P2 Business Basics: Process Change

Changing a business process involves some planning, but in most cases it is well worth the effort. The cost of waste is usually hidden and the first step in cutting those costs is determining where the waste is occurring. Pollution prevention fits well within Environmental Management Systems, Total Quality Management and Lean Manufacturing processes. If your business is already involved in these improvement methods, you need only to ensure that the efficiency strategies being developed are also leading toward the elimination or reduction of waste generation.

A change in process can be costly to implement but can also have enormous financial benefits. As your business becomes more involved in preventing pollution, you may think of new production methods that warrant testing. Obviously, there are risks in changing processes, so ideas must be tested thoroughly to see if they are economically and environmentally sound.

Industry representatives have worked with the Environmental Protection Agency and pollution prevention partners to develop environmental accounting tools to help identify costs, determine opportunities and calculate benefits. These resources can be downloaded or ordered from EPA's Pollution Prevention Library and the Department of Energy's Sustainable Design Program.

Design for the Environment (DfE) is an EPA that facilitates information exchange and research on pollution prevention efforts. It works with businesses and trade associations to evaluate the risks, performance, and costs of alternative chemicals, processes, and technologies. For more information visit the EPA Design for the Environment website.

For smaller businesses, the steps to setting up a pollution prevention plan are fairly straight forward. Click on the links below for guidelines.

• Develop P2 Plan
• Waste Assessment