Value chain approaches to determining Best Available Techniques (BAT) for industrial installations

5. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INTEGRATING VALUE CHAIN CONCEPTS

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5 Possible solutions and

recommendations for integrating value chain concepts into BAT determinations

There are numerous opportunities to apply value chain concepts to BAT determination to better address the environmental impacts of the whole value chain. Solutions may be tailored or broad but require careful consideration of the diverse interactions between sectors. Additionally, the exercise of defining the value chain and gaps in its consideration may highlight opportunities to leverage other regulatory and nonregulatory tools to minimize environmental impacts from industrial facilities.

How do we effectively integrate value chain concepts into BAT Reference Documents given framework limitations? Despite the challenges and framework limitations to integrating value chain concepts into BAT Reference Documents as described in the above chapter, some research has indicated the potential benefits of and possible initial steps for such integration.

Potential for integrating value chain concepts into the existing framework Although industrial emissions legislation has not been designed to incorporate circular economy priorities, Anderson et al. (2019[86]) emphasise that there is untapped potential for an enhanced contribution to objectives related to, in particular, waste generation, recycling rates and contribution of recycled materials to raw material demand, and innovation. Furthermore, the report points out that if the Technical Working Groups increasingly identify circular economy concerns as Key Environmental Issues, these would to be addressed in the BAT Conclusions to a larger extent. VITO and Ricardo provide a set of recommendations as to how the IED and the BREFs could be changed to better respond to circular economy concerns (Anderson, N. et al., 2019[83]), for example: 

promote better uptake of emerging techniques in industry that have a focus on circular economy;

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include experts on circular economy and from other sectors providing materials, energy or receiving by-products/wastes in the Technical Working Groups;

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add a general/overreaching BAT to all sector BAT reports requiring consideration of value chain issues; and

BEST AVAILABLE TECHNIQUES (BAT) FOR PREVENTING AND CONTROLLING INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION © OECD 2022

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Value chain approaches to determining Best Available Techniques (BAT) for industrial installations

Published on Mar 16, 2022

OECD

In the transition towards a non-polluting, resource efficient industry, greater consideration of value chains shows potential to deliver greater overall environmental benefit than less integrated approaches that focus on individual stages, such as installation or sectoral emissions. Actions taken at the design and manufacturing, or other product life phases, can influence environmental impacts at other stages such as material processing, and waste recycling. The overall life-cycle impacts need to be accounted for at the outset. This report assesses how value chain approaches are/should be incorporated in BAT determinations and related environmental regulatory and policy concepts to accelerate progress toward identifying practices that more effectively consider an industry’s entire value chain to reduce overall environmental impacts as well as individual manufacturing sites within a given sector.