A-Z of Corporate Environmental Management

Kit Sadgrove

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781853833304
• eBook ISBN: 9781134173693
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Is aluminium bad for you? What is an Environment Management System? Is there an effective substitute for Chlorine Bleach? The A - Z of Corporate Environmental Management provides answers to these and many other questions, and is an invaluable guide to managing a company's environmental impact.

This practical directory assesses hundreds of products in common use, from aerosols to zinc, via formaldehyde and phosphates. Using an easy-to-understand format it: explains each product's use, its benefits and its environmental risks; recommends safer alternative choices where available; explains issues such as animal testing, eco-labels and recycling; and examines the main impacts of major industries, from aerospace to zoos. Its compact, jargon-free definitions will enable you to produce safer products and communicate your needs more effectively to suppliers.

Making extensive use of figures and cross-referencing, this book is ideal for managers who are introducing corporate environmental programmes and risk assessments, and for anyone who needs an objective view of environmental issues in business.

With over 800 entries, the A-Z of Corporate Environmental Management provides a clear and authoritative summary of the subject. Its encyclopedic coverage includes:

* Management strategies such as ISO 14001

* UK, EU and international legislation

* General issues, eg timber

* Toxic substances, eg organochlorines

* Waste management, eg landfill

* Disasters, eg contamination at the Union Carbide plant, Bhopal

* Water pollutants, eg chlorine

* Air pollutants, eg carbon monoxide

The A-Z will help you to:

* Reduce your organisation's impacts

* Understand major issues

* Decide which chemicals to use

* Assess whether you are complying with legislation

* Communicate with staff and customers

* Implement an environmental management system

With hundreds of best practice points, the A-Z shows how to reduce pollution, cut costs, improve staff motivation, increase sales and avoid litigation. Its checklists, charts and tables make it a highly practical tool for anyone needing to understand and implement environmental management.

List of Entries

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1–3 Butadiene: see Butadiene

2,4,5-T

Toxic herbicide. A component of the notorious Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War to denude large areas of the countryside. 45,000 US Vietnam War veterans sued the manufacturers of Agent Orange and received US$180 million in compensation.

2,4,5-T is banned in nine countries including the US, and restricted in eight others. It is classified as ‘moderately hazardous’ by the World Health Organization (WHO). 2,4,5-T is sold under many trade names, including Farmon, Kilnet and Nettleban.

Best Practice

• Do not use.

2,4-D

Moderately toxic selective weed killer for lawns. Irritates eyes and skin, and is an oestrogen mimic which reduces male fertility. Possibly a carcinogen.

Best practice

• Avoid use.

See also: Black list; Phenoxy acid.

ACCA Guidelines

Guidelines by the UK’s Chartered Association of Certified Accountants say that companies’ environmental reporting should cover the following issues:

Qualitative

Company profile

Environmental policy

Targets and objectives

Community relations

Management

Environmental management system

Risk management

Site practices

Quantitative

Environmental indicators

Energy and natural resources

Regulatory compliance

Regulatory compliance

Products

Products

Processes

Contact personnel

See also: Report, environmental.

Accounting

Traditional Accounting ignores any cost which does not appear on the balance sheet. As a result, environmental costs are not taken into account. Today, Accounting bodies are seeking ways of measuring companies’ full effects on the environment. The problem is how to value a view or a lake. Full-cost Accounting would include the cost of pollution, and it would allow natural capital (such as clay) to be translated into man-made capital (such as bricks). Environmental Accounting systems try to ensure a balance of ‘intergenerational capital’ (in other words, natural capital is not to be squandered).

Case Study 1: A Cost Sheet from Curtis Fine Papers

Curtis Fine Papers is part of Crown Vantage, a $1 billion business with 11 manufacturing sites in the US and Scotland and 4000 employees.

	£000 1994	£000 1995 (projected)
Sales turnover	40,000	–
Effluent plant-operating costs	337	345
Sludge disposal	53	83
Solid-waste disposal	20	25
Testing	15	38
Management time	77	83
Research projects	5	24
External audits	–	9
Training	10	10
Environmental report	–	25
Total environmental cost	517	642

Capital costs in 1991 and 1992 totalled £3 million.

See also: Costs, LCA, Technology

Acids, Acidity

Acid in the air can corrode buildings and kill trees; when it falls on lakes it makes them acidic, which harms fish and other aquatic species. Acid comes from the emissions of acidic oxides (sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide etc) from power stations and car exhausts. Acid mine drainage also affects some water courses.

The scale of the acidity can be reduced by lessening these polluting emissions (through the use of filters, catalytic converters in cars, and through the use of renewable energy). The pH of acidified lakes has sometimes been reduced by lime, though this provides only temporary relief; stopping the pollution at source is the only long-term solution. The pH of acidic industrial waste water can be balanced by adding specific chemicals, such as sodium hydroxide.

See also: Acid rain.

Acid Rain

Sulphuric acid, nitric acid, other acids or ammonium, carried sometimes long distances by prevailing winds, and falling as rain, mist or dry particles. Technically, acid rain is acidic precipitation where the pH is less than 5.6, the normal equilibrium for carbon dioxide and water.

Acid rain is caused by sulphur dioxide emitted by coal-fired power stations, and nitrogen oxides from car exhausts. When it falls, acid rain makes lakes acidic, which kills the fish and other creatures. It damages trees (over half of Germany’s forests are dying though acid rain), and stonework on buildings. It also causes irritation to people’s airways, causing coughing or wheezing.

In the long term, acid rain is likely to diminish, as vehicles and power stations become cleaner.

Best Practice

• Companies can combat acid rain by conserving energy (thereby reducing the demand for energy from power stations).

• Power stations should filter their sulphur dioxide.

Acrylamide

Toxic substance used in the making of paper, dyes, artificial leather, photographic emulsion, and adhesives.

Activated Sludge

The treatment of organic waste (waste containing micro-organisms) by feeding it with compressed air and settled sludge. This technique converts a high proportion of the waste into stable inorganic matter, and is used in sewage treatment and industrial liquid wastes.

ADE

Advection Dispersion Equation. Used to model liquid flows, such as the dispersion of pollution in a river.

Adelphe

French packaging recovery organization for wine and spirit bottlers.

Adhesives

Adhesives are often applied with solvents, which are an environmental, fire, and health and safety hazard. Moreover, solvent adhesives may require solvent recovery systems and health and safety precautions. Some paper adhesives, such as those used in books, magazines and envelopes, cause difficulty in recycling.

Hot-melt adhesives do not use solvents but use a lot of energy. Water-based adhesives do not carry these disadvantages and may dry more easily.

Best Practice

• Investigate the feasibility of using adhesives that do not require solvents.

ADI

Acceptable Daily Intake. A measure used for pesticide residues in food.

See also: MRL.

ADR

(1) Alternative Dispute Resolution. See: Litigation.

(2) European Agreement on the Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road. See: Transport of dangerous goods.

Adsorption

Process where a substance, usually a gas, accumulates on the surface of a solid and forms a thin film, often just a single molecule thick.

See also: Liquid waste.

Advertising: see Marketing

Aerobic

Containing air. Some processes...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations and Case Studies
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• How To Use This Book
• List of Entries
• Reference Section
• Acknowledgements and Sources of Information
• Further Reading