Assessment Procedure
During the Assessment Phase the material balance is studied, and appropriate measures are proposed to reduce or prevent loss of materials.
During the phase the project team uses all means possible to identify Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production options. The ideas for options may come from a literature search, personal knowledge, discussions with suppliers, examples in other companies, specialised data bases, or some further R&D. Brainstorming is an indispensable tool to ensure creative intellectual environment to think of all possibilities.
Generating options is a creative process that relies more on inspiration than on logical deduction (although logic remains important). The brainstorming session is a combination of creativity and 'common sense'. Before starting a brainstorming session, literature or other organisations and companies should be consulted, and a site inspection should take place so the generation of options will be more productive. One should, hereby, focus on all influences of the process that could lead to the generation of wastes and emissions. Brainstorming sessions have proved to be most effective when managers, engineers, process-operators and other employees as well as some outside consultants work together without hierarchical constraints.
It should be noted that during a Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production assessment a number of obvious possibilities for immediate improvements may already have been identified. In order to go further, it is often helpful to conceptually divide the process into three essential elements: source identification followed by cause diagnosis, and option generation.