Il forum sulla Qualità di QualitiAmo

[QualitiAmo - Stefania]

Su VUE potete leggere un articolo dal titolo: "Lean, mean and green ".

Questa è la versione tradotta in italiano con il traduttore automatico di Google.

Corporations play a unique and significant role in waste production and waste management in Edmonton. However, while businesses generate a considerable amount of waste in their operations, it is often far more difficult for them than for the average householder to manage and divert that waste from the landfill.

Garry Spotowski, the education programs coordinator for the City of Edmonton's Waste Management Branch, is hoping to make it easier for businesses to find ways to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. By hosting free, one-hour "Lunch and Learn" seminars on waste management with businesses, he hopes to educate corporations and their employees on how waste management in Edmonton actually works and ways they can make a difference.

"Businesses face some different challenges than the average household because there are a fair number of waste systems available to them, and for them to truly put together a comprehensive waste management program at work, it often means using a fair number of different systems," Spotowski notes. "I can go on and on about this, but basically they might have one system for paper and cardboard, one system for garbage, one system for returnable containers, one system for other recyclables—and that's a fair amount to hold all together."

That being said, Spotowski points out that there has definitely been more of a shift towards a greener environment at work now than there has been in the recent past and Waste Management Branch is hoping to capitalize on that.

"We do free, one-hour presentations at any business group's function," Spotowski says, explaining that the presentations cover everything from how people can participate in various blue-bin and blue-bag recycling programs in the city, to what can be brought to the city's Eco Stations to what materials can be recycled, where it all goes, what it becomes and what its proportions are.

"We talk about how Edmonton's garbage is turned into compost—many people aren't aware of that—and also about how landfill gas is turned into electricity," Spotowski continues. "We also speak about what they can do in the workplace and how they can best recycle and reduce waste there."

As Spotowski points out, all types of companies and organizations can benefit from hosting a presentation.

"There have been software companies, engineering companies, pipeline companies, but mainly the companies that have opened up to it—who have been open to it—have considered their own environmental performance and they want to improve on that, and so it's just one more step that they take towards doing that."

Deb Hovestad, a web designer for the engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, and a founding member of her company's "Green Team" agrees. Her company recently hosted one of the presentations and she says that it has acted as a catalyst for further environmental initiatives at the firm.

"It raised awareness, I think, because after that presentation, I had a lot of calls from people here in the office asking about things that they can do," she recalls. "People are now bringing in a lot of stuff that they don't know what to do with and so we dispose of it for them because they really don't know.

"So it raised a lot of awareness in the office—especially with engineers. Once they have numbers in front of them, they can see this is tonnes of garbage per ... they see it in terms of numbers and efficiency."

As a result, SNC-Lavalin has since made a number of green changes at the workplace, and as Hovestad points out, it has actually saved the company money.

"We've gotten rid of all Styrofoam here in the office. Everyone has to have their own cup, and there are no more plastic stir sticks, instead they're biodegradable wood products," she says. "And you know what? It's never more expensive. As a matter of fact, quite often, it's a lot cheaper.

"We print a lot," she continues, "but now we also force our printers to print double-sided. And, actually, every week the green team issues a green tip about things that employees can do, from adjusting the margins or just keeping things electronic. Some of our documentation has a no-print command attached to it, so even if employees want to, they can't print it, they have to view it online."

The presentation was such a hit, Hovestad says, that the company is even thinking of organizing another one.

"It filled up really quickly. A lot of people were really disappointed that they couldn't come. There was a lot of interest—because we're an engineering company—about how the [waste management facilities] actually work, how the composter actually works. We're actually thinking of organizing a tour—which they also offer—so that was quite exciting for some of the engineers."

Spotowski says he's incredibly pleased with the warm reception the seminars have gotten thus far and hopes that in addition to sparking changes in the workplace, the seminars will spark changes in people's homes as well.

"Right now, there is about a 60 percent [residential] waste diversion," Spotowski notes, an achievement that distinguishes Edmonton as a world-leader in waste management. Plans underway to build facilities to convert non-recyclable and non-compostable waste into fuels like methanol and ethanol will raise that number to as much as 90 percent once construction of these new energy recovery plants is complete sometime in 2012. The 10 percent that will still end up in the landfill, he says, will mostly be composed of an inert char—an end-product of the energy recovery process.

"So, there's a great deal happening," he concludes, the deep satisfaction evident in his voice. "It's a very exciting time to be involved in the world of waste management at this point.

"There is a tendency, I guess, to think that, 'Oh gee, taking out the garbage is pretty boring stuff,'" he adds. "But when people actually take our presentation and find out all that's out there, they always come away very impressed and pretty excited to be a part of it in a way."
_________________
Stefania - Staff di QualitiAmo

ISO 9001:2015 - SI AGGIUNGE ALLA COLLANA DEI LIBRI DI QUALITIAMO IL NUOVO TESTO CHE SVELA I SEGRETI DELLA FUTURA NORMA



IL PRIMO LIBRO NATO SULLE PAGINE DI QUALITIAMO



HAI DATO UN'OCCHIATA AL REGOLAMENTO DEL FORUM PRIMA DI SCRIVERE IL TUO MESSAGGIO?