Sustainable workplaces

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Sustainable workplaces

• Paul van der Werf

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Overview

• Making sense of sustainability?
• What are our environmental impacts?
• How can we make our work activities more
  sustainable?
• Lets leave today with a few practical ideas we
  can incorporate right away.

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sustainability

• We hear lots of jargon like
• Carbon foot print
• Green
• Environmentally friendly
• Sustainable

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sustainability

• ...meeting the needs of the present generation
  without compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their needs.
• Brundtland Commission, 1987

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How do we turn qualitative concepts into
quantitative outcomes?
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What is Environmental impact ?

• Our impact comes down to one simple concept and
  that is consumption
• The act or process of consuming.

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What is Environmental impact ?

• As a result of obtaining what we consume
• As a result of the wastes generated through
  consumption

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In more practical terms

• Building
• Manufacturing
• Heating/Cooling
• Transportation
• Chemicals
• Living
• Others?

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Distilling sources of Environmental impact

• Energy usage
• Water usage
• Material usage
• Waste generation

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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.

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Energy
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Energy
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Energy
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Water

• Residents consume about 250 litres person every
  day
• Think about what that means throughout the year

Volume of 250
Filling up tank 4 times per day
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Water
1981 1986 1991 1996
Total intake Total intake Total intake Total intake
million cubic metres million cubic metres million cubic metres million cubic metres
Total, whole economy 36,717 42,083 44,979 44,873
Business sector 32,957 38,363 41,178 40,951
Personal and government sectors 3,760 3,719 3,802 3,922

• In 1996 Canadas 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

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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

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Waste
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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

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Environmental impact outcomes

• Poor resource use-financial implications
• Poor resource use-less able to support the
  population
• Pollution-health impacts

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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

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Reducing Environmental impact at work

• What is our impact on the environment at work?
• What can we do to reduce our impact at work?

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Environmental impact at work

• Impact can be split into two main areas
• From buildings and process
• From workers
• Impact into air, water and earth

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Environmental impact
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Environmental impact
Impact Source Impact Types
Buildings and Processes Building Construction Building Operation and Maintenance Work processes
Workers Work processes Sustenance Transport
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Environmental impact
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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

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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

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Consumption is tied to money

• Everything we consume costs money
• Everything we dont consume costs money
• We have largely been taught to ignore this
• There is a greater appreciation of this right now

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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.

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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
• Mayors Sustainable Energy Council. web page with
  some good information for residents (and
  business)

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Energy http//www.msec.london.ca/
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Energy http//www.msec.london.ca/
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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

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Waste

• Take advantage of programs to deal with waste
• Maximize their use

Quantity
Quality
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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

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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.

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Sources of information used

• The Clear Network http//www.clear.london.ca
• http//msec.london.ca/
• Stats Canada
• Environment Canada

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Thank-you
Paul van der Werf My green workplace 519-645-7733
paul_at_mygreenworkplace.ca www.mygreenworkplace.ca w
ww.2cg.ca