Sustainability Monitoring System

LB 5203: Sustainable Enterprise

Sridharan, Praveen

12438941

Introduction:

Sustainable development has now attained a prominent role in policy discussion in the

recent years. In 1987, the UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development

produced the Brundtland Report which defined sustainability as: “Development that meets

the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to

meet their needs." Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2001) says

that “As levels of material welfare have increased, so have opportunities for addressing a

range of unmet social and environmental concerns and the abilities of societies to adapt to

adverse impacts”. Furthermore the World Bank’s policy research paper (1994) says

sustainability as “The notion ‘quality of life’ is meant to include everything that influences the

situation in which people live. Hence, the notion includes much more than material

consumption”. It also places the following requirement on our generation, “Development is

sustainable if it involves a non-decreasing quality of life. Our generation’s management of

the resource base is sustainable if it constitutes the first part of a feasible sustainable

development”.

Vivtor Papanek (1985) said that “There are professions more harmful than industrial design,

but only a very few… by creating a whole new species of permanent garbage to clutter up

the landscape, and by choosing materials and processes that pollute air we breathe,

designers have become a dangerous breed… In the age of mass production when

everything must be planned and designed, design has become the most powerful tool with

which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by extension society and himself). This

demands high social and moral responsibility from the designer.”

The manner in which business is managed impacts upon the physical environment, and the

social and economic fabric of the communities in which we operate. By employing socially

and environmentally responsible management practices, we would generate a positive

impact in overall terms. We actively use our people and resources to enhance the skills and

opportunities of those affected both directly and indirectly by operations. And we have

developed environmental programs to help us achieve sustainability. We have to believe in a

monitoring system which would be an approach which would be the most efficient and

effective way of managing environmental and business risk and of addressing the concerns

of our employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and the wider community, both now

and in the future.

Designing Sustainable Systems:

A challenge for the designers is to make sure they thoroughly understand and come up with

a design that would satisfy the total requirement in an efficient manner and also the design

would go by the values of sustainability. There is a general lack of awareness among people

relating to sustainable development. Designers need to understand and make others aware

the design for sustainability and that sustainability is more than recycling or using recycled

materials.

OECD (2001) also suggests that “It is increasingly recognized that this (Sustainable)

objective cannot be addressed from a purely domestic perspective. Growing economic

integration has shifted policy priorities from local and national levels to regional and global

ones. Economies and society have become closely connected, making it difficult if not

impossible to circumscribe the consequences of policy decisions within national boundaries.”

Birkeland (2002) presents is vision for new design as

Responsible − redefining goals around needs, social/eco equity and justice.

Synergistic − creating positive synergies; involving different elements to create

systems change.

Contextual − re-evaluating design conventions and concepts towards social

transformation.

Holistic − taking a life cycle view to ensure low impact, low cost, multi-functional

outcomes.

Empowering − fosters human potential, self-reliance and ecological understanding in

appropriate ways.

Restorative − integrates the social and natural world; recultivates a sense of wonder.

Eco-efficient − proactively aims to increase the economy of energy, materials and

costs.

Creative − represents a new paradigm that transcends traditional boundaries of

discipline thinking; to ‘leapfrog’.

Visionary − focuses on visions and outcomes and conceives of appropriate methods,

tools, processes to deliver them.

The wave for sustainability emerged in late 1980’s and in early 1990’s which coincided with

the green consumer revolution. Many writers including Mackenzie (1991) and Ryan (1993)

began to make call for radical changes. This wave continued to gain momentum and

became more widespread in the late 1990’s and in 2000’s as the sustainability design

became more widespread.

Research in the field of sustainable design is now established. Thought it is not the complete

picture, there are areas of improvement. Most of the developed nations have research in

some form of sustainable design. The areas of research include eco-innovation, corporate

social responsibility, reuse and re-engineering.

Monitoring Systems:

Monitoring and Evaluation systems can help identify potentially promising programs and

practices. They are also used to identify unintended project, program and policy results.

Conversely, Monitoring and evaluation systems can help identify program weakness and to

take action and correct them. A Monitoring and Evaluation strategy can be used to diminish

fear within organizations and governments, and can instead devise ways of instilling an open

atmosphere in which people can learn from mistakes, make improvements, and create

knowledge along the way.

The two main characteristics that are necessary for a good monitoring and evaluation

system are

Knowledge Capital

Transparency and Accountability

Knowledge Capital:

Good Monitoring and Evaluation systems are a source of good knowledge capital. They

enable the organizations to develop a base of projects, policies and programs that have got

the company profits. It is basically what works and why.

Transparency and Accountability:

Monitoring and evaluation systems would help in achieving more transparency and

accountability. The stakeholders will have a clear idea on the projects, policies and

programs.

Jody Zall Kusek, Ray C. Rist in their book “Introduction: Building a Results-Based Monitoring

and Evaluation System (2004)” has together come up with a ten step process for sustainable

monitoring system. Though there are no defined sequence of steps in building a monitoring

and evaluation system. The basic components that are need to be present in building the

monitoring and evaluation system are

Formulate outcomes and goals

Select outcome indicators to monitor

Gather baseline information on the current condition

Set specific targets to reach and dates for reaching them

Regularly collect data to assess whether the targets are being met

Analyze and report the results.

Step 1: Building a foundation for the monitoring and evaluation system. Without

understanding and being familiar with the foundation, going forward might result in problems.

Step 2: Monitoring and evaluation systems insists on the need to have external and internal

stakeholders consulted before in setting the outcomes, indicators, targets, etc. This step

involves choosing the outcomes to monitor and evaluate.

Step 3: This involves setting key indicators to monitor progress with respect to input,

indicators, outputs, and impacts. They can provide continuous feedback and performance

information.

Step 4: This is about establishing performance baselines. They can be used during the

monitoring period. They establish a starting point from which we monitor and evaluate

results.

Step 5: In this step we would select the result targets and the interim steps on the long term

outcome. Targets can be selected based on the indicator levels and on the levels of

improvement.

Step 6: This includes both implementation and results monitoring. Monitoring for results

entails collecting quality performance data, for which guidelines are given.

Step 7: This deals with uses, types and timing of evaluation.

Step 8: This looks at the ways of analyzing and reporting data to support decision making

and if necessary make the desired changes.

Step 9: This is important in generating and sharing knowledge and learning.

Step 10: This covers the challenges in sustaining result based monitoring and evaluating

systems including demand, roles and responsibilities, accountability, capacity and

incentives.

The above sequence may be in the same or in a different order. The use of above said result

based monitoring and evaluating systems can bring change in the ways organization and

companies work and operate. When built and sustained properly, systems can lead to

transparency, improved performance and better knowledge.

Indicators:

Indicators are a necessary part of the stream of information that we use to understand the

world, make decisions and plan our actions. Abraham Lincoln in a speech to Illinos

Republican State convention said “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are

tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it…” Indicators basically arise from

values we measure what we care about, and they create values what we need to measure.

Indicators can be tools of change, learning and propaganda. Their presence, absence or

prominences affect behavior. The world would be a very different place if not for the use of

indicators. We try to measure what we value. We come to value what we measure. This

feedback process is common, in-evitable, useful, and full of pitfalls. Indicators are both

important and dangerous because they sit at the center of decision making. Every decision

that is made by people is to take the system to a desired state. Donells Meadows has given

that “Action is taken depending on the discrepancy between the desired state or goal and

the perceived state of the system.”

Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development by Donells Meadows have

given the pitfalls in choosing Indicators:

Over-aggregation: If too many things are combined together into a single indicator

then their combined message can be a problem.

Measuring what is measureable rather than what is important: It is necessary that we

measure the materialistic aspects rather than the non-materialistic values.

Dependence on a false model

Deliberate falsification

Diverting attention from direct experience: Indicators may mesmerize people with

numbers and blind them to their own perceptions.

Over confidence: indicators may lead people to think they know what they are doing.

Indicators, if faulty can be a big problem.

Incompleteness: Indicators are not the real system; they may miss out on a lot of

values. There would be a lot of operations and processes going on at the back

without any indicators.

Paper Industry in INDIA:

Katja Schumacher and Jayant Sathaye in their essay on “India’s Pulp and Paper Industry

(1999)” have illustrated that, “The pulp and paper sector presents one of the energy

intensive and highly polluting sectors within the Indian economy and is therefore of particular

interest in the context of both local and global environmental discussions. Increases in

productivity through the adoption of more efficient and cleaner technologies in the

manufacturing sector will be most effective in merging economic, environmental, and social

development objectives.” An examination of the productivity growth in India would help in the

future development strategies in a sustainable path. Issues of productivity growth and

substitution in the pulp and paper sector as well as in other energy intensive industries in

India have been discussed from various perspectives.

Katja Schumacher and Jayant Sathaye also say that “Historical estimates vary from

indicating an improvement to a decline in the sector’s productivity. The variation depends

mainly on the time period considered, the source of data, the type of indices and

econometric specifications used for reporting productivity growth. Regarding patterns of

substitution most analyses focus on inter fuel substitution possibilities in the context of rising

energy demand. Not much research has been conducted on patterns of substitution among

the primary and secondary input factors: capital, labor, energy and materials. However,

analyzing the use and substitution possibilities of these factors as well as identifying the

main drivers of productivity growth among these and other factors are of special importance

for understanding technological and overall development of an industry.”

About the company (TNPL):

From the company’s website, we have “Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL)

was established by the Government of Tami Nadu during early eighties to produce

Newsprint and Printing & Writing Paper using bagasse, a sugarcane residue, as primary raw

material. The Company commenced production in the year 1984 with an initial capacity of

90,000 tonnes per annum. Over the years, the production capacity has been increased to

2,45,000 tonnes per annum and the Company has emerged as the largest bagasse based

Paper Mill in the world consuming about one million tonnes of bagasse every year. The

Company is in the process of implementing the Mill Expansion Plan for increasing the

capacity to 4, 00,000 tonnes per annum from July 2010.”

The company TNPL is present in the town of Pugalur, which is present in Karur District

Tamilnadu. The town itself has gained the name and fame because of the paper mill

present. They have separate housing colonies for the workers and they have almost every

facility available. TNPL with their CSR activities have done a lot good to the society and the

environment and a huge amount is spent from their side for promoting the society and the

environment.

The TNPL people also boast that “TNPL exports about 1/5th of its production to more than

30 countries. Manufacturing of quality paper for the past two and half decades from bagasse

is an index of the company’s technological competence. A strong record in adopting

minimum impact best process technology, responsible waste management, reduced

pollution load and commitment to the corporate social responsibility make the company one

of the most environmentally compliant paper mills in the world.”

Table 1 - Economic IndicatorsEconomic Indicators

Topic Indicator Measures Reporting

Financial Resources

Total Assets, Total Liabilities, Profit

The financial position of the company, whether it would carry on for further projects or not.

Statement of financial position, Profit and Loss, Cash Flow statement

Limitations

Though the financial position of the company is clearly illustrated, there would be gaps in reporting and biasing must be looked into. There may be unidentified spending which would be un avoiding.

ProductPaper and Pulp production

The amount of product that is being produced by the company. Statistics and Value

Limitations

These would be of most importance to the internal supervisors and managers. They are of value in the sustainability system as they would also present values which when exceeded might lead to excess waste production and stuff.

Suppliers and Contractors

Wood, Bagasse procured from the suppliers

Local business flourishing can be identified from the indicator

Statistics and the money spent on procurement

Limitations

There could be a large amount of suppliers for such a huge company and the amount that is procured from the local market may be low and this

cannot provide a complete picture.

Employees

The local people and the expatriates employed for the business.

Helps us to examine whether appropriate wages are paid and the amount of locals being preferred can also be studied.

Statistics and the salary slip along with money spent from company.

LimitationsThe other spending for the employees may not be counted. The spending on employee recreation etc need not be shown.

Local Communities

Amount invested in enriching the local community

Facilities and materials provided to the local community.

Statistics and money spent.

Limitations

Would not include any money spent from the local residents and expatriates pockets. The services that they create for themselves too

could be considered in this which is incorrect.

Government

Government taxes, power, electricity, pollution board, etc

Amount spent on taxes, power and water consumed, electricity usage, etc

Amount paid as taxes, power and electricity consumption, pollution metrics level check

Limitations

May be the company pays all the water, electricity and taxes and is not completely environment friendly, they have to inculcate the value to help

save the environment and try to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Table 2 - Environmental IndicatorsEnvironmental Indicators

Topic Indicator Measures Reporting

Product

The total amount of sugarcane bagasse used for production. If other raw materials are used, then they are presented.

The product obtained is from the right source and is got without neglecting the laws and rules involved.

Statistics regarding the volume of Sugarcane bagasse used and other raw materials used while production of paper and pulp.

Limitations

There may be suppliers without proper registration and the need would urge us to procure from them too. We have to make sure that we procure from the right people and save the environment.

Forest and Land preservation

The amount of forest and land that is being cleared and used for building up of the factory and for construction of warehouse if any.

Land area utilized for the construction site, warehouse area and size.

Statistics about the forest cleared and land utilized for warehousing.

Limitations

They would be internal indicators for the company. When the company is well established and is powerful, they may not go by the rules of the government and may seek other unethical activities.

Water & Electricity

The amount of water and electricity used for the production purpose from river or dam that may in turn be used for other purposes

Water consumption and electricity consumption for the production of pulp and paper.

Water in litres and Electricity in units

Limitations

Water may be used for various purposes and it is difficult to figure out the exact amount used for production and human use. Electricity used for the

air-conditioners and other recreational usage is not to be considered here.

Pollution Noise, Waste, CO2

The amount of air, water and noise pollution that is caused by the company.

The number of complaints that are registered against the company regarding pollution.

Limitations

The measuring of the actual pollution levels takes time and effort. There may be other effects like impairment and differently able people that may arise due to the pollution. These things have to be checked. If things like above happen, then the company should be hold responsible.Table 3 - Social Indicators

Social IndicatorsTopic Indicator Measures Reporting

Re Forestation

The trees that have been planted and the help rendered by the company in creating awareness for re forestation

Number of trees, People attending the awareness campaign, villages or towns adopted by company for re forestation

Statistics about the number of trees planted and the village land area brought under the control of the company.

Limitations

Though for the sake of doing it the companies might plant the trees. The maintenance and the pampering need not be continuous. The companies may say that they have spent a lot on these activities and claim relaxation in their financial papers.

Employment processes

Deaths on site, injuries, training provided to the employees, employee utilization

Employee satisfaction, injury levels, literate levels of employees in their jobs

Safety statistics, Number of deaths, Injuries reported, training hours recorded.

Limitations

Accurate information on the injuries is hard to obtain. Trainings provided may or may not be useful based on the employee’s interest in learning the skill.

Society

Behavior and attitude of the company and the employees. The fairness shown in employing people.

The number of complaints registered against the company and the employees. The % of local people hired.

Statistics regarding the number of incidents reported against company and staff. % of expatriate strength in the company.

Limitations

Though they are affected, all the people may not provide or register a complaint against the company or the staff. The local people cannot

replace the skilled expatriates at the start which would require time to train them.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Government Involvement, Licenses and Approvals, Bribery for the officials

Extent to which the company follows the rules and goes by the set standards.

Payment for procuring of licenses, the time spent in acquiring the licensing, bribery proposals.

Limitations

If the company's partner or if the company hire a person who could be able to clear out all the required documents for start up, then it would not take much time. This payment that he receives alone is known, he may in turn bribe the officials inside.

Conclusion:

The monitoring system has been developed for the paper company and is sufficient to

handle the current requirements. There may be various other operating decisions and

activities involved which may not be captured in the system. In a developing country like

India, the challenges are even more. It is not just enough to be both ISO 9001 and ISO

14000 certified, the responsibility should vest in the hands of the company and they should

make sure that they do justice to the environment that they work in.

References:

Birkeland, J. (2002), Design for Sustainability: A Sourcebook of Integrated, Eco-Logical

Solutions (Sheffield: Earthscan Publications).

Burall, P. (1991), Green Design (London: Design Council).

Papanek, V. (1985), Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change

(London: Thames & Hudson).

Jody Zall Kusek, Ray C. Rist (2004), Introduction: Building a Results-Based Monitoring and

Evaluation System.