by Dr. Uri Marinov, Environmental Consultant
Industry has traditionally been considered the main contributor to
environmental pollution and, therefore, it was among the first sectors to
draw government intervention. Israeli legislation enabled the
environmental administration to require plants to introduce pollution
prevention facilities, to treat wastes, to transfer hazardous wastes to
the central site at Ramat Hovav, and to abate noise nuisances.
More than 19,000 industrial plants, employing more than 370,000 people,
operate in Israel. The environmental impacts generated by this scale of
industrial production are considerable. According to statistics provided
by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israeli industry is responsible for
some 30% of SOx emissions, 6% of NOx emissions and 25% of all particulate
emissions. Most of Israel's hazardous waste and, of course, its industrial
wastes, are produced by the industrial sector.
Damages to the environment as a result of industrial processesdecrease
in raw materials, land deterioration, extinction of species, damage to
human health and climate changemake it clear that industrial development
as it is practiced today is not sustainable. Future development and the
ability of future generations to supply their own needs are being
undermined by the misuse or contamination of land, water, air, marine and
natural resources.
The central concept behind sustainable development is to enable the
biosphere to supply "environmental services" to the population by means of
renewable processes, without investment in non-renewable materials. In the
natural environment, nutrients are transferred from organism to organism
and materials and energy are circulated and transferred. Industrial
ecology seeks to replicate this state by minimizing waste and maximizing
the cycling of materials and energy. Reuse and recycling are become more
prevalent both within the framework of industrial processes and as
industries in their own right.
The following developments are expected to have a positive impact on
industry in the future:
Prepare and publish the inventory of materials which enter and exit the
production process. Publish emission data so as to catalyze both the
community and the industrial plant to take steps for emission reduction.
Publicize the "environment-friendliness" of different products so as to
enable consumers to choose products with minimal environmental impact.
An analysis of the current state in Israel reveals the following:
Awareness of water conservation is high. As a result of increased
environmental enforcement, industrial water recycling is on the rise and
cases of domestic effluent recycling have begun to emerge as well.
Awareness of energy conservation is not sufficiently high. Studies reveal
that it is possible to attain savings of up to 15-20% in industrial energy
use in Israel.
While industries are becoming more aware of technologies for reduced
resource consumption and increased material recycling, the relatively low
cost of waste disposal in Israel has precluded significant improvements in
this direction. It is anticipated that the increased costs of industrial
waste collection, transportation and disposal will influence industry to
increase its efforts in this direction.
Production of recyclable products, and especially packaging material, will
be largely impacted by legislation.
At this stage of industrial development in Israel, it is unlikely that
industry will independently adopt such new concepts as a shift from
production to services, design of products with minimal adverse
environmental impact or production of long-life or recyclable products.
With the introduction of natural gas into the Israeli energy market,
industrial plants which are large consumers of energy should switch to gas
use.
The industrial sectors which will be most affected by sustainable
industrial policy are plants using water and local materials, chemical and
petrochemical industries, and the packaging industry.
As a result of environmental and planning restrictions, most industrial
development will be concentrated in the south of the country while the
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Central and Haifa districts will be almost totally
closed to new industrial development, especially plants which consume raw
materials, water and energy. Industrial development in the northern region
will be largely restricted to hi-tech industries and to industries which
do not consume water.
As economic links with neighboring countries deepen, some industries,
especially labor and energy intensive industries, may be relocated. New
industrial areas will largely be established in the south and north of the
country and will be managed by site administrations which will be
responsible for establishing infrastructure and supplying such services as
sewage and solid waste disposal and nuisance prevention.
Administrative Measures
Alongside technological innovations, industrial ecology requires changes
in the attitudes of planners, production personnel and industrialists. In
Israel, industrialists initially opposed the introduction of environmental
laws and regulations. As enforcement increased, they did the bare minimum
to comply with the law, mainly through end-of-pipe treatment. Today, a
change in perspective is slowly emerging. and industry itself is beginning
to introduce new steps to make itself more efficient, less expensive and
more environment-friendly. Industry has begun to realize that reduced
emissions may actually save moneyin production expenses, in payments for
waste disposal and in insurance costs. Moreover, an environmental
perspective also prevents the intervention of government in the
construction and operation of plants. The "polluter prevention pays
principle" is slowly gaining entry into industrial thinking worldwide.
With further growth in population and industrial production, the adoption
of strategies such as Waste Reduction Always Pays (WRAP), which was
adopted by large corporations such as 3M and Dow, will become more
acceptable.
Legal Measures
In addition to statutory requirements for end-of-pipe treatment,
legislation now requires environmental impact assessment for new
industrial plants, review of the cumulative effect of the individual plant
and the industrial zone on the environment, and measures for reducing
cumulative impact. In addition, industry is being pressured to take
responsibility for the product itself and not only for the waste it
produces, and governments are beginning to transfer responsibility for
environmental cleanup to the plants themselves.
In Israel, new industrial plants or new industrial zones cannot be
established without the preparation of Environmental Impact Statements or
environmental reports. The "polluter pays" principle is being implemented
largely as a result of legislative requirements, such as administrative
levies on industrial facilities for the purpose of establishing monitoring
systems or fees on disposable beverage containers in order to finance
cleanups and promote education on cleanliness. It is expected that fines,
levies and fees will continue to be imposed on industrial plants in order
to increase the income available for environmental protection activities
and to provide incentives for pollution reduction.
Economic Measures
While environmental policy has traditionally been implemented through
legislation and enforcement (e.g. the command and control approach), new
methods are now being introduced and developed to promote pollution
prevention. One of the most effective is the use of economic measures,
especially taxes and levies, to make pollution economically unfeasible.
Sufficiently high emission taxes are expected to bring about changes in
production processes, to reduce emissions and to promote recycling and
reuse. Taxes can also encourage the purchase of environment-friendly
materials such as lead-free fuel and recyclable beverage containers while
reducing the use of certain pollutants. In Europe, the possibility of
imposing "pollution taxes" is being reviewed concomitantly with the
reduction of income and housing taxes. The International Standards
Organization is preparing international standards for
environmentally-sound industrial policy, such as ISO 14000, whose main
objective is to prevent pollution and promote environmental management in
industrial plants.
Industry-Government Cooperation
In the future, greater responsibility for sustainable industrial
development will be imposed on industrialists themselves since they are
best equipped to change industrial processes while keeping costs down.
However, industrialists need guidelines on the scope of improvements
required and on government policy. In the Netherlands, a model for such
cooperation has been developing whereby government and industry sign joint
covenants to achieve specific objectives in each industrial sector.
Covenants are voluntary agreements with the status of binding contracts in
civil law. The aim of the covenant is to guarantee that the environmental
goals which are formulated in local and national legislation and in
international agreements will be implemented according to an agreed
timetable.
Sustainable Industrial Development Policy
To promote sustainable industrial development, the following steps should
be taken:
1. All economic decisions must be based on sustainable development
principles.
2. Decision makers should be motivated to base their decisions on criteria
of sustainable development and not only on the promise of short term gains
for immediate improvement in quality of life.
3. The activities which contribute to sustainable development as well as
those which counteract it should be defined, including data transfer and
goal setting.
4. A political "give and take" process should be initiated, especially
with regard to present versus future needs.
5. A clear policy which sets goals and promotes the necessary measures to
achieve these goals at all levels of society should be prepared.
A sustainable development policy should include the following components:
1. Setting of goals in a government declaration of intent on the need to
implement sustainable development for industry.
2. Defining implementation strategies for goal achievement in industry.
3. Quantifying the measures for the monitoring of progress.
4. Establishing quantitative and administrative goals.
5. Identifying the bodies which will be responsible for goal achievement.
6. Establishing criteria and guidelines for reviewing accumulated data.
Organizational Structure
As stated, the Netherlands was one of the first nations to implement steps
for sustainable development in the industrial sector. Its National
Environmental Policy Plan includes a sophisticated target group management
system to analyse and implement policies together with target groups like
industry, agriculture, energy, etc. The process included the setting of
specific targets for emission reductions, the definition of the sectors to
be accorded priority, preparation of joint declarations between government
and industrial sectors which specify policy, functions, goals and
implementation measures, preparation of information campaigns, preparation
of covenants or guidelines for goal achievement , and introduction of
pollution prevention measures in each plant along with systems for
progress monitoring.
Other organizational means which may be undertaken include:
1. Environmental auditing - an external auditor may be used to conduct an
environmental audit of each plant.
2. Green label - eco-labelling enables consumers to choose the preferred
product.
3. Publication of emission data - public pressure is created when plants
are required to publish, on an annual basis, the exact quantities of
chemicals which they emit to the environment.
4. Education and information - these are especially important since the
concept of sustainable development is still in its infancy. Means of
Achieving Sustainable Industrial Development In order to achieve
sustainable industrial development in the future, activities in a number
of realms have to be undertaken now:
1) Research: Basic and practical research are vital in order to better
understand industry's contribution to environmental pollution and the
means which should be used to overcome environmental problems by means of
sophisticated technologies.
2) Information: Environmental data should be transferred to all decision
makers in the industrial sector at all levels.
3) Environmental problem analysis: Better use should be made of such tools
as economic instruments, life cycle analysis of products, and technologies
for pollution prevention and material recycling.
4) Environmental policy: A clear environmental policy with specific goals
and detailed timetables is required to attain the objectives. Such policy
must take account of international constraints and of new economic
thinking while integrating environmental policy with social, economic and
political policy as it relates to industrial development.
Summary
Agenda 21 which was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992,
determines, inter alia, that governments should adopt a national strategy
for sustainable development. The challenge of reaching national agreement
on Israel's sustainable development goals is formidable. Israel has no
choice but to meet the challenge. If it wishes to continue to grow and
expand, Israeli industry would do well to adapt itself as quickly as
possible to this new reality.