Legislation
Compliance
•
Be aware of directives or other binding controls that
affect the materials and processes you use
•
Understand what is required to comply with the
directives and controls
•
Have (or develop) tools to make compliance as
painless as possible
•
Explore ways to make compliance profitable rather
than a burden;
•
exploit compliance information as a marketing tool
for example
Historical approach to environmental law
• Ignore it: pretend it isn’t there.
• Dilute it: make the stack taller; pump it further
out to sea
• Fix it where it is a problem: the “end of pipe”
approach
• Prevent it in the first place: The first
appearance of design for the environment
• Sustainable Development: life in equilibrium
with the environment (where we are now)
What to do
• It is difficult to negotiate enforceable
treaties that bind all nations of the
planet to a single course of action.
• Agreements, Declaration of Intents and
Protocols get proposed for signature.
Sources
• Protcols can derive from printed
materials, conferences, and other
sources.
• Some critical triggers for protocols are
presented next
1962
• Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
• Examination of the consequences of
DDT and the impact of technology on
the environment
1972
• Club of Rome Limits to Growth
• the report that triggered the first of a
sequence of debates in the 20th century
on the ultimate limits imposed by
resource depletion.
1972
• The Earth Summit in
Stockholm
• The first conference convened by the
United Nations to discuss the impact of
technology on the environment.
Stockholm Declaration
• Principle 21: The right to exploit one’s
own environment
1987
• The UN World Commission on
Environment and Development
Our Common Future
• Known as the Brundtland Report, it defined the
principle of sustainability as “Development that
meets the needs of today without
compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs”
WCED Report
• Precautionary Principle: While there
are possibilities of large irreversible
impacts, the lack of scientific certainty
should not stop preventive action from
being taken
1987
• Montreal Protocol
• The International Protocol to phase out
the use of chemicals that deplete ozone
in the stratosphere
Montreal Protocol
• Ozone depletion allows UV radiation to
reach the surface of Earth, damaging
living organisms. The culprits are
typified as chloroflourocarbons (CFCs)
that were widely used as refrigerants
and blowing agents for polymer foams,
particularly for house insulation.
1992
• Rio Declaration
• An international statement of the
principles of sustainability, building on
those of the 1972 Stockholm Earth
Summit.
Rio Declaration
• Principle 2: The right to development
without damage to others
1998
• Kyoto Protocol
• An international treaty to reduce the
emissions of gases that cause climate
change
Kyoto Protocol
• Sets binding targets for 37
industrialized countries and the
European Community that have signed
it, committing them to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions over the five
year period 2008-2012
2001
• Stockholm Convention
• The first of ongoing meetings to agree
on an agenda for the control and phaseout of persistent organic pollutants
(POPs)
2001
• IPCC Fourth Assessment
Report Climate Change 2007:
The Physical Basis
• This report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
establishes correlation between carbon
in the atmosphere and climate change
National Legislation
• Usually quite dense and specific.
• Four broad forms:
• Setting up standards
• Voluntary agreements negotiated with industry
• Binding legislation that imposes requirements
with penalties if they are not met
• Economic instruments that seek to use market
forces to induce change: taxes, subsidies, and
trading schemes
Standards
• ISO 14000 - Environmental Management
systems
• ISO 14040, 41, 42, 43 - broad procedures
for the steps shown in a previous lecture
about life cycle assessment
• ISO 14025 - guides reporting LCA data as
an Environmental Product Declaration
(EPD) or Climate Declaration (CD)
ISO 14025
• Communicate information about environmental
performance of products as a “declaration”
• The data used must follow ISO 14040 family
and validated by 3rd party.
• The EPD describes the output of a full LCA or
part of one.
• The CD is limited to emissions that contribute
to global warming: CO2, CO, CH4, and N2O
Voluntary Agreements and binding
legislation
• Aimed to internalize costs and conserve
materials
• Increase manufacturers’ responsibilities.
US RCRA
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,
EPA 1976
• Protect the public from harm caused by
waste disposal
• Encourage reuse, reduction and recycling
• Clean up spilled or improperly stored waste
•
The solid waste program, under RCRA Subtitle D,
encourages states to develop comprehensive plans to
manage nonhazardous industrial solid waste and
municipal solid waste; sets criteria for municipal solid
waste landfills and other solid waste disposal facilities;
and prohibits the open dumping of solid waste.
1. The hazardous waste program, under RCRA Subtitle C,
establishes a system for controlling hazardous waste from
the time it is generated units its ultimate disposal – in
effect, from "cradle to grave".
2. The underground storage tank (UST) program, under
RCRA Subtitle I, regulates underground storage tanks
containing hazardous substances and petroleum
products.
US EPA 35/50 CFR
• Code of Federal Regulation (1988),
protection of the environment identified
16 priority chemicals with the aim of
reducing industrial toxicity by voluntary
action over a 10 year period
VOCs
Applications
Benzene
Carbon tetrachloride
Chloroform
Intermediate production of styrene, thus many polymers
solvent for metal degreasing, lacquers, dry-cleaning
Solvent
solvent for metal degreasing, lacquers
Methyl ethyl ketone
Tetrachloroethylene
Toluene
Trichlorethylene
Xylenes
Solvent for metal degreasing
Solvent
Solvent, base of adhesives
Lacquers, rubber adhesives
Toxic Metals/Salts
Applications
Asbestos
fibro-board reinforcement, thermal and electrical insulation
Antimony
Bearing, pigments in glasses
Beryllium + compounds
Space structures, copper-beryllium alloys
Cadmium and compounds
Electrodes, plating, pigment in glasses and ceramics
Chromium compounds
electroplating, pigments in glasses and glazes
Lead + compounds
Storage batteries, bearing alloys, solders
Mercury + compounds
Control equip., liquid electrode in chemical production
Nickel + compounds
Nickel carbonyl at intermediate in nickel production
Radioactive materials
Materials science, medicine
Toxic Chemicals
Applications
Cyanides
Electroplating, extraction of gold and silver
EC 1999/13 VOCs (1999)
• The European Directive EC 1999/13
• limit the emissions of VOCs from
organic solvents and carriers
• organic-based paints
• industrial cleaning fluids, etc.
• Compliance mandatory since 2007.
EC 2000/53 ELV
• End-of-life Vehicles: EC Directive
establishes rules for recovering
materials from “dead” cars.
• Initial target: recycling/reuse of 80% by
weight & safe disposal of hazards
(2006)
• By 2015, 85%.
• Encourages re-engineering
RoHS 2002
• Hazardous Substances Directive (2002)
• Restriction Of the use of Hazardous
Substances in electrical and electronic
equipment
• EU market ban for new equip containing more
than certain amount of Pb, Cd, Hg, Hexavalent
Cr, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and
polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)
WEEE 2002
• Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. EU
directive seeks to increase recovery, recycling,
and reuse of electronic equipment.
• Producers must finance collection, recovery, and
safe disposal of products with certain recycling
targets.
• Products failing to meet the requirement must
be marked accordingly.
WEEE 2002
EuP 2003
• Energy using Products; EU. Establishes framework for
ecodesign requirements for energy consuming products.
• Manufacturers “shall demonstrate that they have
considered the use of energy in their product as it relates
to materials, manufacture, packaging, transport, and
distribution, use, and end of life. For each of these the
consumption of energy must be assessed and steps to
minimize it identified.”
REACH 2006
• Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and
Restriction of Chemical Substances. EC Directive,
June 2007, phased in over 11 years.
• Places responsibility on manufacturers to manage
risks from chemicals and find substitutes for bad one.
• List has 30,000 compounds on it.
• Affects anyone using more than 1 ton/year.
REACH 2006
• Mfgs in Europe and importers into Europe must
register restricted substances with a detailed
technical dossier.
• List properties and assessment of
environmental and health impact, and riskreduction measures adopted.
• Without pre-registration, it is illegal for mfgs and
importers to place substances on market.
Economic Instruments
• Economic instruments manipulate
market forces to influence the behavior
of consumers and manufacturers in
ways that are more subtle and effective
than conventional controls, and they
generally do so at a lower cost.
•
UK Dep’t for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Green Taxes
• Landfill tipping fees: $10-40/ton in US (depends on
state); $80/ton in UK
• Fuel tax: varies by state and country (in US, $0.46 fed
+ $0.27 state/gal = $$0.73/gal. Holland: $3.50/gal)
• Aggregate tax (US: nominal; $0.04/ton; EU $3.00/ton)
• Emissions tax (varies)
• Deposit on bottles and cans
New Taxes
• Does not guarantee environmental
outcome
• Some will just pay the tax
• People don’t trust governments to use
the tax money responsibly
Trading Schemes
• Create a market for sustainability
• Kyoto Meeting 1987 addressed a
market for emissions.
• Allows participants to buy and sell
permits for emissions or credits for
reduction in emissions for certain
pollutants
Emissions Trading
• The Regulator determines total
acceptable emissions and divides into
tradable units called permits.
• These are allocated to participants
based on their actual carbon emissions
at some chosen point in time.
Emissions Trading
• Emissions from a particular company
vary up and down with time.
• Improved efficiencies can drop the
emissions
• Increased product demand/sales can
increase emissions
Emissions Trading
• A company that emits more than its
allocated allowances must purchase
allowances from the market.
• This gives companies flexibility in
determining their approach to emissions
while still meeting a target value
determined by the Regulator.
Emissions Trading
• Companies that reduce emissions can
sell their allowances and get financial
benefit for reduced pollution as well as
environmental.
Emissions Credits
• Offset carbon release (for example) by
purchasing credits in activities that
sequester carbon; or replace fossil fuels
with alternatives
• plant trees, solar power, tidal power...
Emissions Offsets
• Offsetting provides an excuse for companies
to continue to pollute as usual, passing to cost
to the customer
• The scheme only works if the mitigation
project runs its planned life. Trees typically
need 50-80 years - if they are felled
prematurely the offset is not achieved.
• It is hard to verify that credit payments actually
reach the projects.
Carbon Offsets
http://www.hulu.com/embed/vr_ICWQceZZUxKs-a_iLew
The Consequences
Some challenges
• Documentation of the use of any of 30,000 listed
chemicals
• Analysis of energy and materials in all energy-use
products
• Finding substitutes for VOCs and other restricted
substances
• Mandatory take-back, disassembly, and
acceptable disposal of a large range of products.
Increased Mfg
Responsibility
Standards
e.g. ISO 14000
Rising cost of energy
Resource taxes
Natural
Resources
Product
Manufacture
Service provision
replacing sales
Material
Production
Product
Use
Redistribution
enabled by IT
Takeback
Legislation
End of
First life
Landfill
tax
• Governments intervene when they want
to change the way people and
organizations behave.
• Regulations, controls, directives impose
reporting requirements, set tax levels,
and establish trading schemes to create
incentives for change
• Some impacts are global. The
externalized costs fall on the nations
responsible for the impact and those that
are not.
• Solutions require international agreements.
• Binding, universal and enforceable
regulations are not possible.
• Protocols and statements can be
negotiated.
Discussion
• “Grrrrrreen”
• “Every Saab is green”
• “Carbon emissions neutral across the entire
Saab range”
• “Switch to carbon neutral motoring”
• They would plant 17 native trees in the first
year following a Saab vehicle purchase as a
carbon offset.
Discussion
• In Dec 2007, Saab started the
advertising campaign.
• Why did the company withdraw the
campaign?
Discussion
• What are the merits and difficulties
associated with taxation as a plan to
control pollution?
Discussion
• What are the merits and difficulties
associated with trading schemes as a
plan to control pollution?
Assignment
• Carbon trading sounds like the perfect
control mechanism to enable emissions
reduction. But nothing is perfect.
• Research imperfections in the system
and report your findings.