Moving with the times - Going green - IMIESA , April 2009
It must be asked: in times of such rapidly changing global conditions firms can still afford to adopt a business-as-usual approach? Certainly a new attitude to the impact of commercial and industrial operations on the environment is an area that should be assessed.
By undertaking an environmental footprint audit, a company can assess the impact of its business practices on the environment and accept the challenge to change and innovate for more efficient and proactive business practices, which will ultimately translate into bottom-line cost savings.
Jeffares & Green (J&G), the long-established firm of consulting engineers, has launched a new green business unit to help clients understand and implement ‘green’ principles and strategies. The unit is committed to helping companies analyse their environmental footprint by identifying the areas of most impact, and to advise on sustainable implementation strategies to maximise cost savings.
Chris Wise, the director heading up the green business unit says, “Often the motivation to ‘go green’ stems from a desire to ‘do the right thing’ but, in fact, organisations with solid environmental policies are gaining a competitive advantage over other businesses.”
“The stark reality of our time is the immediate vulnerability of our planet and issues such as the electricity blackouts and the effects of global warming have brought about a paradigm shift in the way most people look at the impact we are having on the earth.”
“We all have a responsibility to maintain the global environment for the future and to reduce our eco-footprint wherever we are. Amongst business leaders, the decision to enforce green policies is increasingly being seen as both the right ethical and the right commercial responses,” says Wise.
A hesitation on the part of decision-makers to ‘go green’ appears to stem from a lack of knowledge as to how to go about it and a concern about what the implementation will cost the firm.
To meet this demand for expert advice, J&G has assembled a team of environmental scientists, engineers (including civil, process and environmental engineers) and an economist.
Team leader Chris Wise is a professional civil engineer, J&G’s resident process and environmental engineer, and a wastewater specialist. With regard to the latter, he is currently working on cutting-edge projects to improve the quality of stormwater to improve the quality of marine water at the point of discharge. The majority of Wise’s experience has been in wastewater and waste engineering. He has undertaken numerous process designs for new plants and upgrades of existing wastewater and wastewater treatment plants throughout South Africa.
A notable project includes the process analysis and bottlenecks study for the 350 Ml/d Northern Works wastewater treatment plant in Johannesburg, the largest plant in Africa, which resulted in the design of numerous upgrades at the plant.
In 2004, Wise was included as a finalist in the annual CESA Glendrand MIB Young Engineer of the Year Award.
Second-in-charge is Sally-Anne Engledow, who is a masters graduate in waste management. Her particular focus is waste minimisation practices and waste material recycling. Her masters thesis was based on life cycle assessment methodology concerning household waste recycling, using a pilot household waste separation project in a suburb of Cape Town. The thesis used life-cycle assessment principles to understand the environmental aspects of recycling from collection to remanufacturing and final disposal. The use of cost benefit analysis principles allowed for the assessment of the financial implications of a waste separation scheme.
Engledow completed an IEMA-accredited environmental auditor course in 2006 and has been a lead and an assistant auditor on a number of environmental compliance audits for waste disposal facilities since 2004. She enjoys the principles of auditing is committed to assisting facilities to strive for continual environmental improvement.
Engledow has been involved in a myriad of projects, including environmental auditing, environmental impact assessments (EIAs), processes, waste characterisations, development and implementation of environmental management systems as well as the development of integrated waste management plans.
Rudi Seebach is another member of the ‘green team’ to bring a special brand of expertise to the table. He holds an M.Sc in Environmental Science from Rhodes University and has over 10 years of professional work experience. Seebach has recently been certified by SAATCA as a lead environmental auditor.
Other members of the environmental team include Quinton Williams, Besty King and Keshni Rughoobeer.
J&G understands that a team with the broadest possible skills base is essential to conduct fully comprehensive environmental footprinting audits, and has thus established relationships with other professional consultants, including electrical engineers.
One of the measurement tools used in an audit is carbon footprinting, i.e. the measurement of the amount of green house gases released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels for everyday activities such as driving to work, using electricity or complex manufacturing processes. Furthermore, green house gases are released from solid waste. In fact, the methane gas generated from decaying waste in a landfill site is 21 times the carbon dioxide equivalent!
Certainly carbon footprinting is a buzz word at the moment, with a myriad of DIY ‘calculators’ available on the internet, many of which are useful as a first step assessment. But this will only reveal the tip of the iceberg.
As Engledow explains: “By doing a professional carbon footprint analysis, an organisation can measure not only their impact in real numbers but can also focus on the major contributors where the biggest savings – based on the 80/20 principle – can be made to both the environment and the budget. In other words, focus on the ‘low hanging fruit’.”
“We also believe that it is important to review the organisation’s water and waste footprints. This holistic approach is based on the principles of environmental management systems,” says Engledow.
Because J&G’s ‘green team’ has extensive experience in the fields of both water and waste, they are able to offer clients a fully holistic approach to enviro-footprinting. Once the baselines have been established, firms can then strive for continual improvement by doing a year-on-year measurement of impact reduction and cost-savings.
Annual measurement and continual improvement can be more easily maintained by implementing and internationally recognised environmental management system (EMS) such as an ISO 14001:2004. J&G are experienced in developing and implementing EMS and also offer an auditing service for those systems that are required on a regular basis.
The J&G Group is currently ‘walking the talk’ by determining its own environmental footprint. A holistic approach has been implemented whereby carbon emissions, the effect of water usage and the generation of waste have all been calculated. The scope of this environmental footprint has been limited to core activities of office-based consulting and on-site monitoring, and excluded procurement.
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