Description
Book SynopsisConcerns about environmental, social, economic, health, and other impacts in the building industry have led to the development of a number of environmental and sustainability assessment approaches, strategies, models, appraisals, and methodologies. Green technology and practices have been implemented to improve sustainable development performance and yield economic, social, and environmental benefits and a series of environmental and sustainability rating systems (ESRSs) have been developed around the world and used extensively with unquestionable benefits to stakeholders in the building industry. Such systems beg to be adapted and implemented in other industry contexts still seeking suitable tools with which to effectively communicate their commitment to a sustainable future and gain the “social license” to operate.
Sustainability Assessment: A Rating System Framework for Best Practices shows how this can be done. It makes the case for the development and implementation of ESRSs in new industry contexts ranging from , manufacturing and transportation to mining and energy putting forward a new project sustainability rating system framework to assess the sustainability of a wide variety of organizations and projects. This assessment framework includes but is not limited to regulatory requirements, and includes approaches for measuring sustainability on social, economic, environmental, and health grounds.
This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners across a wide range of disciplines and industries. Scientists will find technical insights here that can further research while practitioners will find that they can implement the framework in any type of organization or project in order to address stakeholders’ needs and expectations while achieving their short, mid, and long term sustainability vision and goals.
Trade Review“The sustainability tool that [Dr. Cesar Poveda] describe[s] is both interesting and valuable. The oil sands industry—and the industry in general—would benefit from this approach.” -- Joe Oliver
“After reading [Dr. Cesar Poveda’s] journal paper, I believe that this rating system [Wa-Pa-Su Project Sustainability Rating system] has merit.” -- Laurie Hawn
This book details a rating systems framework for sustainability assessment, the Wa-Pa-Su project sustainability rating system, for use in various industries and any type of project or organization. It places stakeholders at the center of the decision-making process while making them accountable throughout the process and for the end results. The book uses the example of the Canadian oil sands mining operations to illustrate the need to develop and implement environmental and sustainability rating systems in industries with social, economic, environmental, health, and other impacts. It outlines general approaches, frameworks, and specific strategies for sustainability assessment; tools used in environmental and sustainability rating systems, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design), BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), comprehensive assessment systems for built environment efficiency (CASBEE), Green Star, and SBTool; and the benefits of developing and implementing rating systems. It details the origins and fundamentals of the Wa-Pa-Su project sustainability rating system, conceived to measure sustainability performance of the Canadian oil sands projects; the integrated approach to sustainability assessment implement in the rating system; background on the Canadian oil sands and their life cycle; the economic, social, environmental, health, and other impacts of current operations in the Canadian oil sands; statistics in sustainability performance of 10 of the developers and operators of the oil sands; the rating system structure and its application to surface mining; six sources for pre-selecting sustainable development indicators (SDIs); the development and implementation of SDIs in surface mining operations for oil sands projects, the benefits of using SDIs, and an alternative framework for SDIs in the Canadian industry; the application of the analytic hierarchy process to weight the different criteria to measure the sustainability of surface mining operations; the design of performance improvement factors; and the flexibility and applicability of the rating system, through a case study of implementation and sustainability assessment using the approach adopted in the rating system. -- Annotation ©2018 * (protoview.com) *
Table of ContentsPart I: Sustainability assessment 1. Assessment approaches, frameworks, and other tools 2. Environmental and sustainability rating systems 3. Potential benefits of developing and implementing environmental and sustainability rating systems
Part II: A new sustainability rating system 4. Origins and fundamentals 5. The Wa-Pa-Su project sustainability rating system
Part III: The Canadian oil sands 6. Background and processes 7. Impacts of development and operations 8. Resources management and performance: a report
Part IV: An application step by step: the surface mining process 9. Areas of excellence and sub-divisions 10. Identifying sustainable development indicators (SDIs) 11. Designing and implementing SDIs: more of a positive thing than not 12. Weighting SDIS using the AHP method 13. Design of performance improvement factors (PIFs) 14. Simulated case study of implementation and sustainability assessment
Afterword
Appendix A Abbreviations & acronyms Appendix B Timeline of the energy industry in Alberta Appendix C Descriptions – preselected sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for the surface mining process
