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Unit 18: Manage the environmental impact of work activities

You have already looked at how to assess and minimise the environmental impact of your activities, and the requirement to report and make public information about the impact. Now, you need to consider how to make changes to your working practices to put in place actions to reduce the environmental impact of your work activities. This will mean looking at how you use resources and carry out activities, at the environmentally aware practices that are in use in the wider organisation and at how the wider organisation carries out its work activities.

You will need to consider each work activity and the organisation of activities in general in your workplace, and look at where you can make environmental savings. If you are not yet employed in your sector, you may be able to use a tutor-provided scenario or develop case studies.

This topic guide will cover: • how to adapt the use of resources to reduce environmental impact • how to organise activities to reduce environmental impact.

Organise work activities and resource use to minimise environmental impact18.4

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Unit 18: Manage the environmental impact of work activities

18.4: Organise work activities and resource use to minimise environmental impact

1 How to adapt the use of resources to reduce environmental impact

LinksNVQ Unit 3: Planning construction work processes and efficient use of resources in construction and the built environment; Unit 4: Monitoring construction and installation operations and resources to minimise energy and waste in construction and the built environment; Unit 5: Monitoring supplies of resources to meet project sustainability requirements in construction and the built environment.

HNC in Construction and the Built Environment: Unit 13 Environmental impact of construction, learning outcome 2, assessment criteria 2.1 and 2.2; learning outcome 3, assessment criteria 3.1 and 3.2; learning outcome 5, assessment criteria 5.1 and 5.2; Unit 47 Energy utilisation and efficiency for building services engineering, learning outcome 1, assessment criteria 1.2 and 1.3; learning outcome 3, assessment criteria 1.2 and 3.1; learning outcome 4, assessment criteria 4.1–4.3.

HNC in Manufacturing Engineering and Building Services Engineering: Unit 11 Supply chain management, learning outcome 1, assessment criteria 1.1; Unit 52 Energy management, learning outcome 1, assessment criteria 1.1–1.3; learning outcome 2, assessment criteria 2.1–2.3; learning outcome 3, assessment criteria 3.1–3.3; learning outcome 4, assessment criteria 4.1–4.3; Unit 65 Utilisation of electrical energy, learning outcome 4, assessment criteria 4.1–4.3.

Inefficient use of resources and the consequent unnecessary generation of waste creates both environmental and financial costs for a company. There are a number of drivers that indicate why it is important to use resources carefully. These drivers include:

• the need to reduce overhead costs associated with waste disposal

• increasing raw material costs

• increasing energy prices

• the environmental and financial costs of landfill

• legislative requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

• legislative requirements associated with waste management.

You need to make sure that you are making the most efficient possible use of resources and, to do this, you may need to change your working habits.

Remember that resources are not only the raw materials you need to carry out your job, such as steel plate for metal forming or copper pipework for plumbing installation – ‘resources’ also include:

• energy use in your work processes

• power, heat and lighting in an office or workshop environment

• water use, not only in your work activity, but throughout the company

• product packaging materials

• materials’ storage space

• consumables such as solvents and detergents

• disposable personal protective equipment (PPE)

• transport or energy fuel.

You should consider how you use energy. For example, do you leave tools on standby mode, which means the tools continue to use power, or use lighting when it is unnecessary? Do you use disposable consumables such as cleaning materials or PPE, which could be reused or retained for another purpose? Is your water use efficient, or do you overuse water unnecessarily?

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Unit 18: Manage the environmental impact of work activities

18.4: Organise work activities and resource use to minimise environmental impact

2 How to organise activities to reduce environmental impactt

Now that you have assessed and made recommendations for improvement to work activities, you need to know how to adapt your activities to minimise environmental impacts.

You need to examine which processes are creating the greatest environmental impacts and examine ways of organising your activities differently.

Some recommendations for improving operational activities are outlined below.

Measure and monitor wasteYou should measure and monitor waste as part of the environmental reporting process, but you should also be aware of the volume or mass of waste you are producing. Calculate the cost of the waste in terms of the supply cost of the material, then consider the waste as lost expenditure.

Segregate wasteSegregating waste will aid in recycling and lowering disposal costs. It will also help to identify materials that may be reused on site or in the production process.

Figure 18.4.1: After breaking down a building, each type of construction waste

can be separated into different containers for reuse. Do you know how much waste can be reused from your work activities?

Shred and compact wasteShredding and compacting waste will reduce the physical volume of the waste (the majority of waste containers are made up of air). The shredding of paper, card and packaging materials will aid in the recycling process, or you may be able to recycle on site.

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Unit 18: Manage the environmental impact of work activities

18.4: Organise work activities and resource use to minimise environmental impact

Review transport and delivery proceduresConsider consolidating deliveries into a congested construction site or other workplace. Consolidation involves providing a holding warehouse for delivered goods, unpacking them and delivering what is required in smaller, more efficient loads. Delivery consolidation can:

• reduce road journeys • reduce inefficient use of transport resources • provide cost savings as a result of reduced wastage.

Case study: Central St GilesCentral St Giles is a mixed-use residential and commercial development in London. The project used a construction consolidation centre (CCC) to rationalise the number of different delivery vehicles accessing the constrained site. The CCC was based outside London and all deliveries for the site were directed to the CCC where the materials or components were unloaded, stored and the packaging disposed of responsibly. The materials were then delivered to the site only when required and different materials and components were included within the same delivery.

Use of the CCC reduced the number of road journeys to the main site from 1266 journeys, which would have been required without the use of the CCC, to 310 journeys. The 956 road journeys that were not required meant an estimated 7.7 tonnes of CO

2 emissions were saved from

transport sources.

Review packaging designAre your products over-packaged? Can you redesign the packaging to minimise resource use? Is it possible to supply your product with reusable or returnable packaging, or with no packaging at all? Often, products are unnecessarily over-packaged when less or greatly refined packaging will suffice.

Labels may be printed directly onto packaging. This reduces the need for additional materials that may have different recycling options.

Review cutting patternsCheck that you are making the best use of sheet materials such as steel or manufactured boards when cutting and forming products. The use of CAD/CAM software may make this process more efficient.

Reuse materials • Reuse bulk materials as far as possible. • Transport small amounts of waste, leftover materials or offcuts to other sites

for continued use. • Use leftover construction or engineering materials in small amounts for

finishing or producing small components. • Rather than disposing of unused bulk materials, return them to the supplier,

resell or store them for later use.

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Unit 18: Manage the environmental impact of work activities

18.4: Organise work activities and resource use to minimise environmental impact

Make sure solvent storage is airtightEnsure tanks and storage containers of solvents are sealed properly. This will reduce wastage of the materials by evaporation and also reduce the emission of potentially harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the surrounding atmosphere. Additionally, make sure solvent storage filters, drain points and vents are maintained to minimise leakage.

Make sure perishable materials are stored correctlyCorrectly store perishable materials such as cement or powdered materials, timber and plasterboard to make sure they are not affected by weather damage. Furthermore, carefully seal partially used cement bags to ensure the contents do not harden. Reseal containers of paint, adhesives and other setting liquids.

Use water efficiently • Do not leave taps, hoses, pipes, etc. running unnecessarily. • Check and maintain water storage tanks, taps and valves. • Consider fitting low-flush toilets and push-taps in toilets and washing areas. • On construction and demolition sites, use efficient water-based dust suppression

systems, for example mist or spray systems rather than splash plates. • Reuse the water from washing out concrete lorries in further concrete batches

of a similar mix. • Reuse wheel wash water.

Use paper and office stationery efficiently • Avoid printing unnecessarily. • Print on both sides of the paper. • Reuse paper for written or sketch work, or note-taking. • Use 70 gsm, 100 per cent recycled paper instead of standard 80 gsm paper. • Use stapleless paper fasteners or reusable tags or clips. • Set printers and copiers to automatically print double-sided and in

monochrome. • Reuse paper as much as possible before disposing of it. When disposing of it,

make sure it is deposited in the correct collection type, and then shredded. • Reuse envelopes and small packaging as often as possible. • Encourage colleagues not to print emails and to store information

electronically whenever possible.

Use heating, ventilation and lighting efficiently • Do not leave lights or comfort heating on unnecessarily. • Do not use air conditioning if natural ventilation such as opening a window

can be used instead. • Make sure lighting is low energy. • Consider using PIR motion-sensitive controllers to switch off lighting if no one

is in the room.

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Unit 18: Manage the environmental impact of work activities

18.4: Organise work activities and resource use to minimise environmental impact

Portfolio activity (4.1, 4.2)1 Examine the report into your, or your company’s, emissions data and the broad

recommendations you made for improvement in Topic guide 18.3.2 Taking each of the key performance indicators in turn, prepare a detailed study into the sources

and causes of the emissions and determine where reductions could be made. You will have to examine overall energy use, waste and resource use, and perhaps product design in order to determine potential emissions savings.

3 Make an estimate of the potential savings that could be made, both in financial terms and carbon emissions.

4 Present this information as a report using formal language and style. Your report should include graphs and charts, as well as formal text.

ChecklistAt the end of this topic guide you should be familiar with:

how to organise and use resources efficiently

how to organise your work activities efficiently to reduce environmental impact.

Further reading and resourceswww.iso.org/iso/home/standards/management-standards/iso14000.htm

www.iema.net/policy-environmental-management-audit-and-compliance

http://webarchive.nationalarchives/gov.uk/20140328084622/http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/144678.aspx

www.netregs.org.uk/legislation.aspx

AcknowledgementsThe publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs:

Alamy Images: Jochen Tack (3); Shutterstock.com: Silverblack (1)

All other images © Pearson Education

We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:

Environment Agency for the inclusion of the website link http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140328084622/http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/144678.aspx. Reproduced with permission; ISO for the inclusion of the website link www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/management-standards/iso14000.htm. Reproduced with permission; NetRegs for the inclusion of the website link www.netregs.org.uk/legislation.aspx. Reproduced with permission; and WRAP for extracts from www.wrap.org.uk/content/logistics-case-study-central-st-giles, copyright © WRAP 2014. Reproduced with permission.

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and we apologise in advance for any unintentional omissions. We would be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent edition of this publication.