Society

Environmental Sustainability

Oct. 9 2019

Full Suite of Chemical Discharge Management Solutions

In today’s marketplace, new legislation, voluntary standards and customer expectations are making companies increasingly accountable for the impact of their products on the environment and society. 

Consumer demand for eco-friendly and ethically-made products is growing fast. As environmental and social issues become more dominant in mainstream thinking, major brands and retailers are beginning to focus on what’s known as the triple bottom line – meaning social, economic and environmental responsibility. However, many companies are unsure where and how to begin.

OUR APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Bureau Veritas has a strong focus on corporate sustainability, which is a business methodology that creates long-term shareholder value; improves performance by removing waste and increasing recycling; and manages risk. 

In particular, it considers the interrelationship of economic, environmental and social issues. For example, a product using hazardous chemicals creates liability and social issues across the supply chain, from workers who may become ill at manufacturing sites or distribution centres, to consumers having adverse reactions to the product. 

Water supplies and soil may become contaminated from improper disposal of products and substances, creating negative long-term environmental effects. Economically, what initially appeared to be an inexpensive substance in a product is now a far more costly issue, generating potential risk and liability.

ABOUT BVE3

At Bureau Veritas, we can help you assess your risks & needs and integrate these areas into a customized sustainability program – which includes using our advanced Environmental Emission Evaluator (BVE3).

BVE3, Bureau Veritas’ Environmental Emission Evaluator, is a tool to support supply chain partners in reducing the environmental impacts through evaluating factories’ daily and weekly discharge potentials.  This avoids the sole reliance on one time screening of materials, chemicals and discharge.

BVE3 can work in combination with other traditional supply chain controls (chemicals screening, testing and factory audits) for a greater visibility on ongoing compliance to the priority chemicals. For industries with wet processing, BVE3 assists in constructing discharge scenarios for the hazardous substances (auxiliary chemicals, dyes, etc.) that are used along the manufacturing process and released to the environment (wastewater discharge) from the factories. 

As BVE3 is a model for systematic estimation of discharge scenario, it can be used by supply chain with wet processing facilities to estimate the discharge scenario of processing units, including vertical processing units, printing & dyeing factories (fabric / yarn), wet processing units and laundries. We have additionally developed the tool to address air emissions to support the footwear supply chain.

Dr. Kaimin
Shih (PhD, Stanford)

Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering / Environmental Materials Research Group

The University of Hong Kong

BVE3 is the only commercial model available to systematically estimate the discharge scenarios of multiple pollutants for the textile processing industry. BVE3 generates effective estimations for discharge scenarios and possesses a range of additional features to accommodate flexible input types, select the appropriate calculation parameters and screen / track major hazardous chemicals in the system. I strongly recommend the BVE3 to textile processing plants to construct their discharge scenarios and to users in other industries to develop their corresponding models based on the successful BVE3 platform.

The primary benefits of environmental sustainability include helping businesses to:

  • Meet the growing consumer demand for eco-friendly products
  • Minimize the hazardous impact of products upon the environment
  • Demonstrate compliance with hazardous substances regulations
  • Enhance risk management and brand protection
  • Identify and realize sustainable cost savings across the supply chain
  • Align with movements such as the Forum for Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC)
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