Tools for Cleaner Production
and Pollution Prevention

CP and P2 are outcomes created by the use of good tools.  This section provides guidance to the most important tools for CP and P2.

One of the best guides to CP tools is Environmental Management Tools for SMEs: A Handbook from the  European Environmental Agency. It includes descriptions, rationale, implementation steps and small case studies for the following tools: Environmental policy, management systems, auditing, indicators, eco-balances, life cycle assessment, labeling, reporting and voluntary charters.  Available on the CP Greatest Hits CDROM.

One of the best websites describing the full range of tools for CP is produced by the China Center for Cleaner Production.

• Management:   Management systems are needed to ensure the right tools are used properly.  Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are the most common management tools for CP and P2, however other management systems such as the Baldridge Quality Award and the Balanced Scorecard are also being used, and in fact they are likely to eventually replace EMS as the frameworks for management of CP and P2.
  

• Assessments:  To discover CP and P2 opportunities, organizations usually conduct an assessment of some kind.   Over time these assessments become integrated into the management system as part of the continual improvement process.  This page provides links to the best tools for Cp and P2 assessments.
  

• Measurement:  Before one can begin applying CP and P2, one needs data on just what is really happening in an organization.  This is a process that begins with the development of indicators for performance that are linked to mission and strategy.  Then accounting tools are used to develop the data.  Once the right data is available, CP and P2 projects can be evaluated financially and by other criteria such as risk and impact.

• Design:  The design of products is the ultimate driver for CP and P2 process improvements.  When the product design is improved, process improvements must follow.  This page provides links to resources for designing environmentally improved products and processes.
  

• Purchasing:  In business, what goes in goes out, either as products or wastes and emissions.  Purchasing is critical to the CP and P2 process.  "Environmentally Preferred Procurement" or green purchasing is also critical to create the demand for better products that in turn creates the supply.  This page has resources for green purchasing in organizations and for promoting EPP policy.
  

• Reporting:  Although some organizations are content simply to do better, many companies want to let their customers and stakeholders and investors know how they are doing.  Public reporting of CP and P2 and social performance is rapidly becoming a very important issue, with many organizations providing guidance and resources.