Transcript Living Sustainably - My Green Workplace

SUSTAINABLE
WORKPLACES
Paul van der Werf
OVERVIEW
Making
sense of sustainability?
What are our environmental
impacts?
How can we make our work
activities more sustainable?
Let’s leave today with a few
practical ideas we can incorporate
right away.
SUSTAINABILITY
We
hear lots of jargon like:
 Carbon foot print
 Green
 Environmentally friendly
 Sustainable
SUSTAINABILITY
“...meeting
the needs of the present
generation without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet
their needs.”

Brundtland Commission, 1987
How do we turn qualitative concepts into quantitative outcomes?
WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ?
 Our
impact comes down to one simple
concept and that is consumption
 “The act or process of consuming.”
WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ?
 As
a result of obtaining what we
consume
 As a result of the wastes generated
through consumption
IN MORE PRACTICAL TERMS
Building
Manufacturing
Heating/Cooling
Transportation
Chemicals
Living
Others?
DISTILLING SOURCES OF
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
 Energy
usage
 Water usage
 Material usage
 Waste generation
ENERGY
At home we consume about 2,500 kwh per year
 One 100 watt light bulb on for 24 hours uses about
2.5 kwh


One Compact Fluorescent Bulb uses about 0.5 kwh

Energy is required to make electricity. Carbon dioxide
and pollution result.
ENERGY
ENERGY
ENERGY
WATER

Residents consume about 250 litres person every day
Volume of 250

Filling up tank 4 times
per day
Think about what that means throughout the year
WATER
1981
1986
1991
1996
Total intake
million cubic metres
Total, whole
economy
Business
sector
Personal and
government
sectors
36,717
42,083
44,979
44,873
32,957
38,363
41,178
40,951
3,760
3,719
3,802
3,922
In 1996 Canada’s population was 29 million
 About 1,500,000 litres/year per resident
 Of that a little less than 10% or about 135,000
litres/year was for personal use
 370 litres/day

WASTE

Residents throw away about 250 kilograms of waste
per person per year
Weight of 250
In London has decreased since 1990
 In Canada continues to increase
 Business waste increasing even faster

WASTE
QUANTITY VS QUALITY

Need to think about consumption in terms of:
QUANTITY
 QUALITY


What impact does the quality of our consumption have
on the environment
Pesticides versus no pesticides
 Green power versus conventional power


Quality is the impact of our consumption beyond the
amount of resources used – manifest as pollution and
other impacts
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OUTCOMES
 Poor
resource use-financial
implications
 Poor resource use-less able to support
the population
 Pollution-health impacts
WHY SUSTAINABILITY AT WORK?
 There
are risks involved with continuing
with the status quo:
 Exposure to risk of increased
environmental legislation (eg. carbon
taxes)
 Exposure to risk of increased cost of
natural resources (e.g. rising cost of
water and electricity)
 Damage to brand, or consumer
backlash
REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
AT WORK
 What
is our impact on the environment
at work?
 What can we do to reduce our impact at
work?
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AT WORK
 Impact
can be split into two main areas
From buildings and process
 From workers

 Impact
into air, water and earth
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Impact Source
Buildings and
Processes
Workers
Impact Types
 Building
Construction
 Building Operation
and Maintenance
 Work processes
 Work processes
 Sustenance
 Transport
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
WHAT WE CAN DO?
 Understand
that our environmental
impact is very closely tied to our
consumption
 Develop a Sustainability Plan to reduce
environmental impact and help guide
activities
 It includes benchmarking, planning,
implementation and review
SUSTAINABILITY PLAN
 Develop
a Sustainability Plan to help
guide activities
 Requires top down and bottom up
participation
 Management – recognize importance
 Staff- fully participate in opportunities
 Embrace change
CONSUMPTION IS TIED TO MONEY
Everything we consume costs money
 Everything we don’t consume costs money
 We have largely been taught to ignore this
 There is a greater appreciation of this right now

“SMART CONSUMPTION”
We need to engage in what I like to call smart
consumption. This is a thought process where we think
about the environmental impacts of our purchases in three
distinct stages
1 . What is the environmental impact of making this
product;
2. What is the environmental impact of using this
product; and
3. What is the environmental impact after this product
has lost its usefulness.
ENERGY
Energy efficient construction
 Business energy audits.
 Minimize energy use during business hours and after
hours
 Encourage alternative forms of transportation
 Where practical encourage other forms of work – such
as telecommuting
 Mayor’s Sustainable Energy Council. web page with
some good information for residents (and business)

ENERGY
HTTP://WWW.MSEC.LONDON.CA/
ENERGY
HTTP://WWW.MSEC.LONDON.CA/
Saving Electricity
Conservation programs for business
Programs include Electricity Retrofit Incentive Program and Energy Management Services
The new Feed-In Tariff - a Guaranteed Return on Investment
The new "feed-in tariff" provides a guaranteed return on investment for solar, wind, biogas and other green
electricity projects
Embedded Generation
Information for behind-the-meter cogeneration, wind, solar <500 kW
WATER
 Review
processes to make sure water is
being use efficiently
 Reduce water usage and water
contamination
 Replace water guzzling toilets with an
efficient 6 litre or dual flush toilet –
rebates available
 Toxics out of the drain
WASTE
Take advantage of programs to deal with waste
 Maximize their use

Quantity
Quality
QUALITY OF CONSUMPTION
 Previous
ideas focus on quantity
 Quality focuses on composition of
consumption. How polluting are
processes?
 e.g. Greening of Cancer Prevention
(Source: Toronto Public Health)
Clean production
 Toxics use reduction
 Green chemistry
 Safe substitution

CONCLUSIONS
 Sustainability
relates to managing the
quantity and quality of consumption
 Managing consumption can have
beneficial economic, social and of
course environment outcomes
 All businesses from small to large can
participate
 Many small steps result in large
collective beneficial impacts.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION USED
The Clear Network http://www.clear.london.ca
 http://msec.london.ca/
 Stats Canada
 Environment Canada

THANK-YOU
Paul van der Werf
My green workplace
519-645-7733
[email protected]
www.mygreenworkplace.ca
www.2cg.ca