Cleaner Production (CP) is best business practices. It is not a cost, but an opportunity that maximizes product output and reduces business risks through efficient use of resources (water, energy and chemicals). This leads to minimizing waste and pollution at source and increasing profits.

Conventionally, most factories rely on setting up pollution control equipment or end-of-pipe technologies for environmental management. However, these solutions tend to be costly and difficult to monitor. Experience shows that CP results in substantial savings for industry and society. So much so that some CP measures are effectively free of cost. Figure 1 shows factory savings that resulted after implementation of CP measures.