The Sustainable Process Index

The flow of anthropogenic material into the environment should not exceed the rate of its assimilation. If that happens, there will be a steady increase in the total amount of anthropogenic material in that locality. 

Anthropogenic materials released into the environment should not affect global material cycles. 

Renewable resources should only be used at a rate not exceeding the natural local production rate of the renewable resource. If this principle is not followed, there will be a slow erosion of the renewable resource. 

The natural variety of species and landscapes should be sustained (maintain biodiversity). 

The total land area is calculated as the specific area per unit of product or service provided. For example, for an energy generation facility, the total energy requirement is expressed in m /kW/ year. For a manufacturing industry, it will be m land area required/ kg product manufactured. Five factors contribute to the total land area  

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Krotscheck C, Narodoslawsky M. The sustainable process index—a new dimension in ecological evaluation. Ecol Eng 1996 6(4) 241—58. 

Figure 4. The Sustainable Process Index of different scenarios for Biodiesel compared to Fossil Diesel...

As far as the impact assessment with the two different methods CML and SPI are concerned the results show concordant trends. The CML method addresses with its impact categories the various environmental problems in detail and is capable of highlighting the trade-offs between them. In contrast to this the Sustainable Process Index is aggregated across different impact categories and allows comparison of these effects based on natural flows and natural qualities. 

Toluene recovery process Maximization of economic benefit and minimization of environmental indicator. In addition to these two objectives, Kheawhom and Hirao (2002) considered process robustness measures (failure probability and deviation ratio) also. Normal boundary intersection method Sustainable process index was used as environmental indicator. Product revenue less capital and operating costs was the economic indicator Kheawhom and Hirao (2002)... 

It is worth mentioning the link between our environment-related index and commonly used approaches such as life cycle assessment. According to our scope of research (see explanatory caveat in section 1.4) we limit our contribution to the design and operational space in the process life span. Thus, our focus is exclusively on the sustainability aspects that are under the control of the design and operational phases. In this regard, we aim at an operational efficiency, which means basically an effective utilization of resources in the process operation. Similar to life cycle assessment, we quantify the... 

Operational Excellence (OE) Operational Excellence (OE) is an element of organizational leadership that stresses the apphcation of a variety of principles, systems, and tools toward the sustainable improvement of key performance indexes. The process involves focusing on customer needs, keeping employees positive and empowered, and continuous improvement of activities in the workplace... 

As discussed above, it was clear that ethylene/1-butene copolymers possessed significantly improved mechanical properties compared to ethylene homopolymer products, so that a commercial particle-form reactor design was needed that could provide polyethylene copolymers over a range of Flow Index values with sustained operability over extended periods of time without reactor shut down. Adding 1 -butene to the polymerization process made the autoclave stirred tank reactor even more difficult to operate, as reactor wall fouling problems persisted and in some cases polymer particle morphology was reduced due to some polymer components becoming soluble in the n-pentane. 

The ETV process promotes these technologies implementation for the benefit of purchasers, permitters, vendors, and the public. If ETV is used, EPA would utilize the Environmental and Sustainable Technology Evaluations (ESTE) element of the ETV program because the development of the test kits is in support of this final rule, and the ESTE element was created in 2005 to address the agency s priorities such as rule making. More information on this program is available on EPA s website at www. epa.gov/etv/index.httnl. 

Mainstream investors face big challenges in trying to apply research about corporate sustainability into their existing investment process. They can use the indexes or the ratings themselves as a part of the quantitative investment approach, but most investors use more traditional methods of stock picking and it is not obvious how to apply sustainability research to that process. 

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