Implementation of Cleaner Production practices
Environment Management System is the practice of managing the environment of a particular organization in an organized manner by assessing the structure of the organization and planning the resources for the development of the organization (Daddi et al., 2016) . It is also to be kept in mind that the environmental policies should be maintained and implemented properly. Both the external and the internal factors are related to the implementation of the Environmental Management Systems .The paper deals with the practice of the Environmental management System in Agricultural sector of Australia. The paper identifies the aims and objectives of the research and brings forward the research question related to the Environment Management System in Australian Agricultural Sector.
In Australia , fast paced industrialization and growing number of cities is having an increasing influence in the on the global environment since long time .There are problems of resource scarcity and environmental hazards related to the rapid industrializations .In order to mitigate this problems , it is necessary to implement environment management system in Australian agricultural sector (Cary & Roberts, 2011). It involves utilization of the agricultural waste and adopting Cleaner Production practices that will help to meet ISO 14001 requirements (de Oliveira et al.,2017). Cleaner production is an important strategy to meet the certification of ISO 14001 and it also helps to enhance or improve the environmental performance. The agricultural waste or waste generated from crops in Australia can be converted to energy and contribute to the energy sector .The harvesters in Australia are in rush of re cultivating their lands and their first priority becomes to get rid of the agricultural waste .They end up burning these agro waste which could have been utilized in various ways .
The aim of the task is to understand the importance of Environment Management System in Australian agricultural sector considering the various problems associated with Australian agricultural sector due to rapid industrialization leading to scarcity of resources and other environmental hazards.
Then research objectives of the following task are as follows:
- To understand the importance of following the practices of Cleaner Production, for proper implementation of Environment Management System, in Australian agricultural sector.
- To find out the various ways by which the agricultural waste, generated in Australian agricultural sector, can be utilized.
- What are the various ways by which the agricultural waste generated in agricultural sector in Australia can be utilized?
Cleaner production (CP) is a comparatively new approach, the term was devised by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 1998. It is the integration of environmental performance and economic performance .It states that by improving the environmental impacts, the economic gain can be enhanced. The Cleaner production practices have been proved to be an enthusiastic environmental strategy in Environmental Management System. The strategy that amalgamates the concepts of environmental protection as well as it improves the productivity of resources is termed as Cleaner Production.
Converting agro waste to energy
In Australia agriculture is one of the most significant sector in terms of climate and energy consumption .The agricultural sector contributes round 10-12 percent of the greenhouse gases and almost 56 percent of the non –CO2 greenhouse gases . Apart from emission of gases and energy consumption, it is also largest consumer of water in Australia and also contributes to water pollution .Thus, in order to minimize the waste generated in agricultural sector of Australia and maximize the production of output implementation of Cleaner Production is very essential in Australian agricultural sector . Over the last few decades, Cleaner Production practices have become a vital cog in agricultural sector of Australia. Cleaner production is also important to enhance the profitability and the competitive position of the agriculture sector in Australia (Lewandowska, 2011) . Some of the example of Cleaner production includes integrated pest management, which falls under the Cleaner Production technology .The objective of this is pollution prevention and control in agriculture sector of Australia. The food waste needs to be managed carefully as they can create significant amount of environmental impacts. The practice of Cleaner production in agriculture sector also involves transforming waste generated from agriculture into useful bio products (Notarnicola et al., 2016). It is a method of modification in waste generation process by converting the waste products into material that can be recycled or reused.
The waste materials that are obtained from the production of the crop and plant growth are called agricultural waste. The farmers in Australia usually burn these agricultural wastes obtained from the plants in order to clean the land and re cultivate. However, this technique leads to waste of resources and leads to environmental hazards. Sometimes these wastes were naturally converted to organic fertilizer under favorable conditions. However, these agricultural wastes can be converted to biomass, which can be utilized to generate energy as this biomass has the capabilities and potential to be converted to energy. Thus, it is necessary to convert this biomass to alternative sources of energy which can be utilized to meet the growing demands of energy in Australia. It provides a good option to efficiently utilize the waste products from the agriculture sector to give alternative sources of energy. Generation of energy from biomass can provide the farmers of Australia with multiple opportunities and prospects for diversification of the agricultural activities (Leung, & Yang, 2012).
The agricultural waste of wheat bran can be used to produce bio-alcohol. The alcohol can be produced from the pentose sugar, pentose sugar is the primary constituent of wheat bran. By undertaking several physical treatments like particle size reduction and performing chemical and enzymatic treatments, the bio-alcohol can be produced (Nguyen et al ., 2014). There are various treatments process which the reduced size bran wheat undergoes for the production of bio -alcohol.
Research methodology
The olive oil industry in Australia produces large amount of solid waste and also the wastewater generated from the industry have lot of issues related to the environmental sustainability of the agriculture industry (El Hanandeh, 2015). Thus it is necessary to utilize the waste generated from the olive oil industry so that it does not cause any environmental hazards instead it can be utilized for the benefits of people and environment . The Australian olive husk has very content of sulphur, it is a proper source of production of biomass which can be used for generation of energy .There are several methods which can be used for the enhancement of the energy density of biomass material .The methods includes the process of Pyrolisis, briquetting and pelleting .
Research Methodology includes the type of research one has used to conduct the research. It is a process or the type of procedures that helps a researcher to conduct the research in an organized and systematic manner. The research methodology includes the data collection method and data analysis methods. This study depended on the secondary data sources for conducting the research. The secondary data sources include the data that are obtained from various sources like peer-reviewed journals, books, articles and other sources. This data provides information about the research topic.
The secondary sources of data that has been used for conducting this research on Environment Management of agricultural sector in Australia ,it is ensured that the proper referencing are provided for the sources of data taken from various journals .It is also ensured that the there is no issue of plagiarism throughout the content of the research .
After conducting the research and studying the Australian agricultural sector it can be said that be said that there is a dire need for proper implementation of the Environmental Management System in order to minimize the generation of agricultural waste from various industry in Australian agricultural sector (Collins et al., 2016). The Environmental Management System also aims at increasing the output of production in the agro industries.
After analyzing the scenario of Australian agricultural sector and understanding the importance of implementation of Environment Management System in agriculture, it is recommended to follow some strategies in the agriculture sector of Australia. The strategies to be followed include use of Cleaner Production in agriculture sector of Australia considering its benefits and prospects for the betterment of Australian agriculture sector. The other recommended strategy includes utilization of the agro waste generated in agriculture sector in Australia by using various ways and methods.
Conclusion
After conducting the research on the agriculture sector of Australia, it can be concluded that it is necessary for them to implement and utilize the Environment Management System, which has wide range of benefits. This research also emphasis the need of implementation of Cleaner Production in the Australian agricultural sector and identifies the various ways by which the agro waste and by products can be utilized to generate energy which in turn can be utilized for the benefits of people .
References
Cary, J., & Roberts, A. (2011). The limitations of environmental management systems in Australian agriculture. Journal of Environmental Management, 92(3), 878-885.
Collins, A. L., Zhang, Y. S., Winter, M., Inman, A., Jones, J. I., Johnes, P. J., … & Noble, L. (2016). Tackling agricultural diffuse pollution: What might uptake of farmer-preferred measures deliver for emissions to water and air?. Science of the Total Environment, 547, 269-281.
Daddi, T., Testa, F., Frey, M., & Iraldo, F. (2016). Exploring the link between institutional pressures and environmental management systems effectiveness: an empirical study. Journal of environmental management, 183, 647-656.
de Oliveira, J. A., Silva, D. A. L., Guardia, M., do Nascimento Gambi, L., de Oliveira, O. J., & Ometto, A. R. (2017). How can Cleaner Production practices contribute to meet ISO 14001 requirements? Critical analysis from a survey with industrial companies. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 19(6), 1761-1774.
El Hanandeh, A. (2015). Energy recovery alternatives for the sustainable management of olive oil industry waste in Australia: life cycle assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 91, 78-88.
Leung, D. Y., & Yang, Y. (2012). Wind energy development and its environmental impact: a review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(1), 1031-1039.
Lewandowska, A. (2011). Environmental life cycle assessment as a tool for identification and assessment of environmental aspects in environmental management systems (EMS) part 1: methodology. The international journal of life cycle assessment, 16(2), 178-186.
Nguyen, T. A. H., Ngo, H. H., Guo, W. S., Zhang, J., Liang, S., Lee, D. J., … & Bui, X. T. (2014). Modification of agricultural waste/by-products for enhanced phosphate removal and recovery: potential and obstacles. Bioresource technology, 169, 750-762.
Notarnicola, B., Sala, S., Anton, A., McLaren, S. J., Saouter, E., & Sonesson, U. (2016). The role of life cycle assessment in supporting sustainable agri-food systems: A review of the challenges. J. Clean. Prod, 140.
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