From IWMSA Weekly Waste Digest 7 – 11 June 2021 Establishing a national database for lifecycle assessment data Recording. Prof Harro von Blottnitz and Dr Pippa Notten of UCT presented the proposal for a National Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) database. Without such a database, LCAs will be more costly (up to 3/4 times more costly and take

WISA Newsletter 14th May 2021 The variability of rainfall and the impact of climate change on our weather patterns has combined to cause even more hardship in an already water-scarce environment like southern Africa. The correct storage of water is a vital component to ensure the safety, health and even socio-economic development  of communities. There

Carin Bosman of CBSS is currently developing software, called LEGUAAN®, that will provide a service to effortlessly turn water quality and quantity monitoring data into graphs and reports that can be understood by management and other stakeholders, including government agencies, which means environmental data becomes a valuable business- and water resource management tool. LEGUAAN® is

This paper was published in Pollution Prevention Review, Winter 1990/91 and is a prompt to go back to basics. Many concepts may be old but they are still applicable to businesses. The techniques used in waste reduction are broken down into four major categories-managing inventory, modifying production processes, reducing waste volume, and recovering waste. Within

This publication was supported by UNDP and GEF and published under the auspices of the Bhutan National Environment Commission. Although published in 2011, there are useful perspectives included because it was produced as a teaching tool. The publication is split into four main sections: Environmental Management Concepts; Environmental Management Principles; Environmental Management Tools and Techniques;

The Worldwatch Institute, in collaboration with the Low-Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP), have produced the second iteration of the Energy Toolkit The toolkit is a collection of leading instruments and methodologies for climate-compatible energy planning, offering energy practitioners, policymakers, and experts a quick reference guide to some of the best-established instruments available at

The CERES Supplier Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ): Building the Foundation for Sustainable Supply Chains has been designed to assist companies seeking to strengthen their supply chain engagement. The aim is to help companies be more competitive and build resiliency in their supply chains by identifying, assessing, managing and disclosing supply chain sustainability risks. The SAQ will

GEMI (Global Environmental Management Initiative) have produced an ISO 14001:2015 Self-Assessment Checklist which is freely available. The purpose of the checklist is to improve a facility manager’s understanding of the requirements and elements of the updated ISO 14001:2015 environmental management systems standard. The criteria of the standard have been rephrased in the format of a

On 19th October 2016, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) launched a set of GRI Standards, based upon the GRI G4 Guidelines. The GRI Standards are the latest evolution of GRI’s reporting disclosures which have developed through more than 15 years of a robust multi-stakeholder process. The Standards feature an improved format with new modular structures.

Risk Assessments form an important part of business activities, particularly where there are different tasks to be undertaken which may have safety, health and environmental risks of varying degrees of significance. One of the weaknesses of the risk assessment process is that it is only as good as the knowledge, skills, training and experience of

Water is a strategic resource for most businesses. However, there is still a reluctance to take water management seriously, despite the fact that water availability has become a serious factor in business risk assessments. There are many different tools and techniques available to assist business managers and directors to understand and quantify that water risk.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Global Water Tool is a free, publically available resource for identifying corporate water risks and opportunities which provides easy access to, and analysis of, critical water data. The spreadsheet-based Tool includes a workbook (data input, inventory by site, key reporting indicators and metrics calculations), a mapping function

The Promethium Corporate Carbon Footprint Tool was designed to do a basic calculation of your carbon footprint based on energy consumption and other data.  It offers a tutorial on the use of the Tool with reference to the source documentation.  The Tool reports on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions (The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol defines

The Wind Atlas for Southern Africa (WASA) aims to assist in the development of large grid-connected wind farms and to provide more accurate wind resource data to identify potential opportunities for off-grid electrification. Mapping has been carried out in the Western Cape, parts of the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. More funding from the

The Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI) has been around for over 20 years and describes itself as follows:-  “…an organization of leading companies dedicated to foster global environmental, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability excellence through the sharing of tools and information to help business achieve environmental sustainability excellence.”