Eco-efficiency analysis by basf: the method

Production systems are the elementary systems of industrial processes that are responsible for the production of all kind of equipment, products and goods that are placed in the market. Thereby it is of great importance to assess the eco-efficiency of production systems to enable an informed decision making regarding economic and environmental performance and, consequently to increase energy and resource efficiency. The framework presented in this chapter is a decision support tool based on ecoefficiency principles, aiming to maximize product/processes value creation and minimize environmental burdens, i.e. decouple economic growth from environmental burden. It fosters informed and sustainable decision making processes by the use of an organized set of indicators which are easy to understand/analyse. This approach is based on four main steps: 1) Data inventory; 2) Environmental performance evaluation; 3) Environmental impact assessment; 4) Cost models. The developed framework can be applied to any industry or production system, where all the unit processes involved are identified and the inputs/outputs of each unit system quantified and easily perceived. Key Environmental Performance Indicators and Eco-efficiency ratios related to the principles of eco-efficiency arise as outcomes of this approach. The results can be used to evaluate the production system's performance and can help to understand which unit processes or aspects play a key role in terms of economic value and/or environmental burden, so improvement actions can be applied in order to enhance the overall performance, eco-efficiency and value increase for organizations.

Over the past decades, human activity has changed the world's environment more extensively than ever before. Slowly, the people became sensitive to the needs of our environment. Nowadays, it is clear: in order to be sustainable, economic development must respect the environment. All over the world (but especially in Europe), people, companies and governments attach an overwhelming importance to protecting the environment. At macroeconomic level, more and more policies focus on environment protection. At microeconomics level, in order to have success in the long-run, companies cannot neglect the environmental dimension of business development. More and more companies use environment friendly technologies and present them as a strong competitive advantage, in their commercials and advertisings. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) developed the concept of eco-efficiency. This concept covers a wide range of measures by which companies have reduced their environmental impacts and also their costs. The use of eco-efficiency indicators allows us to avoid the traditional problem referring to the fact that environmental performance indicators might fluctuate as a result of changes in production volume and thus hide real changes in environmental performance. The paper analyses the way Europeans see sustainable development and their initiatives oriented towards achieving the symbiosis between economic development and environment protection. From these initiatives, we focus especially on the micro-economic measures. We investigate the ecological way of doing business, and we measure the eco-efficiency of several well-known companies, trying to outline the solutions that work best, solutions that could be used by the Romanian companies in order to increase their eco-efficiency.

2011

This thesis has greatly benefited from the detailed comments, guidance and inspiration of my advisor, Associate Prof. Cecilia Mark-Herbert, to whom I am deeply indebted. Without her support, this thesis would not have come out the way it has. I am also grateful to all the students and teachers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala who assisted me in various ways during my studies. To all of them I say, thank you! Any remaining errors are entirely my responsibility.

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2005

Eco-efficiency is an instrument for sustainability analysis, indicating an empirical relation in economic activities between environmental cost or value and environmental impact. This empirical relation can be matched against normative considerations as to how much environmental quality or improvement society would like to offer in exchange for economic welfare, or what the trade-off between the economy and the environment should be if society is to realize a certain level of environmental quality. Its relevance lies in the fact that relations between economy and environment are not self-evident, not at a micro level and not at the macro level resulting from micro-level decisions for society as a whole. Clarifying the why and what of eco-efficiency is a first step toward decision support on these two aspects of sustainability. With the main analytic framework established, filling in the actual economic and environmental relations requires further choices in modeling. Also, the integration of different environmental effects into a single score requires a clear definition of approach, because several partly overlapping methods exist. Some scaling problems accompany the specification of numerator and denominator, which need a solution and some standardization before eco-efficiency analysis can become more widely used. With a method established, the final decision is how to embed it in practical decision making. In getting the details of eco-efficiency better specified, its strengths, but also its weaknesses and limitations, need to be indicated more clearly.

Industrial companies have the challenge of producing according to the concept of Eco-efficiency, with a focus on improving its environmental performance. Accordingly, this article aims to verify whether the Environmental Management System (EMS) has evolved as the practices of Cleaner Production and its relationship to Ecoefficiency. The analysis is performed with the indicators that measure the environmental aspects. The indicators worked in this article belong to the ISO14031: 2004 for EMS and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSC) for Eco-efficiency. For this approach, was used the technique of the literature review, focusing on each exploratory methodology about eco-efficiency. At the end, it was identified that the indicators enable measurement of environmental processes and operations, however, it is observed the opportunity to evaluate and stimulate the use of Innovation as an active to push eco-efficiency

Procedia CIRP, 2016

One of the major issues companies face in driving environmental sustainability is the lack of focus. To overcome this issue, we propose a methodology based on the concept of eco-efficiency improvement (EEI) to help companies plan for environmental sustainability improvements. Through this methodology, the current state of a company in terms of environmental performance is assessed and hotspots for improvement are identified. Subsequently, proposed initiatives to address the hotspots are evaluated and prioritised to help the company focus their sustainability efforts to achieve greatest impacts. To demonstrate the application of the methodology, a case study of a fruit juice manufacturing company is presented.

2001

Eco-efficiency is primarily seen by industry as a banner under which companies are stimulated to search for more far-reaching environmental improvements. The question raised in this article is whether companies can use this concept and if so which difficulties are encountered in practice. The analysis is based on the experiences gained within the chemical company Akzo Nobel. It is concluded that the eco-efficiency gains achieved through product improvement cannot be assessed by using one single indicator. The use of a combination of qualitative and quantitative ecological and economic indicators can provide a good picture of the benefits to be achieved. The mix to be used, depends on the product innovation, the stage of its development and business specific aspects. This is illustrated through the example of Akzo Nobel Coatings where the most promising options in terms of high eco-efficiency improvements are the most difficult ones to assess quantitatively in advance. This is understandable when we acknowledge the dynamic and unpredictable character of more radical innovations. The differences in types of eco-efficiency improvements were also reflected in the internal decision-making process of the management of Akzo Nobel Coatings. The more far-reaching eco-efficiency improvements were transferred to the R&D department for further study, while the most promising improvements of the existing products were directly communicated with the marketing and the production departments to prepare for market introduction. Ir. H.W. van Lochem is a senior consultant with Safety Solutions Consultants bv, Apeldoorn. SSC is an alliance of TNO and Akzo Nobel Engineering bv, Arnhem, and offers complete HSE Engineering and Consultancy services.

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2005

Greener Management …, 2004

BASF is co-operating with Karlsruhe University and the Öko-Institut e.V., Germany, in developing a method for measuring social aspects of sustainability with the aim of incorporating them into BASF's existing eco-efficiency analysis. Whereas numerous instruments are used in practice for the ecological assessment of products and processes, a gap still has to be closed by developing social life-cycle assessment procedures. Based on the principles of the BASF eco-efficiency analysis on the one hand, and a product-related specification of the social sustainability dimension on the other hand, a social life-cycle assessment procedure has been developed which is now to be tested and discussed. The new integrated instrument, the so-called SEEbalance ® , will be applied at BASF in order to improve the performance of the company's product portfolio and manufacturing processes and to market advantageous products. This paper presents the concept of the new methodology. SEEbalance ® is a comparative life-cycle assessment tool that consists of three main aspects: costs, environmental impact and social effects of different product or process alternatives are examined and compared. Socio-eco-efficient solutions combine a relatively good environmental performance with high social benefit and at the same time low costs for the end customer. Social criteria for the evaluation of products and processes are proposed. The developed method for the social life-cycle assessment is based on an industrial sector analysis of statistical data. The final aggregation and presentation of the results is done in an analogous manner to the eco-efficiency analysis.

Annals - Economy Series, 2013

The issue of eco - efficiency has gained particular importance in economic theories relating to sustainable development. The acceptance of the sustainable development definition stipulated in the Brundtland Report (Our Common Future) in 1986 was a key moment in triggering massive approaches to environmental issues, closely related to economic growth and social inclusion. The complementarity, interaction and the intensity of influence of the three pillars of sustainable development (economic - social - environment) led to major changes in the priorities and report those pillars, yielding a current of thought that gives a fundamental role to the ecological pillar. This background led to the emergence of several new paradigms, namely eco - economy and green economy, eco - innovation, eco - technology, cross - industry, eco - efficiency etc.