1. Sustainable Development.
Sustainable development is understood as satisfying the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations.
Sustainability includes taking into account three aspects:
1. Economic: we need economic growth; to assure our material welfare.
2. Environmental: we need to minimize environmental damage, pollution, and exhaustion of resources.
3. Social: this is equity; the world's resources should be better shared between the rich and the poor.

2. Sustainability can be seen as a triangle, each of its cornerstones being environmental, economic and social elements
The three elements of sustainability (Nilsson-Djerf y McDougall, 2000).

4. Eco-efficiency :
“Is reached by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life cycle to a level at least in line with the earth's estimated carrying capacity.”

5. Wow to achieve eco-eficiency?

6. The seven actions to attain eco-efficiency:
· Reduce material intensity of goods and services.
· Reduce energy intensity of goods and services.
· Reduce toxic dispersion.
· Enhance materials recyclability.
· Maximize sustainable use of renewable resources.
· Extend product durability.
· Increase service intensity of goods and services.

7. Pollution Prevention.
Pollution Prevention entails avoiding pollutant production right before pollutants are issued at end of pipes, through stacks or into waste containers.
The waste management hierarchy list:
1.- Whenever feasible, pollution or waste should be prevented or reduced at the source.
2.- If the pollution or waste cannot be prevented, reuse or recycling is the next preferred approach.
3.- If the pollution or waste cannot be prevented or recycled, safe treatment must be carried out.
4.- Disposal or other release into the environment should be employed as a last resort and accomplished in a safe manner.

8. Examples of pollution prevention?

9. Examples of Pollution Prevention measures
Raw material replacement
Product replacement
Process re-designing
Equipment re-designing
Waste recycling
Preventive maintenance (i.e. pump-end lock leaks)
Stock minimization to prevent future wastes
Solvent adsorption or distillation in water and later recycling

10. Concepts
Green Chemistry: is aimed at designing chemical substances and, at the same time, production processes respectful of the environment. This includes reducing or eliminating use and production of dangerous substances.
Cleaner Production: It is applied to processes, products and services to increase Eco-efficiency and reduce risks to population and the environment.

11. Life Cycle Thinking
A product or service system is evaluated with the goal of reducing potential environmental impacts over its entire life cycle.
Life Cycle Thinking implies that everyone in the whole chain of a product’s life cycle, from cradle to grave, has a responsibility and a role to play, taking into account all the relevant external effects.

12. The life cycle of a product system (UNEP/ SETAC, 2001).

13. Design for Environment
Eco-design, or Design for Environment (DfE), allows approaching environmental problems associated to a given product within its phase of design.
That is, it implies considering the environmental variable as one of the many product requirements, besides taking into consideration the rest of conventional design goals: cost, utility, functioning, security, etc

14. Industrial Ecology
Industrial Ecology (IE) entails an approximation of industrial systems to natural systems.
It deals with the systematic analysis of material and energy flows in industrial systems with the purpose of minimizing waste generation and negative environmental effects.
Industrial Ecology may be defined as a network of industrial systems that cooperate in reusing waste energy and material within the same network: a waste flow from one of the industrial members becomes a source of raw material useful for another member of the network.

15. Political Instruments and Standards.
Tools
Political Instruments and Standards.
· Law on Chemical Substances
European Parliament and Council Directive 1999/45/EC, May 31st, which serves as a means to homogenize standards among EU member countries concerning classification, packing and characterization of dangerous substances. (Federal Environment Agency Ltd. of Austria, 2000)
· Law on Process Security
The "Chemical Security Act" (S.1602) of the US was designed
to protect communities from terrorism and accidents involving
hazardous industrial chemicals.

16. · ISO International Standards
ISO 14001,04: Environmental management systems - General guidelines on principles, systems and supporting techniques.
ISO 14010,11,12: Guidelines for environmental auditing
ISO 14020, 21,22,23,24: Environmental labels and declarations
ISO 14031: Environmental performance evaluation - Guidelines
ISO 14040,41,42,43: Life cycle assessment

17. Procedural Tools: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Is a set of research papers and technical systems used to estimate the effects of implementing a given project, work or activity into the environment.
Environmental impact research is a technical interdisciplinary assessment aimed at foreseeing, identifying, determining and correcting the environmental impact or the consequences given activities may cause on human life quality and the environment:

18. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
FIVE STEPS
1. Define the scope of the Environmental Impact Assessment
2. Inventory community natural resources, their quality and current use;
3. Compile and review existing community environmental management standards and guidelines;
4. Assess the extent and significance of environmental impacts resulting from the proposed development; and
Evaluate the potential cumulative impacts associated with the proposed development

19. General structure of an Environmental Impact Assessment

20. Environmental Management and Audit System (EMAS)
Is an ensuring effective implementation of an environmental management plan or procedures in compliance with environmental policy objectives and targets
An environmental management system allows businesses to:
Assure a high-level of environmental protection.
Continuously improve their environmental performance.
Obtain competitive advantages out of these improvements.
Communicate their progress with the publication of an environmental declaration showing their efforts

21. Eco-label.
May provide consumers with better information on green products and promote the Design for Environment

22. Analytical Tools Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Is a tool standardized according to ISO series for product-oriented environmental impact assessment and will be further explained by Dr. Frances Castells.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a product comprises the evaluation of the environmental effects produced during its entire life cycle, from its origin as a raw material until its end usually as a waste

24. Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) and Impact Pathway Analysis and (IPA)
Are the tools generally used for the impact analysis in site- specific environmental impact assessment. These tools will be described in more detail during this curs.

25. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA)
Are techno-economic tools to support decision-making towards sustainability.
The cost-benefit methodology shines a light brightly on "efficiency attributes" attendant to environmental decision making--namely the tasks that could be accomplished if the specific project, program, or activity under consideration were foregone.

26. Impact Pathway Analysis (IPA) scheme (EC, 1995).

27. Material Flow Accounting / Substance Flow Analysis
Refers to accounting in physical units (usually in tons) the extraction, production, transformation, consumption, recycling and deposition of materials in a given location (i.e., substances; raw materials; products; wastes; emissions into the air, water or soil).