The ISO 14000 series has proved to be handy for quite a while now. Companies and public institutions have valued the universal guidelines for all sorts of environmental management procedures – energy management, carbon footprinting and life cycle assessment, to name the most important ones. Two years ago, a new seed was planted in the ISO 14000 orchard, bearing the name ISO 14051. This new norm wa...
Because water is the most vital element for life, many contemporary intellectuals expect it to be the most conflict-generating resource of the 21st century. Not water in general, which is present in most places in one form or another. Much rather, it is access to clean freshwater that counts. More than once, bilateral relations have suffered when one nation's hydroelectric dam projects led to the another nation's fear of water shortages due to shrinking flows in its incoming rivers. But declining water volumes in rivers and their negative environmental effects are also caused by large-scale ag...
Regardless of how China is perceived in the west, in the medium term, the world's most ambitious energy efficiency goals can be found in that country. In only five years, from 2010 to 2015, it's seven biggest industrial regions have to meet energy efficiency targets of 16-19% and emission reductions of 17-21%. However, in order to achieve carbon emission targets, you first need a reliable baseline for reference. Read in this article how big the carbon gaps are between different statistical assessments, and not only in China, and why inherently inaccurate baseline figures don't automatically...
When it comes to sustainable private transport, the 21st-century-bearer-of-hope number one is called electric car. Unprecedentedly efficient, locally pollution-free and silent, this technology will totally save the environment without compromising our comfort or convenience in the least. So we think. However, even the best technology requires raw materials, energy and industrial processes to make. Green technology or not, technology is technology. Its production, use and disposal will always have an effect on the environment, no matter what size, weight and efficiency rating it has – throug...
In July 2011, the promising ISO 50001 energy management standard was launched. This certificate rewards companies and public organizations willing to continuously reduce their energy consumption by providing a guideline on energy management systems. This article explains how the norm works, which companies have adopted it and what achievements have been made since its introduction nine months ago. Referring to the advantages of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, Paul Baier of enterprisesmartgrid.org describes the new norm's virtues: We’ve seen that business benefits from a more systematic focus on qua...
Productivity is probably the main keyword in growth theory. Expressed as a mathematical function it describes the proportion between increases in output per input unit. Obviously there is a close connection to the input output analysis, mainly developed by the economist Wassily Leontief. A growth in productivity, a essential precondition for economic success, can be achieved by more efficient work process flows. Transfering this into target system increasing productivity is the overall target with a growth in efficiency as a measure to achieve this objective. In this context I would like to...
Business Follows Nature! Do companies have a conscience to fight global warming? They should have, if we all want to limit the global mean temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, scientists emphasize the need for cutting of global carbon dioxide emissions to 85 percent below 2000 levels by 2050. The question is not how to influence nature anymore, as it has been for several decades. The question is now how to reduce our influence on nature in order to be less influenced by natural disasters. These disasters will automatically become stronger and stronger, th...
Back in the year 1987, the International Organization for Standardization introduced a number of norms known as the ISO 9000 series. For the first time, there were internationally recognized quality management standards. The approach to these standards was voluntary. If you wanted the ISO 9000 certificate, you could obtain it by a third party. These quality management norms were later followed by various environmental standards that originated in the 1992 Rio conference, known as ISO 14000. As well as ISO 9000, ISO 14000 require an external verification by a third party, which is neither the o...