From IWMSA Weekly Waste Digest 7 – 11 June 2021

Establishing a national database for lifecycle assessment data

Recording. Prof Harro von Blottnitz and Dr Pippa Notten of UCT presented the proposal for a National Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) database. Without such a database, LCAs will be more costly (up to 3/4 times more costly and take much longer); and the LCAs produced will not be representative of the SA context and therefore not accurate and credible. Relevant SA datasets  for various products (incl. packaging) will be developed and be made available so that all producers can access these datasets to conduct LCAs.

Watch the webinar recording here.

WISA Newsletter 14th May 2021

The variability of rainfall and the impact of climate change on our weather patterns has combined to cause even more hardship in an already water-scarce environment like southern Africa. The correct storage of water is a vital component to ensure the safety, health and even socio-economic development  of communities. There is an increasing need to develop more storage types and manage existing storage better, and this paper argues that water storage should be recognised as a service rather than only a facility. It also shows that there are numerous data gaps pertaining to water storage, as well as a need for greater clarity on some key concepts. This paper does not introduce new data or research but rather provides a review of some of the current knowledge and issues around water storage, and outlines a new, integrated and constructive water storage agenda for the decades to come.
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Carin Bosman of CBSS is currently developing software, called LEGUAAN®, that will provide a service to effortlessly turn water quality and quantity monitoring data into graphs and reports that can be understood by management and other stakeholders, including government agencies, which means environmental data becomes a valuable business- and water resource management tool.

LEGUAAN^® is being developed with the requirements of the South African government (including catchment management agencies and local authorities) in mind, and will help to take control of water monitoring data (both quantity and quality). It does the quality control and statistical evaluations, and turns verified water monitoring data into scientifically sound graphs designed to meet the specific needs of an organisation. Have a look at the LEGUAAN Factsheet for examples of graphs prepared with LEGUAAN®, and to see what is meant with a responsive dashboard and interactive online graphs that allows the presenting and sharing of results with others.

Carin wants your input: Do you have a particular graph or report table format you like? Want a unique graph or map illustrating specific chemical properties at your site? Need a report on the quality of your data? Looking for a graph that gives 95th percentile compliance, or overall site compliance to specific government agency or site-specific limit values, or compliance with specified monitoring frequencies? Just tell her what you want, and she can programme LEGUAAN® to do it for you.

Contact Carin Bosman without delay ([email protected] or 082 803 2384) to talk about your needs!

This paper was published in Pollution Prevention Review, Winter 1990/91 and is a prompt to go back to basics. Many concepts may be old but they are still applicable to businesses.

The techniques used in waste reduction are broken down into four major categories-managing inventory, modifying production processes, reducing waste volume, and recovering waste. Within each category, the paper gives examples of process or materials changes or modifications that can be implemented to minimize waste.

This publication was supported by UNDP and GEF and published under the auspices of the Bhutan National Environment Commission. Although published in 2011, there are useful perspectives included because it was produced as a teaching tool.

The publication is split into four main sections: Environmental Management Concepts; Environmental Management Principles; Environmental Management Tools and Techniques; and Other best known Environmental Management Tools and Processes. The explanations for many common terms and concepts are in plain language and are good for the “newbie” and the veteran, alike.

The Worldwatch Institute, in collaboration with the Low-Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP), have produced the second iteration of the Energy Toolkit The toolkit is a collection of leading instruments and methodologies for climate-compatible energy planning, offering energy practitioners, policymakers, and experts a quick reference guide to some of the best-established instruments available at no or low cost. The result is a compilation of 26 tools from agencies around the world.

The compilers say that the toolkit does not claim to be a complete encyclopaedia of all available tools. They hope to update and further improve the toolkit in coming years. They request that if you have developed a sustainable energy modelling tool or know of one that should be featured here, please contact them at [email protected]

The CERES Supplier Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ): Building the Foundation for Sustainable Supply Chains has been designed to assist companies seeking to strengthen their supply chain engagement. The aim is to help companies be more competitive and build resiliency in their supply chains by identifying, assessing, managing and disclosing supply chain sustainability risks.

The SAQ will be useful for companies seeking to strengthen their supply chain engagement. It was designed with the industrial goods sector in mind, but can also help companies beginning to address sustainability issues in their supply chains.

The SAQ uses leading practices in the field, and addresses environmental, social, and governance issues, it is a “conversation starter” for companies to use with their suppliers as they begin to assess the sustainability risks in their supply chains. The SAQ will help companies be more competitive and build resiliency in their supply chains by identifying, assessing, managing and disclosing supply chain sustainability risks.

Although the tool is free to download, it does require registration so that CERES can track where the tool is used, and by whom.

CERES is a non-profit organization advocating for sustainability leadership. They mobilise a powerful network of investors, companies and public interest groups to accelerate and expand the adoption of sustainable business practices and solutions to build a healthy global economy. In 2014, CERES celebrated 25 years of advancing a sustainable economy.

GEMI (Global Environmental Management Initiative) have produced an ISO 14001:2015 Self-Assessment Checklist which is freely available. The purpose of the checklist is to improve a facility manager’s understanding of the requirements and elements of the updated ISO 14001:2015 environmental management systems standard.

The criteria of the standard have been rephrased in the format of a simple questionnaire with a three part scoring system. This can therefore be used as an internal “gap analysis” either highlighting potential areas of improvement or assisting with decision making on ISO 14001 certification. The checklist was first published in 1996 with the early version of ISO 14001. The latest version is a complete revision taking into account feedback from users and the 2015 ISO revisions.

GEMI has been in existence for some 25 years and has provided business with insights, networking and collaborative sustainability and environmental management solutions. Other freely accessible environmental management and sustainability tools can be downloaded from the GEMI site.

On 19^th October 2016, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) launched a set of GRI Standards, based upon the GRI G4 Guidelines. The GRI Standards are the latest evolution of GRI’s reporting disclosures which have developed through more than 15 years of a robust multi-stakeholder process. The Standards feature an improved format with new modular structures. The content is basically the same as the GRI G4 Guidelines.

The GRI Standards are a set of 36 modular Standards that facilitate corporate reporting on topics such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water use and labour practices. The new format allows GRI to update individual topics based upon market and sustainability needs, without requiring revisions to the entire set of GRI Standards.

In order to inform interested parties of the new Standards, GRI is organising a series of free launch events (live and webinar) around the globe from now and through November. Registration is on-line here.

Those companies that are currently in accordance with the G4 Guidelines will have until 1^st July 2018 to move over to using the new Standards approach.

The GRI Standards are available for free download on the GRI Standards hub on the GRI website, along with detailed mapping documents that show all of the changes from G4 to GRI Standards. GRI is in the process of organising the translation of the Standards which can be expected to appear on the GRI website during the course of 2017.

Risk Assessments form an important part of business activities, particularly where there are different tasks to be undertaken which may have safety, health and environmental risks of varying degrees of significance. One of the weaknesses of the risk assessment process is that it is only as good as the knowledge, skills, training and experience of the teams involved in preparing the risk assessments. Lack of experience, training and task understanding can produce risk assessments of varying qualities and can lack critical content necessary to minimise and mitigate risks.

An article called “Key Elements for Judging the Quality of a Risk Assessment”, written by Penelope Fenner-Crisp and Vicki Dellarco, appearing in Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 124, Number 8, August 2016, summarises the key characteristics of a high quality risk assessment, albeit focussing mainly on those risk assessment related to human health impacts associated with exposure to chemicals. The authors do remark that their discussion and comments could equally apply to ecological risk assessment and to other stresses such as radiation, microbes, products of biotechnology, and categories such as environmental contaminants, medical devices, drugs, tobacco, consumer products, commodity chemicals, pesticides and food contaminants. It becomes clear, reading through the article, that there are many aspects of the authors’ conclusions and recommendations that could be carried over to task-based risk assessments and their evaluation.

Apart from the valuable analytical content in the paper, a very practical tool included in the paper is Appendix 1 – Guide for Judging the Quality of an Assessment. The Guide consists of seven sections which prompt the assessor to test the assessment against statements under the various categories. The categories are:- Problem Formulation/Scoping and Planning; Systematic Review of the Literature; Hazard Assessment/Characterisation; Dose-Response Assessment/Characterisation; Exposure Assessment/Characterisation; Risk Characterisation; and Peer Review. This is a powerful guide for continuous improvement and although preparers of basic risk assessments may find it too complex, there is certainly plenty to gain by working through the categories and utilising the statements in different risk assessment processes.