Environmental management in an international consumer goods company

Many management processes and tools can provide companies with information to support their environmental decision making. Risk assessment, environmental auditing, life cycle assessment and environmental reporting are but a few examples. Each of these has typically evolved independently as the need for it has arisen. Today, however, this abundance of tools can lead to confusion: What is the exact objective of each tool? How do they differ? Are some ‘better’ than others? Should they be used in parallel, sequentially or in place of each other? More importantly, how do they fit together into a coherent environmental management framework that will ensure sound environmental and economic decision making in a company? This paper seeks to answer these questions. It describes the overall environmental framework that has been developed internally within Procter & Gamble and which allows the company to make coherent economically and environmentally sound decisions, in both the short- and long-term.     

Economic resilience to natural and man-made disasters: Multidisciplinary origins and contextual dimensions

Economic resilience is a major way to reduce losses from disasters. Its effectiveness would be further enhanced if it could be precisely defined and measured. This paper distinguishes static economic resilience—efficient allocation of existing resources—from dynamic economic resilience—speeding recovery through repair and reconstruction of the capital stock. Operational definitions are put forth that incorporate this important distinction. The consistency of the definitions is examined in relation to antecedents from several disciplines. The effectiveness of economic resilience is evaluated on the basis of recent empirical studies. In addition, its potential to be enhanced and eroded is analyzed in various contexts.     

Natech guide words: A new approach to assess and manage natech risk to ensure business continuity

The risk posed by natural hazards to the technological systems is known as Natech risk. It is different from the more widely known and studied risk posed by such sites to the environment and society. Though currently, available risk assessment techniques recognize Natech, the specific qualitative technique for Natech risk assessment and reduction has not yet been developed. After analyzing past data of Natech accidents, relevant guide words have been suggested in this study. These guide words will help anticipate Natech risk and visualize the Natech scenario. Once the Natech risk is identified, corresponding risk reduction measures can be taken to avoid possible Natech accidents and consequences.     

商务英语教学法初探

商务英语是在国际商务环境下使用的专业英语,是一种特殊用途英语.商务英语与普通英语相比更侧重于应用.因此,在教学中应突破传统语言教学法,减少基础语言知识传授的比例,以培养学生语言应用能力为目的,增加产出性的数量和权重.并将教师授课与学生自主学习结合起来,建立以学生自主学习为中心的立体化、多样化、个性化的教学模式.     

A two step fuzzy model for the assessment and ranking of organizational resilience factors in the process industry

The evaluation and ranking of resilience factors (RFs) in an uncertain environment has important implications for the management of any enterprise. Determining an improvement strategy of business process resilience is based on the obtained rank of RFs, and it presents a key success factor for an enterprise in dealing with crisis. The complexity and importance of the treated problem calls for analytic methods rather than intuitive decisions. The relative importance of business processes and the relative importance of RFs under each business process are stated by fuzzy pair-wise comparison matrices. The elements of these matrices are triangular fuzzy numbers (TFNs). The fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is used for determination of relative weights of existing variables. The rank of RFs is obtained by using the extent fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS). The real life application on the selection of the management team shows the practical implications in the process industry.     

The role of business in sustainable consumption

This paper explores the role of the business community in promoting sustainable consumption. While businesses play an important role in shaping social trends, including the growth of material consumption, allegations that individual corporations wield excessive power may have been overstated. Most of the time corporations are simply playing by the rules and culture of the market.Businesses have mostly assumed that their contribution to sustainability lies in improving eco-efficiency—staying within the current business framework. But sustainable consumption will require wider change, including shifts in the incentives that shape the actions of businesses and others, and a change in the culture that underlies market expectations. Firms, governments, the media and civil society may need to enter a dialogue together to develop a new story about the nature of prosperity and the role of the business community in promoting it. The initiative is most likely to come from civil society.     

Effective rates of heavy metal release from alkaline wastes--quantified by column outflow experiments and inverse simulations

Column outflow experiments operated at steady state flow conditions do not allow the identification of rate limited release processes. This requires an alternative experimental methodology. In this study, the aim was to apply such a methodology in order to identify and quantify effective release rates of heavy metals from granular wastes. Column experiments were conducted with demolition waste and municipal waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash using different flow velocities and multiple flow interruptions. The effluent was analyzed for heavy metals, DOC, electrical conductivity and pH. The breakthrough-curves were inversely modeled with a numerical code based on the advection–dispersion equation with first order mass-transfer and nonlinear interaction terms. Chromium, Copper, Nickel and Arsenic are usually released under non-equilibrium conditions. DOC might play a role as carrier for those trace metals. By inverse simulations, generally good model fits are derived. Although some parameters are correlated and some model deficiencies can be revealed, we are able to deduce physically reasonable release-mass-transfer time scales. Applying forward simulations, the parameter space with equifinal parameter sets was delineated. The results demonstrate that the presented experimental design is capable of identifying and quantifying non-equilibrium conditions. They show also that the possibility of rate limited release must not be neglected in release and transport studies involving inorganic contaminants.     

A value proposition: Resource recovery from faecal sludge—Can it be the driver for improved sanitation?

There is currently a lack of access to affordable sanitation in urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. This study evaluated the potential for resource recovery from innovative faecal sludge treatment processes to generate a profit that could help sustain the sanitation service chain. A total of 242 interviews were conducted in Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; and Kampala, Uganda to compare markets in different cultural and regional contexts. Products identified to have potential market value include dry sludge as a fuel for combustion, biogas from anaerobic digestion, protein derived from sludge processing as animal feed, sludge as a component in building materials, and sludge as a soil conditioner. The market demand and potential revenue varied from city to city based on factors such as sludge characteristics, existing markets, local and regional industrial sectors, subsidies, and locally available materials. Use as a soil conditioner, which has been the most common end use of treated sludge, was not as profitable as other end uses. These findings should help policy and decision makers of sanitation service provision to design financially viable management systems based on resource recovery options.     

Emissions targets and the real business cycle: Intensity targets versus caps or taxes

For reducing greenhouse gas emissions, intensity targets are attracting interest as a flexible mechanism that would better allow for economic growth than emissions caps. For the same expected emissions, however, the economic responses to unexpected productivity shocks differ. Using a real business cycle model, we find that a cap dampens the effects of productivity shocks in the economy on all variables except for the shadow value of the emissions constraint. An emissions tax leads to the same expected outcomes as a cap but with greater volatility. Certainty-equivalent intensity targets maintain higher levels of labor, capital, and output than other policies, with lower expected costs and no more volatility than with no policy.     

浅谈环境监测业务管理的规范化

简述了环境监测业务的分类,提出应对监测工作流程、监测标准、业务分包工作、监测收费、监测报告格式、监测数据、监测质量、业务项目实行规范化管理。指出,对各类环境监测业务进行规范化管理,将有助于提高环境监测为环境管理和经济建设服务的质量和效率。