Environmental policy life cycle

Interface Function of Concentration Techniques in the Environmental Policy Life Cycle... 

In the environmental policy life cycle, four phases can be discerned 1, calling attention to the problem 2, definition phase 3, formulation of the solution and taking measures and 4, control phase. The development of concentration techniques with an interface and control function is indispensable in phases 1, 2, and 4. This situation is illustrated in Figure 2. 

In the environmental policy life cycle (see Figure 10), the availability of concentration techniques plays a crucial role to define the nature, source, and extent of an observed problem before regulations and law enforcement can be formulated. 

Figure 10. The environmental policy life cycle. (Reproduced with permission from reference 2.)...

Does your company have a documented product stewardship policy, or a health, safety and environmental policy which incorporates the management of chemicals through their total life cycle, thus minimizing adverse effects on human health and well-being and on the environment If so please attach. ... 

Integrated Product Policy Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking (2003) European Communities, Report No. 302, Brussels, Belgium. 

The European Parliament has set out where it believes EC policy should focus in tackling the environmental and health problems posed by PVC. In a resolution adopted in April, it called for a phase-out of lead and cadmium stabilisers, legislation to ensure the separate collection of discarded PVC products, and a complex strategy for substitution of PVC based on life-cycle comparisons with competing products. 

Well-to-wheel analysis is a specific form of life-cycle analysis (LCA). In contrast to WTW analysis, LCA typically also takes factors other than global GHG emissions of a product or an energy carrier into consideration (such as air pollutants), including provision of all construction materials for the necessary processing plants and, furthermore, plant decommissioning. The full detail of a general LCA analysis is not needed at the level of policy discussion to reach a broad consensus on alternative fuels or drive systems. As a subset of WTW analysis, well-to-tank (WTT) analysis is often used to separate environmental or economic effects of fuel supplies and drive systems. 

Subsidies and incentives are provided independendy from the environmental impact that ethanol may have during its entire life cycle, therefore, supporting biofuel production in the US. In 2001, the Emopean Commission launched a policy to promote the use of biofuels for transport in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental impact of transport, as well as to increase security of supply, technological iimovation and agricultural diversification (UN, 2006). 

Authors have stressed the importance of LCAs for comparing environmental and energy impacts, outlined the difficulties encountered in conducting such assessments, and provided examples of past LCAs. They addressed additional issues and also examined the usefulness of LCAs in formulating public policy. When a given pollutant arises at multiple sites, life-cycle impact analysis is often replaced by life-cycle inventory analysis (Graedel et al., 1995). 

Workshop on Public Policy Applications of Life Cycle Assessment (1994) Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, FL. 

Consoli, EJ. Davis, G.A. Fava, J.A. Warren, J.L. Public Policy Applications of Life-Cycle Assessment, Allen, D.T. (ed.), Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Pensacola, FL, 1997. 

Chemical manufacturers, formulators, and distributors must make health, safety, and environmental protection an integral part of the product. Several guides have been created to help develop and implement policies and practices that ensure protection through the product life cycle. One of these, developed by the Epoxy Resin Formulators Group of the Society of Plastics Industry, has been found to be most useful for the epoxy formulator.6... 

It is important to note that LCA is a tool to evaluate all environmental effects of a product or process throughout its entire life cycle. This includes identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment, assessing their environmental impact, and evaluating opportunities for improvement. LCA can also be used in various ways to evaluate alternatives including in-process analysis, material selection, product evaluation, product comparison, and policy-... 

Environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) provides a mechanism for systematically evaluating the environmental impacts linked to a product or process and in guiding process or product improvement efforts. LCA-based information also provides insights into the environmental impacts of raw material and product choices, and maintenance and end-of-product-life strategies. Because of the systematic nature of LCA and its power as an evaluative tool, the use of LCA is increasing as environmental performance becomes more and more important in society. It is likely that LCA will soon become widely used within U.S. industry and by those involved in crafting national and regional environmental policy. 

Another key pillar is the Integrated Product Policy (IPP). IPP aims to reduce the environmental impact of products. Relevant initiatives include pilot projects, the creation of an EU Platform on life cycle assessment (EGA), and product prioritization. 

One of the consequences of the experiences gained with life cycle-based assessments and of the consequent development of new policy instruments is a shift of the viewpoint from the material to the product There is no ecologically good or bad material, but only more or less appropriate applications of a material. The study LCA of PVC principally competing materials on behalf of the European Commission showed, that this finding is also valid for PVC, which always had a rather bad environmental image [2] (downloadable at http //ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ chemicals/documents/competitiveness/index en.htm). Chances and Risks of Polymers depend on the specific application of a material and cannot be given on the level of the material itself. In further consequence the product-perspective is widened to the products (and services ) functions and further on to the consumer demand. 

Policy Dow s Core Values and EH S policy are included in the report. In the EH S policy Dow states Our goal is to eliminate all injuries, prevent adverse environmental and health impacts, reduce wastes and emissions and promote resource conservation at every stage of the life cycle of our products. We will report our progress and be responsive to the public. ... 

Determining the impact assessment requires classification of each impact into one of these categories, characterization of the impact to establish some kind of relationship between the energy or materials input/output and a corresponding natural resource/human health/ecological impact, and finally the evaluation of the actual environmental effects. Many life cycle analyses admit that this last phase involves social, political, ethical, administrative, and financial judgments and that the quantitative analyses obtained in the characterization phase are only instruments by which to justify policy. A truly scientific life cycle analysis would end at the characterization phase, as many of the decisions made beyond that point are qualitative and subjective in nature. 

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, Integrated Product Policy Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking, Commission of the European Communities, June 2003 ENDS, The wheels of integrated product policy grind slow, July 2003, 342, 28. 

P. Frankl and M. Gamberale, in 1998, presented, the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach as a tool for energy policy to identify (future) optimal solutions which maximize environmental benefits,... to identify priorities... 

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