Sustainable development based assessment

Elaborate descriptions of process intensification will be found elsewhere in this book. Here a short description suffices, followed by an assessment on its potential to contribute to sustainable development, based on present industrial cases and general features. 

To aid the developer or designer of a new technology the author has derived a scorecard to assess the technology on its contribution to sustainable development. It is based on the sustainable development aspects social, ecology, and economy. The scorecard is shown in Table 2. The basis and use of the scorecard will now be explained. 

The Ethical Investment Research Services (EIRIS) and Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) have developed and applied composite indices to assess corporate sustainability practices based on company questionnaires and analysis of public information. The Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) pointed out the value-chain perspective that analysts increasingly apply, considering risks beyond the company s immediate sphere of control. 

In summary, the environmental management of materials involved in the manufacture, use, and recycling of VRLA batteries can be responsibly controlled. In fact, this is already true in many instances. Assessments of the need for further tightening of operating procedures for VRLA recycleable materials will undoubtedly be based upon a sound evaluation of the most reliable data available, and will be guided by the principles of environmentally sound management and sustainable development. 

The environmental necessity to stop this negative development by switching to alternative strategies independent of fossil resources nowadays is generally undisputed. Already in 1992, the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development explicitly specified the political intention and willingness of most countries to forcefully support the development of bio-based and biocompalible materials. Literally, Principle 4 of the Rio Declaration slates that In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it With the tools of life cycle assessment (LCA) and cleaner production studies, much effort is contemporarily devoted to quantifying the environmental impact and feasibility of processes for production of polymeric materials (Sudesh and Iwala 2008). 

Since chemistry is central for modern life and society chemistry education receives a special responsibility for contributing to ESD in formal and non-formal education. General and domain-specific knowledge and skills are to be developed to enable the individual to assess new chemistry-based products and technologies in their own life and in the society in which they live and operate, as well as to react appropriately. All students need to develop corresponding skills irrespective of whether or not they will later embark on a career in science and technology. All of them will become future citizens and need well-developed abilities for participation in societal debate and decision concerning issues of sustainable development. 

Suppliers are prioritised for due diligence and ability to fulfil contracts of good practices based on the assessment on HSEQ and sustainable development... 

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