...Chapter 5: Sustainable Product and process Development Consumer demand for sustainable Products Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainable products not only in the US but in other worldwide markets. In surveys of nine countries and interviews in seven Chinese cities, consumers were increasing their purchases of green products particularly if they were considered to be of higher quality. Additionally, the majority of these consumers want producers to provide full transparency, good environmental records, clarity on product risks and safety, information on environmental impact, high ethical standards, and fair employee treatment. The study also reported that executives at twenty leading consumer products companies agreed that the offering differentiated green products not only brought down the costs of their value chains but provided additional margins and market share particularly helpful with the current economic conditions and competitive markets. Green, ethical, and sustainable products present huge opportunities to innovative companies particularly those in the consumer categories of paper and packaged products, disposable home products, fresh meat and vegetables, and electronics and appliances. Other important growth categories include building products, sustainable energy production products, and energy and resource reduction technologies. Ingestible products such as food and beverages lead the pack in sustainable product category growth particularly because...
Words: 6183 - Pages: 25
...with over 500 examples of new technologies (materials, products, processes and practices) which come with benign environmental effects. The approaches applied to interpreting the datasets are innovation life cycle analysis, and product chain analysis. Main results include the following: 1. Innovations merely aimed at eco-efficiency do in most cases not represent significant contributions to improving the properties of the industrial metabolism. This can better be achieved by technologies that fulfill the criteria of eco-consistency (metabolic consistency), also called eco-effectiveness. 2. Ecological pressure of a technology is basically determined by its conceptual make-up and design. Most promising thus are technologies in earlier rather than later stages of their life cycle (i.e. during R&D and customisation in growing numbers), because it is during the stages before reaching the inflection point and maturity in a learning curve where technological environmental innovations can best contribute to improving ecological consistency of the industrial metabolism while...
Words: 6973 - Pages: 28
...FedEx and the Life-Cycle Cost Embry-Riddle University Worldwide MGMT 422 Stephen Walker 26 January 2013 By Ahmadou Diallo Abstract Life cycle cost LCC is a management accounting tool used is a method for assessing the total cost of system from costs of acquiring, owning, and disposing of it. This methodology is essential in predicting cost-effective solutions though it not guaranteeing a particular result; therefore allowing the firm initiate rational comparison between alternative solutions. Introduction Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is the total lifespan cost incurred by an organization in purchasing, installing, operating, maintaining, and disposing off any equipment used in daily operations of the firm. In regard to this, estimation of LCC encompasses using a particular approach in identifying and quantifying components of an LCC equation (Pehnt, 2006). The use of LCC as an assessment tool when selecting possible design alternatives results in the provision of a cost-effective solution within limits of available data. In addition, a standard LCC comprises initial and operation costs, installation and commissioning costs, energy costs as well as disposal costs among others. System Requirements The management of FedEx gives particular emphasis on the initial purchasing and installation cost of new systems. In line with this, the firm’s top managers are supposed to explain LCC of various solutions prior to the installation of new equipment. The initiation of strong LCC...
Words: 2271 - Pages: 10
...Achieving Higher Productivity Through GP 4. CASE STUDY : MUSHROOM CANNING Mr. Augustine is the owner of Jaya Canning Factory. He produces canned mushrooms for export to Japan. Raw materials come from the countryside in 50-kg bags. The mushrooms are weighed and then soaked in water to remove big particles of soil and sand. After that the mushrooms will be washed in stainless steel drums 3 times. They are then steeped in 3% brine solution. The mushrooms will then be boiled for one hour at 100°C and then cooled down by spraying water over them and steeping them into water. After that the mushrooms will be manually checked to separate the spoiled ones. They are later washed one more time prior to canning. The cans will be weighed and filled with brine solution (2% brine, 0.1% acetic acid). They will be heated for air removal and then closed. The cans are now washed and heated for pasteurization. They are cooled down by water and packed for distribution. The factory has already built a wastewater treatment facility to treat their wastewater with the capacity of 160 cubic meters per day. During operation the neighbors often complain to the factory about the bad smell and bad water quality discharged from the factory. And sometimes it has got a warning from officers from the Department of Environment. Mr. Augustine, owner of the factory, wants to solve this problem and has contacted Dr. Tay from Singapore to make a new design of waste water treatment plant so that the factory will...
Words: 4143 - Pages: 17
...The company being reviewed is an information technology company that has been traditionally focused on the manufacture and sale of computers and related equipment and services. This company affirms the traditional definition of sustainability from the World Commission of Environment and Development as “… the ability of current generations to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.” The following review discusses the evolution of their sustainability principles and broad plans for implementation. In the 1980s the environmental concerns were primarily pollution control and prevention with a focus on reducing emissions from existing manufacturing processes. During this period the company made significant improvement in pollution control and prevention, risk management, and facility improvements such as reducing toxic materials and emissions. In the 1990s the focus shifted to product stewardship, which emphasizes earlier intervention to minimize environmental impacts associated with the full life cycle of a product. The product stewardship function focused on developing global processes for tracking and managing regulatory compliance issues, customer inquiry response systems, information management, public policy shaping, product take-back programs, green packaging, and integrating “design for the environment” and life cycle analysis into product development processes. Today the company realizes that pollution prevention and...
Words: 474 - Pages: 2
...Abstract Environmental costing serves as a mechanism for identifying and measuring the full spectrum of environmental costs of current production processes and the economic benefits of pollution prevention or cleaner processes, and to integrate these costs and benefits into day-to-day business decision-making. For the last decade, environmental accounting has gained increased importance in practice, of which cost accounting receives most attention. This paper gives an overview of the approaches of environmental cost accounting. Key Words: Environmental costing, Environmental costs, Environmental accounting Introduction In recent years, Environmental Costing has been attracting increasing attention throughout the world. There are various definitions of environmental costing, but essentially, an environmental costing system can be thought of as a management accounting system that has been refined so as to enable users of the system to be provided with information that reflects the environmental performance of the organisation. The United Nations Division for Sustainable Development has referred to environmental costing simply as “doing better, more comprehensive management accounting, while wearing an environmental hat that opens the eyes for hidden costs”. The information generated from an environmental management accounting system might be of a financial nature (for example, the quantification of environmental costs), or it might be provided in physical terms (such...
Words: 2170 - Pages: 9
...Abstract In the original Greek “oikos” means, “house”. So ecology is “the study of the house” the place where you live, or the environment which technically includes all those factors, both nonliving and living, that affect an organism. Ecology then is the study of the interactions of organisms in their environment includes both the living (biotic) and physical (abiotic) factors of the environment. It is also the science, which formulates and test hypotheses about environment. Keywords: ecology, environment, organisms, science, interaction, affects, temperate deciduous forest Ecology is the relationship, identification and analysis of problems common to all areas. Ecology studies the relationships between organisms and their environments and its responses to environmental change (Ecology.com Aug. 2011). Ecology encompasses a wide range of considerations, such as the position of organisms in the food chain and the ability of organisms to survive and reproduce. There is a variety of environmental issues that impact ecosystems and the organisms that live within them. Biomes are large, distinctive complex of plant communities created and maintained by climate, also known as ecoregions. A study published in 1999 concluded that there are 150 different "ecoregions" in North America alone (Biologypages.com August 2011). The temperate deciduous forest biome occupies most of the eastern part of the United States, including Ohio and a small strip of southern Ontario. The temperate...
Words: 878 - Pages: 4
...Population refers to all living organisms that belong to the same species and live in the same geographic area. This area is used to define the population is that inter breeding is possible between the existing pairs and crossbreeding with individuals from other areas. Sociologists use population to refer to a number of human beings. Demography refers to the study of human population. The world’s population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be around 6.9 billion as of June 11, 2011.The world population hit the 6.5 million mark on 24 February 2006. Population growth significantly grew after the Industrial Revolution. Medical advances and increased agricultural productivity in the last 50 years or so has led to a rapid increase in the rate at which the world population is growing. In future, world population is expected to reach a growth peak and there will be a drop due to different factors such as environmental hazards, economic reasons, land exhaustion and health concerns (Neal, 2004). The number of births and deaths usually determines population change. If the number of births exceeds the number of deaths then population growth is said to have occurred. The factors that are known to affect population growth include fertility rates, family size (small families are more common in developed countries, larger in developing countries), and mortality rates determined by access to medical facilities, accidents, natural disasters. The world population...
Words: 695 - Pages: 3
...China’s Ecological Environment People, businesses and governments are starting to understand the reality of globalisation, and how it is affecting their environment. The implications from industrialisations which results in over exhausting natural resources, has caused environmental degradation, and most of this is done by human activity especially international business activities. This essay will look at the impact of economic globalisation on China while focusing on China’s ecological environment. To start off, the essay will look at the definitions of globalisation and economy, followed by China’s change from being an agriculturally farming intensive country towards rapid industrialisation. Because of this activity pollution, emissions as well as environmental degradation resulted in serious ecological problems. International bodies such as the Kyoto Protocol, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Environment Programme, have stressed the importance or reducing pollution and emissions in developing countries in order to maintain sustainability. Cancer villages are becoming a major concern in China and that was enough to make the Chinese political party to take responsibility and change their views on the ecological environment. The question here is can China implement these changes to maintain sustainability for future generations, and if so what methods are they using to achieved this by? According to Morrison (2011), globalisation...
Words: 1840 - Pages: 8
...Principles of Environmental Science Pamela Ram Bharwani ENV/100 07/08/2013 Angila Romious principles of environmental science Study shows that Environmental science is how different element of the environment interact; which is the chemical, biological, and the physical'. it has three main fundamental sets of component which is physical ( energy of something), chemical ( substance, man-made or natural), biological ( living things). Various aspects of physics , biology, hydrology, chemistry , economics, other social sciences and law and topical environmental issues like climate change, soil contamination, conservation, ozone depletion, groundwater, use of natural resources, waste management, air and noise pollution , encompasses within environmental science. it's a research involving air, soil, food and water to better understand the environment and protect it. it's a work that basically performs in a private, governmental and public organization monitoring waste disposal, it include technical proposals and writing risk assessment . The relationship between science and technology affect environmental problems and solutions in today’s society in a lot of different ways. It usually goes like this: Someone uses the power of science to create a very nice thing that causes unintended environmental problems, for example: a car. If enough or a lot of people care about that problem, then again someone will use the power of science, to make something to fix or reduce...
Words: 832 - Pages: 4
...Local and Surrounding Ecologies and Environments of Virginia Introduction to Physical Science, SCI110 December 13, 2012 The Virginia Ecologies and Environments Ecology, as defined by Enger, Ross, & Tillery (2009), is “the branch of biology that studies the relationships between organisms and their environments”. Accordingly, the term environment is very broadly defined as “anything that affects an organism during its lifetime” (Enger, Ross, & Tillery, 2009). With these definitions in mind, it is easy to understand that organisms rely on their environments for sustainment and life. On the flip side, environments rely on organisms as well for survival. The factors that affect a living organism in any given environment can, in turn, be classified as either biotic or abiotic. Biotic factors are other living things that may affect a particular organism, for example predators. In contrast, abiotic factors are nonliving things that affect a particular organism, such as a drought or excessive rain. In reviewing the local ecology and environment of the Commonwealth of Virginia, we must first determine the region’s biome. A biome is the classification of a terrestrial community, primarily determined by climatic factors, such as precipitation patterns and temperature ranges (Enger, Ross, & Tillery, 2009). A biome also provides an indication of the type of plant life and animals that may be present within a particular region. The relationship is interdependent...
Words: 2035 - Pages: 9
...Published by the Ecological Society of America Issues in Ecology Number 4, Fall 1999 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Maintaining Natural Life Support Processes Issues in Ecology Number 4 Fall 1999 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Maintaining Natural Life Support Processes by Shahid Naeem, Chair, F.S. Chapin III, Robert Costanza, Paul R. Ehrlich, Frank B. Golley, David U. Hooper, J.H. Lawton, Robert V. ONeill, Harold A. Mooney, Osvaldo E. Sala, Amy J. Symstad, and David Tilman Critical processes at the ecosystem level influence plant productivity, soil fertility, water quality, atmospheric chemistry, and many other local and global environmental conditions that ultimately affect human welfare. These ecosystem processes are controlled by both the diversity and identity of the plant, animal, and microbial species living within a community. Human modifications to the living community in an ecosystem as well as to the collective biodiversity of the earth can therefore alter ecological functions and life support services that are vital to the well-being of human societies. Substantial changes have already occurred, especially local and global losses of biodiversity. The primary cause has been widespread human transformation of once highly diverse natural ecosystems into relatively species-poor managed ecosystems. Recent studies suggest that such reductions in biodiversity can alter both the magnitude and the stability of ecosystem processes...
Words: 5933 - Pages: 24
...because the company do not serve as social role for public in their manufacturing. Also, it would not be ethical since some environmental problems will occur because of the manufacturing. Industry has a natural prejudice against environmentalism because it would restrict its activities and growth. However, we can make a balance between environmental protection and company’s growth. We can give a main direction to the company by setting an environmental vision- ‘Environmental manufacturing keeps the environment sustainable’ Since the current competitors of carpet use the same types of materials and manufacturing processes, our company need to lead the industry by adapting proactive social responsibility strategy to change the existing industrial culture by having a sustainable manufacturing and recycling. Since we want to keep the net effect on environmental zero, we must modify and redesign the process. Waste steam is released during manufacturing...
Words: 695 - Pages: 3
...of Both Human and Ecological Systems………………………………10 Conclusion ….12 References 13 Introduction Human activities on land and in the ocean are changing ecosystems and threatening their ability to provide important benefits to society, such as healthy and abundant sources of food, clean air, and fresh water. The argument that the ecosystem ought to be managed in whole ecological units based on integrative biological, physical and/or socio-economic assessments is not a new one. However the argument is gaining urgency as a result of continuing and increasing problems in environmental management based on old areal units, and it is gaining relevance as a result of new developments in related areas of theory and practice such as landscape ecology, ecosystem health and integrity, protected areas management, and sustainable development. Ecosystem-based management, or an ecosystem approach to planning and management, is...
Words: 3397 - Pages: 14
...The protection of environment in Western and Eastern Europe Natural environmental concerns have been felt since the late nineteenth century, when it was the attitude of admiration transition from passive to active natural beauty drive to protect them and prevent the abuse of natural resources . The central axis of our environmental policy is to ensure a clean environment for the health of its inhabitants , breaking the vicious circle of poverty and environmental degradation , ensuring innovative regenerative growth for the benefit of present and future generations , harmonization of legislation with the specific environmental European Union to accelerate integration into European structures. Without environmental protection , can not ensure sustainable development. Sustainable development includes environmental protection and sustainable development environmental conditions.Requirements and existing requirements at EU level requires a new approach to global environmental problems , in terms of effects and pressure on the environment and all socio -economic consequences . United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED ) held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 , showed that they can not think of environment and economic and social development as isolated areas and that the only path to long-term economic progress it is binding environmental protection . The key issue of sustainable development is the reconciliation between two human aspirations : need for...
Words: 910 - Pages: 4
