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What is cleaner production?

Cleaner production (CP) is a voluntary instrument of environmental protection. It consists of a preventative strategy that enhances a more efficient utilization of inputs. It is of great significance because it is an economically beneficial way of reducing negative environmental impacts of producing goods and delivering services.

Cleaner production protects the environment, consumers and employers. In addition, it improves entrepreneurial efficiency, profitability and competitiveness. Consequently, it is not merely an environmental strategy – it also addresses the economic aspects of production.

Cleaner production views waste as costly inputs that failed to be transformed into outputs. It is a universally applicable approach for all industries, regardless of business size and type.

Definition employed by the UNEP: Cleaner production (CP) is a persistent application of an integral preventative strategy to processes, products and services with the aim to increase their efficiency and limit the risks for humans as well as for the environment.

“In production processes, cleaner production consists in a more efficient utilization of raw materials and energy, in elimination of toxic and dangerous materials and in prevention of waste and emission at source.”

In products and services, the strategy of cleaner production focuses on reducing their environmental impacts throughout their life cycle from development to utilization.

Five reasons to implement cleaner production:

• lower production energy consumption,
• lower production material consumption,
• financial savings,
• increased production efficiency,
• increased competitiveness (products, services).

The application instrument of Cleaner Production is the CLEANER PRODUCTION ASSESSMENT. It is a comprehensive information tool providing not only the information on negative environmental impacts, but also possible elimination strategies, including the financial impact of the corrective measures.

The Cleaner Production Assessment (CPA) is a voluntary instrument for environmental protection. No company is obligated to use the CPA. If a company does use the CPA to obtain the necessary information for improvement, the final decision as whether to implement, the measures would be up to the company’s management.

Areas of Interest

Environmental pollution is caused by the introduction of substances and energies of inappropriate quantity and quality to the environment. Cleaner Production, as a preventive strategy of environmental protection, looks for the sources of emissions, wastes or various leaks which may occur under normal operating conditions (due to poor construction or inadequate maintenance) and or as the result of an accident.

The main areas of interest in Cleaner Production projects:

• product features,
• applied technology,
• machinery and equipment,
• input raw materials,
• compliance with manufacturing processes,
• organisation of work,
• staff attitude to work assignments,
• company management systems.

The environmental impact from all of the above areas can be decreased by either investment measures or non-investment, organisational measures. The non-investment, immediate measure are very efficient and represent nearly one quarter of the total financial effects.

Leakage of substances and energy into the environment in the form of waste and/or emissions can be reduced when the production process is optimized and proper maintenance procedures are implemented. From the economic perspective, this approach has proved to be very effective. In a chemical plant case study, gas leakage which occurred as a result of poor pipeline maintenance, cost the company 4 million CZK ($200,000) per year.

Polluting waste and emissions production can be prevented by:

• better logistics and work organization,
• change of supplementary raw materials,
• change of primary raw materials,
• change of technology,
• change of products,
• return of produced waste back to the process for further processing, so-called returnable waste,
• recycling of waste in the plant where it was produced.

Other options, such as reevaluation and recycling of waste or waste disposal by an appropriate technology inside and outside the plant are not a part of the preventive Cleaner Production strategy. These measures are defined as end-of-pipe technologies.

Importance of Cleaner Production

Cleaner production is important because it is a universally applicable, integral preventive strategy which does not solve environmental problems by transferring them from one environmental component to another. This strategy looks for the sources of pollution and tries to minimize them. This approach is currently the only one that can lead to a continuous decrease in negative environmental impact. The Cleaner Production strategy is in full compliance with the concept of sustainable development.

Implementing Cleaner Production can be very beneficial to a company if it also introduces the EMS (Environmental Management System). This strategy ensures the inclusion of preventive measures which are much less expensive than typical reactive (end-of-pipe) measures.

International Declaration on Cleaner Production

The International Declaration on Cleaner Production is a public document published by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 1997 and adopted on September 28, 1998 in Korea at The 5th International High-Level Seminar on Cleaner Production. The Declaration includes the commitment to use and promote a preventive Cleaner Production strategy. The Declaration can by signed by an individual or any company that wants to comply voluntarily with the requirements specified in The Declaration.

The objective of the Declaration is to support the existing and initiate new Cleaner Production activities.