ZERO POLLUTION: A GOAL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
by James M. Seif, Secretary, Department of Envirornmental Protection
September 1997
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge has issued a challenge to the Department of Environmental Protection, the business community, local governments and individuals to prevent pollution. He, in effect, has turned the pipe around - instead of just regulating what comes out of the end of the pipe, he has planted the idea that no pipe might be necessary if we could all stop pollution in the first place.
DEP’s endorsement of a goal of zero emissions requires businesses and communities to make an honest commitment to pollution prevention at its source through continuous improvement to their methods of doing business.
And it’s working. The 25 winners of the Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards for 1996 are good examples of the steps businesses, local governments and individuals have taken to eliminate pollution. These winners alone have eliminated 2.8 billion pounds of pollution - hazardous and residual wastes, air pollution and wastewater - at an annual cost savings of more than $9.7 million and $1.8 million in capital costs.
DEP has introduced Strategic Environmental Management as an effective method to create a win-win situation for businesses, communities and individuals. Strategic Environmental Management achieves environmental benefits far beyond regulatory compliance while reducing costs, increasing competitiveness and promoting growth,. SEM integrates environmental management objectives into an organization’s overall strategic goals to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations, thereby helping it gain a competitive edge.
In the January/February 1996 edition of the Environmental Communique of the States, I wrote about ISO 14000, the international standards for environmental management and protection systems now being developed by the International Organization for Standardization. As I wrote then, ISO 14000 is not some new barrier to market entry. Rather, it represents the next generation of tools needed to more effectively achieve environmental protection goals. It is an opportunity. ISO 14000 does not address completely concerns about pollution prevention and community involvement, however.
Adoption of an SEM system that strives towards a market-driven, voluntary zero-emissions goal over time and that works with local community interests can lead a company to exceed regulatory compliance while providing maximum savings and flexibility. The company sets its won annual targets to achieve zero emissions to the greatest extent practical. SEM also can help a business demonstrate fully its environmental performance and reduced risk to the financial community, thus decreasing its cost of capital and improving its corporate value.
Local communities and citizens also benefit from private-sector zero emissions goals. Reduced air emissions and reduced discharges to a water treatment system, for example, provide both a better environment and additional capacity for economic development without necessarily expanding local infrastructure. Public involvement improvements must accompany technology improvements to have a successful SEM.
AMP Incorporated, which is based in Pennsylvania, is a world leader in electronic connector sand related products. AMP Automotive Consumer Business Group developed a successful SEM program by developing a process to recycle cleaners, solutions and rinses. AMP believes that wastes are resources with value an and therefore as adopted a global corporate goal of "zero discharge".
The company has developed an environmental management system that allows it to integrate sound environmental principles effectively into its core business strategies. The environmental management system has enabled the company to eliminate use of Class II ozone-depleting chemicals, reduce generation of waste oil by 50 percent in 1995 and lower reportable releases in the United States by 98 percent from 1990 to 1994. AMP has reused and refurbished more than 879,000 packages to eliminate more than 142,000 pounds of packaging materials. In 1994-1995, AMP reduced packaging to save more than 1.5 million pounds of materials in the United States alone.
Innovative wastewater reduction strategies like "dry-floor" plating resulted in a 51 percent reduction in wastewater discharges over the past five years at 17 facilities and a 100 percent reduction at a facility in Italy, which reduced its discharge from 14,500 gallons per day to 1990 to zero discharge in 1995. AMP saves more that $41,000 annually in waste treatment and disposal costs.
Two other leading Pennsylvania companies, the Sun Co. (oil refining and marketing) and Bethlehem Steel, have adopted the Ceres Principles and have led the way for others. The Ceres Principles effectively integrate environmental considerations with broader management conduct. Not surprisingly, both companies can demonstrate specific "bottom line" and environmental success - often arising out of the same activity or budget.
As Richard Florida, director of the Center for Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, wrote in a 1996 article, Lean and Green: The Move to Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing, "The adopting of pollution prevention - and, in particular, the modernization of production processes to prevent pollution - is an important indicator of the shift to advanced manufacturing systems that simultaneously improve industrial and environmental performance". Florida notes that zero defects was by byword of the 1970s, zero inventory the byword of the 1980s and zero emissions is becoming the byword of the 1990s. "Defects, inventory and emissions equal waste, and waste equals lost profits." he said.
We must all work together to reverse the traditional view of environmental compliance as a cost or burden and begin to look at environmental innovation as fuel for the engine of growth. By helping businesses understand and apply pollution prevention and environmentally sound practices, DEP works with businesses and communities to improve Pennsylvania’s environment. The company wins. The customer wins. Workers win. Communities win. Pollution prevention is clean, cheap and smart.