Environmental Management » Environmental Impact

Environmentally sensitive English limestone used for luxury apartments in Montrose Place, London

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:39:25 +0000

Goldholme Stone’s Lincolnshire limestone is ranked at No. 1 for six of the eight environmental impacts assessed, and No. 2 for the remaining two. And with an overall score of just 42, it achieves the lowest environmental impact score of the six, commonly specified building materials in the study. The next best material, clay brick, scores 91 while third ranked reconstituted stone scores 141.

The study, ‘A Comparison of the Environmental Impact of Various Building Materials’, (researched and compiled by environmental assessment consultant Hughes Craven [formerly Halletec Associates]), compares five construction materials to Goldholme Stone’s Lincolnshire limestone. Clay Brick, Reconstituted Stone, Timber Cladding, Glass/Steel and Plastic Cladding were assessed and ranked alongside the limestone for the following environmental impacts:-

Energy in manufacture Pollutants emitted Waste in production Impact of processing plant Life of product Maintenance in service Carbon dioxide footprint Recycling potential

The results give assurance to a growing number of environmentally conscious architects like Hamiltons and supports their decision to use English limestone for both aesthetic and sustainability reasons. Hamiltons director Craig Casci said they chose it “Because it is a UK stone and it was greatly liked by Westminster Planning Department and a more interesting alternative to Portland, with warmer tones, especially when wet. We also specify loadbearing stone and the strength and hardness met the specification.”

The stone was fixed by London stone contractor Stonewest and Mr. Casci noted that the finished building “has generated a great amount of interest from both press and public.”

Phil Kerry, Managing Director of Goldholme Stone commented, “We’re pleased the environmental impact of building materials has become an important issue for the construction industry. Locally-sourced materials are often the best option when sustainability is an important design factor.”

The full study can be downloaded from Goldholme Stone’s website at http://www.goldholme.com/impact.htm

By: Alan Gayle

Concepts of Waste Management

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:33:48 +0000

Dealing with waste management has become an issue of major importance. Some things, like landfills, are becoming increasingly full. This creates a situation in which we are forced to find new ways to dispose of waste. This said; let’s explore some of the concepts of waste management.

- Some interest groups seem to oppose any new development anywhere. It can seem as though their goal is to avoid all new developments. In the UK, these groups are commonly referred to as BANANA, which means Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything. By contrast, NIMBY means Not In My Back Yard. These groups do not oppose development projects as a whole. They only disagree with certain ones that they feel are inappropriate for their particular neighbourhood.

- Great Britain has come up with a way of managing waste called the BPEO, which stands for Best Practical Environmental Option. The BPEO essentially looks at a project and determines the best course of action. They look at the implications to the environment in the short term and the long term. They are dedicated to minimizing environmental impact and maximizing benefits.

- EPR, or Extended Producer Responsibility, is the concept that producers must incorporate the cost of disposing or reusing a product once it has served its purpose. A company who manufactures these things must ultimately take care of the waste it generates. The company can do this alone, or outsource it to a PRO, a Producer Responsibility Organization.

- Linguistic Detoxification is an environmental term used to describe a process in which the level of toxicity is downgraded by assigning it a different term through legislation. The naming of this phrase is credited to Barry Commoner, an environmental activist.

- Some places have taken the Pay As You Throw approach. Consumers are charged a fee based on the amount of municipal solid waste they turn in at the collection site. Normally, recyclable materials are accepted free of charge. PAYT is also known as variable rate pricing or unit pricing.

- The Polluter Pays Principle basically means that the person or entity producing the waste product is fiscally responsible for the damage done to the natural environment. This is also known as Extended Polluter Responsibility. The government seeks to put the responsibility for disposal onto the producer, hopefully providing incentive for them to improve the recycling ability of their products.

- There is a moral and political principle called the precautionary principle. This principle states that if harm to the public might occur, then if there is no scientific consensus that states that harm will not occur, the responsibility for the result falls on the advocates. In regards to the environment, this principle is most often applied to the release of toxins.

- Product stewardship is a concept that says that everyone involved in the product is responsible for its disposal after its useful life. The manufacturer must plan for and even pay for the disposal of the product. The consumer must recycle or properly dispose of the product. Everyone takes a part to minimize environmental impact.

- Waste Hierarchy is talking about the “three Rs”, and classifies waste management approaches based on their desirability. These are reduce, reuse, and recycle. Basically the goal is to get the most use out of a product and to generate the least amount of waste.

- The Zero Waste concept essentially promotes the idea that the current recycling procedures be enhanced to create a circular pattern in which the most use is obtained from a product. The goal is to create zero waste by reusing a product as many times as possible.

By: Derek Both

How Environmental Accounting Can Benefit Your Business

admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:13:42 +0000

It is no great secret that businesses are created to deliver products and services in order to earn a profit. However it is important that companies think about their balance sheet in terms of whether they are in the red or the black and also the “green”, too. With the growing green consumer awareness, companies are now expected to align their business strategies with environmental schemes. Environmentally conscious businesses have already discovering that they are able to initiate strategies to help them reduce their carbon footprint, minimise their environmental impact, make the best use of natural or local resources, become more energy efficient, reduce costs, and display social responsibility – all at the same time. More and more companies want to know how they can be part of a growing movement of doing green business and benefiting from the change. The first step is to consider green accounting into their business model. What is Environmental Accounting? The term, Environmental accounting, is a way of describing changes to your business practices that would be more environmentally friendly. This could be improving environmental performance, controlling costs, investing in technologies that require less energy or produce fewer emissions. Doing greener business is not about increased costs and can attract a new customer base that would have never considered you before. Environmental Management Accounting According to the EPA, environmental management accounting is “the identification, prioritisation, quantification or qualification, and incorporation of environmental costs into business decisions.” Environmental Management Accounting uses “data about environmental costs and performance for business decisions. It collects cost, production, inventory, and waste cost and performance for business decisions. It collects cost, production, inventory, and waste cost and performance data in the accounting system to plan, evaluate, and control.” Environmental management accounting therefore represents a combined approach which provides the switch from conventional accounting to consider things such as increase material efficiency, reduction in environmental impact and risk, and reduction in costs of waste. Implementing Environmental Accounting When making the move to implement environmental accounting there is a lot to consider and for big businesses it makes sense to consult specialist help. You need to consider the working site, research and development, and how staff will be informed and even trained. In the past, green initiatives were hampered by lack of understanding by management, who would normally consider them to be costly and a waste of time. Environmental accounting can help management recognise that the tax benefits, rebates and lower costs of being environmentally friendly add up to a real savings for being greener in business.

By: jamiehanson

Green Accounting: Environmental Accounting?

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:06:03 +0000

As we all know, businesses are formed to deliver services or produce products in order to earn a profit. In the 21st century accounting goes beyond the bottom line of black or red – – it includes “green”, too. With the growing green consumer awareness, companies are more than ever expected to align its business strategies with environmental initiatives. Environmentally conscious companies have already discovered that they can generate business strategies to help them reduce their carbon footprint, minimize their environmental impact, make the best use of natural resources, become more energy efficient, reduce costs, and exhibit social responsibility – all at the same time.

Companies who are ready to become an integral part of President Obama’s Green Economy through governmental initiatives will need to expand their accounting staff by hiring accountants who specialize in “green” or environmental accounting.

Green Accounting Definition

The term, green accounting, has been around since the 1980s, and is known as a management tool used for a variety of purposes, such as improving environmental performance, controlling costs, investing in “cleaner” technologies, developing “greener” processes and products, and forming decisions related to their business activities.

Green Management Accounting

According to the EPA, green or environmental management accounting is “the identification, prioritization, quantification or qualification, and incorporation of environmental costs into business decisions.” Green Management Accounting uses “data about environmental costs and performance for business decisions. It collects cost, production, inventory, and waste cost and performance for business decisions. It collects cost, production, inventory, and waste cost and performance data in the accounting system to plan, evaluate, and control.”

Environmental management accounting thus represents a combined approach which provides for the transition of data from financial accounting and cost accounting to increase material efficiency, reduce environmental impact and risk, and reduce costs of environmental protection.

Green or Environmental Accountants

Green accountants are held responsible to identify and track green costs often times working with site, research and development, and production managers when planning their budgets. In the past, such costs were buried in overhead preventing a clear picture of the cost savings and benefits to the product, process, system or facility responsible for the green initiatives.

Green accountants help management recognize that the tax benefits, rebates and lower costs of being environmentally friendly add up to a real bottom-line reward for doing the right thing.

“Public environmental, social and sustainability reporting is the main route through which corporate accountability and integrity can be demonstrated,” claims the London-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in its report, “Environmental, Social and Sustainability Reporting on the World Wide Web.”

By: Erik Johnson