The Future of Resource Management – Finding a Balance Between Economics and the Environment

This session seeks presentations on case studies and analysis tools to more completely evaluate the economics of management decisions that affect plant and natural resources and the environment, including costs and benefits to the operations and to the communities where we operate.For industrial businesses to prosper in the long term, managers must create value for their employees, customers, stakeholders, consumers and communities where we live and work. This requires new ways of thinking and looking at traditional plant operations. Management decision making in the past has been driven primarily by economic, market, and technology factors, including what we decide to build and operate, as well as how a product is used, and these decisions have always had to comply with existing environmental laws and regulations. Various economic factors could be evaluated and planned for. Now, managers must be concerned more than ever with Waste & recycling, responsible packaging, responsible sourcing, water resource efficiency and water stewardship, the environmental impacts of transport & distribution, and energy efficiency. For example, the management of water is becoming a critical issue facing industry, agriculture, government, and society. Fluctuating climates, rising industrialization, and growing populations have all turned water into a “scarce resource”, with increased costs, regulations, and political considerations. Technological solutions which eliminate the waste of this scarce resource and which conserve and recycle water have become imperative, and are now more economically justifiable than in the past.