Metrics Assessment of Economic, Environmental, and Social Effects of Industry - Research Proposal Example

METRICS ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL EFFECTS OF INDUSTRY by Student’s name Code+ course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Introduction The contemporary world we live in today is different from the one in the early 20th century. There are several challenges facing us today in political, social and economic contexts. Some of these challenges include pollution, limited resources, threatened ecosystem, global warming, and health risks in industries among other things. Many of these challenges are contributed majorly by the human’s desire to do further exploration in industrialization. In order to avoid the extinction of human beings and to have a sustainable earth, some of these issues need to be addressed as we move on through the 21st century. The awareness of the people’s need to protect the environment did not occur at once. As the world became aware of the issues related to ecology, many groups and activists established campaigns and proposed policies to ensure that the environment is protected. Problem Statement Pollution, limited resources, threatened ecosystem, global warming, and health risks are problems that face human beings. Many of these challenges are contributed majorly by the human’s desire to do further exploration in industrialization. This project is aimed at describing metrics assessment that industries cause in economics, social, and environmental context. Objective This project is aimed at exploring the most appropriate sustainability measures to control environmental, social, and economic challenges in the contemporary world. It is aimed at discussing appropriate metrics that can be applied in the sustainability process. It is also aimed discussing the significance of industrial symbiosis in addressing the sustainability of environment, society and economy. Methodology This study differs is based qualitative methods of the literature review of the past studies about sustainability of environmental, social and economic contexts. The study depends on the previous data and information from individual scholars, governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as the international organizational data. The analysis of the project is based on the reviewed data through the comparison of different information for case studies. Literature Review Irrespective of the long history of the awareness of the importance of environmental conversation and government regulations, the world is still under the threat of environmental destruction (Dalal-Clayton & Sadler, 2009). Therefore, it is important to note that there is a done to take steps in order to save the environment. In the contemporary society, it is becoming clear that environmental concerns were not the only factors that affect the global society. This is the reason why sustainability, which is a new term in the context of global conservation, was coined. The term sustainability is used in the contemporary society in order to define the global economic well-being as related to the healthy environment and the success of the citizens (Bell & Morse, 2008). It involves the development with the aim of meeting the needs of the contemporary context without any compromise of the future generals in order to meet their needs too. The current level of sustainability and understanding cover four important features. These include economic benefits, efficiency in the use of resources, environmental conservation, and social development (Bell & Morse, 2008). The process, which designed only for environment concerns and social concerns, can be categorized as the bearable and the process, which is designed for social and economic concerns, can be categorized as equitable. Therefore, the sustainable process is the one, which covers the three important dimensions, that social economics and environment. This is important considering that about 25 percent of mammals and 25 percent of bird species worldwide are under a threat of distinction (Hark et al. 2007). Approximately about half of the water supply system in the world such as rivers can be classified as either polluted depleted. About 15 percent of the world’s land is classified as a degraded land. There has been increased awareness on the aspects of sustainability in the few decades. The main key players in the context of sustainability are academic circles, industries, the United Nations, the government of the United States, and other governments around the world. According to the report released by the United Nations Environment Program of the year 2002, the following were the concerns that drove the concept of sustainability development (Stanners et al. 2007). The dimensions of sustainability can be done in terms of economic, environmental, and social variables in form of a viable, equitable, bearable and sustainable manner. The rate of deaths around the world has been increasing with more than 10 million people dying every year from poor sanitation, nutrition, and health education (Stanners et al. 2007). Even though the chemical industry has laid a solid program to move towards becoming a sustainable industry, several issues within the industry have not been resolved in appropriate manner. One of these issues is the continued evaluation of the best alternative products and industrial processes, and the idea of substituting the current manufacturing processes sustainable chemical products where necessary. On the other hand, the petroleum industry is among the most important sectors in the world’s economy. This is because it supplies about 90 percent of commercial and private needs for the energy (Bell & Morse, 2008). Many industries depend highly on petroleum products for the energy consumption. Since petroleum is a non-renewable resource, it is vital to find ways in which we can conserve these valuable resources. This calls for the importance of sustainability approach for the next few decades. For many years, agencies of environmental conservation have made several steps and attempts to regulate the environmental effects, which result from the exploitation of oil. More than 10 percent of the world’s population lives below the poverty line and about 40 percent of the humankind get access to limited or not safe drinking water. The concentration of carbon IV oxide has increased by more than 25 percent as compared to one and half centuries ago. The depletion of ozone has been steadily increasing because of constant emission of chlorofluorocarbon by chemical industry and other manufacturing industries as well as petroleum products industry (Stanners et al. 2007). This has made it difficult for the refining sector of oil and gas. It is important to determine ways of incorporating sustainability, while addressing the challenges that surround conservation of the world’s petroleum resources in the long term basis. Analysis of the Literature Launching a new product in a particular industry consists of sequences of steps and events. These include the discovery of the chemicals to be used, development of products, and development of the manufacturing process as well as the final stage of the full scale process of production. In the context, the concentration should be based on the stage of the process development. In this stage, a series of events must be done. These include market research, specification of the product, early stages of development, and later stages of the product development and design, as well as the product registration (Stanners et al. 2007). The most important concern that the engineers must try to solve is the way the sustainability can be incorporated in the early stages of the design processes of a new product. Even though this may seem simple, the actual answer to this concern is not easy. The design process has always had challenges because the engineers have to deal with many details and at the same time take into consideration the expected profits, government regulations, the community concerns about the possible side effects of the new product. The measurement of sustainability is a terminology, which denotes the use of measurement as a quantitative foundation for the informed sustainability management. There is still development involved in the metrics applied in the sustainability measurement, which consist of sustainable environmental and social domains as well as economic domains, both at individual levels and as a combination (Bell & Morse, 2008). The metrics applied for sustainability measurement include audits, benchmarks, indices, assessment, and accounting as well as other systems of reporting. These metrics are applied over a wide range of scales, which are spatial and temporal in nature (Stanners et al. 2007). Some of the most known and widely applied measures of sustainability include the corporate report on the sustainability, estimates for the governance of the sustainability equality for individual nations by using the environment performance index as well as environment sustainability index. The Circles Sustainability is another approach that the United Nation on the Global Compact uses to explicitly give critical details about sustainability. The main aim of sustainability indicators is to inform the policy-makers who are the part of the governance of the sustainability process. Sustainability indicators can give the information regarding any aspect of the interplay between the environment and socio-economic activities. Developing strategic indicators help in setting the deals by posing some simple questions. The first question is “What is happening?” which tends to explore the descriptive indicator. The second question, which tends to explore efficiency is, “Does it matter and is it possible to reach the targets?” and the last question which tends to explore the total welfare indicator is whether we are better off (Bell & Morse, 2008). The general framework that the European Environment Agency use is slightly modified and is called the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, abbreviated as the DPSIR system. This framework helps in breaking up the impacts on environment into five distinct stages. These include social and economic developments, specifically production and consumption this leads to D-rive to initiate the P-ressures in our environment. This will in turn result in a change of the environmental S-tate, which in turn leads to I-mpacts of different kinds. At this stage Responses of the society, such as policy guided indicators for the sustainability can be introduced in the process. On the other hand, industrial symbiosis is the process of sharing services, by-products related resources, and utility among various industries with the aim of adding value, reducing costs and improving our environment (Agarwal & Strachan, 2006). Industrial symbiosis is a branch of industrial ecology with specific focus on the exchange of materials and energy. It is important to note that industrial ecology is considerably a new field that is based on natural paradigm. This field of industrial study claims that the ecosystem of an industry may behave in the same way as the natural ecosystem in which everything within the context is recycled. One of the main ways in which the industrial symbiosis through the ecology of industry contributes into the integration of the economic development and protection of environment is through the development of eco-industry (Ehrenfeld & Gertler, 2007). In order to provide a clear understanding of the industrial symbiosis, through the concept of ecosystem industrial context, it is important to use examples. Some of the best examples of industrial symbiosis include eco-industrial network, Green Twinning, Brownfield Eco-Industrial Development, Virtual Eco-Industrial Network, and Greenfield Eco-Industrial Development among others. The above classifications tend to omit approached of sector wide and tends to appreciate the diversity of industrial system, which is the major feature of industrial symbiosis (Agarwal & Strachan, 2006). The main aim in this context is to include the best initiatives, which focus on the achievement of the utility sharing and the symbiosis in the diverse sectors of different industries. The industrial symbiosis does not limit its application to the boundaries of economic sectors or the geographical boundaries. Instead, it involves the diversity and openness, which the industrial symbiosis a unique approach to the development of eco-industry (Ehrenfeld & Gertler, 2007). The industrial symbiosis approaches tend to engage industries that are traditionally separate in order to have a collective approach towards attaining the advantages that are involved in physical exchange of resources such as energy, materials, water and by-products (Agarwal & Strachan, 2006). The main features to achieve industrial symbiosis are the support and the possibilities of synergetic provided by the geographic proximity. In this context, another critical platform is the sharing of information among the industrial sectors. The sharing of the information is one of the leading platforms in the contemporary economic development. It is the major tool that can simplify geographical analysis that is involved in determining international economic opportunities. Industrial symbiosis is a system that provides collective optimization of materials and energy in order to achieve efficiencies beyond the ones achievable by the processes engaged in individual industrial processes alone. International systems such as the network of materials and exchanges of energy and materials among companies, especially in Denmark have suddenly evolved from a series of minor innovations over a long-time scale. Nevertheless, the design and implementation design developed by engineers of such system in the context of macro planning proves a bit challenging. There is industrial symbiosis designed for natural and regional initiatives with success, especially in Europe (Agarwal & Strachan, 2006). In many cases, access to information about the available by-products is currently non-existent. These by products are considered by many industries as waste because the sector does not have access to their make. These wastes may be discharged into the natural environment in form of pollution. Industrial symbiosis tends to help industries and sectors depend on each other in terms of exchanging their by-products, materials and other resources so that we do not have waste in the industrial eco system. Project Plan MONTH ACTIVITY April 20-26 April 28- 5 May May 5-7 May 7-12 May 12-19 May 19-26 May 26-2 June June 2-10 Research × × × × × × Proposal × × × Presentation × × Material Acquisition × × Design and Implement × × Methodology × × Data presentation × × Final Report × × Gantt Chart Research Proposal Presentation Material Acquisition Design and Implementation Methodology Data Presentation Final Report Time (days) Conclusion The contemporary world is faced with many challenges, which relate to health, industrial processing, environmental and socio-economic challenges. Manufacturing industries contributes to environmental pollution and degradation. At the same time, industrial processes depend heavily on petroleum and its related products for the energy consumption. These energy resources are non-renewable and could possibly lead to extinction if appropriate steps are not taken. Water, is among the most important resources for both biodiversity and industrial processing. With the high rate at which industrial water resources are being contaminated, there is a need to sustain the water supply. These are just among many environmental, social and economic challenges. In order to solve this problem, sustainability approaches are essential. It can be conclude that the most effective approach that could work for every industry is the aspect of industrial symbiosis. This will ensure that there is no waste product released into natural environment in form of pollution. Bibliography Agarwal A. & Strachan P 2006, Literature review on eco-industrial development initiatives around the world and the methods employed to evaluate their performance / effectiveness, Consultancy Report prepared for Databuild Ltd. and National Industrial Symbiosis Programme, 7th May 2006. Bell, S. & Morse, S 2008, Sustainability Indicators. Measuring the Immeasurable? 2nd edn. London: Earthscan. ISBN 978-1-84407-299-6. Dalal-Clayton, B. & Sadler, B 2009, Sustainability Appraisal: A Sourcebook and Reference Guide to International Experience, London: Earthscan. Ehrenfeld, J. & Gertler, N 2007, “Industrial Ecology in Practice: The Evolution of Interdependence at Kalundborg,” Journal of Industrial Ecology 1(1): 67 Hark, T. et al. 2007, Sustainability Indicators, SCOPE 67, Island Press, London. Stanners, D. et al. 2007, Frameworks for environmental assessment and indicators at the EEA. In: Hak, T., Moldan, B. & Dahl, A.L. 2007. SCOPE 67. Island Press, London. Read More