Sustainable Criteria for Environmental Technology

The demand for sustainable criteria for environmental technology has over the past few years increaseddue to competition amongst companies in the business due to legal demands. Using criteria for environmentaltechnology is a way for companies to show buyers that their product is a long term investment. Byimplementing sustainable criteria for environmental technology, companies can be sure they are buying andusing the best available technology adjusted to their economy. Sustainable criteria for environmental technologymay in the future be used as eco-labelling, showing that companies are sustainable and proactive.The aim of this master thesis is to develop a basis of what should be included in criteria for environmentaltechnology. This basis is developed by using existing strategies and criteria and to perform further developmentof these. The development of strategies for sustainable environmental technology was made from strategies takenfrom the Agenda 21 document which were transformed and elucidated. Agenda 21 was chosen because itis sprung from the Brundtland report which holds the definition of sustainable development used in thisreport. Existing criteria for sustainability found during this work was placed under strategies from Agenda 21. Inorder to adjust the criterion to environmental technology this project also looked at what had been done inthis area, both by companies, international organisations and municipalities. The sustainability criteria thusfound were also placed under Agenda 21 strategies. After this stage there was an examination and a discussionof what criteria was missing to gain a sustainable perspective. This thesis shows that it is possible to use Agenda 21 for the development of strategies. The strategies haveto be complemented in order to gain a holistic perspective. It is also possible to take criteria from companiesand eco-labelling and place them under different strategies. Those criteria are not adjusted to environmentaltechnology and additional adjustments are needed. Implementation of sustainable criteria for environmentaltechnology is another issue to be discussed further. www.ima.kth.s