Managing Sustainably

Lumber is potentially the most environmentally friendly of all building materials, and can be used for surfaces, fences, screens, and supports. In an organic garden it is important to use lumber from sustainably managed forests, whatever the type of wood and the country it comes from. Look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label, which guarantees that the wood comes from a well-managed, sustainable forest. Coppice wood (see p.l58) is also a sustainable resource, cut from mixed woodlands that in themselves are a valuable wildlife habitat. 

Trends Environmental protection by way of environmentally-oriented business management, sustainability, corporate social responsibility... 

During the last 5 to 10 years there was a growing tendency to include subject matters of societal relevance into a broad view of Environmental Chemistry. Topics include LCA (Life Cycle Analysis), Environmental Management, Sustainable Development and others. Whilst these topics are of great importance for the development and acceptance of Environmental Chemistry Publishers and Editors have decided to keep the Handbook essentially a source of information on hard sciences . 

Managing Sustainability of Products and Processes with the Socio-Eco-Efficiency Analysis by BASF, Greener Management International, 2005, accepted for publication. 

Numerous respondents expect to use the Responsible Care Management Systems (RCMS) framework to implement and manage sustainability, but believe that no significant changes to existing programs would be necessary. As many analysts and some respondents have noted, Responsible Care does not address many of the areas covered by sustainability. 

Responses. Chemical companies use a variety of frameworks to manage sustainability. Of respondents, 62 percent use Responsible Care , more than any other framework (Fig. 8.7). 

Figure 8.7. How does your company manage sustainability (Check all that apply.) (Question 5). (Source PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP.)...

At the operational level, rather than adding a separate layer of management, sustainable growth is matrixed into the entire system with a network of functional experts. This network is coordinated by a sustainable growth champion, and was served by the corporate vice president for safety, health, and environment. This function, however, has been taken over by the newly created post of Chief Sustainability Officer of DuPont. 

I. Schmidt, P. Sahng, W. Reuter, M. Meurer, A. Kicherer and C.-O. Gensch, SEEbalance -Managing Sustainability of Products and Processes with the Socio-Eco-Efficiency Analysis by BASF, Greener Management International, accepted 2004. 

Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are the first global indexes tracking the financial performance of the leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide. Based on the cooperation of Dow Jones Indexes, STOXX Limited and SAM, they provide asset managers with benchmarks to manage sustainability portfolios. 

Abdulla, F.A., Abu-Dieyeh, M.H., and Qnais, E. 2008. Human activities and ecosystem health. In Environmental Management, Sustainable Development and Human Health, E.N. Laboy-Nieves, F. Schaffner, A. Abdelhadi and M.F.A. Goosen (eds.), pp. 341-352. London, U.K. Taylor Francis Group. 

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