56
4 Placing Integrated Development into the Business Perspective
closely linked to the value created by the chemical industry, but it is also operating
within a society that has become increasingly critical of chemical risks.
This chapter aims to introduce the evolution of integrated development in the
chemical industry, the value it provides from the business perspective, and the three
guiding principles that define it.
4.2
The Ongoing History of Integrated Development
Until the mid-twentieth century, integrated development in the chemical industry
was hardly considered systematically. Historically speaking, it first began through
a focus on evaluating the safety of production processes and then expanded and
evolved to also include environmental pollution and resource uses:
• Safety: Beginning in the 1960s, growing awareness of safety concerns, increasing
production volumes, and more complex technologies led to the systematic
investigation of occupational hygiene, thermal process safety, and explosion
prevention technology. Scientific findings within industry resulted in setting new
safety standards that were anchored in using risk assessment for production
plants, processes, and products.
• Emissions: Advancement in the control of factory emissions took place just
a few years later, and the relevance of emissions into the water, air, and
soil compartments were recognized. The establishment of new environmental
measurement methods and the use of end-of-pipe treatment technology (e.g.
wastewater treatment plants, exhaust-air purification systems, waste incineration
plants) also played a key role.
• Energy: Initially mostly seen as a cost component and recognized later as an
important aspect of environmental protection, energy consumption has been
subject to frequent optimization since the oil crisis of 1973.
• Environmental management: More careful consideration of emissions, resource
use, and waste then followed. Since the 1980s, aspects of integrated development
have increasingly found their way into corporate principles and management
processes (see also Kostka and Hassan (1997)), often under the umbrella of
‘environmental management’ or ‘Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS)’.
This expansion over time was driven also by criticism from the general public.
The perception of risks by a professional risk assessor can be very different from the
perception of a lay community member living across the street from a large chemical
manufacturer. Society’s critical stance toward the chemical industry came about
through not only a fundamental change in values but also from specific chemicalrelated incidents. Some of the multiple and serious chemical accidents include
those in Seveso (in 1976), Bhopal (in 1984) and Schweizerhalle (in 1986) (see
Appendix A). These were all very visible and high-impact events directly resulting
from chemical production. Large communities were affected through loss of life or
property as well as damage to the surrounding environment.
4 Placing Integrated Development into the Business Perspective
closely linked to the value created by the chemical industry, but it is also operating
within a society that has become increasingly critical of chemical risks.
This chapter aims to introduce the evolution of integrated development in the
chemical industry, the value it provides from the business perspective, and the three
guiding principles that define it.
4.2
The Ongoing History of Integrated Development
Until the mid-twentieth century, integrated development in the chemical industry
was hardly considered systematically. Historically speaking, it first began through
a focus on evaluating the safety of production processes and then expanded and
evolved to also include environmental pollution and resource uses:
• Safety: Beginning in the 1960s, growing awareness of safety concerns, increasing
production volumes, and more complex technologies led to the systematic
investigation of occupational hygiene, thermal process safety, and explosion
prevention technology. Scientific findings within industry resulted in setting new
safety standards that were anchored in using risk assessment for production
plants, processes, and products.
• Emissions: Advancement in the control of factory emissions took place just
a few years later, and the relevance of emissions into the water, air, and
soil compartments were recognized. The establishment of new environmental
measurement methods and the use of end-of-pipe treatment technology (e.g.
wastewater treatment plants, exhaust-air purification systems, waste incineration
plants) also played a key role.
• Energy: Initially mostly seen as a cost component and recognized later as an
important aspect of environmental protection, energy consumption has been
subject to frequent optimization since the oil crisis of 1973.
• Environmental management: More careful consideration of emissions, resource
use, and waste then followed. Since the 1980s, aspects of integrated development
have increasingly found their way into corporate principles and management
processes (see also Kostka and Hassan (1997)), often under the umbrella of
‘environmental management’ or ‘Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS)’.
This expansion over time was driven also by criticism from the general public.
The perception of risks by a professional risk assessor can be very different from the
perception of a lay community member living across the street from a large chemical
manufacturer. Society’s critical stance toward the chemical industry came about
through not only a fundamental change in values but also from specific chemicalrelated incidents. Some of the multiple and serious chemical accidents include
those in Seveso (in 1976), Bhopal (in 1984) and Schweizerhalle (in 1986) (see
Appendix A). These were all very visible and high-impact events directly resulting
from chemical production. Large communities were affected through loss of life or
property as well as damage to the surrounding environment.