By David Okul
July 24, 2019
Cleaner production is cited to have numerous advantages for businesses by environmental management professionals. . Among the most cited advantage of CL is that it provides opportunities for green jobs that assist in tackling contemporary environmental challenges such as climate change. Case studies provide opportunities for us to evaluate the successes of cleaner production measures. The cases may inspire you to incorporate some CP mechanisms in your business.
Cleaner production in Africa (Government Involvement in the formulation of Clean Production Centres)
The South African Government has taken strong ownership of the National Cleaner Production Centre and co-directs the Centre with strong participation of the business sector and the host institution. To ensure continuous relevance, an Advisory Forum has also been established with participation from key national institutions representing public and private sector and civil society. NCPC-SA objectives are as follows:
- grow CP awareness in South Africa;
- provide CP assessments and advice to enterprises in all industry sectors;
- facilitate value-added outcomes through investments in Cleaner Technologies;
- grow CP capacity among the industrial workforce, management, government, service providers and students;
- contribute to national priorities, for example, energy-saving, water quality, and waste minimization through efficiency; and
- contribute to the creation of green jobs through CP capacity building and recycling (NCPC, 2011).
In West Africa, The launch of a national cleaner production center of excellence in the industrial city Tema is expected to become the first in the West Africa region to train sister countries to improve on their environment. With support from the United Nations Industrial Organisation, the center aims to effectively reduce the industry’s impact on the environment. This will be done through a lowering cost of production, minimization of waste, re-use, and recycling, enhancing competitiveness in the wider market place, improve satisfaction and increasing environmentally conscious customers, insurers and bankers. Socio-economic development in Ghana like many other African countries has led to continued environmental degradation including, widespread land degradation, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and loss of arable and grazing land (Africa report, 2012).
A workshop held in Nairobi in 2000 on cleaner production in Africa concluded that there is a need to ensure an organized and sustained approach to the issue of Cleaner Production in Africa, and in line with similar initiatives that have since been established in other continents, it was recommended that the Cleaner Production Roundtable should be institutionalized. Annual Roundtables should be held supported by sub-regional and national level meetings to serve as feed-in mechanisms (Lardelel, 2003). These efforts imply that there have been concerns on cleaner production in Africa and there is a need to build on that to create awareness.
The Kenya National Cleaner Production Centre (KNCPC) was established in July 2000 as part of the global UNEP/UNIDO National Cleaner Production Centre program (KNCPC, 2011). UNEP Kenya Country Programme has worked with Kenya National Cleaner Production Centre to promote Resource Efficiency in industry, business, and commerce. Significant savings have been realized in energy, water, and waste management costs (UNEP, 2011). The KNCPC was established on the frameworks provided by NEMA. Frondel et al (2004) see environmental management systems (EMS) as typical examples of organizational measures in cleaner production. This implies therefore that countries like Kenya are putting efforts towards cleaner production through making Environmental Impact Assessment and Audits mandatory for development projects. EMS and Environment Management Plans are an integral part of EIA and audits and they deal with judicious use of resources and strategies of minimizing wastes implying that they are essentially CP mechanisms
Clean Production in Chandaria Industries (Kenya)
Chandaria is a leading paper manufacturing and conversion company in Kenya. Chandaria’s core business is the production of tissue paper from paper recycling and virgin pulp blending. In 2005, the company implemented Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) under the UN Environment. Some of the actions implemented were sub-metering of electricity at key usage points, inter-lock systems o pumps, metering water use, recycling water, use of poly-electrolytes for wastewater, reuse of clean water in paper washing practices, collection of rainwater among others (UNEP, n.d). The interventions were executed through training, technology change and improved process control.
The implementation of CL had immense positive results for Chandaria Industries Limited. According to Terefe et al. (2015), the company was able to increase its resource use efficiency (energy productivity by 40%, materials productivity by 48% and water productivity by 181%) while reducing pollution (carbon intensity by -28%, wastewater intensity by -64% and waste intensity by -42%). When the eco-efficiencies were converted to money, the company achieved an annual savings of US$ 633,600 USD. Additionally, it was able to obtain an ISO 9000:2001 certifications in Quality Management Systems. It was also a recipient of some awards.
Apart from Chandaria, UNEP (n.d) also reports other cleaner production successes in Kenya in companies like Haco Industries and Pwani Oil refineries. Terefe et al. (2015) also demonstrate the successes of CP implementation in Metalexacto, a metal company in Peru and PAC Foods Supplies in Austria. Both companies reduced their environmental impacts while enhancing their economic positions.
Israel Cleaner Production Center
In July 2001, the Ministry of the Environment and the Manufacturers Association of Israel established an Israel Cleaner Production Center in the headquarters of the Association in Tel Aviv. Since Israel’s environmental problems largely relate to water scarcity, soil and aquifer salinization by effluent irrigation, and limited land reserves for waste disposal and treatment, the Center initially focused on the following activities:
- Reduction of solid and hazardous waste at source and its recycling;
- Reduction of brine emission to the environment from industrial processes.
- Reduction of hazardous waste at source is undertaken by two means: a feasibility study of implementing clean production in the industry with the aid of experts and Good Housekeeping Practices.
The objectives of the Cleaner Production Centre include:
- Accumulating and disseminating information on cleaner production issues by means of seminars and a website;
- Enhancing awareness of the cleaner production process, its significance, and its benefits, by providing assistance to cleaner production programs;
- Initiating projects incorporating cleaner production principles by local industry (the State of Israel, 2009).
The center has published a good housekeeping guide for Israel and runs a waste exchange billboard that allows one industry waste to be used by another company (Shalom, 2011). The center has made awareness of CP and made it an integral part of most companies in Israel.
China’s CP in Cement Industry
China has cooperated with Canada in the development of a project on cleaner production. One of the successes in the cooperation is the reform of the cement industry in China which had significant inefficiencies in the use of resources and machinery. This was achieved by industrial restructuring which resulted in the closure of up to 50% of inefficient companies in the country. Since 2003, the Chinese central government has issued executive regulations to cool down several over-heated and rapidly expanding industries (including the cement sector) by denying construction permits for new plants and by restricting bank loans and financing from the stock market, but still encouraging funding for facility upgrades. By the end of 2003, China had 351 new type dry cement production lines of more than 700 tons/day, of which 188 lines had been put into operation, 138 were under construction, and 25 were ready to be constructed. Among all of them, there are 47 large size dry clinker lines with a daily production capacity of more than 4,000 tons/day, of which 14 lines are operating, 23 are under construction, and 10 have received permission for building. After completion, China will acquire a yearly cement capacity of 240 million tons with the new type of dry cement production technology (Wang et al, 2004).
Air pollution has been a concern for cement industries worldwide. In recent years, as a result of advanced control technology and equipment design, such as EP and bag filter facilities, significant progress has been reached in reducing air emissions from the cement industrial sector. For a new plant today, air pollution emissions are at least 90% less than those from typical facilities built 30-40 years ago. Through the partnership with the Canadians, China has been able to reduce its emission from the cement industry to compete with words’ cleanest producers of cement in terms of pollution.
Water pollution in cement production is not a pertinent problem but solid wastes in dust are. One good example is Nan Xin Cement plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. By using CP and Circular Economy (CE) in order to control dust emission and to implement recycling as well as production expansion, the Company invested more than 2 million RMBs[1] to convert wet membrane collection equipment, the low-efficiency type, into a baghouse with high efficiency. From the process, the local emission standard for dust has been reached, and in addition, it obtained remarkable economic benefits. The dust collected with the membrane had high moisture content and was difficult for raw material substitution. With the baghouse technique, dust can be recycled and reused. The estimated annual amount of dust collected is more than 8,000 tons. If the original material costs about 100 RMB per ton, an annual saving is of 800,000 RMB, with an addition of 300,000 RMB from the deduction in discharge/emission fees, a total benefit of one million RMB is realized. Extra operation cost and labor amount to about 700,000 RMB, so the net economic benefit is 300,000 BMB and the amortized capital investment for the equipment can be repaid within eight years. The provincial authorities have used this example to publicize benefits and to encourage other plants in the sector to adopt CP/CE principles to fit their individual needs for dust collectors, and to include the recycling unit into the production process management with regular inspection and maintenance to assure its proper operation. Adaptation of CP is applicable in the cement industry as the industry produces 5% of the manmade carbon dioxide affecting climate change (Wang et al, 2004).
[1] RMB The official currency in China is the Renminbi (RMB or CNY) or in Chinese “Ren-min-bi”. The basic unit is the yuan (also known as “kuai”),which equals 10 jiao (or “mao”), which is then divided into 10 fen
Examples of CP in the Metal Industry (Australia)
Queensland government in Australia intends to incorporate cleaner production in its policy and as such conducted research in the metal industry on the practice and successes in other parts of the world. They used case studies of successful CP efforts in terms of economics and the environment. Newcastle Galvanising made some significant savings by installing a hood system to reduce zinc splatter. It has thereby reduced the demand for zinc by around 7%. Zinc is a high-cost material – around $1,450 to $2,600 per tonne. It has also saved on the time required to scrape zinc off the walls – a messy process that could only recover about 75% of the splatter. Worker safety has also improved significantly; workers no longer have to be evacuated from the process area during the dipping which improved productivity and worker morale. Further, the hood system is ventilated reducing the fumes that are emitted to the environment (Queensland government, 2012).
The possibilities of CP in increasing bottom line can be illustrated by the following example; a small scale electroplating shop in Brisbane spends around $5,000 (or more) every year disposing of spent cleaning solutions. In addition to this, around $3,000/year would be spent to replace these chemicals. For around $2,000 – $3,000, a combined in-tank filter and oil skimmer can be purchased to filter the cleaning solutions and extend the life of the cleaning solution. It is estimated that filtration could extend the life of the cleaning solutions for up to 5 years. The cleaning solutions would still need to be topped up with chemicals to maintain the cleaning capacity of the cleaner. The cost benefits of this can be summarised as; Current operating cost for cleaners $8,000/yr, Cost of filter $3,000, Payback period 4.5 months, New operating costs for the cleaners (chemicals $1,260/yr to top up cleaner + 1 disposal every 5 years) Savings $6,740/yr (UNEP Working Group Centre for Cleaner Production, 2011).
The following example from the Merit Partnership in the United States demonstrates the potential benefits of installing conductivity control systems to control the inflow of water to rinse tanks. The group installed control devices at nine sites at an average cost of $1,600 per device, including parts and labor. The total cost across all sites was $14,500. Water use at these sites reduced dramatically by around 42%, from 1,960 kilolitres/month to 1,125 kilolitres/month. The resultant monthly savings were around $280 for water in and $110 for wastewater discharge. The demand for WWTS chemicals also reduced from around $4,000 to $3,200 / month. The total savings were around $14,300/year, resulting in a pay-back period of just over 12 months.
Water is a major raw material in the metal industry and wastewater is an inevitable product. By installing zero wastewater discharge / closed-loop systems in its new facility, Southern Maine Industries (SMI) realized the following benefits:
- 99% reduction in water purchasing;
- Elimination of wastewater discharges;
- Significant reduction in a hazardous waste generation;
- Reuse of 760 liters of drag-out per day.
This clearly demonstrates the principle of zero discharge processes in metal finishing operations. The wastewater treatment system cost approximately $US160,000 to install. Savings (mainly due to cost avoidance) were around $US100,000 giving a pay-back period of around 1.6 years.
Barriers, Opportunities, and Conclusions
The efforts towards cleaner production are bearing fruit in that the resources are being used more efficiently and waste production is minimized per unit of production compared to a different time, e.g. a decade ago. Through awareness and information dissemination, CP is being adopted by more countries and companies in their policy and institutions. Investments for CP are also increasing as research by Frondel et al (2004) concluded 76.8% of facilities in Operations and Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries reported that they invest predominantly in cleaner production technologies. CP is also being adopted across a global scale i.e. all regions are embracing the concept.
While a plethora of advantages and processes of CP have been identified certain barriers limit the adoption rates of the process including barriers internal to the company such as, lack of information and expertise, low environmental awareness, competing business priorities especially the pressure for a short term profits, financial obstacles, lack of communication in firms, middle management inertia, labor force obstacles. Barriers external to the company include difficulty in accessing cleaner technologies, difficulty in accessing external finance and the failure of existing regulatory approaches. The establishment of cleaner production technologies is also often hampered by barriers such as additional co-ordination input and a lack of organizational support within firms. In addition to substantial investment costs in new technologies, additional obstacles arise due to the nature of the environmental problem and the type of regulations involved. Command and Control (CaC) regulations, for instance, frequently impose technology standards that can only be met through end-of-pipe abatement measures. With particular respect to the diffusion of cleaner production and products, the question arises which one of several alternative policy approaches is to be preferred: performance standards, voluntary measures, or economic instruments which leave decisions about the appropriate abatement technology up to the firm?
Conversely, there also exist opportunities and strengths that can enable adoption of CP and they can be categorized as those internal and external to the company. Motivators internal to the company may include improvements in productivity and competitiveness, environmental management systems and continuous improvement, environmental leadership, corporate environmental reports, and environmental accounting. Those external to the company include innovative regulation, economic incentives, education and training buyer-supplier relations, soft loans from financial institutions, community involvement, and international trade incentives. In any case, businesses should work at ensuring that they implement some CP activities as various options are available.
References and Resources
Africa report, 2012. Ghana Cleaner Production Center to serve West Africa. Retrieved on 10th april 2012 from,
APINI, (2011). Introduction to Cleaner Production, Concepts and Practice. Institute of Environmental Engineering. Lithuania.
Frondel, Manuel; Horbach, Jens; Rennings, Klaus (2004) : End-of-Pipe or Cleaner Production? An Empirical Comparison of Environmental Innovation Decisions Across OECD Countries, ZEW Discussion Papers, No. 04-82, http://hdl.handle.net/10419/24090
GCEF, 2011 What is Cleaner Production. Global Environmental centre Foundation.
The state of Israel, (2009) Cleaner Production in Israel. Retrieved on 10th April 2012 from,
Kjaerheim Gudolf (2005). Cleaner production and sustainability Journal of Cleaner Production 13 (2005) 329e339
Lardelel (2003) cleaner production roundtables for Africa. Retrieved on 10th April 2012 from, http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=173&ArticleID=2601
KNCPC, (2011) about KNCPC. Retrieved on 10th April 2012 from, http://www.cpkenya.org/about-us/our-background
NCPC (2011). Cleaner Production in South Africa.
Queensland government, (2012) Cleaner Production ideas. Retrieved on 10th April 2012 from, http://www.ecoefficiency.com.au/Portals/56/factsheets/metalfinish/ecometalfnsh_ideas.pdf
Ruth Hillary and Nils Thorsen (1999) Regulatory and self-regulatory measures as routes to promote
cleaner production Journal of Cleaner Production 7 (1999) 1–11
Shalom B, (2011). Israel: National Report for CSD 14/15 Thematic Areas. Government Focal Point.
Terefe, H., Gashaw, T., & Warkineh, B. (2015). Evolution of waste management strategies in industries: from passive to proactive. Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2(3), 084-090.
Wang K, Hengchen P., and Yiu M. (2004) Cleaner Production and Circular Economy for Cement Industrial Sector in China. Consultant, WBS 100 China-Canada CP Project. October 2004
UNEP Working Group Centre for Cleaner Production, (2011).
UNEP (n.d) Enterprise Benefits from Resource Efficient
and Cleaner Production. http://www.unep.fr/scp/cp/understanding/pdf/web_recp_indicator_kenya.pdf
David Okul is a freelance writer, and a PhD student at a Kenyan university
