Sustainable development and sustainability are terms that crop up repeatedly in modern environmental management. The concepts are not new, but were only brought to mainstream notice through the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Since then, a significant amount of intellectual time has been devoted to the subject.
The most common definition of sustainable development is that it involves meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. An alternative description is ‘living off the Earth’s interest rather than its capital’. It should be noted that sustainability is not concerned just with the environment, but also considers social and economic issues – the potential economic gains of sustainable practices can be savings of 1-5% of turnover.
UK and European policy has been pushing firms towards sustainable development for the past decade. Controls under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 sought to reduce air pollution and the damage caused by waste. The 1996 landfill tax was the first use of an economic instrument to encourage firms to improve upon the 70% of waste which ended up in a hole in the ground.
More recently, there has been the producer responsibility regime for packaging waste encouraging companies to reduce packaging use and then reuse, recycle and recover unavoidable packaging. Within the next decade it is likely that all producers will have similar requirements due to the EU Integrated Product Policy. This is considering measures to encourage more sustainable production and supply chains including lower rates of VAT on products certified to an eco-label.
Factor four improvements
The application of the above principles can help companies move towards the ‘factor four’ improvements often mentioned in sustainable literature. These involve the generation of twice as much product using half as much material. If conducted correctly, these changes can be accompanied by significant economic improvements; eg lower raw material, processing and waste disposal costs.
Historically, such progress did not have the appropriate business driving forces as raw materials were cheap, as were the landfill sites to which 70% of waste was sent. However, legislation is increasing the cost and administrative burden associated with resources at both ends of the manufacturing process.
For example, the packaging regulations require obligated companies to record the amount and type of packaging handled each year. They must then finance the recovery and recycling of an increasing percentage of this material. This process consumes administrative time and incurs an ever increasing financial burden associated with Packaging Recovery Notes – the documents required to prove that recycling and recovery has occurred.
Driving force
The cost of waste disposal provides another driving force whose importance is increasing annually. The landfill tax is currently set at £13 per tonne of waste. This will certainly rise by £1 per year to £15 per tonne in 2004. However, the recent Budget mentioned that this is one of the only taxes that the chancellor is being encouraged to raise by many interested parties. It would not be surprising if the tax were raised by 50 or 100% in the next couple of years. Even at these levels, it would be significantly lower than that levied in many European countries.
The UK is also playing catch-up with Europe in the restriction of wastes that are suitable for landfill. For example, in Denmark and Holland, biodegradable material cannot be landfilled.
The Wood Panels Industries Association and UK Forest Products Association are among the first members of the ‘Pioneers Group’ – a best practice forum for sectoral organisations that have made a commitment to developing and implementing sustainable development strategies.
The Sustainable Technologies Initiative is a Department of Trade and Industry funding programme with which two trade bodies in the furniture industry are working to progress sectoral sustainability.
BFM Ltd is conducting a feasibility study relating to the sustainability of reproduction furniture manufacturers. This is a three stage project involving the quantification of typical process inputs and outputs, prioritisation of issues which are currently hindering the move towards sustainability and the dissemination and awareness raising regarding relevant issues. It is hoped that priority issues will be addressed by subsequent projects.
