SwampFox

Taking on 'Green' Initiatives!

So, your company wants to move in a ‘greener’, more ‘eco-friendly’ direction. That’s great, but there’s one problem: As an EHS professional and integral part of the team, where do you start? Organizations make the decision to ‘Go Green’ for a variety of reasons. For some, its part of a customer specific requirement like ISO 14001. For others, it may be an effort to be more socially responsible. Whatever the reason, the train is moving and you’d better hop on.

Let’s begin with a quick note: ‘Going Green’ is not entirely about reducing solid wastes or establishing recycle programs. Although these are good measures to take, and we’ll dive into this topic in moment, an organization must examine all the ways in which its activities impact the environment. This should include a thorough evaluation of impacts to the air, water and to the employees as well.

The first step is to conduct an honest assessment of the current state. The data you gather about what your company or facility is doing right now from an environmental perspective will act as your baseline for establishing attainable objectives, targets and goals (OTGs). It is important to know where you are before you can decide where you want to be. This will also give you the opportunity to evaluate and understand the processes involved in doing whatever it is that your company does.

So let’s look at solid wastes. Solid wastes impact the land. The more stuff your company tosses out, the more landfill space it takes up. To get a good handle on what types of solid wastes you’re dealing with you might have to go ‘dumpster-diving’, and there’s a good chance you’ll find many things that can be recycled or reclaimed like paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, and even metals. You can then request data from your waste hauler regarding volumes, pick up frequencies and costs.

Again, this is all good baseline data. Now you are ready to start backtracking. Identify some materials that you think can be recycled, or otherwise removed from the landfill waste stream, and follow them back to the start of the process from which they were generated from. Here you might find opportunities to reduce the amounts used, replace them with other materials, or eliminate them altogether. There’s a two-fold advantage to removing materials from the landfill waste stream; one - you realize a cost reduction in your overall waste management expenses, and two - you might get a good rebate on materials sent out for recycle.

For the air, you want to evaluate any part of the operation that generates emissions. Emission levels will vary from business type to business type. Some may have none; while others may have so many that they are heavily regulated.
There are different types of air pollutants associated with emissions, and each type can be regulated and measured differently. If they haven’t already been properly identified and controlled, it may be a good idea to seek the advice of a third party consultant, or contact your local, state or federal regulatory agencies for guidance.

If you have emissions that are regulated, or permitted, there are some things you can do to ensure that your company is at or below threshold levels. 1). Make sure that all engineering controls are in good working order and functioning the way they were intended. 2). If materials used in your facility contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) or Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP), there may be safer alternatives available that will do the job just as good, if not better!

The same kind of approach that applies to air, applies to water discharges as well. It’s important to understand all the ways in which a chemical or material could end up in the waterways from your facility. You can reduce the potential for contamination by substituting or eliminating hazardous substances, and by having a good spill response action plan in place.

Lastly, you’ve got the employees to think about and protect. If you haven’t thought about them as being part of the environment, you need to start. From an industrial hygiene perspective, its important to identify, and either eliminate or control those environmental factors and stresses that arise in the workplace that could cause injury or illness. Airborne particulates and chemical exposures are the heavy hitters in most industrial facilities, but there are other factors like ergonomics, noise and radiation that play a role as well. Having a good hazard communication program and good engineering controls can reduce the risk of illness associated with industrial hygiene issues.

As an EHS professional it’s important to understand the value of putting together and being a part of cross-functional teams. You won’t be able to tackle all these things by yourself, and if your organization is like mine there are plenty of folks who know a lot more about the processes than you do. After you’ve identified areas of opportunity for improvement, put teams together to follow through on action plans that you want to implement.

I want to wrap up this discussion with a few words about metrics, or more specifically how you and your team members will measure and keep track of your progress. As I stated earlier it’s important to obtain good baseline data on all the aspects of your organization that can, and do have an environmental impact. Remember the idea here is to be a ‘greener’ more ‘eco-friendly’ company, right? So we must be able to measure our progress against the baseline to see whether or not we are showing improvement. The key here is to ensure that the things you want to track are measurable. For an OTG to be attainable, it must be measurable. Along with that you need to be able to clearly communicate this information to the rest of the workforce.

Keeping good metrics and communicating your progress to everyone will keep team members engaged, and bring a heightened awareness to your overall program which should lead to success.
Thanks for reading, and please visit us online at: www.deltafourgroup.com to learn more about how we can help your organization.