Some of the measures and practises that lay people may find interesting to learn include:

• As a safety precaution, understandably pilots carry some extra fuel as buffer against unexpected weather, etc, that may require more than usual fuel for a flight;
• Some pilots prefer to “top up” the amount of fuel as a further safety buffer, even though calculations already made prior on the ground indicates the plane really only need less than that;
• Some regional airlines publish anonymously the amount of fuel each pilots use over a month, not to encourage competition (of who is most efficient) but to at least know where you rank among your fellow pilots (they can log in to find out their position among other pilots still anonymously);
• It is never a good idea to use pilot fuel efficiency as a Key Performance Indicator, for salary or performance bonuses. This is simply because it will start compromising safety standards;
• Airplanes are equipped with an Auxiliary Power Unit usually located in the tail of the plane, which acts as a power generator for the plane’s air conditioning, lighting, etc. One of the discussions revolved around whether the plane’s main engines (on the wings) ought to be cut off after landing and while taxiing to the airport, relying solely on the APU’s power;
• Other discussions also revolved around whether the APU should be used as a generator when the plane is parked at the airport gate, or should it rely on ground vehicles’ power generator;
• Finally, when the air conditioner should be justifiably switched on, ie 30 minutes before passengers board for their comfort, on hot days on the tarmac.

These are but some of the few things, among hundreds, that airlines and industry bodies such as IATA look into to save fuel use, which ultimately save costs and burn less fossil fuel over time, across an airline’s (whole) fleet.

And rightly so.

Thinking and going green should already be inculcated into our mindset and lifestyle. It should not be something that is deemed “extra effort”, that then warrants some form of recognition or award. This is of course textbook HR/people management. But isn’t climate change life-related? That the result of our (in)action will be enjoyed/suffered/to be inherited by our kids?

How would you encourage your workforce to adopt green office practises? Should internal procedures and policies start to reflect this corporate direction? Should HR start playing a role in bringing about “forced” behavioural change, by way of adherence to policies (or not), KPI’s of activities?

We could go the Chinese government way and cut power to those who are not abiding! (“China province cuts power to 500 factories“) But that would make us very unpopular!

~~~ Update ~~~

But then again, there are still efforts that really do require recognition and award: “Achievement: Leading government and industry to deliver a quieter, cleaner and more energy-efficient aviation system.“- found here: 2010 Finalist—Science and Environment Medal

Here are Corporate Safety, Security, Health and Environment division, our recycling bins are “operational”. Just added the final touches of labelling the bins, and we are already using and practising recycling.

We too have started our own efforts at CSSHE department.

Lights out during lunch..

No more individual bins

All they need now are logos..

As you can see, we have started collecting the individual bins from the staff, and have also “volunteered” some help to put together these 3 bins, ready for waste (paper) collection. All they need now are proper labeling or stenciling.

How are your activities and efforts going?

As such, I cannot properly credit the originator, or genius, who thought to cleverly “re-use” plastic bottles.

This chain-mail was written in Chinese. But I think you can figure this out by the photos.

First, snip at the neck of the bottle

Seal your unfinished foods, etc, with the cap

You can use the “body” of the bottle as a cheap pot for small plants or flowers, or your kids’ water container when they are painting

Did you know that for 1 tonne of computer waste (for eg, obsolete hardware that is thrown out), it took 20 tonnes of raw resources to manufacture them?

That was one of the facts that was shared by our partner Wild Asia.

Yesterday they assisted in conducting a workshop for staff from various Malaysia Airlines departments. The turnout was rather good- there was a good spread of participation from cargo, commercial, IT, the training academy staff; just to name a few. We covered the effects of not being green or practising conservation or looking at the 3R’s.

Participants in a game of self-introduction

We also looked at the simple ways that individuals can contribute, even in small ways. One such example was the Head of Group IT’s Business Solutions Group.

She had indeed made a pledge at the Townhall session, where she would stop using styrofoam products (I still have that pledge in the office!) True to her word, at her office she has since “mandated” that there would be no styrofoam cups for use in the pantry; where instead, she had replaced them with porcelain cups. If disposal cups are needed, it would have to be paper cups.

Good on you Suhana!

We also talked about how to get the rest of the department and company in on the conservation action. Ideas included staff incentives, competition, having conveniently located recycling bins, etc.

Sharing conservation tips

Not surprisingly though, the paramount concern shared by the participants is that there may not be (enough) support from management, particularly from HR and Property departments. I shared that, rightly so, management at the moment is more concerned with the EU ETS and the whole carbon (hedging) market. Such initiatives are on management’s radar, but just maybe not top priority.

Not saying that they would not participate, rather it is more of an issue of instilling and installing the proper policies and processes to support such activities. It has to come from the top.

It is therefore our task to bring this up to management’s attention. If we are serious in our journey towards sustainability, then this is the first of many steps.

At the end of the workshop, everyone was given a 3-month long “assignment”: To measure and monitor our water and electricity use, as well as the amount of garbage that is disposed.

It will be interesting to see what the figures are like, and also, how many will still be as keen on this journey as they were yesterday.

Reminders!

One of the presenters was Dr. Philippe Bonnefoy, who gave us both the scientific research findings as well as the business implications, or justifications of why the aviation industry has been doing all these decades.

I just wanted to show you some of the grabbing facts and figures that are quite daunting.

Historical and future trends

The sum of all aviation parts

I would like to draw your attention to the second slide above.

After being blown away at first glance of that formula, but taking the time to examine each part of the formula it started to make sense to us- it was a summation of all parts of the aviation industry.

If you cannot see it properly, what is written in blue, from left to right, are:
“Demand (passenger traffic)”;
“1/average load factor”;
“1/aircraft size (fleet mix)”;
“Empty mass”;
“Payload mass”;
“Flight range and speed”;
“Propulsion (spec. fuel consumption)”;
“Aerodynamics (drag/lift)”;
“Fuel properties (alternative fuels)”.

We were amazed and glad that such research measures and efforts are being undertaken by this most-developed country; in looking for ways of mitigating the impact of all of aviation’s activities.

* Note the reference to ICAT; which are MIT International Center for Air Transportation:

Massachusetts Port Authority- that manages sea- and air-ports

On the way there in the bus I did note these fans…

Fans on top of the building?

After the introductory presentations and meetings with the Massport officials on airport management, we were treated to a guided tour of their airport and the new terminal and facilities.

One of the highlights of the tour was their eagerness to experiment with alternative sources of electricity.

It was noted that they had also tried to harness wind energy for electricity, but somehow had stalled it whilst concentrating on harnessing that of solar. The joke was that those 6 fans from the above photo, had (only) managed to power a few PC’s!

And so with their focus on solar, this was what they had done, and done successfully insofar as achieving the power levels desired.

They call these the “solar trees”, and rightly so.

Solar trees on the carpark rooftop

A closer look at a solar tree

On the top deck of their multi-storey carpark, were these solar trees, all 3 rows of them, spanning the whole length of the building.

In our tropical Malaysia with year-round sunny days, with the right investments and attitudes towards conservation and alternative energy I believe this is an example that we ought to follow, for all types of buildings and administration. And I don’t mean small panels for token’s sake. To really harness solar energy for real use in buildings, dedicated budgets and physical space must be allocated for real returns- not just enough for powering a few PC’s!

If serious considerations are given, I believe we too can emulate such an initiative and set examples for other locals to follow.

I had posted before that we had begun engaging our internal folks on green efforts. In the meantime we had also started a program of encouraging and showcasing departments and/or buildings that are practising green activities. We thought to target departments whose building(s) are isolated or “stand-alone” enough- one that has its own, not-shared utility bills for easy monitoring and measuring.

We thought of the Malaysia Airlines Academy, at Kelana Jaya. It fits the above loose-criteria, and there are already departments which are practising some efforts in being responsible.

We held a quick meeting with them to introduce this effort and to get their participation- it wasn’t too hard to get them on board, they were already very keen and were already doing some conservation activities. After the meeting I had a quick tour and spotted this already along their corridor.

Recycled bins for recycling use!

Good to see.

Yesterday we had a follow up meeting with them, to finalise the program, and to discuss officially launching it complete with means of measuring the efforts over the following 3 months.

After the meeting I went “spying” again, and spotted this.

Good to see the level of participation

GOOD TO SEE GOOD TO SEE

We will naturally share the progress of this program, and look into expanding it to include other departments and building / facilities.

Is your department as responsible?

As the topic was skewed towards aviation (and the environment), one of the agenda of the program was the environmental aspects of airports and its management.

So, since we were already in town ….

One of the buildings near Dulles Airport in Washington DC

Danielle on hand to assist with the visits around the airport and meeting the officials

Massport, the officials who brought us around Boston's Logan Airport

Delegates being shown around the Logan Airport

As a non-pilot and not in the airports business, one of the things I learned during the Q&A during the privileged tour of the airport and runways, is- “What do you do with your de-icing fluids?”

De-icing: the process of removing frozen contaminant, snow, ice, slush, from a surface.

An American Airlines MD-80 aircraft being de-iced at Syracuse Hancock International Airport.

Definition and photo source from Wikipedia.org

As you know, Malaysia is a tropical country, and naturally residents like me, wouldn’t have thought to ask about this function, let alone what happens to the run-offs of such liquid wastes. But since among us there was a Malaysia Airlines pilot and an airport official, they were keenly asking questions related to this, and all I could do was try and learn about this operation as much as I could.

As we were told by the respective airport officials- Washington DC’s Dulles Airport does not collect the fluid run-offs, but Boston’s Logan Airport does.

In fact, from my personal observation Logan Airport seems to be more active in adopting green activities and efforts in their part in being green. One of the initiatives that they had trialled was wind energy. There was a joke about the array producing only enough electricity to power a few desktop PC’s only! But if that were true, their “solar trees” would have easily overcome this- they have a huge array of solar panels on the top floor of their open-aired car parking building.

* More about de-icing from wikipedia.org.

Other interesting points regarding this aspect of flying I had overheard was that even if a runway was de-iced ready for a take-off, if for whatever reason the plane was delayed for up to 45 minutes, that runway would have to undergo another de-icing exercise.

More highlights to come, especially the wind and solar energy use at Logan Airport..