Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 2.1
Key principles and indicators
of the Responsible Care Programme
Principles
Indicators
Resource Conservation—waste reduction
Safety—lost time accidents
Experience Learning—sharing best practice
Waste Emissions—continuous
reduction
Process Safety—risk management
Energy Consumption—targeted
improvements
Product Stewardship—risk assessment
Policy—HSE policy to reflect commitment
Management Systems—address impact of activities
HSE, Health & Safety Executive.
care' concept, which was developed by the Canadian
Chemical Producers Association in 1989 and has
been adopted since by many industry association
members throughout the world. The key behind
responsible care is the continuous delivery of health,
safety and environmental improvements related to
both products and processes. Some of the guiding
principles and performance indicators of the Respon-
sible Care Programme are shown in Table 2.1; the
similarity of many of these to the principles of green
chemistry is self-evident.
Despite this overall commitment, environmental
protection also is often seen by industry as a neces-
sary cost to comply with increasingly stringent legis-
lation. There is a great deal of justification in this
view; a recent survey, commissioned by the UK
Department of Environment Transport and Regions
[4], showed that expenditure on environmental
protection, by the UK industry, had risen from £2482
million in 1994 to £4274 million in 1997. The chem-
ical industry bore the brunt of this expenditure,
which was some 24% of the total spend. Looking
at the capital expenditure element of these figures
(Fig. 2.1), it is evident that the chemical industry
is heavily focused on end-of-pipe solutions rather
than on the integrated process approach, which
would prevent many of the environmental issues
arising.
Clearly there is significant scope for wider adop-
tion and investment in cleaner and greener
processes, thus avoiding the need for much of the
end-of-pipe expenditure. One of the major goals of
green chemistry is to demonstrate that adoption of
the principles, by industry, can create a competitive
advantage [5]. In this context it is helpful to look at
green chemistry as a reduction process.
300
250
200
End of Pipe
capex
Integrated
Process capex
150
100
50
0
Fig. 2.1
The 1997 capital expenditure by the UK chemical
industry (£million) on environmental protection.
Cost
Waste
REDUCING
Risk and
hazard
Materials
Energy
Fig. 2.2
Green chemistry as a reduction process.
The simple model of Fig. 2.2 incorporates the key
elements of green chemistry in a way that finance
directors, environmentalists, production managers,
R&D technologists and chief executives can all
understand and, hopefully, buy into.
By looking at the principles of green chemistry as
a tool-kit for achieving this reduction process, it
