Globalization chemical industry sustainable

ICCA, On the Road to Sustainability - A Contribution from the Global Chemical Industry to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, ICCA, August 2002. 

Problems to be solved are related to membrane stability (of polymeric membranes, but also the development of hydrophobic ceramic nanofiltration membranes and pervaporation membranes resistant to extreme conditions), to a lack of fundamental knowledge on transport mechanisms and models, and to the need for simulation tools to be able to predict the performance of solvent-resistant nanofiltration and pervaporation in a process environment. This will require an investment in basic and applied research, but will generate a breakthrough in important societal issues such as energy consumption, global warming and the development of a sustainable chemical industry. 

On the other hand, one needs only to examine the original intent of Responsible Care (see Box 2.1) and a recent commitment to revitalize Responsible Care globally (see Box 2.2), to recognize that it could be the chemical industry s approach to meet the sustainability expectations of the industry and its stakeholders. 

Efforts to develop sustainability indicators and metrics have been made at various scales, ranging from global down to local community, business unit, and technology levels. In general, indicators and metrics are designed to capture the ideas inherent in sustainability and transform them into a manageable set of quantitative measures and indices that are useful for communication and decision-making. In this section, we provide an overview of sustainability indicators and metrics, especially as they relate to the chemical industry. This section will be followed by two specific case studies on the uses of sustainability metrics and indicators in product/process development in chemical companies. 

Responses. Respondents saw increased public right-to-know (71 percent), changing regulations for processes and products (68 percent) and globalization (62 percent) as the most significant developments that have influenced the chemical industry to consider sustainability (Fig. 8.15). 

As a collaborative activity, the chemical industry should look to develop a common framework or standard for sustainability reporting and responding to stakeholder inquiries. As part of this effort, the industry should continue to monitor other emerging external reporting frameworks, such as the Global Reporting Initiative, One Report , and the Corporate Responsibility Exchange, which all seek to standardize reported information and may be helpful to both the industry and its stakeholders. 

Besides history of the sustainability concept, Chapter 1 brings up philosophical aspects of the relationship between man and nature and highlights the key sustainability initiatives of the chemical industry, i.e. The Responsible Care Global Charter and the 24 Principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. 

In 1998, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) recognised that business and industry would play a crucial role in the global quest for sustainable development and, on that occasion, UNCSD made reference to the OECD Risk Assessment Programme on brominated flame retardants as a model example of a global, voluntary chemical industry initiative. 

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