Smart Ways of Action Operations Models: Tools for Waste Prevention in the Workplace

Transcription

1 Smart Ways of Action Operations Models: Tools for Waste Prevention in the Workplace Riitta-Liisa Hahtala, YTV Waste Management Silja Huuhtanen, YTV Regional and Environmental Information Seppo Kajaste, YTV Waste Management Elina Karhu, YTV Waste Management Sari Kemppainen, YTV Waste Management Olli Linsiö, YTV Waste Management Minna Partti, YTV Waste Management CONTACT Minna Partti, M.Sc., Environmental Expert YTV Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council, Waste Management Department P.O. Box 521, FIN Helsinki, Finland Tel Fax minna.partti@ytv.fi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Waste prevention is considered highly relevant in the EU s legislative framework concerning waste. Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) is responsible for the municipal solid waste management in the Greater Helsinki Region in Finland. In 2002 a 5-year advisory project on waste prevention was launched. The project is subsidised by the EU s LIFE Environmental Programme from 2005 to 2007 as the WastePrevKit project. The project includes several sub-projects such as media campaigns, free web-based educational materials for school children and students, a webbased waste benchmarking service, and Smart Ways of Action (SMAC) guides and checklists for waste prevention at source for enterprises, public administration and schools. The main objectives of the sub-project Smart Ways of Action for Enterprises, Public Administration and Education are to make the target groups familiar with the concept and methods of waste prevention, and to reduce the total amount of solid waste in grocery stores and in offices in Helsinki Metropolitan Area by 3% from 2003 to A progress indicator is to monitor the annual waste amounts. To enhance waste prevention activities in private enterprises and in public administration, Smart Ways of Action guides and checklists (SMAC) were drawn up by YTV together with different organisations of industry and commerce, companies, educational institutions and representatives of the public administration. In order to make the target groups committed to adopting the guidelines, representatives of different organisations of both private and public sector were invited to participate in making the waste prevention guidelines of their respective sector (e.g. start-up meetings, steering and/or working groups, interviews). The SMAC- guides are pdf-files available on the web for anyone interested. A good way to disseminate the Smart Ways of Action guidelines is to integrate waste prevention and the SMACs into the training of the personnel of enterprises and of public administration, and

2 make use of the SMACs as training material in educational institutions, and in training programmes and courses. Co-operation with partner organisations with on-going training programmes, such as the K-Environmental Store Programme of the corporation Kesko and the EcoHelps Training Programme of the City of Helsinki, has proved to be a good way to reach a large number of people who in turn can spread the knowledge further in their organisations. Petra Waste Benchmarking Service is a tool for YTV to monitor the success of waste prevention activities and to gather data on waste generation in different kinds of properties. The data on waste generation in grocery stores and offices derived from the Petra Database show that waste streams (total amount of solid waste per employee) in the grocery stores increased gradually from 2001 until 2004 but turned down in The waste generation in the offices providing their waste data in the Petra Waste Benchmarking reduced clearly from 2003 to The SMAC guides supplemented by the Petra Waste Benchmarking are excellent practical tools for advisory and consultation services provided by the YTV as well as for planning and implementing waste reducing activities in enterprises, in education and in public administration. INTRODUCTION Waste volumes continue to increase at an accelerating rate. According to the OECD s estimates, the volume of municipal waste will increase by 43% in the period of (OECD 2002). The waste itself is however not the main problem, but the fact that more than 90 % of the natural resources utilised are immediately converted to waste during manufacturing processes (Autio & Lettenmeier 2002). Waste prevention is considered highly relevant (the most important principle) in the EU s legislative framework concerning waste and in the waste directive (75/441/ETY with later changes 91/156/ETY). Also EU's Sixth Environment Action Programme (6EAP) identifies waste prevention as one of the top priorities. The Union is aiming for a significant cut in the amount of waste generated through new waste prevention initiatives and encouraging a shift to more sustainable consumption patterns. Waste prevention thus takes place mainly in activities that are generally not considered as part of waste management at all. Influences on waste prevention are already to be found in the planning and development, in the manufacture, in the distribution, and in the choice and consumption of products. Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) is responsible for the municipal solid waste management in the Greater Helsinki Region in Finland. The main responsibilities of YTV s Waste Management Department include collection of household waste, landfill treatment of municipal solid waste, collection and composting of organic waste, collection of hazardous waste from households, and waste advisory activities. Since 2002 waste prevention has been a focus of waste counselling. In 2002 the board of YTV accepted the Waste Prevention Strategy until 2007 and based on this a 5-year advisory project was started (YTV 2002). The project is subsidised by the EU s LIFE Environmental Programme from 2005 to 2007 as a WastePrevKit project. The aim of the project is that in 2007 less waste will be generated in the Helsinki region per inhabitant and per workplace than in The WastePrevKit project consists of sub-projects including - Petra Waste Benchmarking Service for enterprises, educational institutions and public administration in the region (a free web-based tool for monitoring waste amounts)

3 - Smart Ways of Action (SMAC) guides and checklists for waste prevention at source for companies and public administration, - Material Efficiency in General Education (Smart Pupil and Smart Student, web-based teaching materials for comprehensive and upper secondary schools) - Material Efficiency in Vocational Education (Smart Professional, web-based teaching materials) - It s Smart With Less Waste website ( - Special campaigns for households The project will finish by the end of 2007 when the results of the project will be evaluated and summarised. All the material produced within the project is available in Finnish on the It s Smart With Less Waste website, much of it is available also in English and in Swedish. SMART WAYS OF ACTION GUIDES FOR ENTERPRISES AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION To help organisations in waste prevention activities, five Smart Ways of Action guides (SMAC) were drawn up by YTV together with different organisations of industry and commerce, companies, educational institutions and representatives of the public administration. - Smart Ways of Action in Retail Stores (2003) is a tool directed particularly at grocery and department stores for minimising waste flows. - Smart Ways of Action in an Office (2004) is a tool for planning more material-efficient working methods in an office environment. - Smart Ways of Action in Educational Institutions (2004) guide help personnel to become familiar with practical ways to reduce waste in different educational institutions. The guide offers also a great framework for exercises and projects based on the thematics of material efficiency. (In Finnish only) - Smart Ways of Action in the Building Trade (2005) offers a broad information package for professionals in construction of buildings. - Smart Ways of Action in Pre-School Education (2006) leads the way towards waste reduction with children. The cooperation partners test the model in several day-care centres around the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. (In Finnish only) The SMAC- guides are pdf-files published on the It s Smart With Less Waste web site. Each SMAC consist of an electronic leaflet with information and tips on waste avoidance, active links to appropriate web sites and publications, and separate checklists. A prerequisite for the successful enhancement of waste prevention activities in the field is the close interaction with the key persons in trade associations, in management of large corporations, and in different sectors of public administration. The best way to make the target groups to buy the idea is to invite the potential users of the SMACs to participate in making the guidelines. The methods of drawing up the SMACs included e.g. start-up meetings, steering and/or working group meetings, interviews, and discussions. The drafts of the models and checklists were circulated to respective organisations for comments and approval. The instructions for donating foodstuffs to food charity activities (part of the SMAC for retail shops) were drawn up together with the local food safety authorities. Three of the SMACs (offices, educational institutions, day-care centres) are also being tested by partners. By testing the checklists, valuable information can be gathered to improve the guidelines.

4 As a progress indicator YTV monitors the waste streams from retail shops and offices of public administration. The figures used as initial data for monitoring progress derive from The annual waste data of each reporting year is retrieved from YTV s Petra Waste Benchmarking system (YTV2007b). The accuracy of the data depends on the number of the waste reports checkedup and approved. Smart Ways Of Action in Retail Stores Smart Ways of Action in Retail Stores (YTV 2007c) is a tool directed particularly to grocery and department stores for minimising waste flows. The guide also contains a checklist (figure 1), and instructions for donating foodstuffs to food charity activities. The latter was drawn up together with the local food safety authorities. A condensed version of the guide is available in English. The SMAC for retail stores has been utilised as training material in the training of the personnel of food stores. The guide has also been presented in seminars. In 2003, paper copies of the guide and the checklist was posted to all retail stores listed in the Petra Waste Benchmarking Service (ca 100 stores), and again in 2006 to ca 40 new grocery stores listed in the service. These stores can be considered a test group. Figure 1 Checklist of the Smart Ways of Action for Retail Stores Example: Grassroots training in K-Environmental Stores Kesko is the leading Finnish retail specialist with about 2,000 stores engaged in chain operations in seven countries. Kesko launched its K-environmental store diploma programme in The programme helps stores reduce their environmental impact and offer their customers an opportunity to adopt responsible consumption behaviour. At the end of 2006, the number of K- environmental stores totalled 411, most of them being food stores. The K-environmental store concept was selected among the ten best sustainable development partnerships in the world by the United Nations Environmental Programme UNEP and the International Chamber of Commerce ICC in 2002.

5 YTV has co-operated with Kesko Food Ltd when developing the SMAC-guidelines and disseminating the best practices in in-store waste prevention in grocery stores. The K- environmental store concept includes basic training prior to receiving a diploma, and complementary training on specific themes subsequently. K-retailers and their employees generally have a basic understanding of environmental issues and the will to make a contribution, but often find it difficult to link scientific environmental information with everyday practical work. This is why training at K-environmental stores is very much of the grassroots type and the SMAC for retail stores has proved to be useful training material. (Kesko 2007.) Smart Ways of Action in an Office Smart Ways of Action in an Office (YTV 2007d) gives ideas for a low-waste office environment. Environmental group and employee checklists are simple but useful tools for planning more material-efficient working methods. The guide, with its checklists, is also published in English. The contribution of the City of Helsinki Public Works Department (HKR) to testing the SMAC model and introducing the model in the city administration has been valuable. To motivate offices of the public administration to start using the model as a tool for waste prevention requires pioneering offices that share their experiences with potential users of the model. In 2005, paper copies of the guide and the checklists were posted to 320 enterprises and public administration units listed in the Petra Waste Benchmarking Service. The guide has also been presented in several other training sessions and seminars. Example: EcoHelps Training Programme The best way to enhance waste prevention in the long term is to integrate waste prevention practices into the training of personnel of enterprises and public bodies, and to use the SMAC s as training material. The SMAC for offices is integrated in the Ecological Assistants (EcoHelps) training programme of City of Helsinki since The EcoHelps training programme is a part of Helsinki s Ecological Sustainability Programme (HEKO), one of the targets of which is the promotion of environmental responsibility among the city s employees through various kinds of environmental education and enlightenment. One thousand "EcoHelps" of each sector of the public administration will be educated to e.g. implement the SMAC guidelines in their working units. MONITORING SUCCESS The objectives of the sub-project Smart Ways of Action for Enterprises, Public Administration and Education are 1) to make the target groups familiar with the concept and methods of waste prevention and 2) to reduce the total amount of solid waste in grocery stores and in offices by 3% from 2003 to A progress indicator is to monitor the annual waste amounts. The annual waste data of each reporting year is retrieved from YTV s Petra Waste Benchmarking system. The data retrieved from Petra contains the average total amount of waste generated/man-year, and the average amounts of different waste fractions generated/man-year. Petra Waste Benchmarking If you cannot measure, you cannot manage. Waste benchmarking service Petra is a free web-based tool for companies in the region [4]. The service helps the company or organisation to develop its own waste management and to reduce the amount of waste by making it possible to compare the waste amounts generated in a private company or in public administration with other companies and organisations in the same field and in similar kinds of properties. The service user receives several different graph-based reports in which the results of the company or organisation are compared to the average values gained from the same field. At the same time the development of the waste management of the company or organisation can be monitored.

6 Petra is also a tool for YTV to monitor the success of waste prevention activities in companies and public administration. Ca 600 annual waste reports from companies and public organisations were checked and approved by the system administrator in The reports were gathered in cooperation with the Environment Centres (municipal environmental authorities) of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area municipalities Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. The Petra Waste Benchmarking given in YTV s www-pages ( is free of charge. YTV encourages organisations to prevent waste at source by granting annually the Saver of Natural Resources award to those companies or organisations which have reduced their waste amount in an exemplary manner. All companies or organisations which have passed information to the Petra Waste Benchmarking from Helsinki region participate automatically in this competition. Waste Flows: Grocery Stores The figures show that waste generation (total amount of solid waste per employee) in the grocery stores increased gradually until The figures for 2005 however, show a decrease in the amount of waste from grocery stores. Figures for 2006 are not available yet. Figure 2 Total solid waste generation (kg/person) in grocery stores (Source: Petra Waste Benchmarking Database / YTV Regional and Environmental Information 1/2007) Waste Flows: Offices The figures show that waste generation (total amount of solid waste per employee) in the offices providing their waste data in the Petra Waste Benchmarking reduced from 2003 to Especially the amount of waste paper has dropped in the offices. Figures for 2006 are not available yet.

7 Figure 3: Total solid waste generation (kg/person) in offices (Source: Petra Waste Benchmarking Database / YTV Regional and Environmental Information 1/2007) CONCLUSION Successful enhancement of waste prevention activities in the field requires interaction with large corporations, trade associations and public administration. In order to sell the idea to the target groups, their representatives were invited to participate in making the waste prevention guidelines (e.g. start-up meetings, steering and/or working groups, interviews) in their respective sector. The most desirable way to disseminate the Smart Ways of Action (SMAC) guidelines in the long term is indeed to integrate waste prevention and the SMACs into the training of the personnel of (especially large) enterprises and of public administration, and make use of the SMACs as training material in educational institutions and in training programmes and courses. Resources of the YTV Waste Management to organise tailored training sessions to individual companies in situ are however limited. Therefore co-operation with organisations with on-going training programmes, such as the K-Environmental Store concept and the HEKO Programme of the City of Helsinki have proved to be excellent ways to utilise SMAC guidelines, and to reach possibly thousands of people who in turn can spread the knowledge further in their organisations. The Petra Waste Benchmarking Service can be used as a monitoring tool and the SMACs as practical tools of planning and implementing waste minimisation activities in organisations. As far as waste prevention measures are concerned, the SMACs offer a basis for instance to an environmental management system (EMAS, ISO 14001) or an environmental programme; the checklists can be used when conducting environmental reviews and carrying out environmental audits. The guidelines and checklists can be modified to meet the special needs of the user. It is however unlikely that a tool such as the Petra and guidelines and checklists such as the SMACs alone would make waste streams smaller. Smart Ways of Action (SMAC) guidelines for waste prevention at source complemented with the Petra Waste Benchmarking Service are excellent tools also for advisory and consultation services provided by the YTV. Best practices to minimise the waste amount produced can be discovered by studying the best enterprises of the field. Distinct goals on how much it is possible to reduce the waste amounts can be set for enterprises that produce large amounts of waste.

8 The data on waste generation in grocery stores and offices derived from the Petra Database show that waste streams in the grocery stores in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area increased gradually until 2004 but turned down in It is however far too optimistic to conclude that waste prevention activities work in the stores. Waste generation in offices looks far brighter: the waste streams show clear decrease and greater amount of emphasis is put on preventing waste paper generation in offices. More in-depth analysis of the results will be available in December 2007 when the WastePrevKit project ends. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank the following persons for their valuable contribution to the project: Ms. Maria Joki-Pesola (City of Helsinki Public Works Department), Mr. Markus Lukin (City of Helsinki Public Works Department/Environment Centre), Ms Erja Mähönen (Miljöönääri Oy), and Mr. Toni Pelin (Kesko Food Ltd.). REFERENCES Autio, S. and Lettenmeier, M. (2002): Ekotehokkuus - Business as Future. Yrityksen ekoteho-opas (Eco-efficiency - Business as Future. Eco-efficiency guide for a company), pp.4. Teknillinen korkeakoulu, Koulutuskeskus Dipoli. Kesko (2007): Corporate Responsibility Report 2006, pp. 52. OECD (2002): Towards Sustainable Household Consumption? Trends and policies in OECD countries. OECD Publications, Paris, 161 p. YTV (2002): YTV:n jätteen synnyn ehkäisystrategia 2007 ja taustaselvitys (YTV s Waste Prevention Strategy 2007 and background study). Pääkaupunkiseudun yhteistyövaltuuskunnan julkaisusarja C 2002:4, Helsinki. 23 p. YTV (2007a): It s Smart with Less Waste website: (June 29, 2007) YTV (2007b): Petra Waste Benchmarking Service: (June 29, 2007) YTV (2007c): Smart Ways of Action in Retail Stores, (June 29, 2007) YTV (2007d): Smart Ways of Action in an Office: (June 29, 2007)