Cleaner production

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Cleaner production is a preventive, company-specific environmental protection initiative. It is intendend to minimize waste and emissions and maximize product output.^[1] By analysing the flow of materials and energy in a company, one tries to identify options to minimize waste and emissions out of industrial processes. Improvements of organisation and technology help to make the best possible use of materials and energy and avoid waste, waste water generation, and gaseous emissions, and also waste heat and noise.

Examples for Cleaner production options are:

Documentation of consumption (as a basic analysis of material and energy flows, e. g. with a Sankey diagram)

Use of indicators and controlling (to identify losses from poor planning, poor education and training, mistakes)

Substitution of raw materials and auxiliary materials (especially renewable materials and energy)

Increase of useful life of auxiliary materials and process liquids (by avoiding drag in, drag out, contamination)

Improved control and automatisation

Reuse of waste (internal or external)

New, low waste processes and technologies

One of the first European initiatives in Cleaner Production was started in Austria in 1992 by the BMVIT (Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie). This resulted in two initiatives: "Prepare" and "Ecoprofit". The initiative "PIUS" was founded in Germany in 1999. Since 1994, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization operates the National Cleaner Production Centre Programme with centres in Central America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The Journal of Cleaner Production, appearing from 1993 on, is explicitly devoted to the topic. It publishes papers on industrial ecology, LCA, and so on.