Sustainability and Remediation - Dealing with Contaminated Sites: From Theory Towards Practical Application - page 928

promotion sustainable development. A range of techniques may be used in SEA
including sustainability appraisals and Cost benefit analysis.
Environmental impact assessment is only required (by legislation) for projects
beyond a certain size, and not all remediation projects will trigger the need for an
Environmental impact assessment in their own right. EIA could also be triggered for
remediation as part of a larger development project. Environmental impact assess-
ment does not consider the full range of factors that would be considered in a full
sustainability appraisal. However, it may be beneficial to carry out sustainability
appraisal if an Environmental impact assessment requirement has been triggered to
provide a balanced comparison of available options.
Strategic Environmental Assessment affects national, regional and local policies
that might affect contaminated site management, particularly related to spatial plan-
ning. In the UK authorities are encouraged to carry out Strategic Environmental
Assessment and sustainability appraisal in parallel for spatial planning local and
regional policy development (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2005a , b ).
20.3.4.12 Financial Risk Assessment
Major projects affect businesses and administrations through their potential to influ-
ence liquidity, solvency and overall financial performance. These are financial risks
relating to an organisation's ability to meet its corporate and project objectives.
The precise nature and extent of financial risk depends on the context in which
the project is undertaken. Financial risk relates to the internal rate of return (IRR) or
Net Present Value (NPV). IRR represents the return that can be earned on the capi-
tal invested in a project; the risk is of it being reduced to a point at which a project
becomes commercially non-viable. NPV represents the present day cost of some
action taken at some time in the future; in essence the present day value of that
distant cost is discounted by the applicable interest rate over that period of time.
Financial Risk Assessment guidance for planning remediation work has been pro-
duced in the UK (Finnamore et al. 2000 ), and where financial Risk Assessment has
been carried out it may inform aspects of the economic element of a sustainability
appraisal.
20.3.4.13 Industrial Ecology
In the industrial ecology concept industrial processes are analysed as if they were
living processes (industrial metabolism). Managers of the industrial system con-
sider it, at every level, as a set of organisms, subject to ecological constraints,
like any other member of an ecosystem. “Industrial metabolism traces material and
energy flows from initial extraction of resources through industrial and consumer
systems to the final disposal of wastes” (Lowe et al. 1997 ). Industrial metabolism
can be used as a basis to derive “metrics” or indices of an industrial system's effi-
ciency and productivity, for example: ratio of virgin to recycled materials, ratio of
actual/potential recycled materials, ratio of renewable/fossil fuel sources, materials