ABSTRACT
Until the mid 1970s we lived in a world where resource depletion and pollution were seen to be of limited importance. The following decades, however, brought an increasing range of EU and UK pollution control regulation and with it an era of end of pipe ‘environmental technologies’ to allow compliance. In the late 1980s and the 1990s there was a shift towards more preventive regulation and an increasing awareness of ‘eco-efficiency’ concepts such as waste minimisation and energy efficiency. This coincided with a move towards improved quality management and hence companies began to look for technologies that brought environmental and/or workplace benefits along with quality and efficiency improvements. Businesses therefore began adopting systems that:
produced better quality products;
maximised material yield and minimised losses;
used less energy and water;
took up less space on the shopfloor;
were simpler and cheaper to operate and maintain;
were inherently cleaner, producing less pollution and improving shopfloor conditions.
