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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General
On September 1st 1996, ISO 14001 was published, worldwide. Written over five years in consultation with international industrial experts, non-governmental organizations and regulators, this environmental management systems standard will help organizations manage their impacts on the environment, no matter what their size, nature or location. The implications for the future are enormous. But what does the standard mean in the real world? What changes do managers have to make to accommodate its principles? What decisions need to be faced and when? Is it really going to make a difference or is it just another case of global greenwash? Will it be another missed opportunity for you, your organisation, or your market? At the start of what promises to be a worldwide explosion of interest in standardised EMSs, ISO 14001 and Beyond looks at their creation, their use, and their limitations, attempting to discover the essential truth about this important management tool and where it will take industry. ISO 14001 and Beyond assembles the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field to record their thoughts and experiences on the new standard, its advantages and disadvantages. The book is designed to provide the reader with enough information with which to form an opinion on the future, and how that will influence subsequent actions. It also provides reassurance that, although the problems are real, so are the solutions. ISO 14001 and Beyond gives you the opportunity to read what some of the best minds have made of the standard so far and what they think lies ahead. There are reports covering a global spectrum of concern: from the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, Germany, the UK, and more; from multinationals, small- and medium-sized enterprises, local government, universities and professional bodies. All this material is gathered together in one book to give you the best, most meaningful information for the crucial decisions that you will need to make in the coming months.
Here are the basics: the physics of sailing, the theory of sail, ship handling under sail and power, the diesel engine, electrics and electronic. Here is an introduction to navigation piloting, celestial, and electronic, the Nautical Almanac, the sextant, plotting, and a marvelous section called "Ten Easy Steps to Success with the Sun." This is an easy-to-understand, readable guide to what is needed to go to sea with confidence."
All industrial countries have developed regulatory systems to assess and manage the risk of chemical substances to the working and natural environment. The pressure to harmonize these often specialized regulatory systems is increasingly strong at the international level. Such harmonization not only entails the assessment of particular chemicals, but also the way assessment procedures and their boundary with risk management is organized. As these initiatives intensify, they increasingly raise important questions of how to integrate national differences in the international regulatory arena. How will national consultation procedures relate to international decision-making on chemical risks? How will differences in national risk assessment procedures be accommodated? How will the international regulatory system be integrated with different national styles of regulation and government? Presenting the experiences and insights of both people from within the worlds of risk assessment and management and from the field of Science Studies, this book forms a state-of-the-art in the discussion on the Politics of Chemical Risk. By offering scenarios, or sketches of a regulatory future, it points to the choices that can be made and the opportunities to be explored. As such, it offers an agenda for environmental and occupational scientists, policy-makers and students of science and technology alike.
Environmental conflicts are increasing in number and intensity, demanding new approaches to dispute resolution such as environmental mediation. This book contains the expertise of 28 specialists; stresses the need for mediated dispute resolution as an alternative to litigation; calls for a communitarian approach; explores conceptual foundations and conflicts resistant to mediation; and answers How do we know what we know? Addresses training mediators; discusses special problems of small communities, value of citizen participation, and EPA regulatory negotiation; explores ethics and social justice; and considers future challenges and issues confronting theory and practice. Case studies analyze nuclear waste siting, highway design, wilderness designation, field burning, and Environmental Impact Statement development. Intended for alternative dispute resolution practitioners, scholars, and citizen environmentalists. Authors provide insights from many academic disciplines and practical experience. Reed advocates creating sustainable communities; O'Leary calls for new research; Maida contends that law and economics offer viable perspectives; and Allen prescribes mediation training. Dworkin and Jordan contribute a teaching case; Klase addresses problems in rural areas; and the Burgesses offer steps to make difficult confrontations constructive. Clary and Hornney argue that prenegotiation and negotiation are essential; Richardson describes facilitated negotiation; and Bogdonoff explains negotiated rule-making in Maine. Stephens, Stephens, and Dukes suggest that ethical considerations are due the environment; Blackford and Matunga advise sensitivity to cultural differences; Ryan demonstrates the utility of conflict management by the EPA. Wood and Guy describe how local governments can achieve consensus; and Baird, Maughan, and Nilson offer reasons mediation failed in Idaho. Mangerich and Luton describe an urban-rural conflict in Washington state, and Blackburn provides his Eclectic Theory to guide future research.
The result of a conference addressing the relationship between the
environment and security in the post-Cold War world, this book
brings together scholars and practitioners from a variety of
different disciplines and perspectives in an effort to both explore
the complexities of the relationship between environmental
variables and security conditions, and refocus the debate within
the environmental community. The book combines analytical
frameworks and case study material with proposals for addressing
environmental challenges and enhancing the security and welfare of
peoples, states, and regions.
This book describes the work of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) since its launch 1992. Mapping the evolution of its agenda gives insight into the development of modern marine science in the context of competing demands of stakeholders within and outside the organization. The opening chapter consider the challenges of marine science as a large scale, and places PICES in the contexts of internationalism and science-based resource management. They also lay out the organization's longstanding focus on the development of climate science and its applications. Subsequent chapters explore the pros and cons of national vs. international science, negotiating the nature of investigation and cooperation across scientific, political and institutional boundaries in the region; national perspectives on purpose, scope, and mandates; assessing two major initiatives undertaken to date; the challenges of incorporating social science into an organization of mainly natural scientists.
With a bias for action, this book offers valuable insight into the origins of the much-celebrated Danish design tradition and how it can be employed to create design solutions to address today's environmental crisis using the planetary boundaries as positive creative constraints. Danish design has long been revered for its high-quality aesthetics, materials and craftmanship, encouraging sustainability without compromise. This book explores the lessons to be learnt from Scandinavian design ideals, introduces the philosophy and principles of circular economy, and showcases the potential power of combining circular economy and design in helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. It presents a range of case study examples across multiple sectors and includes interviews with Danish designers in architecture, furniture, fashion, digital design and industrial design, providing unique insights from some of the world's leading contemporary designers. Bridging theory and real-world insights and experiences, the book builds on the framework of the 4R’s The Circular Way: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Replace to encourage innovation through the replacement of environmentally damaging materials and business models. A must-read for product designers, industrial designers, consultants, business developers, sustainability professionals and students interested in learning how to design and implement circular, sustainable models into practice.
Especially written for contractors and small businesses carrying out small works, Spon's House Improvement Price Guide contains accurate information on thousands of rates, each broken down to labour, material overheads and profit.
When dealing with environmental concerns such as climate change or pollution, accurate environmental monitoring is a prerequisite for undertaking any course of action. This book deals with recent developments and applications of environmental monitoring technologies, with emphasis on rapidly progressing optical and biological methods. Written by worldwide experts, this book will be of interest to environmental scientists in academia, research institutes, industry and the government.
In the past two decades, research on environmental issues in East and Southeast Asian countries has mainly focused on existing institutional mechanisms of environmental management, the establishment of new environmental management structures, the introduction of incentives to improve natural capital and foster environmental protection, and the culture of environmental or "green" groups. Virtually no rigorous research has been directed into the nature and significance of the existing relationship between government and civil society in individual country studies, with specific reference to the environmental policy sector, or into how this relationship may be evolving. This book explores this connection in Singapore, and what causes it to evolve, through three case narratives. Its rationale is to address this gap in the literature from a "governance theory" perspective that focuses on state adaptation to the external environment and new forms of coordination and collaboration between government and civil society to tackle new societal problems. The application of the "governance theory" approach to specific case studies is itself a topic that deserves much greater study than what it has so far received.
Business Principles for Landscape Contracting, fully revised and updated in its third edition, is an introduction to the application of business principles of financial management involved in setting up your own landscape contracting business and beginning your professional career. Appealing to students and professionals alike, it will build your knowledge of financial management tools and enable you to relate their applications to real-life business scenarios. Focusing on the importance of proactive financial management, the book serves as a primer for students in landscape architecture, contracting, and management courses and entrepreneurs within the landscape industry preparing to use business principles in practice. Topics covered include: Financial management and accountability Budget development Profitable pricing and estimating Project management Creating a lean culture Personnel management and employee productivity Professional development Economic sustainability.
Aquatic ecosystem assessment is a rapidly developing field, and one of the newer approaches to assessing the condition of rivers and lakes is the Reference Condition Approach. This is a significant advancement in biomonitoring because it solves the problem of trying to locate nearby control or reference sites when studying an ecosystem that may be degraded, a problem that bedevils traditional approaches. Rather than using upstream reference sites in a river system or next-bay-over reference sites in a lake, an array of ecologically similar, least-exposed to stress sites scattered throughout a catchment or region is used. Once the reference condition has been established, any site suspected of being impacted can be assessed by comparison to the reference sites, and its status determined. The Reference Condition database, once formed, can be used repeatedly.
Climate disasters demand an integration of multilateral negotiations on climate change, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, human rights and human security. Via detailed examination of recent law and policy initiatives from around the world, and making use of a capability approach, Rosemary Lyster develops a unique approach to human and non-human climate justice and its application to all stages of a disaster: prevention; response, recovery and rebuilding; and compensation and risk transfer. She comprehensively analyses the complexities of climate science and their interfaces with the law- and policy-making processes, and also provides an in-depth analysis of multilateral climate change negotiations under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
This practical book guides the reader through Superfund Law. Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which established a national program for cleaning up the nation's abandoned and uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Superfund changed the way the United States conducts business by imposing substantial liability on present and past owners and operators of contaminated sites and on generators and transporters of hazardous substances to those sites. By examining the Superfund liability scheme, Fogleman provides businesses and individuals with the necessary knowledge to aid in avoiding Superfund liability. She provides a road map through the Superfund program, the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement and settlement procedures, and Superfund litigation. After reviewing the legislative history of Superfund and its amendments, Valerie M. Fogleman examines the Superfund program from discovery of a contaminated site through its cleanup. She describes the EPA's enforcement and settlement procedures, and Superfund litigation by governmental and nongovernmental entities. Fogleman analyzes Superfund liability and defenses to liability of persons and entities that are potentially responsible for conducting or bearing the cost of cleanups and damages to natural resources. These potentially responsible parties include almost all persons and entities in the American business community including corporations, corporate officers, directors, and employees, lenders, and governmental entities. This book is an important resource for lawyers and businessmen who seek a one-volume comprehensive and practical guide to Superfund law and liability.
Stakeholders such as environmental directives and customer demands for reducing environmental impacts of a product require innovative and environmentally improved products. Therefore a systematic approach and effective methods and tools are needed in the early phase of product development. The basic elements for optimized process management in the design department are described in this book. The book provides twelve easy to follow steps for implementing ECODESIGN in a company. It gives clear advice how to integrate environmental considerations into product design and development, and combines ECODESIGN with Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Communication. Chapters on Product modeling, Life Cycle Assessment, ECODESIGN tasks, Product Improvement and Environmental Communication use the previously developed ECODESIGN PILOT (www.ecodesign.at/pilot) and show its application to a real product example. The book comes with two web tools: one is the ECODESIGN PILOT, used to find measures to environmentally improve a product within a short time. The other is the ECODESIGN PILOT's Assistant (www.ecodesign.at/assist): an expert system, which helps to find the right improvement strategy for a product. Audience: This book will be of interest to environmental and sustainability managers, engineers in research and product development, to designers, environmental experts, and consultants, as well as to students working in this field.
This book pulls together major critiques of contemporary attempts to explain nature-society relations in an environmentally deterministic way. After defining key terms, it reviews the history of environmental determinism's rise and fall within geography in the early twentieth century. It discusses the key reasons for the doctrine's rejection and presents alternative, non-deterministic frameworks developed within geography for analyzing the roles played by the environment in human affairs. The authors examine the rise in recent decades of neo-deterministic approaches to such issues as the demarcation of regions, the causes of civilizational collapse in prehistory, today's globally uneven patterns of human well-being, and the consequences of human-induced climate change. In each case, the authors draw on the insights and approaches of geography, the academic discipline most conversant with the interactions of society and environment, to challenge the widespread acceptance that such approaches have won. The book will appeal to those working on human-environmental research, international development and global policy initiatives.
When did man discover nuclear waste? To answer this question, we first have to ask if nuclear waste really is something that could be called a scientific discovery, such as might deserve a Nobel Prize in physics. In early writings within nuclear energy research radioactive waste appears to be a neglected issue, a story never told. Nuclear waste first seems to appear when a public debate arose about public health risks of nuclear power in the late 1960s and early 70s. In nuclear physics, consensus was established at an early stage about the understanding of the splitting of uranium nuclei. The fission products were identified and their chains of disintegration and radioactivity soon were well established facts among the involved scientists, as was an awareness of the risks, for example the strong radioactivity of strontium and iodine, and the poisonous effects of plutonium. However, the by-products were never, either in part or in total, called or perceived as waste, just as fission by-products. How and where to dispose of the by-products were questions that were never asked by the pioneers of nuclear physics."
Have you ever had to provide accurate costs for a new supermarket or a pub "just an idea...a ballpark figure..." ? The earlier a pricing decision has to be made, the more difficult it is to estimate the cost and the more likely the design and the specs are to change. And yet a rough-and-ready estimate is more likely to get set in stone. Spon's First Stage Estimating Handbook is the only comprehensive and reliable source of first stage estimating costs. Covering the whole spectrum of building costs and a wide range of related MandE work and landscaping work, vital cost data is presented as: costs per square metre elemental cost analyses principal rates composite rates. Compact and clear, Spon's First Stage Estimating Handbook is ideal for those key early meetings with clients. And with additional sections on whole life costing and general information, this is an essential reference for all construction professionals and clients making early judgements on the viability of new projects.
'In this excellent book, Ecott's evocative telling makes me want to go to this weird and wonderful place.' - PAUL THEROUX 'I never want to leave the remote island world so atmospherically, precisely educed between the covers of this book. Ecott's prose has the power of tides, his perception is as searching as the Atlantic wind, and he has the soul of a natural-born naturalist. A masterpiece.' - JOHN LEWIS-STEMPLE Following the natural cycle of the year, The Land of Maybe captures the essence of 'slow life' on the 18 remote, mysterious islands which make up the Faroes in the North Atlantic. Closer to the UK than Denmark, this fast disappearing world is home to a close-knit society where just 50,000 people share Viking roots and a language that is unlike any other in Scandinavia. We follow the arrival of the migratory birds, the over-wintering of the sheep and the way food is gathered and eaten in tune with the seasons. Buffeted by the weather and the demands of a volatile natural environment, people still hunt seabirds and herd pilot whales for a significant portion of their basic food needs. This is not a travelogue, but a deeper exploration of how 'to be' in a tough landscape; a study of a people and a way of life that represents continuity and a deep connection to the past. The Land of Maybe offers not just a refuge from the freneticism of modern life, but lessons about where we come from and how we may find a balance in our lives.
Passivhaus is the fastest growing energy performance standard in the world, with almost 50,000 buildings realised to date. Applicable to both domestic and non-domestic building types, the strength of Passivhaus lies in the simplicity of the concept. As European and global energy directives move ever closer towards Zero (fossil) Energy standards, Passivhaus provides a robust 'fabric first' approach from which to make the next step. The Passivhaus Designers Manual is the most comprehensive technical guide available to those wishing to design and build Passivhaus and Zero Energy Buildings. As a technical reference for architects, engineers and construction professionals The Passivhaus Designers Manual provides: State of the art guidance for anyone designing or working on a Passivhaus project; In depth information on building services, including high performance ventilation systems and ultra-low energy heating and cooling systems; Holistic design guidance encompassing: daylight design, ecological materials, thermal comfort, indoor air quality and economics; Practical advice on procurement methods, project management and quality assurance; Renewable energy systems suitable for Passivhaus and Zero Energy Buildings; Practical case studies from the UK, USA, and Germany amongst others; Detailed worked examples to show you how it's done and what to look out for; Expert advice from 20 world renowned Passivhaus designers, architects, building physicists and engineers. Lavishly illustrated with nearly 200 full colour illustrations, and presented by two highly experienced specialists, this is your one-stop shop for comprehensive practical information on Passivhaus and Zero Energy buildings.
This book draws on preeminent planning theorist Patsy Healey's personal experiences as a resident of a small rural town in England, to explore what place and community mean in a particular context, and how different initiatives struggle to get a stake in the wider governance relations while maintaining their own focus and ways of working. Throughout the book, Healey assesses the public value generated by community initiatives and the impact of such activity on wider governance dynamics. Healey explores the power which small communities are able to mobilise through self-organisation and grassroots activism. Through the lens of Wooler and Glendale as a micro-society, the book centres on a community experiencing an economic and demographic transition. It focuses on three initiatives developed and led by local people - a small community development trust, an informal attentionmobilising network, and a Neighbourhood Plan project which uses an opportunity provided within the formal planning system. It examines how, in such civil society activism, people came together to promote local development in a place and community neglected by the dominant political economy. The book details the power and force of community initiative and its potential for transforming both the future possibilities for the place and community itself, as well as wider governance relations. Overall, it seeks to enrich academic and policy discussion about how the relations between formal government and civil society energy could evolve in more productive and progressive directions.
This book provides a thorough understanding of the general principles of measurement for taking off quantities. An essential guide to any quantity surveyor, architect or engineer. Taking off quantities: Civil Engineering demonstrates, through a series of detailed worked examples from a range of civil engineering projects, how the measurement techniques are actually used. |
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The Environmental Ethics and Policy Book…
Christine Pierce, Donald VanDeVeer
Paperback
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