A Report on Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production in Western Australia

This research paper examines the application of eco-efficiency and cleaner production practices in Western Australia. It details the four phases of implementation: groundwork, experimentation, roll-out, and reorientation, starting in 1996. The report highlights the environmental issues facing WA, including human settlements, water consumption, land clearing, soil erosion, and global warming. It also discusses the success of cleaner production initiatives in the Kwinana Industrial Area, challenges encountered, and the role of industrial symbiosis and supply chain management. The study concludes by evaluating the impact of the program and identifying barriers to sustainable behavior, emphasizing the importance of Community Based Social Marketing in reinforcing employee participation.

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RESEARCH PAPER ON ECO-EFFICIENCY AND CLEANER PRODUCTION IN WA
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ABSTRACT
This research paper is about the current state of application of eco-efficiency and cleaner
production practices in the Western Australian region. Cleaner production is a preventive and an
environmental protection initiative for a specific company that is intended to reduce emissions
and waste and optimize the output of the product. The four major steps that were implemented in
the Western Australia region to ensure a cleaner production and eco-efficiency started in 1996
and was basically categorized into four periods, namely the groundwork phase, experimentation
phase, roll-out phase, and reorientation phase. The impacts of the implementation of cleaner
production and eco-efficiency was later observed in the Kwinana Industrial Area, situated at the
end of Perth Metropolitan area and is known to be a heavy industrial area since the region has
power stations, cement plants, chemical, oil refineries, nickel, and alumina which showed an
impressive performance in terms of cleaner production.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production 3
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4
Profile of Western Australia....................................................................................................................4
Environmental Issues...............................................................................................................................5
Steps towards Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production.............................................................................7
Groundwork........................................................................................................................................7
Experimentation..................................................................................................................................8
Roll-out................................................................................................................................................9
Reorientation.....................................................................................................................................10
Cleaner Production Success...................................................................................................................10
Challenges and Barriers.........................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................12
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................................................13

Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production 4
INTRODUCTION
This research paper is about the current state of application of eco-efficiency and cleaner
production practices and majorly focuses on the profile of the Western Australian region,
potential benefits of cleaner production of the region, cleaner production success stories,
challenges and barriers faced, and description of environmental issues in WA. The selected
region for this report is Western Australia which has successfully developed and implemented
eco-efficiency and cleaner production through four phases, reorientation, roll-out,
experimentation, and groundwork. The completion of the National Cleaner Production
Demonstration Project in Australia in 1995 resulted in the development is a national agenda for
the execution of cleaner production (Berkel, 2007).
Western Australia was not part of this program due to the dominant disagreement between
environment and business regulators which prevented efficient input by stakeholder and also
cleaner production did not impact an easy consensus with prevailing agricultural, energy,
mining, and minerals industries particular its roots in the industries dealing in manufacturing.
During the launching of the National Framework in 1998, there was no sign of cleaner
production programs in Western Australia. It was until in 1996 that WA started the major cleaner
production developments in the region (Berkel, 2007).
Profile of Western Australia
This region is the largest state that is sub-national globally, with a population of less than 2
million (approximately 10% of the total Australia population) and an area of 2.5 million km2 (this
is a third of the entire continent of Australia) (FINCHER, 2011). Perth Metropolitan is highly
concentrated and carried about 75% of the total population of Western Australia. This region is
secluded from the rest of the continent by highly arid and desert land, which over millions of
decades has resulted into the development of varied and unique seascapes and landscapes

Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production 5
providing support to a substantial number of biodiversity or fauna and flora. This region
generates approximately 25% of the total export earnings to Australia and 12% of the total factor
income to Australia (Shafiullah & Selvanathan, 2017). The economy of WA heavily relies on
three factors, namely agriculture, minerals and metals, and also electrical energy (Robinson, et
al., 2015).
The region traditionally kept sheep and wheat and diversified recently into aquaculture,
viticulture, and horticulture. The metals and minerals mined in this region include mineral sands
and bauxite on the coastal plains of South West, nickel and gold (185700kg) in the Goldfields,
diamonds (30 million carats) and offshore sand (180 million tonnes) in the far north. Even
though a diverse and significant cleaner production experience had been implemented by the
mid-1990s, there was no such evidence that there could be an implementation of CP in these
major sectors of Western Australia economy (Horsley, 2013).
Environmental Issues
Western Australia has been experiencing a significant issue both in its marine and land areas as
well as numerous of these interconnected problems. Human settlements are one of the major
environmental issues facing WA especially around the Perth Metropolitan Area, These
settlements influence the natural environment since they use more resources and produce more
wastes. The consumption of domestic water has significantly risen over the past 20 years due to
the increasing population. The primary energy consumption in WA has also increased per head
by 37%. The loss of woodland cover and tees continue to change terrestrial landscapes and high
levels of economic activities such as mining adversely affect the marine environment. This
problem is partial as a result of the rising use of natural resources caused by increased population
(Schoknecht, 2015).

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The environmental issues of land clearing and soil erosion are also present especially in mining
regions of WA. In case measures of protective mining are not taken into consideration both
ground and surface water can be contaminated by waste chemicals which are harmful to the
environment. These harmful chemicals include arsenic, sulphuric acid, and mercury. The coal
industry, which is known to be active extremely in WA, has numerous environmental issues
attached such as large quantities of air-borne and solid waste. Water degradation and dryland
salinity are associated closely with the clearance of land. The soils of WA have been
accumulating salts for many decades, most probably blown to the landscape from the seas
(Wrachien, 2017).
Previously, the vegetation and trees soaked up the rainfall hence keeping the level of sault at a
level that is manageable. After some duration, with the destruction of flora, there will be an
increase in the quantity of groundwater through drainage and this activates the salts kept in the
soil resulting in salinity. Salinity affects birds, fish, and crops relying on rivers and wetlands.
Global warming is also a major environmental issue facing WA. Previous study has shown that
the surface of the earth is warming gradually with WA having 0.8% average temperatures since
the commencement of the 20th century. Global warming is majorly caused by the increase in the
level of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions concentration and their impact on the
surface of the earth. WA farmers have in the past experienced the combined effects of severe
bushfires, longer drought, less rainfall, warmer temperatures, and El Nino weather patterns
(Riedy & Herriman, 2011).

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Steps towards Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production
The historical account of the major cleaner production and eco-efficiency developments started
in 1996 and was basically categorized into four periods, namely the groundwork stage,
experimentation stage, roll-out stage, and reorientation stage (Berkel, 2007).
Groundwork
In 1993, the recycling blueprint was released and its major principles were to identify the most
appropriate and practical recycling and waste reduction strategy to half landfilling by the year
2000. The industrial waste minimization was also part of the Blueprint although its emphasis on
diversion of waste from landfill. The WA government also started a risk assessment on industrial
environment with the aim of protecting the water bodies such as groundwater and Swan River.
The program targeted 522 light industries between 1997 and 1999 and found widespread and
significant extensive shortages in general environmental awareness, storm and wastewater
management, waste management, and chemical storage. Despite the fact that the program did not
mention precisely cleaner production, the entire intention of the recommendations was to
promote the implementation of environmental strategies for prevention by light industries
(Sivakumar, 2013).
The waste recycling and management fund was implemented and delivered the initial two grants
in the category of cleaner production. This step towards the implementation of cleaner
production was finished with an international workshop on Eco-Efficiency in 1999. The invited
stakeholders included facilitated local industries, community and government audience and they
came to the conclusion that eco-efficiency and cleaner production were all achievable (Davis,
2014).

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Experimentation
A practical approach was advocated in WA to consider cleaner production and eco-efficiency as
a corresponding concept with cleaner production concentrating on the operational side of the
production or business and eco-efficiency concentrating on the strategic side of the organization.
The development of content and program by different agencies between 1999 and 2002 resulted
in a prolonged strategy. The supply strategy focused on building managerial, technical, and
operational capability in the business to implement and assess the opportunities or cleaner
production through site technical assistance, professional development, and information
dissemination (Engelbrecht, et al., 2013).
Figure 1: The concept of cleaner production (Berkel, 2007)
The demand strategy was aimed at influencing the environment of operation in the business to
augment and elicit incentives for cleaner production and manage and identify its barriers through
competition, conformance, and compliance (Mulligan, 2014)

Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production 9
Roll-out
The challenged encountered at this stage was scaling-up the program so as success could be
attained for larger numbers of businesses with substantial effort in each business. The program
was advertised and supported widely through catchment groups, local governments, and industry
associations. The program of learning through sharing was also launched through policy forums,
news and alerting service, and practice seminars. Signatories committed themselves to
implement and develop a plan of action to implement cleaner production in their processes. The
actions taken by the signatories covered five sectors, namely research and development,
education and training, regulation, advocacy and policy, recognition, promotion and awareness,
and also implementation within own operations (Ravi, 2015).
Figure 2: Cleaner production strategy (Berkel, 2007)
Lobbying, policy, and networking signatory initiatives created a regulatory and policy conducive
environment to the implementation and consideration of cleaner production. Over the years the
environmental accreditation scheme evolved more into a capacity building and industry
associated environmental awareness program. There was also the implementation of new
initiatives during this rollout stage such as industrial symbiosis and supply chain management.
Industrial symbiosis entails community, organization, and businesses exchanges resources

Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production 10
wastage previously such as water, energy, and materials, for net environmental and competitive
advantage (Nawshad & Norgate, 2013).
Reorientation
In this stage, involved evaluating the impact of the program after its implementation into the
organization and also identification of barriers to sustainable behaviour among individuals with
respects to water and energy use habits, transport choices, waste segregation practices, and
purchasing decisions. This was made possible by the implementation of Community Based
Social Marketing which provided a prospect to reinforce the participation and involvement of
employees in measure towards good housekeeping like switching off office equipment and
lights, double-sided copying and printing, more mindful use of personal protective equipment,
and effective sorting of waste streams (Tabata, et al., 2018).
Cleaner Production Success
Following the implementation of the supply chain management after various seminars on this
topic in early 2003, there was a significant local capacity assessment which promoted cleaner
production in the industries such as cooking oil, beer, and bread. In Shenton Sustainability Park
was also established by the Western Australia Water Corporation with an aim of attracting
compatible business activities into buffer regions near Perth metropolitan known as the Subiaco
wastewater treatment plant, and use this as education on sustainable urban living, technology
transfer, an incubator for research. The project on an integrated wood processing pilot known as
Narrogin combined the integration of renewable energy production using wood crop, eucalypt,
and high-grade charcoal with the planting of Malee trees to fight salinity of dry-land (Haylea, et
al., 2017)

Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production 11
In 2001, research in the Kwinana Industrial Area, situated at the end of Perth Metropolitan area
and is known to be a heavy industrial area since the region has power stations, cement plants,
chemical, oil refineries, nickel, and alumina, showed an impressive performance in terms of
cleaner production. The study showed remarkable lists of about 100 potential and existing
synergies, as well as beneficial applications of inorganic waste streams selected, water reuse and
recovery schemes, exchange of industrial gases, and cogeneration plants. The cleaner production
uptake also resulted in a series of deviations in behaviour by different departments and
individuals in an organization. There was always someone in the business who secure staff
involvement in implementation, seek approval for implementation, seek the involvement of the
staff in evaluation and development of cleaner production options, convince the management to
change its behaviour, and take the lead to start considering cleaner production (Sivakumar,
2013).
Challenges and Barriers
During the experimentation stage, government and business expressed concern that the
terminology of Cleaner Production (CP) appeared cluttered and complication. A reasonable
tactic was consequently encouraged in Western Australia to view eco-efficiency and CP as a
complementary concept with cleaner production concentrating on the operational section of the
organization, and eco-efficiency concentrating on the strategic section of the organization.
Another major challenge that faced the enactment of EE and CP in Western Australia was how to
inspire more organizations to implement and consider EE and CP. This is a challenge majorly for
the contents and design of programs of CP and occurs basically for SME. There was also a
challenge of assisting the organization with demonstrated cleaner production obligation more
effectively in the implementation and identification of their best solution towards CP (Arceo, et
al., 2017).

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In the review of The Centre of Excellence in Cleaner Production (CECP) in, three pertinent
barriers were identified towards the greater implementation and consideration of cleaner
production, these include:
 Unstable nature of small organizations, including workforce and ownership.
 Low level to moderate environmental compliance and awareness, due to restricted
activities of enforcement on environmental regulations and comparatively low resource
and environmental use costs.
 Misunderstandings of the benefits and nature of CP caused by a narrow understanding of
the possible benefits aimed at the reduction of environmental risk (Fogarty & Mugera,
2013).
CONCLUSION
The uptake of cleaner production and eco-efficiency during the 1990s in Western Australia
seemed to have trailed behind during the uptake of these programs by the rest of Australia. This
was as a result of relative isolation and limited size of WA, local business-government
regulations, the supremacy of energy, agribusiness, and minerals sectors. An intensive effort to
clarify and define programs, strategies, and concepts resulted in an incredible growth of cleaner
production activities in a very short duration. The growth of eco-efficiency and cleaner
production in Western Australia started in 2004 due to external reasons such as eminent
shortages of power supplies and water in the region, drying up of funding support dedicated for
EE and CP programs, corporate social responsibility, sustainable technology, and greater rivalry
on the corporate sustainability agenda.

Eco-Efficiency and Cleaner Production 13
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