Articles

Sustainability Enlightenment (20/05/05)

Wellington Institute of Technology tutors took part in a two-day workshop aimed at increasing their understanding about sustainability and cleaner production, so they can incorporate these principles when training industry. The workshop was a collaboration between Hutt City Council’s Sandy Beath-Croft and WelTec’s Centre for Smart Product Director, Paul Mather (formerly Formway Furniture).

Paul has been working on a pilot programme that aims to increase skills at all levels of local manufacturing businesses – from production staff to management. Through the Centre for Smart Product, WelTec tutors are “embedded” within the businesses and train staff on a broad range of skills. Each individuals training needs are assessed, so programmes vary from business to business, but programmes often include numeracy and literacy, technology and leadership. Staff work towards achieving industry unit standards, providing big incentives for continuing education. The pilot is proving popular with business owners and staff alike.

The two-day workshop, held at the Centre for Smart Product in Hutt City, involved sessions on sustainability, legislation, basic cleaner production, and a site visit to Unilever (local leaders in resource efficiency). Participants did a self assessment on their understanding of what cleaner production and sustainability are at the beginning and end of the workshop. This revealed an increase in understanding from around 5% to 50%. One participant said that while his understanding about “what” cleaner production is had increased to 50%, his awareness of “why” he should be teaching these principles had leapt to 95%! In his words “I feel enlightened”.

WelTec and Hutt City Council are planning more workshops for their tutors towards the end of the year.

Redlands ecoBiz (20/05/05)

As part of Redland Shire Council’s continual commitment to the environment and business development it has funded a six-month ecoBiz pilot program. This new economic development initiative, developed and supported by the Queensland EPA, is an innovative eco-efficiency resource management program for business.

ecoBiz helps the Redlands meet its requirements under the Local Greenhouse Action Plan (Cities for Climate Protection CCPTM program).

ecoBiz looks specifically at reducing business’ consumption of water and energy and the production of waste streams. It is designed as a partnership with businesses to help them work towards sustainable improvements in eco-efficiency.

While eco-efficiency is still a relatively new concept to many, businesses, consumers, suppliers, governments and the market at large are increasingly demanding improved environmental responsibility by the business community. Eco-efficiency is set to become an integral part of the business strategies of companies that want to embrace the ongoing challenges of industry leadership and continuous improvement in the highly competitive global marketplace.

To show further commitment to this pilot program Redland Shire Council has subsidised the cost of the ecoBiz program and is providing it to seven businesses at no cost throughout the duration of the six-month ecoBiz program. A Council facility is also included in the program.

The ecoBiz program is being delivered on Council’s behalf by Energetics, an energy and environmental consultancy. Involvement in the ecoBiz program has benefited businesses by:

• Giving them access to Energetics’ innovative eco-efficiency diagnostic tool
• Helping businesses to implementation an eco-efficiency improvement system into established management systems
• Reducing operating costs in areas such as energy, water and waste
• Improving profitability
• Reducing the environmental impact of the business and associated risks
• Enhancing corporate reputation of the businesses
• Helping them work towards sustainable improvements in eco-efficiency.

EPA will provide rebate assistance for projects ranges from $1000 to a maximum of $150,000, with the rebate payable after completion of activities identified in the ecoBiz action plan prepared by the participating business. Rebates are limited to a maximum of 30 percent of total project cost

Andrew Harvey – ecoBiz programme coordinator gratefully acknowledges the support of Sandy Beath-Croft and the BusinessCare National Trust. Their impetus during the project development stage helped to progress the ecoBiz programme.

Further information on ecoBiz can be found at:
http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/environmental_management/sustainability/industry/ecobiz/

Redland Shire Council’s contact is: Andrew Harvey (phone: 61 7 3829 8532 or email andrewh@redland.qld.gov.au)

WasteMINZ Workshop – the psychology of influence (25/02/05)

A small but enthusiastic group of people attended the WasteMINZ Workshop “The Psychology of Persuasion” on Tuesday 23rd February, at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland. Philip Hesketh gave an entertaining address offering valuable information on how the mind works, plus how and why people choose certain behaviours.

He provided the participants with seven ways of improving their lives, both socially, and in business. These included:

• 5 things to start saying
• 5 things to stop saying
• How to remember other peoples names
• The 5 keys to persuasion
• 4 things to save or make money
• The 3 secrets to happiness
• The 2 aspects of the NAIL

You can see more of Philip’s philosophies on his website www.heskethtalking.com

Auckland Toolkit for Change Workshop – Advanced cleaner production techniques (25/02/05)

The Advanced Cleaner Production Techniques workshop was held at the Auckland Regional Council on Monday 21 Feb 2005. 11 people representing industry, local government and independent practitioners attended the workshop.

Photo courtesy Greg Brown

The participants presented a broad range of knowledge on cleaner production and related issues. The topics covered during the workshop included:

• An overview of cleaner production
• Conducting a walkthrough
• Measuring resource use and waste
• Calculating the true cost of waste
• How we learn
• Strategic approaches to cleaner production

This is the first time the Toolkit for Change has been offered as a one off “modular” workshop. Previously the Toolkit for Change has been run as a series of 3 workshops over a 6-month period.
For more information on upcoming Toolkit for Change training workshops visit the BusinessCare website at www.businesscare.org.nz or contact Carole Inglis at WasteMINZ on ph: (09) 486 6722.

Best practice guidelines for the construction and demolition industry emerge from a Bay of Plenty based study (07/09/04)

An eye opening study in Tauranga has revealed that up to six tonnes of waste is generated during the building of an average three-bedroom home.

The findings have certainly raised eyebrows and concern as to the amount of waste created by the construction industry as we experience increased growth in development in the region.

Commissioned by the Tauranga City Council and Environment Bay of Plenty and conducted by Tauranga based Environmental Education for Resource Sustainability Trust (EERST), the year long study not only monitored the volume of waste discarded from residential building sites but also looked into ways to divert it from landfill.

Photo: Paula Inglis (EERST) and Corey Passey (G J Gardner Homes) - Courtesy of Environment Bay of Plenty

EERST cleaner production manager Paula Inglis was keen to identify exactly what was being thrown away and why. "We know that up to 85 per cent of the contents of skips on building sites can be reduced, re-used or recycled", she says.

Spin-offs have already flowed from the study. Builders, sub contractors, architects and developers are starting to provide support toward the concept of reducing waste throughout the design stage, ordering and managing materials more efficiently and separating waste streams as much as possible on site for ease of recovery and recycling, says Paula.

A local architect is being assisted to write waste management plans into construction specifications requiring builders to meet those requirements. In turn the builders have requested that their waste operator provide a service to the site for the recovery of recyclable materials. Consequently, a new service is being trialled by the waste company in an effort to divert materials otherwise going into landfill or cleanfill sites.

This type of project will create a demand for changes in service and infrastructure within the waste industry. Alternative solutions and markets for materials are being explored as opposed to landfilling or cleanfilling mixed materials deemed as rubbish.

" The businesses involved have been hugely receptive. It was very forward thinking of the Council's to get involved in this project and as a result, we will see major changes". Best practice guidelines are being developed to create awareness and provide simple and effective solutions to waste management for everyone involved in the construction industry.

While the Councils see environmental gains as the biggest benefit, home owners will also be happy because builders will be paying less in dump charges. All levels of the industry have the opportunity to design better methods of handling, managing and disposing of waste. There is also an opportunity to establish a culture for waste recovery and recycling on building sites and within building related industries such as building material supply companies.

The study is continuing this year in an effort to continue to develop and improve systems for recovery and recycling that are simple and effective.

For more information about this project contact Paula Inglis - paulainglis@ihug.co.nz

The New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics - at the cutting edge of sustainability research (06/07/04)

World-leading research is essential to help New Zealand businesses improve the sustainability of their practices. But, how many times have you seen tax payer money go into ‘integrated sustainability’ research in New Zealand, only to find it being captured by narrowly focused analysis? If innovation is the key to sustainability in New Zealand, and I think it is, then we must find ways of breaking out of such silo-based approaches to sustainability.

Such innovative, integrative research is the goal of the newly established New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics (NZCEE). NZCEE specialises in innovation in the area of sustainability research. Rather than apply economic theory to environmental issues (like more ‘traditional’ economists), ecological economics aims to draw both ecological and economic perspectives together to help us understand the links between the environment, economy and society. In doing so, we consider we will be better placed to assist New Zealand businesses to improve the sustainability of their practices.

The Centre, established in collaboration with Massey University and Landcare Research ltd, has received funding for a 6-year period from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Eight full-time researches will be employed. The New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics is at the cutting edge of international efforts to promote integrative sustainability.

The NZCEE has two flagship research projects

1. “Ecological Footprint Plus” focuses on analysing and minimising energy and material flows in the primary sector–agriculture, horticulture and forestry. This is important for sustainability as much of New Zealand’s economic activity is land based. The aim of this research is to help sectors identify and address resource hot spots.
2. The “Sustainable Pathways Programme” aims to enable cities and regions to plan for a sustainable future. We will collect data on the energy and resource flows of several case-study cities. We will then develop scenarios to illuminate and link economic, social and environmental dimensions. The aim of this research is to assist policy planners meet the challenges of sustainability in urban areas.

In addition to these two projects, NZCEE also specialises in:

• Ecosystem services valuation
• Ecological footprints calculation
• Life-cycle assessment
• Input-output analysis
• Systems dynamics modelling
• Sustainability indicators
• Industrial & urban metabolism
• Energy & material flow analysis

NZCEE’s focus on inter-disciplinary collaborative research, means it is essential for us to work alongside other research and sector agencies. Our research partners include:

• Canesis
• Forest Research
• Landcare Research
• Massey University
• Environmental Science Research
• Market Economics Ltd
• University of Maryland (School of Public Affairs)
• Universite’ de Versailles (Centre d’Economie et d’Ethique Pour I’Environnement et le De’veloppement (C3ED)

If you would like more information on NZCEE contact Murray Patterson (Director) or Nigel Jollands (Principal) at

New Zealand Centre for Ecological Economics
Landcare Research
Private Bag 11052
Palmerston North

Phone +64 6 356 7154
Fax +64 6 355 9230
Email: admin@nzcee.org.nz

For more information visit our website:
http://nzcee.massey.ac.nz

A Business Perspective on BusinessCare (06/07/04)

Profits are looking up. Waste is down. Staff are happy. Not a bad outcome says Fosroc’s Supply Chain Manager, Damian Hendren. And all because the company adopted Hutt City Council’s BusinessCare Programme.

Manufacturers of silicon, adhesives and cement-based products, Fosroc’s 70 staff work with a variety of potentially dangerous materials. The company is compliant with the environmental legislative requirements, ‘But you can always do things better,’ says Damian.

So Fosroc invited Hutt City Council to visit their site, as part of councils BusinessCare Programme. Damian says this first step is often the most difficult for companies. ‘Businesses can be reluctant to go through a process such as this because an outsider has to come on to their site and examine their processes – people can feel threatened by that.

‘With Shaun, [Hutt City Council’s contractor] it was great. He was there to help us take a structured and sustainable approach to waste reduction, give us ideas and offer suggestions. At the end of the day Fosroc decided what was practical and sustainable, what we would do and what we wouldn’t do. Shaun was a catalyst but he certainly wasn’t there waving a big stick.’

Following a waste audit and intensive evaluation Fosroc and Hutt City Council discovered areas where they could save on waste and increase profits.

‘With one process we found we could save up to an hour of an operator’s time and about eight to 10 kilograms of silicon or adhesive,’ says Damian. ‘That’s important from a number of points of view. We’re doing everything we can to minimise harm to the environment. It saves on time and heavy handling for the operator, lessening the risk of a work place accident. Plus, we’re saving a cost to our business and building profit.’

More accurately, through its savings in waste Fosroc has increased its profits by over $100,000 per year. And it’s a lesson they were happy to learn. ‘We are now fully aware that when you make savings in waste you are adding directly to your bottom line. It’s been great for us.

‘I would recommend this programme to other businesses. I think we all probably have great ideas about reducing waste and we might put a couple of them into place, but without someone external like Shaun there’s no one really there to push people along. We get caught up in our day-to-day jobs and put off the other stuff.

‘Businesses definitely have a responsibility to monitor and reduce their waste. It sounds clichéd, but the earth is going to be around a lot longer than us. We need to make sure we leave it in a better condition than we found it. And why not when you can increase your profits at the same time?’

New initiative to help Auckland businesses (31/05/04)

The Auckland BusinessCare Enviro-Mark programme is a great new initiative which will provide businesses in the region with practical and financial support to achieve environmental objectives. It builds on a similar programme piloted over a year ago by North Shore City Council in partnership with Landcare Research. Nine businesses are currently participating in this - the North Shore City BusinessCare Enviro-Mark programme - and speak highly of its benefits.

The regional programme has received support from a number of sponsors*, resulting in a significant subsidy for businesses who choose to take this unique opportunity. These businesses will receive:

• personal, expert advice on environmental management
• practical “how to” information, and
• recognised Enviro-Mark®NZ certification.

The two-year programme will be available to approximately 70 businesses of different types and sizes in the areas of the Auckland councils funding the initiative. Participating businesses will sign up to a number of environmental commitments and to achieving Enviro-Mark®NZ Gold certification. Programme costs will be shared between the business and sponsors. The contribution to be made by a business will vary according to size but the help for a business will be up to $5,500.

Numerous businesses throughout New Zealand have achieved significant efficiencies and cost savings after embarking on environmental improvements. Not only will this programme help more businesses do the same, but – once accepted – they’ll have significant help and they’ll be working on certification with a recognised programme.

For further information about the programme and to apply to be a member visit
www.enviro-mark.co.nz/businesscare/

*The Auckland BusinessCare Enviro-Mark Programme is funded by the North Shore, Auckland, Waitakere and Manukau City Councils, Papakura District Council, Auckland Regional Council, Ministry for the Environment and Landcare Research.

Construction and Demolition Waste Reduction Project (01/03/04)

Construction and demolition waste is a major contributor to the huge amount of waste being sent to landfill and cleanfill accounting for about 17 per cent of all landfill waste nationally. Furthermore, this 1995 estimate is considered conservative and does not include the construction and demolition waste that ends up in cleanfill. Next time you go past a construction site or you watch yet another renovating programme on television notice what goes into the waste skip.

The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has formally identified the construction and demolition waste issue by setting targets for reducing the volumes going to landfill in the New Zealand Waste Strategy, which states:

“By December 2008, there will have been a reduction of construction and demolition waste to landfills of 50 percent of December 2005 levels measured by weight.”

The onus is on local and regional government to achieve this target, but clearly construction and demolition related industries must also participate in providing solutions.

The Construction and Demolition Waste Reduction Project aims to provide clear guidelines, tools and education resources to assist in achieving the New Zealand Waste Strategy’s targets. The emphasis is on involving industry, councils, non-profit organisations, researchers and resource recovery practitioners to develop the most practical and relevant tools and resources to achieve these aims.

The project is supported by a consortium of councils, industry groups and MfE, and resources will be developed in close consultation with industry representatives from Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch. The project steering group comprises representatives from North Shore City Council, BRANZ, RONZ, Christchurch City Council, Hamilton City Council, MfE and Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM). SKM will also provide project management expertise.

The project, which began in December 2003 and runs until June 2005, targets the following industry groups:

• Architects/designers
• Engineers
• Developers/builders
• Sub-contractors
• Product suppliers
• Demolition firms
• Home renovators
• Construction and demolition recycling operators
• Local and regional government

The specific tasks and outcomes of the project include:

• An assessment of existing markets for recycled and reusable materials from construction and demolition waste and the development of regional market development strategies for Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury.
• Best practice guidelines for the construction and demolition recycling and reuse operators (including collection, sorting, handling and storage of construction and demolition materials).
• A verification programme for the chain of custody and processing of construction and demolition materials within the resource recovery industry.
• A review of current legislative tools available to local and regional government to regulate construction and demolition waste.
• Best practice guidelines for the targeted industry groups
• A website as a construction and demolition waste reduction information portal for industry, local government and the community.

For further information contact the project manager,
Pene Burns, Environmental Scientist, SKM, on (03) 379 0135 or by email at pburns@skm.co.nz.

Project Sponsors:
Ministry for the Environment – Sustainable Management Fund, North Shore City Council, Building Reasearch Association of New Zealand, Christchurch City Council, Hamilton City Council, Recycling Operators of New Zealand, Auckland City Council, Manukau City Council, Rodney District Council, Waitakere City Council, Environment Waikato

Are you sick of the collection of plastic bags in your cupboard or draw at home, frustrated with having to collect plastic bags out of streams, or seeing them fly around the street? (01/03/04)

Over the last 3 years, the Auckland councils have been working together to help businesses offer customers a sustainable alternative to throw away plastic shopping bags. Foodstuffs (Auckland) were project champions in establishing the economic viability and customer demand for reusable cloth bags in New Zealand and without their assistance this project may not have got off the ‘ideas’ board.

The Auckland councils have worked with a range of stockists to offer ‘Protect Our Future – Reuse Today’ graphic on reusable cloth bags. Large and small businesses, councils, and community groups can now order cloth bags with the graphic, for minimum orders ranging from 50-100 cloth bags from anywhere in New Zealand.

The ‘Protect Our Future – Reuse Today’ cloth bags are available in Foodstuffs (Pak’N Save, New World and Four Square) supermarkets, smaller retail stores (such as Earth Seed and Bin Inn), and local libraries (Waitakere, North Shore).

In the meantime, Progressive Enterprises (Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown) and The Warehouse have also begun to offer their own branded reusable cloth bags seeing there is a demand for an alternative to plastic bags. This goes to show that small initiatives can bring big change about!

So now the choice is yours, are you going to use plastic bags or reusable bags when you go grocery shopping, to the library, or bringing your lunch to work? You can purchase the cloth bags through a local business, or supermarket or ask them to stock them.

Businesses, councils and organisations can find out more about the project or purchase cloth bags through the ‘Reusable Bag Stockist List’ available through www.wasteminz.org.nz [select Resources]
For more information contact Michelle Dawson at Waitakere City Council on (09) 836 8000 xt8539.

Are we cutting our own supply lines? What’s in it for a waste management firm to offer waste minimisation and resource recovery services to clients? (21/01/04)

BusinessCare’s service providers workshop explored how waste/material service providers can diversify their services to anticipate the trend to waste reduction. Paula Inglis from EERST in Tauranga told the 50-strong workshop how a successful building waste reduction programme diminished skip volumes so much that the waste company asked for a meeting to talk over the problem.

A successful building waste reduction programme dropped skip volumes so much that the waste company asked for a meeting to talk it over

But is too idealistic to think that waste service providers could turn this threat into a business opportunity? Can specialist waste disposers shift to the new waste avoidance paradigm by offering cleaner production/resource recovery services to their clients?

Yes, if Waste Management’s experience is anything to go by. Warwick Giblin, Corporate Environmental Manager (Australasia) for Waste Management NZ Ltd, outlined waste avoidance services the company is already offering its clients. He told us of Chief Seattle’s seventh-generation test of sustainability and said we need to change our measures of wealth to more genuine indicators of environmental costs and well being if we want to become a more sustainable society. As experienced operators, he sees waste service providers as well placed to give practical advice on waste avoidance and minimisation. The forward-thinking ones are already doing so.

New contracts give a share of waste avoidance savings to the contractor

What will the waste contract of the future look like under this ‘lifeafterwaste’ scenario? Greg Brown of Eco$ense Ltd looked at overseas examples of redefined waste contracts that emphasise waste reduction. Driven by customer demand, some contracts provide for a share of savings made to go to the contractor, decoupling contractor profitability from waste generation/haulage volumes. Such contracts provide financial incentives for contractors to identify resource efficiency savings by specifying that they must reduce disposal costs, for example by a sinking cap, and increase revenue from waste prevention, recovery and recycling.

The open discussion session revealed that some operators will have difficulty breaking away from landfill-based thinking, but feedback from others showed great interest in the ideas. Some said that as service providers, they wanted to keep their competitive advantage, and had refrained from public discussion of new business initiatives to diversity their income stream. Others said they needed more time to come to grips with the new ideas, and several expressed interest in follow-up workshops to explore them further.

Service providers who want to find out more can go to http://www.tellus.org/b&s/ - look for the R M concept paper, which looks at new contracts and the benefits they can offer both waste service providers and their clients.

Download PowerPoint presentations from the workshop
Council workshop (133KB)
Service providers workshop (195KB)
Resource contracting presentation (140KB)
Environment Southland’s presentation (3.5MB)

Promoting your cleaner production programme – some lessons about effective promotional channels – Jocelyn Rennie, Auckland Regional Council (21/01/04)

A significant number of businesses have been invited to participate in a range of programmes, and a lesser number have actively done so. This reflects the fact that cleaner production is essentially about change and it is hard to persuade any company to adopt anything new.
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