ISO seminar participants raise concerns over effects of generation of greenhouse gases on life cycle

Concerns which are growing over the deterioration in the quality of life and environment in industrialised as well as developing countries were raised at the regional seminar of International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) on environmental footprinting held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on January 12 and 13, 2011.
Former Vice-President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Engr M A Jabbar, who attended the seminar, told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that over 50 participants from all over the globe magnified the need for reducing natural imbalance caused by excessive generation of greenhouse gases (GHG) due to comparatively higher industrial activities during the last half century with pace of economic growths crossing even beyond 02 digit percentages in some countries, China was no exception to that.
Regional experiences drawn from specific sectors, namely water, oil palm, forestry, etc, were presented during the seminar. Special focus on lifecycle assessment methodology used for calculations were given considerable time by presenters showing how the level of wastes generated due to inefficient systems would adversely affect the quality of life and the environment of the globe.
A carbon footprint is the total set of GHG emissions caused by an organisation, even product or person. It is often expressed in terms of amount of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent of other greenhouse gases emitted. Lifecycle management is a business management approach that can be used by all types of businesses to improve their products and thus the sustainability performance of the companies and associated value chains.
Jabbar said that more simple to explain the lifecycle management would be to say that it can be used to target, organise, analyse and manage product-related information and activities towards continuous improvements along the lifecycle. These are identified as businesses that are striving towards reducing their footprints and minimising their environmental and socio-economic burdens while maximising economic and social values.
The objective of the seminar was to raise awareness and understanding among participating authorities, industry and academia in the region about ISO standards for environmental footprinting and existing best practices in order to achieve sustainable development. The concerns by developed countries remained not out of context that these standards, once approved for implementation, may build further blockades as trade barriers, which additionally are being shared by the non-tariff barriers, technical barriers to trade agreements of WTO.
The resource persons, however, tried to create a divide line between standards as voluntarily for adoption against WTO agreements mandatory compliance. The presenters also valued the discussion as in the interest of consumers, in the quality of life and in the efforts to maintain the equilibrium in the existing nature which is witnessing adverse effects due to excessive generation of GHG.
Two day sessions included presentations on: trade and environment, climate change, and sustainable development, the history so far, life cycle assessment as the basis of environmental footprinting, united nation environment programmes life cycle assessment and environmental footprinting initiatives, footprinting of organisation, carbon footprinting of products, environmental footprinting - oil palm industry, environmental footprinting - forestry,
The practice for carbon footprint of products assessment in China were put to deliberations before participants from industry, standardisation bodies, academia from east and south Asia. The second day of the seminar included presentations on lifecycle assessment methodology and case studies, quantification and calculation exercises, presentation about labelling and Japanese experience on carbon footprinting on products.
The emissions by different organisations, based on the products, were explained as quantified which included many industrially produced goods and the need of reducing the carbon dioxide levels were made subject of improving the quality of life and preserving the environment of the globe. Various forms of energy generation were tabulated to show the preferences over one another in terms of reduced level of GHG, emission. The carbon footprints reported as annual tons of carbon dioxide emissions are a measure of total greenhouse emissions.
A greenhouse gas affects the average temperature of the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and water occur naturally. Some of the greenhouse gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons, hydro fluorocarbons, and a few others are synthetic. Both natural and manmade greenhouse gases since the beginning of industrial revolution are increasing. Burning fossil fuels, land use changes such as deforestation interfere with the natural carbon cycle, moving carbon from its solid form to gaseous state, thus increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.
The presenters included experts from many parts of the world. Brazil was represented by Haroldo Mattos Delemos who made presentation on sustainable development and ecological footprint. Canadian speakers touched upon trade and environment, climate change and history of earth so far. Reginald Tan from Singapore made deliberations on lifecycle assessment as the basis for environmental footprint.
United Nations environmental program was represented by Guidosonnemann who lectured on programs initiatives towards lifecycle assessments towards environmental footprinting. Ms Nadyasuppen-Reynaga from Mexico dwelt upon carbon associated releases of products towards quantification of products with reference to the water footprinting.
Others who made extensive lecturing on the core subject divided into subchapters were from Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Sweden and Japan and Norway. The expert from Sweden, Raul Carlson, earned appreciations due to his skilled way of presentation, quantifications and calculations on account of emission of greenhouse gases during the industrial processing and lifecycle assessment.