textile, and cement manufacturing industries are illustrated. Through these examples it can be demonstrated that industry and the environment are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary in achieving SD.