Importance of balancing environment and development

Increasing awareness and growing public concern on negative impact of environmental issues has led many governments to re-consider their strategies for growth and economic development. Many of the Asian countries are trying to balance the development and environmental needs.

This is because our survival depends on the health of the planet which comprises land, air, water, plants, animals and micro-organisms.

"People should be concerned about what we are doing to the climate," said Chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jay Lawrimore.

It therefore, indicates that all of us are also responsible for the health of the living planet for our own well-being and as well as our future generations.

Today, any activity or condition resulting from human activity that affects the environment adversely is defined as 'environmental pollution'. The environmental problems may be broadly classified as follows;

Local and immediate problems such as water pollution arising out of municipal wastes, air pollution due to automobiles and industries, noise pollution due to improper use of electronic equipments and other machineries, regional problems such as acid rain, dumping and poisoning of the environment by toxic waste, deforestation, soil erosion, destruction of habitat and loss of bio diversity, global environmental issues like green-house gas effect, ozone layer depletion.

International initiatives

Over the years a large number of international environmental agreements have been signed.

The best known is the agenda 21, which took place because of the Rio Conference held in 1992. Agenda 21 contains a series of action plans for changing environmental behaviour in society. Most of the countries had begun implementing such plans making a significant contribution to protect the environment.

Other significant agreements include the Helsinki Convention, HELCON, which protects marine life in the Baltic, the Paris Convention, PARCON, which regulates emissions to the North Sea and the North Atlantic from land based sources, and the Basle Convention which governs transport of hazardous waste that crosses national borders. The Vienna Convention (including the Montreal protocol), which addresses global reductions in ozone depleting substances, has had a large impact.

The interesting initiative, in the recent years was the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks commitments from all countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in order to prevent global climate changes.

Sustainable development

There are a number of definitions of sustainable development.

The Sustainable Development term refers to the principle that the present generation shall not exploit natural resources in such a way as to put future generations in danger.

Three factors namely environmental, social, and economic had been added to the above mentioned definition based on the Rio Summit held in 1992, and, enriched this definition by indicating that any development policy should include reference to the said factors.

Furthermore, later under the said main three pillars other sub-components were added and enriched the definition. Considering the three main pillars of the definition, it is clear that implementing a sustainable development approach within an organization is a horizontal task covering all functions of the organization.

The present trend towards a green supply chain has emphasized that organization today can not only satisfy consumers' needs and wants by upgrading quality of product and service but also remain in compliance with increasingly stringent environmental regulations.

Green design and regulations

The basic idea of green design is to reduce ecological impact throughout all phases of a product's life cycle, by introducing a better design. This methodology helps to minimise the processing costs at the end of a product's life whilst contributing to increase the profits from recovered materials.

In designing a product, the designing team can change the raw materials or substances used during the manufacturing to be less toxic, more environmental friendly. For example hybrid car is a green product. However, for some organisations green design concept is proactive one as far as Europe is concerned due to the publishing of particularly the following three directives.

ROHS Directive

This European directive is known as Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS), which addresses to limit the use of six hazardous substances used in soldered joints, cathode ray tubes, relays or printed circuit boards.

This is mainly applicable for manufacturers of electronics and computer equipment.

Therefore, equipment which does not meet the standards cannot be sold in the European Union. However, this directive indirectly covers all major IT companies in the world.

WEEE Directive

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive requires electrical and electronic equipment waste to be collected and recovered, giving priority to reusing and recycling materials and products. This directive, therefore, requires manufacturers to set up recovery and recycling channels for their products or components.

Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)

This REACH directive requires 'users' of chemical substances to provide proof of their non-toxicity.

This directive covers many industry sectors.

In response to the global trends in green trade and the new expectations, many large organisations in the world have begun to integrate environmental considerations into product design. Many organisations all over the world now consider concepts like raw material reduction, energy conservation, use of changeable parts and components, product recyclable, reduction of packaging volume and weight at the design stage of the product as these steps would support to reduce the environmental burden created by products. This indicates that the 'Vision' shared by these organisations is to achieve sustainable development through the recycling and reuse of the earth's limited resources.

Strategies and mechanisms

In view of the above, it is very necessary to consider the following points in order to develop a suitable program to promote the concept of Greening the supply chain.

Knowledge of the environmental performance of the product when making a decision to purchase that product, long-term awareness and education programs to promote the Green Concept and its benefits among people. Full support from both the Policy-making and decision-making levels about the Importance of Green Procurement, * Availability of waste recycling and reuse schemes, * Availability of resource reduction technologies, * Availability of Environmental Management Programs and any other related programs, * Availability of incentives and encouragements like tax concessions etc to industry to proceed in manufacturing of green products, * Availability of Financial and infrastructure support programs especially focusing SMEs, * Availability of national level programs at the highest level to recognize the 'Green Organisations' in the country.

Based on the above guidelines, it is possible to evaluate our current situation and accordingly we can identify the gaps. Once we identify the gaps it is necessary to formulate sound strategies and mechanisms to cover up the gaps so as to implement an effective 'Green promotion' program.

Current initiatives

It is worthwhile to mention that the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry under the guidance of Environment Minister has taken steps to establish a National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD) along with a national action plan 'Haritha Lanka' covering 10 thrust areas with the able Leadership of President to ensure the environmental sustainability of development programs in the country.

This is a very commendable step and it is necessary to implement this program with the support of every individual in the country to integrate environmental and sustainable development considerations into the day-to-day decision-making at all levels of the country to make Sri Lanka a model country. This approach will help us to make our country an environmental friendly country.

It is interesting to note a part of the speech made by the Dalai Lama at the Consecration of the Statue of the Buddha and the International Conference on Ecological Responsibility-a Dialogue with Buddhism, he said, 'I feel that it is extremely important that each individual realize their responsibility for preserving the environment, to make it a part of daily life, create the same attitude in their families, and spread it to the community'. This is the message that all of us should remember if we want to create an environmental friendly country.