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Should You Report on Sustainability?
 Ah, it's that time of year when we're starting to think about spring, longer days and results reporting from last year. Along with sales and earnings results, many companies now are beginning to consider an annual sustainability report. Is it right for your organization?
Only you and your top management can answer that question, but whether or not you decide to take it on this year, annual sustainability reporting is the wave of the future. In fact, there's a major international organization, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), whose sole purpose is, "to make sustainability reporting standard practice for all organizations." And they have tools to help you get started. You can download their comprehensive sustainability reporting guidelines and framework here.
As the GRI says, "Sustainability reporting is the practice of measuring, disclosing, and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for organizational performance towards the goal of sustainable development." That's a lot to take on, and your role may represent only a part of what a complete report would contain. Still, it is timely to start formulating ideas on what a sustainability report that covers your sector of the organization would contain. And crafting a report of your results over the last year, at least for internal stakeholders, might surprise management and garner better support for further efforts.
Ingenium maintains complete records of how much a partner has recycled, reused or re-purposed from their waste stream. If we can help you in any way with a sustainability report, or if you would like to talk about how you can increase your recycling efforts, please don't hesitate to call your Ingenium representative.
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Haz Mat Shipping Description Sequencing No Longer Voluntary
 In a continuing effort to achieve worldwide standardization, or global harmonization when it comes to hazardous waste handling, several aspects of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) were changed as of January 1, 2013. Although the changes are minor, they do impact the hazardous waste shipping process so it's important that you are aware of them.
The key point is that the sequence in which the basic shipping description for hazardous waste is given has changed. The requirement states that the only acceptable order is as follows: 1. Identification Number, 2. Proper Shipping Name, 3. Hazard Class, and 4. Packing Group.
For example, prior to this year, you could write either one of these two shipping descriptions for Acetic Anhydride Waste. After 1/1/13 only the second choice is permitted:
Waste Acetic Anhydride, 8(3), UN 1715, PGII
UN 1715, Waste Acetic Anhydride, 8(3), PGII
For a fairly simple to follow (for the government) guideline of the coding of the required Basic Description, just click here.
There are also several additional changes that were made to air shipment descriptions including the end of the "Danger" label for shipments of HazMat forbidden from transport in passenger aircraft. Complete details (if you can stay awake) can be found here. |
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Turning Waste Into Money
As a partner in in our clients' environmental management concerns, Ingenium's philosophy is to look for returnable value first, before we utilize other management methods. Here's an example of how that philosophy returned considerable value to one of our clients.
Previously managed by a large, national hazardous waste disposal company, our client was paying to have their main waste stream incinerated as hazardous waste. We did a full Needs Analysis, and during that process, discovered there was potential for recovered asset value.
After researching various technologies and applying them to current state and federal regulations, Ingenium was able to develop a solution that returned hard dollar assets to the company. Last year they received over $90,000 for the value of the material they were once incinerating, which inverted their cost curve for their environmental management. In essence, they turned a departmental cost into a revenue stream.
If you have concerns that you are not recovering every asset possible, call Ingenium today for a full Needs Analysis. |
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Let Us Help Someone You Know
If you know of a fellow professional who has waste management needs or questions, please feel free to tell them about Ingenium and have them contact Heather at hdody@pureingenium.com.
Together we will create a more sustainable world!
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