British Ceramic Tiles Environmental Sustainability Practices

BRITISH CERAMIC TILES ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES
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Executive Summary
The British Tile company is a leading manufacturer of tiles in the UK. However, the issue of the sustainable production process has forced many companies to employ sustainable practices to reduce their impact on the environment. To achieve this, the company needs to determine the areas of change using the concept of life cycle analysis, industrial ecology, and carbon neutrality. These three concepts have helped identify the areas of kiln firing and raw material transportation as the main areas of improvement. Based on the discussion, British Ceramic Tiles should consider reducing their emission of greenhouse gasses by reducing the number of fleets transporting raw materials to their factory and switching to renewable energy for use in their tile heating processes.
Table of Contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463221" Executive Summary  PAGEREF _Toc3463221 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463222" Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc3463222 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463223" Environmental Sustainability Theoretical Review  PAGEREF _Toc3463223 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463224" Life Cycle Analysis  PAGEREF _Toc3463224 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463225" Industrial Ecology  PAGEREF _Toc3463225 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463226" Carbon Neutrality  PAGEREF _Toc3463226 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463227" Evaluation of British Ceramic Tile’s Environmental Sustainability Practices  PAGEREF _Toc3463227 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463228" Conclusions and Recommendations  PAGEREF _Toc3463228 \h
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 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc3463229" References  PAGEREF _Toc3463229 \h
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British Ceramic Tiles Environmental Sustainability Practices
Introduction
Ceramics are commonly used building materials. According to estimations, ceramics constitute close to 50 percent of building materials in the current buildings globally (Dodge and Data Analytics 2018, p. 12). The process of making ceramic tiles requires the production of raw materials, consumption of energy and other materials which inevitably lead to several types of environmental impacts. With growing concerns about the effects of manufacturing processes on the environment, companies are responsible for ensuring that they reduce the effects of their processes on the environment. British Ceramic Tiles is a leading manufacturer of ceramic tiles in the UK. The company recently expanded its factory in 2009 making it the largest tile-making company in Europe (British Ceramic Tiles 2019). With such a large capacity, the company’s processes are bound to have a greater effect on the environment. This report will, therefore, discuss the environmental sustainability practices the British Ceramic Tiles can adopt to reduce the impact of their production processes on the environment. The essay will begin by discussing three sustainability concepts with examples to prove their effectiveness and then evaluate how these concepts can be applied to the company.
Environmental Sustainability Theoretical Review
Ceramics have been of particular interest when it comes to the environmental impact of products used in the construction industry. The major environmental concerns brought about by ceramic production are in the manufacturing process begin from raw material extraction, transportation, and the processes used to make the ceramics. In light of this, it is necessary to assess the environmental effect of ceramic manufacturing and evaluating the company’s environmental sustainability practices by narrowing down on life cycle analysis, industrial ecology, and carbon neutrality.
Life Cycle Analysis
The life cycle analysis is a system of accounting that is used to evaluate the effects of production, use, and re-use of services and goods throughout their entire life cycle (Piontek and Muller 2018, p. 760). The process in the life cycle begins from the extraction of raw materials, manufacture, delivery, utilization, and recycling of the materials. The concept of life cycle analysis will best apply to British Ceramic Tiles because it can be useful in material selection, product comparison, and policymaking, especially in areas such as energy reduction, depletion of natural resources, and waste management (Gaspar et al. 2018, p. 3). The life cycle assessment is suitable because it can be used to identify the parts of the life cycle that have the most impact on the environment (Guldbrandsson and Bergmark 2012, p. 1). In contrast, the assessment cannot be used to monitor the level of performance of certain areas in the life cycle, meaning that certain aspects will have to be assumed (Guldbrandsson and Bergmark 2012, p. 1). An effective application of the life cycle assessment has been in the red ceramic industry in Northeast Brazil, whereby, the concept was used to evaluate the effect of the industrial processes on the environment. Through the concept, the impact on the environment was identified in various stages of the productive process, and factors such as overburden, generation of solid residues and high release of greenhouse gasses were identified (Abrahao and Carvalho 2017 pp. 313-315). Similarly, the assessment can be applied to British Ceramic Tiles to identify the various impacts of its processes on the environment.
Industrial Ecology
The concept of industrial ecology examines the flow of energy and the materials used in the industrial systems, with the aim of coming up with a closed loop system similar to natural ecosystems (Srinivas 2015). The strengths of the concept are in its ability to incorporate other sustainability tools and concepts such a dematerialization, material flow analysis, design for disassembly and environmental sound technology (Srinivas 2015). The concept of industrial ecology is meant to reduce the stress to the environment caused by the industrial processes while sustaining company growth, resource efficiency and encouraging innovation. Industrial ecology has had a positive effect on Hydro Aluminum, a subsidiary company of Norsk Hydro, which manufactures semi-fabricated and end products (Haas, Krausmann, Wiedenhofer, and Heinz 2015). The company employed industrial ecology to develop an approach to understand its processes and reduce the effects of such processes on the environment. Through the concept, Hydro Aluminum identified high energy consumption, and emissions from the processes of extraction, and production as having significant effects on the environment. Hydro Aluminum began its sustainability practices by managing the firm from an industrial ecological perspective which incorporated recycling processes, logistics, and sustainable energy consumption (Haas, Krausmann, Wiedenhofer, and Heinz 2015).
Carbon Neutrality
Carbon neutrality involves balancing the carbon emissions with carbon removal to attain a net zero carbon footprint. Committing to the concept of carbon neutrality requir...