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

I saw this headline in today’s Star Online.

During the Khazanah’s Silverbook workshop (posted earlier) we learned that, despite China being one of the biggest polluter in the world- this Star article says that they are indeed the world’s largest greeenhouse gas emitter; that at least they are taking responsible actions in looking into their “unique” position. The article says that they are looking into policies of carbon cap and trade, and indeed- they do already have a China Beijing Environmental Exchange (CBEEX website) mechanism in place, albeit with teething problems.

Part of the reason for China’s push into this is due to (sourced from the article):

The cornerstone of any Chinese carbon market will be the country’s pledge, made last year, to reduce its 2005 carbon intensity rate — the amount of CO2 produced per unit of GDP — by 40-45 percent before the end of 2020.

In Malaysia we too have our own efforts, after our Prime Minister made a similar pledge to “reduce its carbon dioxide emission to 40 per cent by the year 2020 compared to the 2005 levels subject to assistance from developed countries”. As a follow-up, the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications launched its Greentech : 1 Identity, as well as conducting workshops with industries, aimed similarly at tacking our own GHG emission levels.

To share some related insights: The aviation industry, by its nature of continuous improvements in fuel efficiencies, has always been in the forefront of being green. Airframe manufacturers collaborate with engine manufacturers to come up with the engineering wonders that we see in the skies now. Airports and traffic controllers and aviation authorities collaborate to take it further by developing policies to reduce the impact of airplanes with optimised flight patterns, taxiing policies, new methods of airplane approaches and landings, etc.

Because of all these efforts, the general public is (still) surprised to learn that compared with all other industries in the world, aviation only contributes 2-3% of the total GHG emissions.

This is a “real-time” tracking of global flights over a period of a few days.

Enjoy!

What are your observations in terms of frequencies, schedules, concentrations of flights?

A quick background into what the Silverbook is; I am sure you can recognise what some of these are on:

Click for bigger picture

Two of the principles from the Silverbook states:

GLCs should proactively contribute to society in ways that create
value for their shareholders and other key stakeholders

GLCs should actively manage their contributions to society in the
most efficient and effective manner in line with industry norms
and best practices as well as the relevant regulatory framework

Broken down, and also coupled with our Prime Minister’s pledge to reduce our carbon emission intensity by 40%, this translates to the core area of environmental protection and policies. Therefore the topic of sustainability comes under this.

So what is sustainability?

Whilst the topic of sustainability is both wide and also evolving, I would like to attempt to define it for our use.

Definitions of sustainability often refer to the three pillars

Source, and more elaborative explanations, at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability

“Sustainability is the capacity to endure”

In our context, it means that given our lifestyle of:

• consumption (of food, fuel, manufacturing);
• waste (trash, inefficiencies/leakages);
• development (deforestation, mining (BP?), more cars on the roads);

we will eventually BOTH continue to harm the environment as well as deplete our limited resources.

An interesting note is that there is existing data indicating that Malaysia is already quickly becoming one of the bigger polluters per capita in the world. But what is more interesting is that, whilst China is also one of the highest polluters per capita, they have more programs and projects to mitigate these negative impacts than we do.

Sustainability advocates:

• smarter use of existing resources;
• improve upon efficient use of them;
• find alternative means (new technology, biofuels, low emission, alternative sources of energy, alternative means of transport, etc);
• limit the damage to these sources (toxins in natural water, poisons in soil, logging of our “lungs”, increasing amount of trash/landfill).

Already there are financial institutions that are looking into responsible investments into projects/schemes that go toward this philosophy.

At the government level, the Ministry for Energy, Green Technology and Water has already started looking into public policies that bring about environment-friendly initiatives; with the launch of Greentech : 1 Identity and the resulting working committees and task forces.

As an airline, with fuel being the biggest cost component (and thus all efforts have been invested in bringing this cost component as low as possible) the other areas we can focus efforts on are our utility use (water and electricity), to a large extent the non-airplane assets (ground vehicles), procedures (flight management, turn-around times, taxiing).

On a personal level, and either toward the (or any) company or toward our environment, we can also practise these similar philosophies. As you know, already there are supermarkets with their No Plastic Saturdays, some who charge for the use of plastic bags, shopping centres that have recycling bins to segregate waste. Not only will reducing waste and being efficient save you money, your children will see this as the normal learned lifestyle that will only become their natural habit as adults later on in life.

Even if you don’t subscribe to climate change or sustainability, you have to agree with what you have read about limited resources- even in our own backyard: That even for Malaysia, we will become a net oil importer in the not too distant future.

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.