Environmental Sustainability Management

This document discusses the concept of environmental sustainability management and its impact on the environment. It covers topics such as life cycle assessment, energy efficiency, and mitigation methods. The document provides a comprehensive overview of the subject and offers study material and solved assignments for further learning.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT
Environmental Sustainability Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

1ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Life Cycle Assessment....................................................................................................................2
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Estimated weight.........................................................................................................................3
Functional Unit............................................................................................................................4
Material Flow Diagram................................................................................................................4
Impact analysis............................................................................................................................5
Hotspot identification..................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................7
Energy Efficiency............................................................................................................................8
Introduction..................................................................................................................................9
Costs and energy consumption....................................................................................................9
Sources of energy......................................................................................................................10
Mitigation methods....................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................13

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Life Cycle Assessment
Executive Summary
Clothing is an industry that is highly competitive, as a result of the high degree of competition on
the industry, the manufacturers are constantly supplying the consumers with new products. This
leads to generation of a problem that contributes to the diverse effects of the environment. The
implication range from accumulation of clothing to decomposition which degrades the quality of
the environment. The purpose of the paper is to conducts a sustainability analysis of clothing in
terms of the service of recycling, dumping on landfills and incineration of the wastes. An
analysis of the lifecycle of process has been made and the impact hotspots has been identified.

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Introduction
The clothing industry is highly competitive. This results in high amount of innovation
from the part of the companies who are constantly competing to gain competitive advantage over
one another (Hombert and Matray 2018). Thus results in high amount of production of clothing
material. However, this leads to the generation of problems associated with the accumulation of
the wastes. Space conservation is a bug issue in the modern scenario. Hence, this has resulted in
various solutions that people have come up with regarding the measures that are to be adopted in
terms of minimising the wastes associated with accumulation of the garbage (Waste 2018). One
such service is the recycling of the used clothing material (Ekström and Salomonson 2014). The
clothing can be reused and come up as a solution that help in the mitigation of the solution that is
associated with waste accumulation. Hence, the desirable service is recycling clothing. The
alternatives are dumping of the clothes in landfills and incineration to reduce the volume of the
clothing. The aim paper is to highlight the importance of sustainable management of the clothing
related waste and the impact of the same. The process that has been recommended by ISO in
terms of operations. The process would be monitored from the beginning of the lifecycle of the
product. The process will start from the point of the manufacture of the product, throughout the
stages of the supply chain, use of the product, recycling at the recycling facility and offering for
recycle.
Estimated weight
The estimated weight of the recycled product and that of the original products would be
similar with approximate differences. The materials that are needed for the production of the
clothing items include materials such as linen, wool, silk, leather, denim, polyester and other
colouring agents. The following is the representation of the materials needed for the production

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of the clothes. It should be noted that since the products would be subject for reuse, the weight of
the individual items that are presented in a tabular format would remain similar.
Materials Weight in grams in terms of volume g/cubic
m
Linen 120
Wool 143
Silk 160
Leather 1500
Denim 1020
Polyester 130
Colouring agents 60mg
Table: Colouring agents and weightage
(Source: As created by the author)
Functional Unit
The functional unit is the definition of the service in terms of its compatibility in terms of
environmental performance (Vargo and Lusch 2014). It determines the actual implication of the
service and the viability of the solution and its environmental performance. The services of
recycled products helps in reducing the issues that are associated with the lack of storage space
and also caters to the problem of waste accumulation. The purpose of the service is to contribute
to the sustainability of the environment. Most of the components of discarded products that are
non-biodegradable and have the adverse effect if they are left to rot. It also a way to provide
clothing options for the people of the community who are not privileged with the ability to afford
clothes.

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Material Flow Diagram
Since the actual service as well as the alternatives of the service are similar products, the
material flow diagram of the original service and that of the alternatives would be same;
Figure: Material flow diagram
Impact analysis
Recycling of the clothing is deemed to be the activity that has the least amount of
environmental impacts. Reusing and recycling will help in the reducing the accumulation of the
materials that would have accumulated and would have caused adverse environmental impacts.
Disposing the wastes on the landfills would contribute to the accumulation of wastes that the
environment is already subject to. This contributes to the degradation of the environment and
releases hazardous substances to the nature that degrades the quality of the environment (Jain et

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al. 2017). Even though incineration of the clothing material would help in terms of reducing the
problem of accumulation, it would lead to generation of toxic materials which would contribute
to the depletion of the quality of the air, thus, causing air pollution.
Hotspot identification
During the life cycle of the service, regardless of the fact that it is being recycled or
dumped or incinerated, processing of the materials, followed by the use of the materials have the
highest amount of impact on the environment. The above are the stages leads to generation of the
hazardous components that can cause hazardous implications to the environment. In order to
ensure that the hazardous effects of the same on the environment, the use of hazardous and toxic
substances for the production of the materials which ultimately lead to the generation of the
adverse effect to the environment.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be said that regardless the nature of the process that is
employed, there are adverse effects to the environment in a greater or a smaller degree. The
nature of materials that are used for production of the materials and the methods that is employed
to discard the product determine the adverse effects that the environment is subject to. Recycling
is the best option that is available. The latter helps in reduction of accumulation of the hazardous
materials and helps in reducing the degradation of the quality of the environment. The best
method that can be employed is the use of material that have the least impact of the environment
which can help in reducing the adverse effect that the nature will be subject to.

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REFERENCES
Ekström, K.M. and Salomonson, N., 2014. Reuse and recycling of clothing and textiles—A
network approach. Journal of Macromarketing, 34(3), pp.383-399.
Hombert, J. and Matray, A., 2018. Can innovation help US manufacturing firms escape import
competition from China?. The Journal of Finance, 73(5), pp.2003-2039.
Jain, P., Jain, A., Singhai, R. and Jain, S., 2017. Effect of bio-degradation and non degradable
substances in environment. International journal of life sciences, 1(1), pp.58-64.
Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F., 2014. Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. In The
Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing (pp. 21-46). Routledge.
Waste, F.H., 2018. Hazardous waste management.

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Energy Efficiency
Executive summary
It has been found out that with the increase in the population, the number of people opting for
electrical appliances have increased. A special trend in the consumer buying behaviour regarding
the purchase of air conditioners has been witnessed as a result of which the consumption of
electricity is increasing. Generation of electricity results in the emission of carbon into the
atmosphere. The aim of the paper is to critically analyse the use of air conditioners, the
generation of electricity and the measures of carbon that it releases, along with the adjudgement
of the environmental implications of the same.

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Introduction
The increase in the use of electronic appliance has been recently going through the boom
phase just as the population of Australia and rest of the world. The use of electronic appliances
such as Air Conditioners, lighting devices and bulbs of various kinds as well as various other
peripherals such as televisions, computers, heaters, refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines
and various other electronic appliances leads to the decomposition to the generation of
tremendous energy load that the households are subject to (Sioshansi 2014). Furthermore, it has
been identified that the use of such peripherals lead to adverse environmental effects that deplete
the natural resources and leads to various emissions that degrade the quality of the environment
as a whole. The aim of the paper is to identify the various implications that the use of Air
Conditioners have on the environment along with a method to mitigate the issues.
Costs and energy consumption
The cost of air conditioners range from $700 to $2700. The price of the air conditioners
depend on the aim the capacity of the air conditioners (Ali, Lenzen and Huang 2018). It also
depends on the star rating of the air conditioner. While air conditioners that are meant for bigger
rooms are higher, the cost of air conditioners of lesser capacity are comparatively lower than the
latter. The star rating of air conditioners determine the energy consumption and the energy
efficiency of the air conditioners. With the increase in the number of people purchasing air
conditioners, the energy consumption that is contributed to the air conditioner is on the verge of
increase.
Following is the representation of information regarding the usage of split and window
air conditioners based on the weights and efficiency rating of the air conditioners. The weights of
the air conditioners are from 0.8 tons up to 2 tons. The efficiency rating that has been presented

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includes 2 star rated air conditioners to 5 star rated air conditioners. The energy consumption has
been presented in Watts/ Hr.
Figure: Energy consumption in Watts/Hr., cooling capacity, efficiency rating and weight
Sources of energy
The main energy source of electricity that is needed to power the air conditioners is electricity
(Kenny et al. 2018). There are various sources for generation of electricity. Some of the most
common sources of electricity are fossil fuels such as natural gas, petrol and coal. Other sources
of energy are nuclear power, energy generated by steam and hydro powered turbines, wind and
solar generated power (Mwasilu et al. 2014). The use of renewable sources such as solar power,
wind and hydro and steam turbine generation of energy has the least adverse environmental
impacts and it can be said they are the most preferred types of generation of energy. However,

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the use of sources such as petrol, natural gas and coal not only deplete the sources of energy, the
also lead to harmful emissions that degrade the quality of the environment and causes severe
pollution. It was found out that the carbon emissions of Australia as a result of generation of
electricity amounted to 1.03 kg CO2 emission per 1 kilowatt hour of electricity (Wilson et al.
2014). The emission factor for the selected state that is New South Wales and the Australian
Capital Territory is 0.83 (Environment.gov.au 2019). There are various organisations in the
country that promote the use of energy efficient sources. It is the aim of the organisations to cater
to the needs of the environment, in terms of saving energy. The energy efficiency council, eco-
save Australia and energy future Australia are the various organisations that contribute with the
help of sustainable initiatives that help in the mitigation of issues that are associated with
conservation and efficient usage of energy (Filippini, Hunt and Zorić 2014).
Mitigation methods
There are several methods that can be applied to solve the issues related to the generation
of carbon or other hazardous outputs in the environment and for the purpose of conservation of
the fossil fuels. Since, the main issue is with the use of electricity that leads to depletion of the
natural resources and the fossil fuels and carbon emissions into the environment. Thus, by
controlling the amount of energy that is consumed by the appliances, nature of the problems can
be reduced or partially mitigated. By setting timers to the air conditioners, by checking the usage
when the rooms are not occupied and by spreading awareness against the excessive usage of the
same, the grave matter of the problem can be contributed to. There are automatic features that
turn off the air conditioners after period of long use. It should be coupled by manual switching
off of the air conditioners which could be achieved by spreading awareness for the same.

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Conclusion
The best method that can be applied for mitigation of the issues related to the generation and
emission of carbon and reduction of the usage of electricity can be catered to by identification of
the issues associated with the generation awareness against the excessive consumption of
electricity. The costs that are associated with powering of the air conditioners are on the verge of
increase, hence, by curtailing the use of air conditioners, considerable amount of electricity can
be saved which would result in the decrease of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Accordingly, the costs associated with air conditioners will also be reduced. Hence, on a
concluding note, it can be said that awareness is considered the gateway to the solution of the
issues related to the generation of emissions that the nature is subject to.

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REFERENCES
Ali, S.M.H., Lenzen, M. and Huang, J., 2018. Shifting air-conditioner load in residential
buildings: benefits for low-carbon integrated power grids. IET Renewable Power
Generation, 12(11), pp.1314-1323.
Environment.gov.au, 2019. [online] Environment.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/5a169bfb-f417-4b00-9b70-
6ba328ea8671/files/national-greenhouse-accounts-factors-july-2017.pdf [Accessed 28 May
2019].
Filippini, M., Hunt, L.C. and Zorić, J., 2014. Impact of energy policy instruments on the
estimated level of underlying energy efficiency in the EU residential sector. Energy policy, 69,
pp.73-81.
Kenny, T.A., Hu, X.F., Kuhnlein, H.V., Wesche, S.D. and Chan, H.M., 2018. Dietary sources of
energy and nutrients in the contemporary diet of Inuit adults: results from the 2007–08 Inuit
Health Survey. Public health nutrition, 21(7), pp.1319-1331.
Mwasilu, F., Justo, J.J., Kim, E.K., Do, T.D. and Jung, J.W., 2014. Electric vehicles and smart
grid interaction: A review on vehicle to grid and renewable energy sources
integration. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 34, pp.501-516.
Sioshansi, F.P., 2014. Distributed generation and its implications for the utility industry.
Academic Press.
Wilson, S.A., Harrison, A.L., Dipple, G.M., Power, I.M., Barker, S.L., Mayer, K.U., Fallon, S.J.,
Raudsepp, M. and Southam, G., 2014. Offsetting of CO2 emissions by air capture in mine

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tailings at the Mount Keith Nickel Mine, Western Australia: Rates, controls and prospects for
carbon neutral mining. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 25, pp.121-140.