Type of workshop: mainly by invitation

Number of participants: 40

Deadline for Applications: February 1, 2000

Co-Directors

Dr. Arpad Horvath
Assistant Professor
University of California at Berkeley
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
215B McLaughlin Hall # 1712
Berkeley, CA 94720-1712
USA
Telephone: (510) 642-7300
Fax: (510) 643-8919
E-mail: horvath@ce.berkeley.edu
 
 

Dr. Sandor Kerekes
Professor and Chairman
Department of Environmental Economics and Technology
Budapest University of Economic Sciences
Faculty of Business Administration
Department of Environmental Economics and Technology
Kinizsi u. 1-7
1092 Budapest
Hungary
Telephone: (36-1) 217-9588
Fax: (36-1) 217-9588
E-mail: skerekes@enviro.bke.hu
 

Introduction

In our rapidly developing industry and society, traditional end-of-pipe treatment of environmental problems is no longer acceptable: it is typically more expensive, less effective, and carries the social stigma of a reactive approach, a treatment after the harm has been done. Modern societies do not want environmental remediation; they want to prevent pollution and waste before it is generated.

Methods and tools related to "green" engineering, economics and management, i.e., planning, design, implementation and management that integrates the environmental factor into decision-making and practice are gaining in importance. The concepts of pollution prevention, design for environment, and life-cycle engineering and accounting are becoming widespread industrial practice in the U.S., the European Union (EU), and the other developed economies of the world. The concepts, methods, and the corresponding tools (mainly software-based) need to be transferred to the economies of Central and Eastern Europe as well, especially in the light of their strives to join the group of developed economies. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are already in accession talks with the EU, and are expected to join in a few years. Even before they join, they need to re-engineer their industries and legal systems to comply with EU environmental requirements, as well as with the requirements of the world market: products manufactured using excessively polluting processes are increasingly shunned worldwide. Other Central and Eastern European countries (that will perhaps be in the second round of EU accession talks) should be included in these efforts as well. Pollution is a common problem for Europe and the world. It can also be transported regionally. For example, pollution generated in Central Europe can affect the EU countries, and vice versa. For example, global warming is a hotly debated problem. This workshop will promote the notion that proactive environmental policies and practices are a political, a social, as well as a business issue.
 

Objective of the ARW

This workshop will bring together experts from countries that already use green engineering, economics and management methods and tools with decision-makers, public policy makers, students, academics, government representatives, non-governmental and other stakeholders from Central and Eastern European countries that are members or partner members of NATO. The goals of the workshop are:

 
• to present the state-of-the-art of green engineering, economics and management concepts, methods, tools, and case studies to environmental decision-makers and stakeholders from Central and Eastern Europe
• to discuss the relationship of theory and practice in green engineering, economics and management
• to learn about and identify the most pressing environmental problems in Central and Eastern Europe
• to identify possible solutions to these problems using green engineering, economics and management methods and tools
• to discuss the private and public perspectives and opportunities related to the use of green engineering, economics and management tools
• to facilitate a meeting of experts and environmental stakeholders from all over the world
• to encourage personal contacts and future interaction between experts. 

Program

Key speakers (affiliation) and main lectures:

• What is green engineering and management, and why is it important? (Lester Lave, Professor, Graduate School of Industrial Administration; Director, Green Design Initiative, Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
• Industrial ecology (Thomas Graedel, Professor of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, USA)
• Analytical tools for green management and related policy instruments - European perspective (Gjalt Huppes, Head of Section Substances and Products, Centre of Environmental Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands)
• Green engineering and management at the U.S. EPA: Present and future (Barbara Karn, Program Manager, National Center for Environmental Research and Quality Assurance, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
• The role of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (Gerald Fancoj, Project Manager, Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary)
• Panel: What are the opportunities in green engineering and management for Central and Eastern Europe? (Dagmar Sucharovova – Deputy Director, Ministry of Environment, Czech Republic;  Janos Szlavik - Professor and Head, Department of Environmental Economics and Technical Law, Technical University of Budapest, Hungary;  Zenon Foltynowicz - Professor and Vice Dean of the Faculty, The Poznan University of Economics, Poland; Yuri G. Motovilov - Head of Department, State Institute for Applied Ecology, Russian State Committee for Environmental Protection, Russia;  Kamran Abdullayev – Associate Director; and Director, Energy and Environmental Projects, Center for International Studies, Baku, Azerbaijan;  Lidiya Kavunenko - Professor of Economics and Ecology, Centre for Scientific and Technological Potential and Science History Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine)
• Environmental protection in Hungary (Sandor Kerekes, Professor and Head, Department of Environmental Economics and Technology;  Director, Hungarian Cleaner Production Centre, Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration, Hungary)
• Life-cycle engineering (Peter Eyerer, Director, Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT); Professor and Head, Institute for Polymer Testing and Polymer Science (IKP), University of Stuttgart, Germany)
• Economic input-output analysis-based life-cycle assessment – EIO-LCA (Chris Hendrickson, Professor and Head, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
• Environmental valuation, external costs (H. Scott Matthews, Assistant department Head, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
• Corporate environmental accounting  (Martin Bennett, Professor, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, Cheltenham, United Kingdom)
• Extended producer responsibility, product takeback, and reverse logistics systems (Markus Klausner, Corporate Research and Development, Robert Bosch, Germany)
• The role of the environmental manager in green engineering and design (John Morelli, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA)
• Wetlands benefits valuation: The case of the recent cyanide pollution of the River Tisza (Janos Szlavik, Professor and Head, Department of Environmental Economics and Technical Law, Technical University of Budapest, Hungary)
• Sustainability: A blueprint/greenprint for action (Jorge Vanegas, Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Co-Director, Construction Resources Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
• Life cycle activity analysis, industrial ecology and the automobile: a Portuguese case study (Paulo Ferrao, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal)

Tutorials:

• Economic input-output analysis-based LCA – EIO-LCA (Arpad Horvath and H. Scott Matthews)
• AT&T green metrics, abridged LCA (Thomas Graedel)
• GaBi LCA (Harald Florin)
• Metrics for sustainable development (Francis McMichael) 
• Measuring corporate environmental performance (Martin Bennett)

Poster session 

Various breakout sessions

Benefits

Benefits to participants:

Participants will have the opportunity to:

 
• learn how to modify design procedures to prevent costly waste and effluent problems
• gain hands-on experience (using software and case studies) with the newest pollution prevention tools
• learn how to integrate environmental practices into their organisations
• learn about the life-cycle assessment, engineering, and cost accounting of products and processes
• learn about economically and environmentally effective product takeback strategies
• interact with workshop participants from a number of countries
• develop contacts with experts and environmental stakeholders from at least 15 countries.

Expected short-term and long-term benefits of the ARW for NATO Partner countries:

• Familiarity with state-of-the-art green engineering and management concepts, methods and tools
• Discussion of potential joint project proposals
• Networking opportunity with the representatives of the countries from the region as well as from Western Europe and the U.S.

Expected short-term and long-term benefits of the ARW for NATO countries:

• Networking opportunity with the representatives of the countries from the region as well as from Western Europe
• Discussion of potential joint project proposals
• Helping the transformation of the economies of NATO Partner countries towards environmentally more sustainable progress

Conference Hotel

Hotel Erzsébet
Károlyi Mihály utca 11-15
1053 Budapest
Tel: 1-328-5700, 1-328-5746, 1-328-5740
Fax: 1-328-5763
country code: 36
E-mail: buderz@euroweb.hu,
http://www.danubiusgroup.com/hungarhotels/erzsebet.html

Conference Venue

Budapest University of Economic Sciences
Fôvám tér 8
1093 Budapest
Tel.: (36-1) 217-9588
Fax: (36-1) 217-9588
http://www.bke.hu/
 

Arpad Horvath / 18 Jan 2000