Project Abstract
Our objective is to help organisations improve their environmental practices, and thereby operate in a more environmentally appropriate way. For commercial firms that also means gaining competitive advantage. Applied research is needed to achieve this, as the principles are often difficult to deploy into specific situations.
Existing standards like ISO 14000 relate to waste management in general, are directed towards Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE), and are typically deployed at the organisational level. Our work has a number of specific foci within that broader framework.
One is a focus on the LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS (ISO 14040), particularly of products and technology. We are interested in designing and producing products in such a way as to minimise waste and maximise the recyclability at the end of life, including Cradle to Cradle (C2C) methodologies.
A second focus is on developing waste management indices for specific production settings. This involves taking broad concepts in standard
