Environmental Management for Sustainable Development: EIA & Tools

This report provides a comprehensive overview of environmental management for sustainable development, focusing on environmental impact assessments (EIA) and the application of soft tools. It summarizes key learnings from the article 'Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil,' examining how Australia is addressing environmental challenges. The report details the steps required to obtain project approval involving EIA in Queensland, including identifying environmental values, developing terms of reference, and public notification. It also addresses common pitfalls in EIA practice, such as cost-benefit analysis and impact prediction, suggesting solutions like thorough fieldwork and governmental oversight. Furthermore, the report includes a sample environmental impact assessment for water quality monitoring in Queensland, outlining the process from activity proposal to mitigation strategies. Finally, it briefly mentions the use of soft tools to control packaging reduction.

Running head: Environmental Management for Sustainable Development
Environmental Management for Sustainable Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 1
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Answer 1: Key summary in terms of limit to growth................................................................2
Answer 2: Steps to obtain approval for a project in Queensland:..............................................4
Answer 3: The ways to overcome the pitfalls of EIA:...............................................................5
Answer 4: A report on the environmental impact assessment:..................................................6
Answer 5: A strategy to control reduction of packaging by using soft tools...........................10
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................11
Reference list:...........................................................................................................................12

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 2
Introduction:
The assessment aims at discussing the sustainable environmental approaches
undertaken by the various industries or sectors in Australia. The prediction of the degrading
impact on environment due to human activities was recorded in history from time to time and
so, it became equally important to combat against those activities. This assessment is based
on the discussion of the different aspects of EIA.
Answer 1: Key summary in terms of limit to growth
In the article, ‘Revisiting the limits to growth after peak oil’ the author discussed on
the environmental impact of the human activities that have resulted major changes in the
climate and biodiversity. There has been a considerable decrease in the world reservoir of oil,
as commonly referred to as “peak oil”1. The reading states that our thoughts are strongly
influenced by the view-points of the ecologists and the computer scientists who points out
that technology can easily bring changes in the limits to growth and even the notion towards
the limit to the growth are found to be invalid. The ecologists are found to divert their
discussion from the ability of the nature to produce resources and the other threats to the
biosphere and biodiversity and focused on the advent of technology to overcome these
challenges. The idea or the theory of limit to growth has received major criticism as the world
is still not deprived of the major resources and bio-fuel.
Australians are tackling these issues without undertaking any certain measures to
overcome the issues. There have been no changes in the transportation system or the means
of food production. All these activities are majorly energy derived and in fact these would
come to cease without the fuel or petroleum. The complaints on the limited supply of
1 [4]C. Hall and J. Day, "Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil", American Scientist, vol. 97, no. 3, p.
230, 2009.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 3
gasoline still existed since the beginning of the 1970s2. However, it has been found that the
Australians are coming up with several awareness campaign and authoritative strategies to
reduce the excessive use of natural resources. These awareness campaigns to some extent are
helping Australians to understand the severity of the issue. People have been shifting their
regular activities in order to reduce the usage of natural fuels. Australians have been found to
use electric cars or robots that drive on battery and this is a step towards not using petroleum
of fossil fuels.
2 [1]"Tackling wicked problems : A public policy perspective | Australian Public Service
Commission", Apsc.gov.au, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.apsc.gov.au/tackling-wicked-problems-
public-policy-perspective. [Accessed: 22- Sep- 2018].

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 4
Answer 2: Steps to obtain approval for a project in Queensland:
The development project of the Environmental Assessment process involves the
preparation of the initial environmental examination. Followed by this, the site clearance
issuance is released. The preparation of the Times of Reference is done after that and
depending on it, the draft report of EIA is submitted along with the report of environmental
management and the consequent monitoring plan.
The steps involved in obtaining the approval for a project in Australia to overcome the
environmental issues in Queensland can be stated as below:
1. Identification of the environmental values and to propose the same promises that
would be found during the assessment of the environment3.
2. The terms of references are to be developed to assist the development of the proposed
project. The same draft needs to be made available within 30 business days for the
review of public as well as other stakeholders.
3. The department can then come with a guide that would contain all kinds of
environmental impact as a result of the introduction of the said policy.
4. After the policies are specified, the same has to be brought to the Public Notices.
These public notices are to be made available in various public and government
websites. In fact, the notice can be placed in the particular department website or in
the newspaper as well4.
5. This is done so as to make the information available to the people of the state at any
point of time.
3 [2]D. Dizdaroglu, "Developing micro-level urban ecosystem indicators for sustainability
assessment", Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 54, pp. 119-124, 2015.
4 [3]"Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) processes (Department of Environment and
Science)", Ehp.qld.gov.au, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/management/impact-
assessment/. [Accessed: 23- Sep- 2018].

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 5
Answer 3: The ways to overcome the pitfalls of EIA:
The practitioners are often found to face challenges while practicing their part of the
environmental impact assessment. The most common issue that arise at any point of time is
the Cost-Benefit analysis in order to make sure that the project is made within the stipulated
cost. In order to overcome this issue, it can be suggested to conduct a high level field work in
order to ensure that the cost involved in the process of EIA can make valuable contribution
towards the development of the knowledge of the environment, society and the economic
condition as well5. Apart from this, prediction of the impact of the EIA is another pitfall that
the practitioners often have to face. It is difficult to ascertain or predict the likely
consequences of a proposed idea and at times, the process is carried out by the means of
informal method depending on one’s experience and analogy. However, there is no surety on
the success of the project and the design and the implementation plan might fail depending on
various situation. In order to overcome this pitfall, it is important that proper monitoring of
the plan takes place. Moreover, the decision of a plan should be approved by a higher
governmental body and then they should be permitted to carry on with the project.
Other pitfalls of the process of EIA can include the situation where the people in a
community might lose its living standard of the environment because of the excessive
industrial development. In order to ensure that this does not degrade the living standard of the
people, it is important to set up defined regulatory measures and the roles of the agencies
should be made more rigid6. It has to be ensured that a balanced sustainable development
process is carried on without actually hampering the environment where the people live.
5 [5]D. Agol, A. Latawiec and B. Strassburg, "Evaluating impacts of development and conservation projects
using sustainability indicators: Opportunities and challenges", Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol.
48, pp. 1-9, 2014.
6 [6]S. Ajmal Khan, "Tools for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Using Diversity Indices", Vingnanam
Journal of Science, vol. 12, no. 1-2, p. 1, 2017

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 6
Answer 4: A report on the environmental impact assessment:
Introduction:
The proposed environmental impact assessment is based on monitoring the quality of
water in most of the communities in Queensland. In addition to this, the issues related to
water harvesting shall also be highlighted. The report describes the step by step process to be
followed while carrying out the assessment.
Description of the process:
Phase 1 of the EIA process:
Understanding the proposed activity:
Why the activity is being proposed: The reason behind this activity is that there have
been considerable issues with respect to the judicial usage of water in many regions of
Queensland. In fact, several issues have been identified in case of irrigation water. As per the
environmental Protection (Water) policy 2009, it is important to consider the values of the
surface water within a projected area and the factors that can affect the usage of water by
humans7. There has to be a standard that needs to be followed in order to make the water
potable for the human consumption. Apart from consumption, there are certain sets of quality
that is required for other purposes like daily construction or other operations.
What is being proposed: It is being proposed that the quality of water will be tested
and it would be found out if the same quality of water is appropriate for the various uses. In
doing so, a particular standard of the quality of water has to be taken into consideration. In
fact, in order to understand the issues faced by the local people of a community, a survey can
7 [7]F. Wikström, K. Verghese, R. Auras, A. Olsson, H. Williams, R. Wever, K. Grönman, M. Kvalvåg
Pettersen, H. Møller and R. Soukka, "Packaging Strategies That Save Food: A Research Agenda for
2030", Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2018.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 7
be conducted. This would give a clearer picture of the whole issue and can help to come up
with easier measures to overcome the issue.
Screening the activity:
In order to ensure that the quality of water is good for human to use either for
consumption or for any other reason, it is important to measure its quality by various
scientific means. This might include testing the pH level of the water. This activity is of low
risk level and does not involve any activities that are likely to have significant adverse effect
of the environment8. For this, there should be significant questions raised on understanding
the issue and its impact on the people. For example, the water in a particular region can be
contaminated for various reasons like due to the discharge of polluted water into the water
bodies or by the mixing of hazardous chemicals. In fact, there might take place such situation
where the government did not spend adequate effort in terms of protecting the water bodies.
These situations need better screening and monitoring at the same time.
The Preliminary assessment:
It is only on the basis of the screening, the preliminary assessment has to be carried
on. The assessments could include the significant understanding of the nature of the aquifers,
the geology of the place to understand the depth and the width of the aquifer. It is important
to determine the depth of the water in order to ensure the quality of the water because water
at different levels of ground has different characteristics and quality of water. In addition to
the survey of the quality of water, it is important conduct a survey to understand the various
means of using the water9. This is equally important so as to understand the percentage of
8 [8]N. Mahalik, "Advances in Packaging Methods, Processes and Systems", Challenges, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 374-
389, 2014.
9 [9]N. Arora, "Environmental Sustainability—necessary for survival", Environmental Sustainability, vol. 1, no.
1, pp. 1-2, 2018.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 8
water used for various purposes. The quality of water can actually be compromised for the
different needs of water.
Mitigation:
The implementation of the different measures is important in order to ensure that the
undesirable impact on the environment can be reduced to certain extent. This is called
mitigation. In order to make sure that the water supplied in the community is of good quality
and is appropriate for the various activities, it is important to set certain measures that would
ensure that the water is fit for consumption or other uses. There has to be a regulatory body
that shall be responsible to monitor the various instances of the resource.
To arrive at findings:
Identification of potential impacts: It is expected that by the means of the monitoring the
quality of water, the significant result can be gained. Poor quality of water can lead to various
issues in terms of health related issues of people or the significant degradation of the crops or
other things where water is being used10.
Predicting the impact: The negative impact of this situation can lead to critical situations
among humans
Significance of the potential impact: Water is the most important component of the human
life and any kind of negative impact on this resource can be equally harmful for the
environment and thus, it is important to think of ways to mitigate the issue.
Phase 2 of the EIA process:
Informing the people:
10 [10]M. Thornbush, "Physical Geography and Environmental Sustainability", Sustainability, vol. 9, no. 12, p.
2195, 2017.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 9
Phase 2 is involved with informing the public about the significant measures to
undertake in order to overcome the environmental issues. There should be announcement of
the particular intervention among the public, so that they become aware of the issue and at
the same time can participate in the activities of overcoming the issue. For this, the
community can be made aware by different awareness program using direct and indirect
communication channels.
Sponsorship of the program:
It is expected that the sponsorship of the program is to be done by the regulatory
authority or the government, but a part of the sponsorship can be also made available from
the local public of the particular community. If the intention behind the program is
disseminated in a positive note, it is expected that the required sponsorship can be easily
gained from various bodies or authorities11. However, there has to be transparency in the
accessibility of the resources and the stakeholders should be responsible for all the activities
involved in the process.
Conclusion:
It is expected that if the process is followed properly and the message is forwarded to
the people clearly, it can be expected that the outcome of the sustainability approach will be
positive. The issue of the water contamination or related to harvesting can be easily
overcome.
11 [11]N. Pouw and J. Gupta, "Editorial overview: Sustainability science", Current Opinion in Environmental
Sustainability, vol. 24, p. iv-vi, 2017.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 10
Answer 5: A strategy to control reduction of packaging by using soft tools
By thorough optimisation of the packaging system, sustainability can be reached by
various means. Better packaging can help to avoid or reduce the wastage of food. It is
important to facilitate the safety of the consumption by the means of packaging but it has
already been found that poor packaging can also result in the degradation of the environment
and can in fact lead to other situation that are not sustainable. For instance, a lot of food is
wasted by the means of supply chain that ultimately results in the economic downturn. The
packaging function also helps in overcoming the issues of microbial action or the degrading
condition of the food due to temperature or climate. However, it is equally harmful at certain
instances. Food packages that include plastic, fibres, starch based films or poly lactide acid
actually causes harm to the environment by various means as they have small threshold and
can easily react with the soil or the environment12.
In order to overcome these issues, nanotechnology based packaging that is concerned
with the manipulation of the micro fibres can be used as a packaging substance. These
chemical substances can be considered as soft tools used to overcome the issue of packaging
as a sustainability approach. It is important to consider sustainability and create awareness on
the safety and security of the environment. It is not only that the packaging industry should
be asked to use the particular material for the packaging of the product, but it is equally
important that the users are also made aware on the degrading condition of the environment
due to the constant activities of using poor quality materials like plastic for the purpose of
packaging. It is recommended that stainless steel can be used for the packaging purpose that
would prevent the growth of the micro-organisms. It is highly recommended that the
government body comes up with certain protocols to ensure that the packaging of the food
12 [12]Challenges Editorial Office, "Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Challenges in 2014", Challenges, vol. 6,
no. 1, pp. 1-2, 2015.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 11
has been done correctly and that the materials used are not harmful for the environment or for
the human.
Conclusion:
The assessment dealt with the various aspects of sustainability and environmental
management. Various instances have been put forward in the discussion that talked about the
environmental aspect of sustainability. In the recent time, sustainability has become a major
challenge and it is only in our hand to overcome the issues and come up with better ideas.
However, it is equally important that strict guidelines are being followed in order to ensure
that the rules and regulations of protecting the environment are being followed.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 12
Reference list:
[1]"Tackling wicked problems : A public policy perspective | Australian Public Service
Commission", Apsc.gov.au, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.apsc.gov.au/tackling-
wicked-problems-public-policy-perspective. [Accessed: 22- Sep- 2018].
[2]D. Dizdaroglu, "Developing micro-level urban ecosystem indicators for sustainability
assessment", Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 54, pp. 119-124, 2015.
[3]"Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) processes (Department of Environment and
Science)", Ehp.qld.gov.au, 2018. [Online]. Available:
https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/management/impact-assessment/. [Accessed: 23- Sep- 2018].
[4]C. Hall and J. Day, "Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil", American Scientist,
vol. 97, no. 3, p. 230, 2009.
[5]D. Agol, A. Latawiec and B. Strassburg, "Evaluating impacts of development and
conservation projects using sustainability indicators: Opportunities and
challenges", Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 48, pp. 1-9, 2014.
[6]S. Ajmal Khan, "Tools for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Using Diversity
Indices", Vingnanam Journal of Science, vol. 12, no. 1-2, p. 1, 2017.
[7]F. Wikström, K. Verghese, R. Auras, A. Olsson, H. Williams, R. Wever, K. Grönman, M.
Kvalvåg Pettersen, H. Møller and R. Soukka, "Packaging Strategies That Save Food: A
Research Agenda for 2030", Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2018.
[8]N. Mahalik, "Advances in Packaging Methods, Processes and Systems", Challenges, vol.
5, no. 2, pp. 374-389, 2014.

Environmental Management for Sustainable Development 13
[9]N. Arora, "Environmental Sustainability—necessary for survival", Environmental
Sustainability, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-2, 2018.
[10]M. Thornbush, "Physical Geography and Environmental Sustainability", Sustainability,
vol. 9, no. 12, p. 2195, 2017.
[11]N. Pouw and J. Gupta, "Editorial overview: Sustainability science", Current Opinion in
Environmental Sustainability, vol. 24, p. iv-vi, 2017.
[12]Challenges Editorial Office, "Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Challenges in
2014", Challenges, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-2, 2015.