Transitions - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 150

Table 3.9 Pollution Cost Categories

Cost Category Typical Cost Components

Usual/normal Direct labor

Raw materials
Energy and fuel
Capital equipment and supplies
Site preparation
Tie-ins
Training
Permits: administrative and scientific

Hidden or direct Monitoring

Permitting fees
Environmental transformation
Environmental impact analyses and assessments
Health and safety assessments
Service agreements and contracts
Legal
Control instrumentation
Reporting and record keeping
Quality assurance planning and oversight

Future liabilities Environmental cleanup, removal, and remedial actions

Personal injury
Health risks and public insults
More stringent compliance requirements
Inflation

Less tangible Consumer reaction and loss of investor confidence

Employee relations
Lines of credit (establishing and extending)
Property values
Insurance premiums and insurability
Greater regulatory oversight (frequency, intensiveness, onus)
Penalties
Rapport and leverage with regulators

Source : Adapted from N. P. Cheremisinoff, Handbook of Solid Waste Management and Waste Minimization
Technologies , Butterworth-Heinemann, Woburn, MA, 2003.

fines for noncompliance. Future liabilities weigh heavily where hazardous wastes
have to be buried or injected. Additionally, there are the intangible benefits of
employee relations and safety (see Table 3.9).
In many ways, the transition from command-and-control approaches to pre-
vention has been incremental: an evolution rather than a revolution. Regulatory
requirements and good engineering practice will continue to call for better
approaches in both areas. Control technologies and pollution prevention are
not separate endeavors. In fact, the life-cycle view prohibits such dichotomies.
They are both crucial tools in green design. The advances will continue toward