_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
A small but vital further point: we hope that a funded research program will emerge. But are NOT in a position to discuss potential sources or allocations of funding at this stage, certainly not "on the air". People who do research for a living know that funding only follows good research proposals. It does not precede them. I won't say much more about the subject matter here. We have provided background material (on the Website) that will introduce you to the ideas involved. We are hoping that a viable research program will emerge from all this. We seek advice. Very specifically, we are looking for good ideas for case studies, and not incidentally qualified people to undertake them. You should read the materials I have put into the "library" to get a better notion of what we might mean by a case study. Be warned that ideas of the kind we seek cannot be regarded as private property. We will respect and acknowledge authorship, but many ideas have a lot of intellectual parents. Enough said on that.
The point needs to be made that a rich background of information and case studies of the first two technology generations already exists, many of which are obtainable through sources that are directly identified and linked in these pages. We thus would like to stress the special target of this round, the 'third generatoin' or 'product-to-service' deployments. (More detail on this, including background on a number of cases of such implementations, will be found in the three Ayres background papers submitted to the conference and lodged in the Library.)
To complete your background on this, several examples of eco-efficient technology deployments have been extracted from the full report and can be accessed directly by clicking here Examples from Background Papers ."
Monday, 11 Aug 1997
Professor Robert Ayres, Zero Emissions Strategies Conference ModeratorDear Mr. Ayres,
I have been following with some interest the evolution of the web-based zero-emissions conference. However, after reading through the description of the project, I have some questions regarding the ultimate objective of this interesting endeavor.
1. What specifically are the differences, if any, between the approach which you appear to be setting out in this conference and for the UNU's future efforts under this heading, and that of the original ZERI program as set out by Gunter Pauli in his presentation to the meeting. Is yours primarily a pure research effort, and theirs more of an demonstration program? Will they be run as parallel tracks, or will one take on a lead role with the other to follow.Finally, as you know, we have been working over the past 4 years with an international scientific group here at the OECD's Environment Directorate to make some useful progress on the topic of "Environmentally Sustainable Transportation". Would you like us to provide some background materials in the conference library? We might also think of some useful cross-links. I look forward to hearing from you on these several points.2. It strikes me as an interesting idea in principle to build up a series of "third generation" case studies based on actual or planned projects in industry or in other operational settings? But once you have them, what precisely do you intend to do with them? Will you, for example , use them only as illustrations and examples or will you seek to compare them and draw some wider conclusions. If so, how will you aggregate them?
3. On the same matter -- it might be useful to see some of these case studies on the web site so that visitors might have a better idea of their potential.
Cordially, Philippe LeRouic Crist, Consultant to the OECD Environment Directorate, Paris
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Nice to hear from you! I'm going to avoid answering your first question in full, because the decision will not be mine and the answer depends in part on what we learn from this conference. It seems safe to say, however, that my approach is probably more research oriented than Gunter's.To answer your second question, yes, I would seek to draw wider conclusions. Our idea is to subject each case to several generalizability tests
- (1) How applicable is it in other locations?
- (2) How does it scale? (Do the economics look as good, or better, on a large scale?
- (3) Does it (i.e. the generic version) offer sufficient economic benefits in the short term to justify the expectation that it would penetrate the relevant markets without government assistance? Or would subsidies be required?
As to your third point, my papers (see library) do describe some of the possible cases, but the point of this conference is that we don't have nearly enough. We are seeking candidates. If you (or anybody else out there) have ideas, please feel free to put them into play!
Dear Eric
Your suggestion is perfectly reasonable and I am doing my best to follow it, even though it goes against the grain. All the examples I can think of are ALREADY in the electronic library, assuming my three papers are there. (Has anyone read them yet?) So, here is a first quick summary from memory
RANK XEROX (Europe) buys back old copying machines. If they're Xerox machines, they dismantle, inspect, renovate, replace worn bits, and remanufacture. The remanufactured machines cost less, but are in demand. Purchases of new parts are down, and the firm is making money out of this scheme. Solid wastes going to landfill are sharply down, and the goal is zero. Not only that, each component or subsystem that is remanufactured means that the raw materials embodied in it didn't have to be mined, extracted, concentrated, smelted, refined and so on. The savings in energy and environmental pollution all along the line are much greater than the physical quantity of materials that are actually being remanufactured. CAN ANYBODY PROVIDE OTHER EXAMPLES LIKE THIS, WITH CHAPTER AND VERSE? (By that I mean details, names, places, dates, quantities, dollars, etc.)DOW CHEMICAL CO. has a joint venture that takes back spent chlorocarbon solvents from clients (mainly in the electronics industry) and redistills them. In effect, the solvents are now being "rented" instead of sold. This is a small step for a chemical company, but it is really a great innovation. Dow is also looking into recycling antifreeze, as I understand it. DOES ANYBODY KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS? (I MEAN THE ANTIFREEZE). IT IS A REAL BREAKTHROUGH IDEA, IF TRUE.
A CARPET COMPANY IN ATLANTA (sorry, I forget the name it is in the paper) is offering to rent/lease carpet tiles to commercial carpet users, rather than selling them. Great idea! The carpet tiles are made of nylon 6; they can be recycled back into carpet materials, rather than ending up in landfills. ARE THERE OTHER PEOPLE DOING THIS SORT OF THING?
COOKSON GROUP LTD. (a firm in the U.K). is in several businesses. One of them is manufacturing refractory bricks for lining blast furnaces and steel furnaces. These bricks are made from chromite (chromium ore). Up to now, worn out refractory bricks have been discarded into the landfill. But Cookson now takes them back for remanufacturing. Why not? In effect, the refractory materials are now being rented rather than sold. CAN ANYBODY PROVIDE MORE DETAILS? ARE THERE OTHER EXAMPLES?
SOME ELEVATOR MANUFACTURERS, Schindler for one are allegedly offering to provide "elevator services" to buildings (i.e. long term contracts for maintenance and operation, possibly including eventual take-back and remanufacturing) in place of the old strategy of just selling the elevator and leaving the service to whoever. You get the idea, I hope. CAN ANYBODY FILL IN THE DETAILS? THIS IS EXACTLY THE SORT OF THING WE NEED TO DOCUMENT.
PITNEY-BOWES, the postal-meter company, is now offering to provide complete main room services to companies. At least so I understand. CAN ANYBODY FILL IN THE DETAILS?
ITEM. I've heard that some people (Shell?) are offering, or thinking of offering "lubrication services" in place of the old strategy of selling lubricants? DETAILS ANYBODY?
ITEM. There is a trend toward "integrated pest management" that might be a substitute for the older strategy of just selling pesticides to the peasants. Ciba-Geigy is one of the leaders. It may not be "zero emissions" exactly, but it could be a big improvement. DOES ANYBODY HAVE AN INSIDE TRACK? WE NEED DETAILS.
ITEM. Heavy truck tires and aircraft tires are now being provided by "tire service companies" so I understand that monitor the tire wear and replace the tire after a specified number of kilometers, ready or not, and have it retreaded. This way a tire can last up to five times as long as the old way, but the system has to be centrally organized. I hope to get a much more detailed account of this story onto the web from my PhD student, Geraldo Ferrer, now at UNC, if he can get permission from the journal to which this particular chapter of his thesis has been sent for publication. Incidentally, he has also written up the Xerox story in some detail, as well as other chapters on remanufacturing.
AUTOMOTIVE TRANSPORTATION The big challenge is automotive transportation. Eric got the ball rolling, but I haven't seen any response as yet. Surely somebody has some worthwhile ideas about how to reduce the materials and energy requirements of personal transportation without reducing amenity. (Amory, if you can hear me, the world needs to know about the hypercar, and only you can tell us about it. This is your chance for undying fame! )
This is all the examples I can think of at such a late hour, but it ought to be enough to stimulate a few suggestions.
Once again, we need ideas about possible case studies, and candidates to do them. A real case study involves interviews, statistical data and lots of facts. You don't need to present the results here on the web just let us know that you exist. Get in touch.
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