1. Introduction Flashcards
Toolbox Sustainable Engineering (Pyramide von oben nach unten)
LCSA
Eco-/ Ressource-efficiency
Life Cycle Assessment
Carbon footprint, Water footprint
Life Cycle Thinking
!Sustainability Definition by Brundtland Commission
“Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (needs includes three sustainability dimensions)
!Efficient Strategy towards Sustainability
- Definition of Goals and Targets
- Knowledge of the state of the art
- Political and Legislative support
- Economic support
- Monitoring tools
Strategies for sustainable development in practice
- Targets, objectives
- Indicators, Data and databases
- Funds and/or incentives
- Expertise, methodologies technologies and tools
- Standards, limits, threshold, benchmark …
!Life Cycle Thinking
Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is about going beyond the traditional focus on production site and manufacturing processes to include environmental, social and economic impacts of a product over its entire life cycle.
LCT Main Goals
- reduce a product’s resource use and emissions to the environment
- improve its socio-economic performance through its life cycle
-> This may facilitate links between the economic, social and environmental dimensions within an organization and through its entire value chain.
!Life Cycle Management (LCM)
LCM is a management approach that puts the tools and methodologies in the life cycle thinking basket into practice. It is a product management system that helps enterprises to minimize the environmental and social burdens associated with their product or product portfolio during its entire life cycle.
LCM in practice
The integration of LCM into enterprise operations is similar to that of the ISO 9000 and 14000 standards in that it favours a cyclical plan-do-check-act approach, and thereby provides a basis for continual improvement.
A participatory Approach towards Sustainable Development
- Sustainable development is a global agenda and entails collaboration among all levels of governance, interest groups and stakeholders. It promotes inter-generational and intragenerational equity in the use and management of socio-economic and environmental resources.
Top Down ≠ Bottom-up
Who are stakeholders?
“Stakeholders in a process are actors with a vested interest in the policy, plan and project being promoted. Any person, group or organization who can be positively or negatively impacted by, or cause an impact on, the actions or activities proposed.”
Examples of steps to consider before engaging stakeholders in your sustainability reporting are:
- Engage Stakeholders Early
- Decide on the Manner in which to Engage Stakeholders
- Decide on the Content and Frequency of Communications
- Report on Findings
Identify Stakeholders
- Describe the purpose of the Identify Stakeholders process
- Describe the Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs of the Identify Stakeholders process
- Identify who Key Stakeholders would be for a typical project
The Identify Stakeholders process uses the following Tools & Techniques:
- Stakeholder Analysis - Gathering and assessing information to determine whose interests should be taken into account for a project
- Expert Judgment Expert technical and/or managerial judgment (from any qualified source)
Stakeholder Analysis Process - “Essentials”
- Identify
- Analyze
- Engage
- Manage
Stakeholders
- Sustainable development can not be achieved without a participatory process because without changing our and other life style we can not reach it.
- The involvement of meaningful stakeholders in each step of the strategy and process towards a more sustainable world is needed!
- We need to understand who are the main stakeholders and how should we involve them in a more efficient way
Sustainability Methods from different Perspectives
- Communities
- Companies
- Products
Sustainablility Communities Definition
Sustainable communities are places where people want to live and work, now and in the future. They meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are sensitive to their environment, and contribute to a high quality of life. They are safe and inclusive, well planned, built and run, and offer equality of opportunity and good services for all.
A sustainable community is a community…
- In which each inhabitant can meet his or her needs
- that ensures that future generations can meet
their needs - in which each individual has the opportunity to develop in freedom, within a well balanced society and in harmony with its surroundings
Ecological Footprint
- The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth’s ecological capacity to regenerate.
- It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste.
Sustainability Companies
For business enterprises, sustainable development means adopting business strategies and activities that meet the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders today while protecting, sustaining and enhancing the human and natural resources that will be needed in the future.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
CSR is a management concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders.
Importance of Sustainability Reporting
- Self-assessment tool
- Management system
- External monitoring mechanism
- Action plan
- Business development tool
- Communications vehicle
Global Reporting Initiative
- produces one of the world’s most prevalent standards for sustainability reporting
- also known as ecological footprint reporting, Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting, Triple Bottom Line (TBL) reporting, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting
- Sustainability reporting is a form of value reporting where organizations publicly communicate their economic, environmental, and social performance.
- GRI seeks to make sustainability reporting by all organizations as routine as, and comparable to, financial reporting
Sustainability Products
Sustainable products are those products providing environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health, welfare, and environment over their full commercial cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to final disposition.
