Preventive Environmental Strategy Research Articles

Good Practices Contributing to Cleaner Food Production? A Preliminary Survey Analysis Involving Wrocław-Poland Food Retail Sector

Good practices are among the direct/indirect components that influence agrofood safety knowledge, and occupying quality assurance control facets within the (agrofood) product industry. Cleaner production involves an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes, products, and services, which increases overall efficiency, and reduces risks to humans/environment. However, ‘cleaner food production’ appears neither yet clearly defined nor well established. In this preliminary survey analysis, how good practices would contribute towards achieving cleaner food production in the context of food retail sector was performed. Specifically, Wrocław-Poland served as a case reference targeting managers/supervisors given their expected service, experience, and expertise. The sampling technique used was the judgment/purposive type, and the research instrument took the form of a questionnaire. Managers’/supervisors’ responses revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) across variables, with ‘yes’ emerging greater in most cases. Knowledge, experience, and expertise of good practices enabled the managers/supervisors connect with (some) cleaner production components. A total of 53 statistically significant correlations were found, wherein some showed perfect linear relationships. Specific to the context of (food) retail sector, the term “cleaner food production” could be defined as “the effective and efficient utilization of good practices to deliver high-quality food retail products through environmental-friendly as well as sustainable processes”.

Implementing Cleaner Production Technologies: General Aspects

This article presents an overview of the main aspects of cleaner production as a preventive environmental strategy that integrates into production processes to make them more environmentally efficient in terms of the use of resources and raw materials, among others. Reference is made to the general aspects of environmental impact focused on production systems, the origin and general evolution of the concept, as well as its definition, general aspects, advantages and difficulties for its implementation. In general, it is concluded that cleaner production is a strategy that can help to reduce the environmental impact of different production systems; however, activities are needed to disseminate and make it known to various stakeholders, and to emphasize the social, environmental and economic benefits that its application can bring.

Local government environmental regulatory pressures and corporate environmental strategies: Evidence from natural resource accountability audits in China

AbstractIncorporating natural resource management and eco‐environmental responsibility into the local government assessment system would change the local governments' intensity of environmental regulation. However, it is unclear whether and how this change is reflected in the firms' environmental strategies. This paper empirically examines the effects and mechanisms of local government regulation on firms' environmental strategies using the quasi‐natural experimental context of the Leading Officials' Natural Resources Accountability Audit (NRAA) in China. The results show that after the implementation of the NRAA, heavily polluting firms are more likely to adopt a source prevention strategy than an end‐of‐pipe governance strategy to cope with the local government's environmental management pressure. Resource support from local governments and increasingly stringent environmental constraints are potential channels for the NRAA to induce firms to adopt a preventive environmental strategy. The environmental governance pressure transmitted to firms differs due to different promotion expectations of local governments. Thus, corporate environmental strategies are related to government promotion expectations. In addition, we apply the Porter hypothesis to the NRAA. Finally, we explore the governance boundaries of the NRAA for different regions, audit intensities, and firms. This paper clarifies the interaction logic between the local governments' environmental constraints and the enterprises' environmental governance behaviors after the implementation of China's pilot policy, enriching research on natural resource asset audits and environmental governance.

Application of Cleaner Production in a Fruit Chips Industry

Cleaner production (CP) is one of the sustainable implementations of a comprehensive preventive environmental strategy involving company processes, products, and services. CP plan implementation still faces obstacles, such as the lack of detailed information, tools, and techniques. This study aimed to determine the variables and to select alternative solutions for cleaner production at a fruit chip industry using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The research was carried out at PT Agrijaya Indotirta in Malang, East Java. The production process at this company generates waste from the consumption of energy, water, materials, and raw materials. Energy and water consumption are disposed directly without preliminary recycling process. Used oil is sold, and the remaining fruit seeds are sold for seeds. Checklists are used for problem identification, while fishbone diagrams and the 5W1H method are used to solve the problem of getting the best solution from the available alternatives. The weighting results of the alternative solutions using the AHP method show that the application of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) (with a weight of 0.287080) on the human resource criteria (with a weight of 0.63699) is a suitable alternative solution for the CP application of fruit chips production at PT Agrijaya Indotirta. Cleaner production can be performed by improving the capacity of human resources as production actors and regulators of proper waste management.

A Review: Sustainable Fashion Industry Combining Supercritical Dyeing Technology with Non-Toxic Dyes

The international community pays more and more attention to the responsibility of enterprises to the environment and emphasizes that their manufacturing processes. Both of product and service should continue to use overall preventive environmental strategies in order to increase ecological benefits and reduce harm to humans and the environment. We are surprised that apart from the petrochemical industry, the fashion industry turned out to be the most polluting industry in the world. There are two serious sources of pollution in the manufacturing process of glamorous fashion apparel, namely synthetic dyes and fiber dyeing wastewater. How can such pollution be improved? Microbial dyes can be used to replace synthetic dyes, and carbon dioxide gas can be used to replace precious water resources. The sustainable development of the fashion industry can satisfy consumers’ demand for colorful fashion clothing by introducing sustainable environmental protection and green technology.

Cleaner production as a preventive environmental strategy in the cocoa paste production process. A case in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Cocoa is one of the most important crops in Ecuador, destined for export to be used in making chocolate in other countries. The objective of this work was to analyze the environmental performance and the potentialities of applying cleaner production mechanisms (CP) in the Association of producers of fine aroma cocoa "Tsatsayaku". The CP tools used were the initial environmental review, ecomaps, and process analysis. The results show that mucilage and cocoa husk generation are the main environmental problems of the process. Two improvement options were proposed and evaluated to control and reduce process contamination. The analysis shows a B / C ratio of 1.38 and the Net Present Value is $ 36,001.37 with an Internal Rate of Return of 249.29%. Finally, the application of practices and technologies framed in CP systems can optimize the use of raw materials and reduce the solid and liquid contaminants generated.

A systematic review of paste technology in metal mines for cleaner production in China

Abstract Cleaner production is an integrated preventive environmental strategy intended to minimize waste and emissions and maximize product output. The mining industry continually supplies raw materials to other industries, which inevitably leads to enormous emissions. In recent decades, mining engineers have examined many pathways to advance the implementation of cleaner production practices, of which paste backfill is one of the representative technologies. Moreover, this technology is an effective practical approach for the management of process tailings, the largest source of mining waste, since this technology offers significant environmental, technical, and economic benefits. However, due to the more stringent requirements of clean production, the greater the depth of excavation is, the lower the grades of ore (or the more abundant and finer the tailings are) and the longer the distances of paste transport are, and the application of paste backfill technology encounters increasing challenges. For this purpose, the paper presents a systematic review of tailings paste applications in mines for cleaner production. First, the basic concepts and characteristics of paste technology, typical compositions of the paste system, and development progress of the paste practices in China are comprehensively introduced. Second, the latest research on core paste technology is elaborated, such as tailings thickening, pipeline transportation, multiphysics mechanisms, and new paste materials. Third, a few typical engineering cases of underground paste filling, open pit or ground collapse backfilling, and tailings paste stacking are described, and their engineering backgrounds, key equipment, and operating parameters are studied. Finally, the challenges and future research direction of paste technology, such as paste backfill in deep mining and paste systems with a large capacity, low cost requirements, intelligent control, and multiphase paste materials, are identified to promote cleaner production practices in mining.

Production of wood-plastic composites using cedrela odorata sawdust waste and recycled thermoplastics mixture from post-consumer products - A sustainable approach for cleaner production in Cuba

Abstract This research aims to evaluate the application of technological efficiency to industrial waste, in the production of wood plastic composite. The raw materials used were sawdust from Cedrela odorata L., thermoplastic polyethylene terephthalate, high density polyethylene, polypropylene and calcium carbonate. The boards were obtained by extrusion using different proportions of raw material and their physical-mechanical properties were also evaluated. The investigation detected a directly proportional effect between additional proportions of the additive and the physical properties of these boards, except for their density. In contrast, this effect of the proportions of the additive was inversely proportional to the mechanical properties of the board. Statistical analyzes indicate that thermoplastics have an influence greater than 70% on the physical and mechanical properties of the boards mainly when they are used in proportions greater than 50%. The proportions of wood (sawdust) above 50% tend to decrease the resistance of the boards in relation to its physical properties and in turn result in low mechanical resistance. This study formalizes a preventive environmental strategy for recycling industrial waste, which is integrated into the technological process in the production of wood plastic composite, to increase production efficiency, minimize waste and reduce pollution risks to humans and the environment.

ORGANIZATION OF CLEAN PRODUCTION PROJECTS: EXPERIENCE OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC ENTERPRISES

More and more companies in the world are striving to implement clean production strategies and maximize resource productivity in their operations. In the process of applying an integrated, preventive environmental strategy in production to reduce risks for both humans and the environment, stakeholders face causal effects and socio-environmental and economic interdependence in the implementation of clean production projects. All this contributes to the development and growth of scientific, methodological and methodological approaches to the implementation of clean production projects. Studying world and domestic experience in introducing of clean production can determine the ways to comprehensively solve environmental and economic problems in Ukraine and provide the prerequisites for creating an effective system of using natural resources in solving environmental and economic problems of the world, including climate change. The implementation of scientific approaches is possible through the distribution of information on the principles of clean production, the development and implementation of a set of economic and environmental factors for the development of production, the improvement of the mechanism for integrating of environmental factors of the economic development strategy, viewing environmental pollution standards and the special use of natural resources, as well as standards for their economic regulation with the goal of a gradual approximation to EU standards, the creation of a system of sustainable management of production development, stimulates environmental protection and ensures the careful use of natural resources. Therefore, the article discovers the basic principles, methods and mechanisms for creating of clean production projects. The prerequisites for creating an environmental direction in the production of goods and services, as well as the need for risk assessment in the introduction of clean production, are considered. Generalization of existing methods of introduction of clean production, taking into account the world experience, showed that despite the local prerequisites and financial and technological problems, it is profitable for enterprises to implement the concept of СР. The result is a synthesis of existing methods for introducing of clean production, taking into account international experience, which can reduce operating costs, can contribute to improving the safety of workers, as well as reducing the impact of business on the environment. It is obvious that clean production technologies are a good business for industry, as they help to reduce waste disposal costs, reduce the cost of raw materials, reduce the cost of damage to health, improve public relations, improve company productivity, and increase the competitiveness of local and international markets. Clean production is an integral part of the social process, which is in line with economic, political, ethical and cultural values. Keywords: clean production, sustainable development, environmental strategies, indicators of resource and energy intensity.

Environmental management in solid waste: sustainable construction and eco-efficiency

The activities of the construction industry generate great negative impacts on the environment. In order to highlight and point out new trends in the processes and materials used, this article aims to identify aspects related to sustainable construction in small and medium-sized constructions. It analyzes concepts and new trends for the construction sector as tools for meeting the requirements of the National Solid Waste Policy, regarding the observation of sustainability principles aimed at the continuous application of preventive environmental strategies. It is an exploratory, bibliographic study, whose purpose was to expand knowledge in terms of sustainable constructions, in order to guarantee familiarity with the theme and to disseminate information that can collaborate with environmental preservation. It presents and discusses the results obtained during technical visits carried out together with works considered sustainable. It concludes that there is a constructive tendency to use techniques and materials for the reduction of waste generation, reuse of water and use of alternative energy and natural vegetation. Although actions aimed at eco-efficiency in Brazilian civil construction have valuable potential in the area of prevention, they are still insufficient to solve the serious environmental problems generated by the sector.

Strategic guidance based on the concept of cleaner production to improve the ship recycling industry

The implementation of international ship recycling regulations and international standards of health, safety and environment on a ship recycling yard improves environmental protection, occupational health and safety of the workers. However, it results in increased costs of the ship recycling process, which is detrimental for offering a high price to ship owners for buying end-of-life ships. In order to improve their competitiveness in the market, such “green” recycling yards, as they are generally called, must either increase the revenue or reduce the costs of the ship recycling process. Apart from this, being regulatory compliant, such yards must also plan the recycling process systematically. This paper aims to identify strategies that can help recycling yards achieve these objectives. The effective strategies are identified using the concept of cleaner production. It is chosen because it is a preventive environmental strategy that provides generic options to improve the financial and environmental performance of the production firms. The applied research method first establishes that the ship recycling process can be considered as a production process and then reviews each of the generic cleaner production options with respect to ship recycling. As a result, three strategies are identified, which are material flow analysis, design-for-recycling and waste-to-energy technology.

APPLICATION OF RESOURCE EFFICIENT AND CLEANER PRODUCTION APPROACH IN THE ACCOMMODATION SECTOR OF THE BALKAN REGION

The aim of the paper is to present the results of the application of the RECP methodological approach in the accommodation sector of countries from the Balkan region – Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania. It is based on the experience from 2015 in 20 hotels (5 in each country), undergone detailed in-plant assessments. The methodology lays down on the understanding that RECP is a continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes, products and services to increase overall efficiency, and reduce risks to humans and the environment. Based on the obtained data for the material and energy flows, the paper provides a summary and analyses of the most often proposed and implemented measures. A set of absolute and relative indicators (KPIs) for resources use (energy and water consumption) and pollution generated (air emission and waste water) is used and the expected change due to the implementation of the accepted options is calculated. The performance of the accommodation facilities is compared to the international benchmarks available. The results of the study come to show the great potential of the accommodation sector for more sustainable production and outline the focal points of intervention needed. Keywords: resource efficiency, cleaner production, monitoring, performance indicators, benchmarks, accommodation sector

A relação entre uma produção mais limpa e o setor terciário: um estudo fundamentado nas dimensões da qualidade em serviços

The service sector has become increasingly active on the world stage, today representing over 60% of Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and about 80% of GDP in developed countries. Moreover, the concern of the sector with environmental issues has gained significant space, mainly by the expansion of collective consciousness related environment. Therefore, these companies need to restructure their practices and adopt a new position in the face of such issues. Accordingly, an alternative is the continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy to processes that increase efficiency while reducing risks to the environment: Cleaner Production (CP). Based on this background, this research aims to identify how is the relationship between CP and the service sector. For that, will be presented an association based on the literature from the methodology of implementation of CP and the five dimensions of quality used by the services sector as a way to verify impacts on customer perception as to improvements in operations and processes will be presented. The main result indicates that the relationship exists, because multiple interfaces and impacts of the implementation of CP in quality service dimensions perceived by customers were identified.

An innovative system for promoting cleaner production: mandatory cleaner production audits in China

Many studies have shown that positive and negative incentives can greatly promote cooperation in public goods games. The best policy for turning a population of defectors into a population of cooperators is to provide the “carrot” first and the “stick” later. Cleaner production (CP) is a new preventive environmental strategy, and its promotion is also an example of a public goods game. Voluntary participation and other positive incentives have been widely used to encourage industries to implement CP worldwide. However, taking into consideration specific industry characteristics and new environmental management requirements in China, the Chinese Cleaner Production Promotion Law proposes use of mandatory cleaner production audits (as compared to voluntary cleaner production initiatives) as innovative measures for advancing CP. This paper provides a general overview of this innovative system, explaining how the mandatory audit system was established and promoted in various policies, regulations, and national plans, and analyzing the design of the system. The paper also summarizes implementation results of the mandatory cleaner production audit system, based on annual surveys conducted in all provinces of China between 2008 and 2011. The Chinese experience can be used as a reference case by other developing countries similar to China.

Voluntary Tools Of The Environmental Oriented Product Policy

Abstract Environmentally oriented product policy is in general determined by the relationships between its aims – subjects – objects - tools. It is based on the integrated approach to the product life cycle, which anticipates an enormous amount of information. It has to solve the questions of the international trade as well as the rules of the International Trade Organization. New forms of preventive environmental strategies and especially Green Marketing are being introduced helping to solve environmental problems and environmental motivation of producers. Many producers face great attention of the public regarding their approach to the environment. Despite the fact that the customers buy products fairly prudently and their behaviour is markedly affected by prices, a particular part of the population prefers the products that do not burden the environment. This brings about a situation, in which the producers within their mutual competition and in relation to customers are enforced to behave responsibly.

Assessment of Cleaner Production Level in Agro based Industries – A Fuzzy Logic Approach

Cleaner Production (CP) is a preventive environmental strategy and across the globe there are plenty of success stories of its initiatives which have not successfully transcended to realize the fruits. In this context, there is a need to promote CP initiative to help the industry, society and environment. Hence, present level of CP is to be assessed which facilitates exploring the potential for further CP. This underscores the need for developing a methodology to estimate the CP level. Generalizing the evaluation of assessment of CP is difficult due to heterogeneous nature of operations in industries. The application of fuzzy logic assists in addressing this complexity by offering a methodology that can be adapted to any type of organization by identifying the appropriate variables. This paper presents a model developed to assess the CP status and implementation of this model on 22 cashew processing units. In the assessment of CP level, contributing parameters viz., process efficiency, environmental degradation, and sustainability aspects are considered. Various dimensions of each contributing parameter is identified and measured in the overall estimation of CP level. The result of the study has useful policy implications for catalyzing the CP initiatives.

Development of Resource Saving Strategy in Economic Activity of Agricultural Enterprises

This article is dedicated to the development of an effective strategy for resource saving, to encourage the process of investing in resource saving technologies and the introduction of an efficient program for resource saving, especially in an agricultural enterprise, which has their own specific features. The basic idea behind most of the individual measures proposed in our strategy is to encourage efficient behavior in a way that it is compatible with an incentive while leaving the details of individual measures open and not making them mandatory. In this way the existing market mechanisms would hardly be affected. Resource saving strategy is built upon ecologically clean agriculture production and related practices to accelerate the application of preventive environmental strategies to processes, products and services to increase efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment. The efficient use of the production potential of agricultural production in a general form is an essence of resource saving strategy. Reducing the resource usage could be achieved only to the limits technology factors, which could be lowered by the introduction of resource-saving crop rotation, introduction of low-cost technologies and new varieties. Saving technologies aim at reducing direct labor, materials and production processes, environmental compliance impacts on land resources, improving the quality and stability of production and profit. Taking into account all the issues listed above, we in the article proposed concept of resource saving strategy in economic activity of agricultural enterprises.

Cleaner production: Cases of the metal-mechanic automotive cluster of Serra Gaúcha, Brazil

Industrial production, allied to a vertiginous economic improvement for the last decades, has provoked negative impacts to the planet’s natural resources, which reflects on the quality of life of any society and its environmental health. Currently, humanity is facing extremely complex environmental problems, whose solution seems to be in applying a preventive environmental strategy, instead of implementing corrective actions. Undertaken and recognized strategies, such as organizational competitiveness, efficiency and profitability, create concerns about environmental realities, and provoke, then, necessities to re-think these vital actions and their impact on the productive process. Organizations started to adopt new technological strategies, by means of implanting environmental management systems. Facing an environmental decadency, these systems are seen as a competitive difference, as well as a factor of organizational improvement, in order to rationalize the consumption of natural resources. The expectation of environmental management strategies, besides decreasing the environmental impacts, may generate more profit, increasing companies’ competitiveness and efficiency. Within this context, there are different methodologies in environmental management, as well as practices of cleaner production, which consider the opportunity of reducing costs, since a polluting organization is usually an entity that wastes raw material and inputs. The objective of this study was to identify environmental innovations, cleaner production methodologies and the results of its implementation. Three companies were analyzed in the automotive metal-mechanic cluster of Serra Gaucha (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). From this multi-case qualitative research, the results demonstrate that it is possible to highlight that companies, which implemented technological innovations from the implementation of cleaner production methodologies, has an impact on the improvement of its productive process, such as an increase in operational efficiency, costs reduction with raw material and energy, and an improvement with product’s environmental quality; having positive effects on organizational and socio-economical impacts. Key words: Cleaner production, environmental management, operational efficiency.

Learning in Global Settings: Developing Transitions for Meaning-Making

Global teaching and learning for sustainable development reaches from the classroom to the world outside, and is therefore a particularly interesting setting for practising transition skills. The article suggests a number of features perceived as crucial in developing young people's capability to act in a changing world and under circumstances that are difficult to predict. The suggestions are based on an empirical study of the Lund Calling project, which aimed at implementing a web-based international programme for teaching preventive environmental strategies in Swedish secondary schools. The article first presents some of the conditions in Sweden that particularly impact on young people's transition to adulthood. Related research in sustainability education is also briefly outlined. Knowledge capability theory is used to discuss results from the empirical study of the Lund Calling project, where interviews were conducted with secondary school students, teachers and headmasters. Based on these interviews, features that appear to be particularly relevant as transition skills in global learning for sustainable development include transdisciplinary action, democratic collaborative action, as well as self-directed and independent initiative. The article concludes that young people today cannot, as in earlier periods of history, base their actions entirely on the traditions of the family or community. Instead, they also need to learn to form their own communities, capable of acting at both local and global levels. Education here plays an important role in developing the necessary transition skills that enable young people to be prepared for a rapidly changing and uncertain world.

Eco risk management in mining, eco practicum

Environmental protection is a key factor for sustainable development in the area of exploitation of natural energy resources. Solving problems in this field requires a quality strategic positioning eco exploitation sites, which is the most burdened by environmental problems, based on modern scientific approaches and definitions. Realistically frequent criticism and environmental hazards in mining the potential of various statements. There is a long-term disruption of natural flow and overall ecological balance of the system. Demonstrated environmental destruction and damage of smaller or larger extent the result, which can be accessed from the aspect of taking corrective action by the state. A complex analysis of the causes, the analysis of environmental risks and the definition of preventive environmental strategy, hardly can speak, at least in the forms of modern analytical and methodological approaches. The basis of determining the initiation of interest on taking responsibility for local environmental priorities and their protection in areas of intensive exploitation of works. It is a negative impact on human health and the need to preserve the total ecosystem. Analysis of environmental risks is becoming logistically purpose and need with which to be flexible, adaptable, and efficiently organize and manage access to environmental reality and truth in the context of improvements, now and in the near future. This paper presents real experiences and research results in environmental practicum proposals and implementation of modern concepts, methods and models for the analysis of environmental risks. .