Sustainable development approaches

In the United States the concept of sustainable development imphcitly originated with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), one of the first major federal laws estabhshing a broad framework for the protection of the environment. It declared as a tenet of national poHcy the need to foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. However, the embryonic sustainable development approach described by NEPA in 1969 did not contain clear details that could be apphed in practice. 

A newly emerging concern of chemistry is sustainable development, the economical utilization and renewal of resources coupled with hazardous waste reduction and concern for the environment. This sensitive approach to the environment and our planetary inheritance is known colloquially as green chemistry. Where we s think it appropriate to draw your attention to this important development, we dis- I ( play the small icon shown here in the margin. 

Although this approach enables companies to comply with legislation, and harmful emissions will be prevented from entering the environment, it does not provide the best framework for sustainable development. A much better approach would be to develop legislation that encourages pollution prevention at source. In this respect, the old prescriptive approach has something to offer however, it is generally accepted that with the number of diverse operations we have today this would be unworkable. 

The writing of this book was undertaken because it was intended to be the first work that solely focuses on chemistry, and what appropriate metrics for Green Chemistry might be. We hope the book provides an up-to-date and authoritative text on the current development of environmental concepts in chemical technologies from clean and green to sustainable development. We also think it provides up-to-date information on the problems of metrics fundamental aspects of metrics, practical realisations and real-world case study examples. The concepts and approaches of metrics are related to the fundamental problems in chemistry and the main focus is on the use of metrics to promote the development and implementation of green chemistry and technology solutions. 

As is well known, the concept of sustainable development includes three aspects, namely environmental, economic and social. Underestimating any of these facets will lead to a distortion in this equilateral triangle and to a deviation from the overall strategy of sustainability. This strategy can only be implemented when the three tasks are fulfilled simultaneously. The systems approach reveals strong interactions between the three factors of sustainable development. The sustainability will therefore be determined mainly by those parameters that affect at least two of the three factors. 

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine suggested that an economic-environmental-social model be devised and employed for the purposes of the country s sustainable development. This is a very complex and time-consuming approach that may not be usable at this time of industrial restructuring, privatization and other involved processes occurring in a collapsed national economy. An alternative tactics is put forward, which is applicable at both national and regional level. Instead of mathematical modeling and optimization, it uses systems approach and decision theory techniques. 

Cornelissen AMG, van den Berg J, Koops WJ, Udo HMJ (2001) Assessment of the contribution of sustainability indicators to sustainable development a novel approach using fuzzy set theory. Agric Ecosys Environ 86 173-185... 

Arnold, E.H. and Volkov, A.A., Directed evolution of biocatalysts. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol., 1999, 3, 54-59. Thomas, J.M. and Raja, R., Designing catalysts for clean technology, green chemistry, and sustainable development. Annu. Rev. Mater. Res., 2005, 35, 315-350. Kaur, J. and Sharma, R., Directed evolution an approach to engineer enzymes. Crit. Rev. Biotechnol., 2006, 26, 165-199. 

An important force in the development of this new approach to chemistry was the "sustainable development" movement that arose in the early 1980s. The goal of this movement was to find ways for nations to improve the well-being of humans around the world without threatening local and global environments, thus the term... 

Development approaches should change from a disciplinary subject through a top-down extension method into a integrated topic through a participatory development process (see The organic approach sustainability as a subject of extension and participation as an extension method and Participatory extension methods. 

So when the subject of extension has been determined, namely sustainable development, the method of extension has to be found. Top-down extension methods have failed. But how to get a bottom up or a right mix between top-down and bottom-up approaches In Northern Ghana the participatory technology development approach, as a mixture of bottom-up and top-down approaches, has shown fascinating results in pilot projects and shows great potential to boost sustainable development in rural areas. 

Figure 1.1 The strategic goal of sustainable development relies on practical approaches such as green chemistry, industrial ecology, and green engineering. These approaches use various operational tools (e.g., catalysis), and monitoring tools (e.g., life-cycle...

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