ISM AND ISEG MBA - Développement durable

fertilizers), and second, alternative products whose use prevent or reduce pollution (for example
phosphate-free, biodegradable detergents, lead-free gasoline, mercury-free batteries, and water-
based paints and adhesives).
The prevention of the pollution is being driven by environmental regulation, and by the pressures
of economics, consumer awareness, and the need to modernize industry. The industrial pollution
is often caused by outdated and inefficient processes that are material and energy-intensive and
which produce unwanted by-products. Replacing these with more eco-efficient processes
generally reduces input costs, reduces waste streams, and in the long term saves money.
The fourth and final category is the sustainable technologies. Because of the need to achieve a
combination of environmental, economic, and social objectives, the transition to sustainable
technologies is becoming imperative.
The sustainable technologies, and the products and services they provide, are useful solutions
because they deliver a number of benefits simultaneously. They reduce the need for the
environment/economy trade-offs that often characterize remediation and abatement approaches,
principally by capturing the economic advantages of energy and resource efficiency.
For example, the sustainable technologies include the daylight-sensitive, energy-efficient lighting
products, free from toxics and heavy metals, the wood products grown, harvested, and
manufactured sustainably, the non-bleached, recycled paper with high post-consumer fiber
content, the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals made from plant extracts, the heating and cooling
technologies that are efficient, low in emissions, based on renewable energy, and CFC-free, and
the organically produced food.
Because the concept of sustainable technologies is in its early stages, the tool should be
considered to give new directions, not final answers. It should be used to spark new ideas and to
stretch the imagination of those developing processes and products.
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