As the ZD mission gains currency, new opportunities are revealed – to provide cost‐saving new design applications, to design new product lines, and to win new customers. These opportunities include the following:
- Finding cost savings and new revenues in existing operations. Initial cost savings at existing operations should come from pollution prevention and waste minimization, which may already have been optimized. However, new revenues will come from identifying a viable market for the waste stream after it has been converted.
- Entering new markets for existing goods and services. New markets will be entered when cluster partners are identified; for example, brewery specialists will expand into agricultural sectors. The market for handling “designer wastes” is expected to grow significantly, especially for firms specializing in reprocessing. Producers of a wide range of materials processing equipment such as grinding, sifting, sorting, purifying, separating, and packaging will find new markets. However, in some cases the conversion process will be handled by an intermediary company that will alter the wastes mechanically, chemically, or biologically to meet customer specifications.
- Developing new technologies, processes, and materials. Many of the pollution control firms will begin partnering with the upstream commodity producers (e.g. petroleum, chemical, and mining companies) and learning their refining techniques.
- Supporting the organizational changes, and technical and information needs of a Zero Emissions‐based economy. This will be a business opportunity primarily for those offering skills in informational and organizational systems.
- Integrating technologies and methods into innovative new systems. As Zero Emissions expands, professionals from different sectors will connect to benefit from each other’s skills and experience.
- Developing the infrastructure for eco‐industrial parks. Requires equipment to channel the flow of materials, water, or heat between plants and communities. Civil engineering firms that specialize in urban design and infrastructure systems should find great opportunities in providing the integrated system designs.
Providing Return on Investment
A simple economic metric, return on investment (ROI) is a quick measure of when an item will pay for itself. The time between the initiation of an investment and the achievement of ROI is called the payback period. Pollution control technology, which is not traditionally viewed as an investment that is able to generate a return on investment, is usually measured in terms of lowest available cost to meet regulatory guidelines (see also Chapter 7). If wastes are viewed as materials, however, as in ZD, the whole picture changes. Some have joked about giving all materials produced in a facility a product name and an advertising budget and/discontinuing any “product” that does not sell.
Engineers have historically been compensated based on overall project cost. Incentives need to be shifted to designs that reduce material and energy flows. Compensation based on energy efficiency is being implemented in some projects and it is successful because energy efficiency can be measured in a single unit (joules of energy saved). While material flows are not as easy to quantify in a single unit, waste recovery systems can provide an excellent return on investment, as illustrated in Mini‐Case Study 1.3.
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