Green Production and Industry Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Green production increases the efficiency of standard industrial practices while eliminating or minimizing wastes at their source, rather than after they have been generated. In industrial processes, green production includes conserving raw materials and energy, eliminating toxic raw materials, reducing the quantity and toxicity of emissions and wastes, and minimizing waste and emissions of the aggregate production.

Major changes in current industrial production and consumption systems are required to meet the needs of a growing world population while using environmental resources in a sustainable manner. To achieve a more rational and integrated use of resources, a reorientation of science and technology toward the objectives of sustainable development is necessary and achievable by incorporating green design into all facets of industry.

Green design is a growing industry trend begun in the fields of architecture, construction, and interior design and now moving to all aspects of industry and production. Green design is also referred to as “sustainable design,” “eco-design,” or “design for the environment.” The broad principles are fairly simple: choose energy efficiency wherever possible, work in harmony with surrounding resources, and use materials grown using sustainable methods or recycled rather than new materials from nonrenewable resources.

To determine true sustainability, all production technologies and products should undergo a comprehensive life-cycle analysis (LCA), a means of quantifying energy and raw material use and the waste generated at each stage of a product’s life. Ideally, an LCA includes quantification of material and energy needed for raw material extraction; manufacturing of all components; use requirements; generation (if any, as in the case of solar photovoltaic cells); end-of-use (disposal or recycling); and distribution/transportation between each stage. Based on LCA, methods are applied to reduce materials and energy required during a product’s life cycle. LCA optimization not only means lower materials and energy requirements for a product but also encourages extending the useful life of a product.

Green design begins in the initial research and design phase. Unfortunately, the assessment of trade offs between the environmental attributes associated with competing processes or products is extremely challenging due to technical, societal, and cultural perspectives associated with environmental quality. In the green design process, designers may look at the source, makeup, and toxicity of raw materials; the energy and resources required to manufacture the product, and how the product can be recycled or reused. Balanced with other considerations such as quality, price, ease of production, and functionality, eco-designed products are environmentally and economically viable alternatives to traditional products.

Environment and Economy

The green industry movement has challenged the notion that environmental and economic goals are mutually exclusive. Green design and clean production have historically been encouraged and become financially viable where government regulation has been first introduced. Increased efficiency in green production, however, sometimes gives a company an advantage in the market. Green-designed reduction of energy and materials is generally economically feasible, as it often represents cost savings in engineering. Also, many green industrial patterns are beginning to include the “triple bottom line” in their business planning, which captures a spectrum of values including environmental and social concerns in addition to simple economics. The problem of externalities, however, which make waste affordable by shedding environmental costs, can still discourage transition to green production.

Green industry and green production are growing at explosive rates. The Greening of Industry Network (GIN) has formed to coordinate this growth. The GIN is an international network of professionals focusing on issues of industrial development, environment, and society that is dedicated to building a sustainable future. In every country, some factories already operate at world-class environmental standards, and many profitable enterprises comply with national pollution regulations. The pinnacle of green industry will be reached when all products are designed without depleting natural resources using the current solar income and all waste is converted to food for another industrial system (e.g., industrial ecology) or for the natural systems.

To date, attempts to manage technology have been complex, involving statutes, tort law, technology standards, consumer behavior, and insurance. Most scientific efforts to manage technology have concentrated on banning or setting limits on pollutants. In the United States, the number of federal statutes concerning the environment grew exponentially from the 1960s, leading to a proliferation of regulations, not always appropriate and not always enforced. Generally these laws focus on pollution and health hazards and few efforts address resource depletion or environmental issues in a global context.

These trends may also be changing. A growing number of regulations now support green design. For example, several European countries require manufacturers to take products back from consumers at the end of the product’s life, creating an incentive for manufacturers to design products for easy recycling or reuse or those that can be disassembled. Initiatives in the United States include the Extended Product Responsibility concept, which spreads environmental responsibility from designer to manufacturer to distributor to retailer. Future legislation will push for products that have built-in end-of-life options, requiring designers and manufacturers to take responsibility for their products.

A mature green industrial system would purify air, water, and soil rather than pollute them; retain valuable materials for perpetual, productive reuse rather than destroy or waste them; require no regulation; celebrate an abundance of cultural and biological diversity; enhance nature’s capacity to thrive; grow health, wealth, and useful resources; and generate value and opportunity for all. Such a green industrial system, modeled on the natural world’s abundance can solve rather than just manage the problems industry currently creates, allowing both business and nature to thrive.

Bibliography:

Richard Devon, “Green Industry: Necessary, Difficult but Possible,” Engineering and Public Policy Newsletter (American Society for Engineering Education, June 1996);
Doris Fuch and Daniel Mazmanian, “The Greening of Industry: Needs in the Field,” Business Strategy and the Environment (v.7/4, 1998);
Peter Groenewegen, Kurt Fischer, Johan Schot, and Edith Jenkins, The Greening of Industry Resource Guide and Bibliography (Island Press, 1995);
Enrique Leff, Green Production: Toward an Environmental Rationality (Guilford Press, 1995);
William McDonough and Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press, 2002);
Joshua Pearce and Andrew Lau, “Net Energy Analysis for Sustainable Energy Production from Silicon Based Solar Cells,” Proceedings of American Society of Mechanical Engineers Solar 2002: Sunrise on the Reliable Energy Economy (ASME, 2002);
World Bank, Greening Industry: New Roles for Communities, Markets, and Governments (Oxford University Press, 2000).