Taking care of materials, energy, water, waste and emissions makes good business sense. Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) is the way to achieve this. RECP covers the application of preventive management strategies that increase the productive use of natural resources, minimize generation of waste and emissions, and foster safe and responsible production.

The National Cleaner Production Centres (NCPC) of UNIDO is a worldwide network for the promotion of implementing best practices in chemical processes. The NCPCs were established under the global RECP Network and the project is supported by UNIDO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The environmental and economic benefits of implementing best practices in chemical processes are significant. Chemical Leasing has two aims: to ensure environmental sustainability (MDG 7) through the promotion of sustainable chemical use; and to promote development (MDG 1, MDG 8) by improving the economic and environmental performance of the participating companies making them more competitive on the global market.

The Programme has benefited from long term commitments from development partners. The Governments of Switzerland and Austria have provided the largest shares of programme resources through the UN agencies. Several other countries have made further essential contributions, including Norway, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain, France and the European Union.

Moreover, several multilateral programmes (e.g. UNDP, World Bank, Global Environment Facility) and bilateral cooperation projects (e.g. Sweden, Denmark, USA and Germany) have directly utilized selected NCPCs at country-level.

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