Pollutants
Description
This includes contaminants that result from industrial activities and consumption patterns, which are accumulating in the air, soil, waterways, and the plants and animals we eat. Companies should take a risk-based approach and work to eliminate processes and materials that result in pollutants and seek to understand the rates at which pollutants can be safely assimilated by the environment.
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Resources
A Practical Guide For Business: Air Pollutant Emission Assessment
Developed by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, Stockholm Environment Institute, and IKEA Group, this guide can help you to quantify air pollutant emissions within your value chain. The guide uses introduces a method for the comprehensive accounting of emissions, and provides a six-step approach for developing an air pollutant emission inventory for a broad range of contaminants, including particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Ammonia (NH3), and Carbon Monoxide (CO). The guide also introduces approaches to mitigation and implementation, and explains how an emissions inventory can be used for decision-making and strategy.
National Geographic Resource Library: Pollution
This introductory resource provides a high-level explanation of air, land, and water pollution; key sources of pollution; and requirements for reducing pollution.
Safe planetary boundary for pollutants, including plastics, exceeded, say researchers
This article explains how - for the first time - the impact of "novel entities" (synthetic chemicals including plastics) on the stability of the Earth system has been assessed. This article will help you to understand that humanity has exceeded a planetary boundary related to environmental pollutants, and that urgent action is required.
The Social Foundation: 'A Safe and Just Place for Humanity'
Kate Raworth's “Doughnut” model is a key framework for understanding sustainability context. Building on the planetary boundaries framework as a 'ceiling', it adds social foundations as a 'floor' and underlines the need to operate in the space between. The social foundation is made up of 11 boundaries that draw attention to communities needing access to basic resources to fulfill their human needs. This access needs to be achieved in a way that does not place undue stress on the earth's resources. The framework is based on the premise that we should be striving to build and maintain social foundations while staying within planetary boundaries.
World's Air Pollution: Real-time Air Quality Index
The World Air Quality Index Project has created this interactive map to provide real-time and recent historical information on the world's air pollution in over 10,000 locations. This resource will help you to keep track of the pollution in the communities in which you operate, as well as to provide evocative air quality information to leaders for educational purposes.
WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines
This comprehensive guide was created by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for policy-makers, lawmakers, and technical experts, including industrial stakeholders and environmental impact assessment practitioners. It was created to offer quantitative, health-based recommendations for air quality, with the ultimate goal of providing guidance that can help to reduce the burden of pollutants on health worldwide. It provides specific recommendations on a range of air pollutants, including particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen and sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and more. It also provides recommendations for implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the guidelines.
A Beginner’s Guide to NOx, NO and NO2 as Air Pollutants
This blog provides an accessible introduction to nitrogen oxides, the differences between them, their sources, and their impact to humans and the environment.
The world's forgotten greenhouse gas
Agricultural activities may be responsible for more than a quarter of human-caused climate-warming emissions, but most of these emissions are not from carbon dioxide. The primary culprit, rather, is nitrous oxide - a compound approximately 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide at heating the atmosphere. This article explains how humanity has tipped the Earth's nitrogen cycle out of balance, and highlights solutions for runaway nitrous oxide emissions that your company can support.
What is nutrient pollution?
This brief article will introduce you to the issue of nutrient pollution from nitrogen and phosphorous, including sources of nutrient pollution and their effects on marine environments.
Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) Knowledge Platform
The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework created to promote chemical safety around the world. Their strategic approach focuses on risk reduction; knowledge and information; governance; capacity-building and technical cooperation; and illegal international traffic. SAICM is an excellent source if you want to take a deep dive into issues related to hazardous chemicals. They have an expansive library of articles, videos, reviews, databases, e-learning resources, reports, and more on topics related to chemicals, and they lead communities of practice on a range of cross-cutting themes.
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is a multilateral environmental agreement to protect human health and the environment from such harmful chemicals. This site is your one-stop shop for learning more about POPs. It provides essential information on initial and newly identified POPs; reports and decisions from the Convention; and brochures, leaflets, fact sheets, guidance manuals, and other publications.
Toxic waste, explained
This primer will help familiarise you with the topic of toxic waste, including common sources, regulations, and management.
The WELL Air concept
The WELL Air concept was created to promote indoor air quality through a diverse range of holistic design strategies aimed at reducing harmful exposure to contaminants. This guidance addresses a broad array of topics that will help you to improve the air quality in your facilities, including ventilation design, pollution infiltration management, air quality monitoring and awareness, and microbe and mold control.
Volatile Organic Compounds' Impact on Indoor Air Quality
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are gaseous emissions from certain solids or liquids that may have short- and long-term impacts on human health. This page from the Environmental Protection Agency will help you to become familiar with the sources of VOCs, their health effects, and steps to reduce exposure.
Air Emissions and Ambient Air Quality
These environmental, health, and safety guidelines from the International Finance Corporation apply to facilities or projects that generate emissions to air at any stage of the project life-cycle. It is intended to complement industry-specific emissions guidance presented in the Industry Sector Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines by providing information about common techniques for emissions management that may be applied to a range of industry sectors; providing an approach to the management of significant sources of emissions; providing specific guidance for assessment and monitoring of impacts; and providing additional information on approaches to emissions management in projects located in areas of poor air quality.
National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife
This resource from Australia's Department of the Environment and Energy provides a framework that will help you to assess and manage the impact of artificial light on susceptible wildlife. It introduces a multi-step approach that explains how artificial light impacts wildlife; highlights the principles of best practice light design; explains how to determine biologically relevant luminance and perform artificial light auditing; and provides an artificial light management checklist. The guidance also features species-specific appendices and case studies.
The International Dark-Sky Association: Light Pollution
The International Dark-Sky Association is a non-profit organisation committed to preserving and protecting the night-time environment and shared heritage of dark skies. Their website provides a wide array of information to grow your understanding of the causes and effects of light pollution, with themes specific to wildlife and ecosystems, energy waste, human health, and the intersection of lighting, crime, and safety. Their resources also include videos, infographics, and a research library.
Illuminating the Effects of Light Pollution
This article may be useful as part of an executive primer on the effects of light pollution, which highlights evocative examples such as bird collisions, algae blooms, and beached baby turtles.
The dark side of light: how artificial lighting is harming the natural world
Artificial lighting within towns and cities, along roads and highways, and at business sites is so pervasive that it can be easy to overlook or underestimate their effect on ecosystems. This article from Nature will help you to understand the profound impact that light pollution is having on ecology, such as migrational species and insects, as well as the results of experiments conducted to identify harm reduction alternatives.
The New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness
This resource presents a modern world atlas of global luminance. The content presented here will help you to better visualize and understand the extent to which light pollution is a global issue.
Light Pollution Map
This interactive light pollution map provides an array of overlay options that will help you to see the trends in light pollution over the past decade.