Environmental sustainable development (ESD) requires meeting the goals of good economics, good engineering and good environmental practice (the three “E’s”). To accomplish ESD, four key actions or tools (Goodland et al., 1993) can be used:

• Sound Economics. Unless the development makes both environmental and economic sense, the project cannot be justified.
• Environmental Accounting. All elements of a project should be capable of being assessed and valued to ensure both the economics and environmental aspects are being addressed.
  Project Assessment. The proposed undertaking can successfully address all elements of a detailed environmental and engineering evaluation.
• Operational Guidelines. The construction, operation and abandonment/demolition are conducted within a framework of environmental protection and environmental management.
  

In many cases, the difficulty is not in conducting the environmental assessment, but in ensuring that the project planning includes detailed environmental review throughout the planning, design and construction stages. In this way, environmental management becomes a key building block in the success of a project rather than being perceived as a roadblock.

OCL Group has worked with numerous private and government clients to ensure a project meets all goals of environmentally-sustainable development, often within the context of an environmental management system (e.g., ISO 14001). The goal in each case is to minimize environmental impact, during construction and operation, while ensuring the project also meets economic goals and engineering feasibility.

Please see the attached project description PDF files for further information. Please also refer to the Presentations section for the Property Sustainable Development paper.

1. Goodland, R.J.A., H. Daly and S. El Serafy. 1993. The urgent need for rapid transition to global environmental sustainability. Environmental Conservation, 20:297-309.