Zaneta Stasiskiene

Promotion of cleaner production investments: international experience

Abstract Cleaner Production (CP) should be an essential part of any comprehensive environmental management system at an enterprise or national level. In many cases the adoption of CP improvements can reduce or even eliminate the need for end-of-pipe investments and therefore can have both environmental and economic benefits. Experience shows, that often companies having identified cost-effective and technically-feasible CP options, may still not be able to make necessary CP investment to realise the financial benefits and environmental advantages. Financing of CP projects varies among countries and types of the projects. Domestic and international efforts to strengthen environmental financing still face a number of serious obstacles, many of which are related to profound economic, political and social problems. The detailed evaluation of revolving fund establishment possibilities based on personal experience of the authors in Lithuania, Zimbabwe and Vietnam is presented in the paper.

Industrial waste minimization--experience from Lithuania.

Waste represents the loss of both material and energy resources. Because excessive waste generation is a symptom of inefficient production processes, low durability of goods and unsustainable consumption patterns, waste quantities can be considered as an indicator of how efficiently society uses raw materials. Therefore, good waste management begins with preventing waste from being generated. The objective of this paper is to present the work related to waste minimization in Lithuania by introducing successful examples from industry, to bring ideas and inspiration to authorities, companies, and others working in the field of waste minimization. The paper is supporting EU waste policy manifested in the EU waste strategy and the proposed Sixth Environmental Action Programme. Many enterprises are still unaware of the full costs of waste management. Therefore, by applying the methodology presented in the paper, companies could make substantial reductions in their waste, and therefore, disposal costs. Waste minimization (WM) often results in substantial savings through reduced purchasing costs and more efficient practices. It also has wide environmental benefits such as reduced energy consumption and less environmental pollution, conservation of natural resources and extension of valuable landfill capacity. Therefore, waste prevention should have the highest priority in waste strategies, as this is the only way to stop the growth of the amount of waste and reduce the loss of resources (EUC Bulletin 12, 1996).

Sustainable development of deep-water seaport: the case of Lithuania

IntroductionIn 2003, the Japan International Cooperation Agency carried out a development feasibility study of Klaipeda Seaport (Lithuania). The focus in this study was the evaluation of environmental impacts of the port expansion because it is located in an ecologically sensitive area. While the Japanese researchers focused on the environmental impact analysis, they did not provide unambiguous conclusions. The problems remained unresolved and required further, more detailed consideration and deeper analysis.PurposeEnvironmental sustainability in seaports is an issue of timely importance in many countries given the rapid increase in port-to-port traffic and harbor capacity. This paper explores the situation in Klaipeda Seaport (Lithuania) which is the northernmost ice-free port on the Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea and its challenges in terms of environmental aspects and current pollution situation. This port plays an important role in the economic development of the region and in creating a sustainable society, i.e., a society that continues to develop economically without increasing its impact on our living environment and where the possible reduction of its current impact can be huge due to the fact that the seaport is a place where transport and logistics intersect and constitute large-scale industrial estates. Increasingly, they also turn towards sustainability.MethodsSociety faces the need for radical change because of increasing technological progress and increasing environmental impact. Environmental and public issues must be addressed by a systemic approach to find harmony among all the subsystems. Therefore, the authors of the article performed an assessment of the deep-water port of Klaipeda sustainable development opportunities tackling the following tasks: (1) Assessing Klaipeda port and the projected deep-water port of the current environment state; (2) Assessing the impact of the water quality of Klaipeda port, depending on the intensity of activity; (3) Assessing the projected impact of the deep-water port on the environment.Results and conclusionsThe results of the performed research allowed: (a) to reveal strengths and weaknesses of Klaipeda port development and the potential conflicts of interest among different stakeholders, (b) to identify the set of problem solutions seeking sustainable Klaipeda port development; (c) to develop the set of sustainability indicators to monitor the efficiency of the development.

SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN LITHUANIAN INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES

Water resources management has become an important operational and environmental issue in Lithuania. The rinsing costs of dependable water supplies and wastewater disposal have increased the economic incentive for implementing technologies that are more environment-friendly, and can ensure efficient use of natural resources. Wastewater reuse potential for Lithuanian industries was determined and overviewed of the types of industries that could benefit from wastewater reclamation and reuse was made. The Integrated Water Resources Management model IWRM is designed for water resources management in the industrial companies and supposes possibilities for process integration and wastewater reclamation technologies according mathematically formulated efficient water consumption criteria.