BE1103 Lecture 3 - The Language of Sustainability

Transcript

1. THE LANGUAGE OF SUSTAINABILITY BE1103 PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY – LECTURE 3
2. THE LANGUAGE OF SUSTAINABILITY
3. • Precautionary Principle • Lifecycle Assessment • Environmental Impact Assessment • Carbon Foot-printing • Carbon Off-setting • Emissions Trading • Triple Bottom Line • Greenwash THE LANGUAGE OF SUSTAINABILITY
4. PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
5. PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
6. • The precautionary principle is an extreme form of precaution. • The precautionary principle is not workable • The precautionary principle would create great regulatory uncertainty for business. • The precautionary principle would hurt job creation and retention PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
7. LIFECYCLE ASSESSMENT “compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its lifecycle” ISO14040
8. LIFECYCLE ASSESSMENT
9. • Identifying opportunities to improve the environmental performance of products at various points in their life cycle • Informing decision-makers in industry, government or non-governmental organizations (e.g., for the purposes of strategic planning, priority setting, and product or process design or redesign) • Selecting relevant indicators of environmental performance, including measurement techniques • Marketing (e.g., implementing an eco-labeling scheme, making an environmental claim, or producing an environmental product declaration). LIFECYCLE ASSESSMENT
10. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
11. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
12. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT • Identify key issues that may affect environmental sustainability within a development or project • Improve Quality of the project/development or product by identifying areas for improvement • Enhance Credibility of the developer or organisation by demonstrating that environmental concerns have been taken into account • Poor Implementation is common in EIA such as, poor public consultation practices, poorly written reports or limited results • Lack of Monitoring is a key issue • Lack of confidence in the EIA process by decision makers and the public
13. CARBON FOOTPRINT
14. CARBON FOOTPRINT
15. CARBON FOOTPRINT • Differentiate from competition and benchmark against other organisations or projects. • Enhanced Reputation demonstrating commitment to reduce carbon emissions to shareholders, clients or the public. • Manage reputational risk by building confidence that the full scope of a projects processes and emissions have been considered. • Accuracy of data is critical as any errors will result in a false picture of a persons/organaisation or projects carbon footprint.
16. CARBON OFFSETTING
17. CARBON OFFSETTING
18. CARBON OFFSETTING • Compensation for emissions that cannot be avoided either due to business process or nature of the product or service. • Enhanced reputation by providing social benefits as part of offset strategy • Monetises emissions which creates a drive to reduce emissions and save costs • Beware of Greenwash badly executed offset campaigns can damage reputation
19. EMISSIONS TRADING
20. EMISSIONS TRADING International Carbon Prices
21. EMISSIONS TRADING • Monetises emissions which creates a drive to reduce emissions and save costs • Compensation for emissions that cannot be avoided either at an organisational or country level. • Trading is not equitable and revenue will not necessarily benefit those most at risk from emissions • Market Volatility mat lead to the collapse of the permit trading market
22. TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE
23. TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE
24. TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE • Identify new opportunities and adapting to new business sectors • Increase reputation and brand strength by demonstrating social responsibility • Social and environmental aspect are difficult to monetise therefore it can be difficult to recognise the benefits of the TBL approach to business • Greenwash can be assumed by some as a means by exploitative corporations to avoid legislation and taxation and generate a false eco-friendly image
25. GREENWASH
26. GREENWASH
27. • Can ruin corporate reputation amongst the public, decision makers and shareholders • Increases Risk if claims are found to be untrue and remedial work is required • Increases Costs counter to reducing costs by work required to recoup reputation • Legally Risky if deliberate misinformation of deceit is proven. GREENWASH
28. SUMMARY • We have looked at some of the key terms to do with business and sustainability • Discussed some tools and methods which you may encounter • Looked at the advantages and disadvantages of these tools or methods
29. RICS (2010) RICS Sustainability Glossary 2010. Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Available at: http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/download_info.aspx?fileID=6914 SAIC (2006) Life cycle Assessment: Principles and Practice. US Environmental Protection Agency. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/lcaccess/lca101.html Weidmann, T. & Minx, J. (2007) A Definition of ‘Carbon Footprint’. ISA UK Research Report 07-01. Available at: http://www.censa.org.uk/docs/ISA-UK_Report_07- 01_carbon_footprint.pdf Kollmuss, A., Zink, H. & Polycarp, C. (2008) Making Sense of the Voluntary Carbon Market: A Comparison of Carbon Offset Standards. WWF Germany. Available at: http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/global/pdf/WWF_2008_A%20comparison%20of %20C%20offset%20Standards.pdf Elkington, J., “Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business”, Capstone, 1997 FURTHER READING
30. Barrow, C.J. (2006) Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge Elkington, J., “Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business”, Capstone, 1997 Kollmuss, A., Zink, H., Polycarp, C. (2008) Making Sense of the Voluntary Carbon Markets: A comparison of carbon offset standards. Germany: WWF Maltzman, R. & Shirley, D. (2011) Green Project Management. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis Rebitzer, G., Ekvall, T., Frischknecht, R., Hunkeler, D., Norris, G., Rydberg, T., Schmidt, W.P., Suh, S., Weidema, B.P., Pennington, D.W. (2004) ‘Life cycle assessment Part 1: Framework, goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, and applications’, Environmental International 30 pp.701-720. REFERENCES