Clean Technology

What is Clean Technology?

Products, services or processes that reduce waste and require the minimum amount of non-renewable resources.
Clean technology includes:
- Recycling
- Renewable energy
  - Wind power
  - Solar power
  - Biomass
  - Hydropower
  - Biofuels
- Information technology
- Green transportation
- Electric motors
- Green chemistry
- Lighting
- Greywater

The drivers that are the factors or motivations that push companies to make their production processes cleaner, safer, and more sustainable.
The use of international targets for reducing pollution and waste and the difficulties of getting nations to agree to the targets.
How legislation provides an impetus (the power) to manufacturers to clean up manufacturing processes and also how manufacturers react to legislation.
How this legislation is monitored and policed and how it can be promoted for manufacturers.
Approaches for cleaning up manufacturing and the advantages and disadvantages of incremental and radical solutions.
End-of-pipe technologies and systems-level solutions.

Drivers for cleaning up manufacturing include:

Environmental regulations
- Governments set laws and limits on emissions, waste, and resource use.
Environmental changes
- Ecosystem pollution
- Global warming.
Consumer demand
- Customers increasingly prefer eco-friendly and ethically made products.
Economic benefits
- Using less energy and materials saves money and increases efficiency.
Corporate image and social responsibility
- Companies want to appear responsible and sustainable to attract investors and customers.
Technological innovation
- New cleaner technologies make sustainable production easier and cheaper.
Pressure from stakeholders
- NGOs, investors, and media push companies to reduce environmental impact.
Resource scarcity
- Limited natural resources force manufacturers to find more efficient or renewable alternatives.

The legislation for reducing pollution often focuses on the output and therefore, end-of-pipe technologies.
By implementing ideas from the circular economy, pollution is negated and waste is eliminated.
As our Earth's resources are slowly depleted, demand for energy worldwide should be on every designer's mind when generating products, systems and services.

Technology that is used to reduce pollutants and waste at the end of a process.
The convergence of environmental, technological, economic, and social factors will produce more energy-efficient technologies that will be less reliant on obsolete, polluting technologies.

Technical measures for reactive environmental protection such as filtering plants and wastewater treatment plants which serve to contain emissions (exhaust gases, wastewater, noise), pollutants and other polluting substances which have already occurred or arisen, or to render them controllable or disposable.

Advantages include:
- Relies on proven existing technologies
Disadvantages include:
- Usually expensive and they only become effective when damage has already occurred.
  - For example they can only clean up problematic materials after they have occurred.

Solutions that are implemented to deal with the whole system, rather than just components.
A more meaningful, and potentially less expensive approach is to consider the potential to reduce the environmental impact of a product when it is being developed in order to avoid such impacts from the outset.

Changes in the environment, technology, economy, and society will lead to the creation of energy-efficient technologies.
These new technologies will replace old ones that pollute the environment.

Advantages include:
- System level solutions are implemented to deal with the whole system, rather than just components.
Disadvantages include:
- System level solutions can require more R&D costs to develop and more time and financial means to implement, since entire production methods have to be revised.

Products which are improved and developed over time leading to new versions and generations.
Small steps towards a larger goal.
- For example installing LED lighting to reduce energy use and heat waste.

Advantages include:
- No need to invest in large changes to processes, technology, personnel or approaches
- Respond to aspects of legislation quickly and efficiently
- Follow the lead of others without investing in R&D
Disadvantages include:
Manufacturers might need to make small changes on a more frequent basis
The small changes might not fulfil the requirements of the legislation.

Where a completely new product is devised by going back to the roots of a problem and thinking about a solution in a different way.
Could make a great and sudden impact to how ‘clean’ a company is but this can also be very costly.
- One example of a radical solution might be to install solar panels to provide power.

Advantages include:
- Companies can benefit from an improved reputation.
- Sometimes radical approaches are required to respond to drastic legislation.
- Might overall be a cheaper solution.
Disadvantages include:
- Radical solutions sometimes require R&D
- Can involve investment in personnel, training, technologies, equipment
- Untried methods are not risk-free