Environmental Advisory Group Research Articles

A Case Study on Nestle

Nestle was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestle. It started off with one man’s initiative to produce infant formula (for infants who are intolerant to their mothers’ milk) and grew into a multinational corporation worldwide. Nestle has more than 250,000 employees worldwide and factories all around globally. The infant product was so successful that it created demand all over Europe. Eventually This success brought in many business joint ventures and the company underwent many name changes along the way. Nestle started to enhance its product varieties and started to introduce baby cereals, breakfast cereals, chocolates, bottled drinks, beverages, icecreams, dairy products, food seasoning, pet food and many more. The product’s growth was encouraged by aggressive R&D (Research & Development). Nestlé is a successful company that has been around for 145 years and still its headquarter in Vevey,Switzerland. The company’s “objectives are to be recognized as the world leader and Nutrition, Health, and Wellness, trusted by all its stakeholders and to be the reference for financial performance in its industry” .Nestlé Environmental Advisory Group meets regularly to review current environmental issues and to anticipate potential concerns.A Review of the three most recent annual reports, which include the company’s balance sheet and income statement, displayed how Nestlé is trying to be the reference of financial performance in its industry. Reviewing the company’s assets, liabilities, andrevenues reiterates Nestlé’s success over the past couple of years. Today Nestlé is seen across grocery stores; however, the general population identifies them based on their brands.Nestlé’s most recent achievement was the purchase of Kraft Frozen pizza business.

Coastal and marine studies in the department of geography and environment at the University of Aberdeen

ABSTRACTThe Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Aberdeen has a long history of coastal and marine teaching and research from the 1960s to the present day. Beginning with the work of Walton and latterly Ritchie, the paper traces the coastal and marine studies in the Geography degree programme, the development of the Marine and Coastal Resource Management degree, and the introduction of more recent courses such as Managing Our Coasts and Seas, Hydrography, and Land and Marine Conservation. Establishment of the Centre for Marine and Coastal Zone Management (CMCZM), and later the Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Science and Management (AICSM), provided a clear focus for continuing academic research into integrated coastal management and marine spatial planning. This complemented long-term involvement with Shell, SOTEAG (Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group), the Association for Geographic Information (AGI), OceanLab, the EUCC, and several Scottish coastal fora. The creation of the Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV)/Unmanned Airborne System (UAS) Centre for Environmental Monitoring and Mapping (UCEMM) in 2014 brought together the role of remote sensing, GIS and photogrammetry in monitoring, mapping and modelling the coastal environment.

Book Reviews

Despite a vast amount of effort and expertise devoted to them, many environmental conflicts have remained mired in controversy, stubbornly defying resolution. Why can some environmental problems be resolved in one locale but remain contentious in another, often carrying on for decades? What is it about certain issues or the people involved that make a conflict seemingly insoluble? This volume addresses these and related questions, examining what researchers and experts in the field characterize as disputes - intense disputes that persist over long periods of time and cannot be resolved through consensus-building efforts or by administrative, legal, or political means. The approach focuses on the parties use to define and enact the dispute - the lenses through which they interpret and understand the conflict and critical conflict dynamics. Through analysis of interviews, news media coverage, meeting transcripts, and archival data, the contributors to the book: examine the concepts of frames, framing, and reframing, and the role that framing plays in conflicts; outline the essential characteristics of intractability and its major causes; offer case studies of eight intractable environmental conflicts; present a body of original interview material from affected parties; and set forth recommendations for intervention that can help resolve disputes. Within each case chapter, the authors describe the historical development and fundamental nature of the conflict and then analyze the case from the perspective of the key frames that are integral to understanding the dynamics of the dispute. They also offer cross-case analyses of related conflicts. Conflicts examined include those over natural resource use, toxic pollutants, water quality, and growth. Specific conflicts examined include the Quincy Library Group in California; Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota; Edwards Aquifer in Texas; Doan Brook in Cleveland, Ohio; the Antidegradation Environmental Advisory Group in Ohio; Drake Chemical in Pennsylvania; Alton Park/Piney Woods in Tennessee; and three examples of growth-related conflicts along the Front Range of Colorado's Rocky Mountains.

The Shetland environment, the establishment of the Sullom Voe Environmental Advisory Group, development of Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group and its monitoring strategy

The Shetland Islands lie between latitudes of approximately 60° and 61° North, over 100 miles north of the Scottish mainland. They are influenced by the North Atlantic Drift so that the climatic conditions are much less severe than for other land masses, for example in Southern Greenland where the mean temperature for five months of the year is below freezing. The environment in all its considerable heterogeneity is well described in The Natural Environment of Shetland (Goodier 1974) and in The Natural History of Shetland (Berry & Johnston 1980). Briefly the islands lie on the western oceanic fringe of Europe, have approximately 1450 kilometres of coastline and an area of 1468 square kilometres. The geology is varied and geomorphologically the islands constitute a drowned range of glaciated hills situated on the continental shelf. The coast consists of extensive areas of cliffs and voes with relatively few beaches. In general, the ‘outer’ coasts, especially on the west, are exposed high energy environments. In contrast, the inner coasts, often voes, are deep sheltered inlets. The land itself tends to be hilly and, where it has not been stripped for agricultural use, is blanketed with peat, with the main vegetation heather (Calluna vulgaris) and cotton sedge (Eriophorum angustifolium). Approximately 10% of the land is covered by rushy vegetation and there is very little relict scrub though there are one or two planted woodland plots. The original scrub was largely eradicated by man who arrived in Shetland from Iberia about 3500 BC. Colonisers from Scandinavia arrived in the eighth century and have had a lasting influence on the culture of the islands. In 1971 the human population was about 17327 and in 1989 was 23 214 (SIC 1992).

The monitoring of breeding seabirds and eiders

Twenty-one species of seabirds breed regularly in Shetland, some of them in huge, spectacular, multi-species colonies on cliffs. The Sullom Voe Environmental Advisory Group Environmental Impact Statement (SVEAG 1976) provides a table showing the relative importance of seabird species in terms of Scotland and the British Isles. We have updated these data in the light of the Seabird Colony Register (Lloyd et al. 1991) and present data for seven species, vulnerable to oil pollution, in Table 1. It is clear that these populations are of national importance and indeed several are internationally important. Separately, an estimate was provided by SVEAG of the numbers of sea ducks and divers wintering in Shetland waters and updated estimates are given by Suddaby (1992) (Table 2). Chief among these is the eider duck (Somateria mollissima) which is apparently resident in Shetland throughout the year (Heubeck 1993a). In its Eighth Report, on Oil Pollution at Sea, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (1981) recognised the vulnerability of seabirds to oil pollution and this was clearly a matter of concern in Shetland and elsewhere when the flow of enormous quantities of crude oil into Sullom Voe via undersea pipelines and out of Sullom Voe by large tankers became a reality. The risk to seabirds of oil pollution is well documented (Bourne 1968; RSPB 1979). Dunnet (1974, 1980, 1982, 1987) has reviewed the situation in relation to the North Sea oil industry.

The SOTEAG programme of monitoring in Sullom Voe

SynopsisThe Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group (SOTEAG) has initiated a programme of environmental monitoring in Sullom Voe, which is funded by the Sullom Voe Association Ltd (S.V.A.Ltd). Its aim is to provide a continuing check on the effectiveness of the regulatory measures in operation at the terminal by providing early warning of harmful environmental effects due to the anticipated low-level, continuous discharge of predominantly oily water effluents and occasional accidental spills. In designing a programme the limitations of available methods for monitoring the biota so as to detect the effects of chronic pollution have been recognised. The programme adopts an integrated approach based on regular quantitative surveys of selected key marine habitats or biota, including rocky shore, soft shore, salt marsh and benthos associated with a programme to monitor levels of hydrocarbons and heavy metals in sediments and the tissues of selected target organisms. The network of sites and sampling stations has been planned to measure gradients of effect over a wide area having the terminal as its focus and primary source of effluent. The programme also includes projects to monitor atmospheric pollution (SO2) and ornithological monitoring. A flexible approach has been adopted and the programme will be modified in the light of experience and circumstances. Results are reported on annually to SOTEAG's Monitoring Committee which oversees the programme and interprets the results for submission to SOTEAG and then to S.V.A. Ltd.

The Sullom Voe Environmental Advisory Group

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