CQI Scotland - EoS Reports
East of Scotland Branch Meeting - Tuesday 11 March 2008
The Deming Red Bead Experiment
The attendees try out the experiment
Gordon's PowerPoint presentation is available to view here - “The Red Bead Experiment”
Write-up by Brian to go here
East of Scotland Branch Meeting - Tuesday 12 February 2008
Student presentations prize competition
The students giving their presentations
The students receive their prizes
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Malcolm McKnight (First place)
Elaine Stevenson
Eileen Greenshields
East of Scotland Branch Meeting - Tuesday 9 October 2007
Roadcraft – a management system that could save your life!
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Improved driving was the theme of the latest Branch meeting held in the Perth Mercedes car showroom, courtesy of the John R. Weir Dealership
“I’ve never had a crash, but have seen lots of them in my rear view mirror. - If this applies to you, perhaps your driving is not as good as you think it is.” So said Eric Hill, a volunteer speaker from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), who gave a presentation on improving car-driving skills.
Established in 1956, the IAM is one of the UK’s leading road safety charities. Dedicated to raising driving standards and saving lives on our roads, it commissions research, provides an independent voice for responsible motoring and influences policy at all levels of Government. IAM membership requires passing a 90-minute practical driving test assessed by top grade ex- police drivers. The cost of the initial assessment, observed runs, the test and Associate’s fee, valid for one year, is £85 or £75 for those aged 25 and under. (www.iam.org.uk)
Eric, a crash investigator for a large road maintenance contractor, said, “ Advanced driving is not about slowing down on the road. It is about becoming better at predicting potential hazards, driving smoothly, being courteous and more controlled. An individual can be courteous wheeling a supermarket trolley, but become aggressive and rude when in charge of vehicle on busy roads”.
He gave advice about town, country and motorway driving. In town, be observant– for example, if dustbins are on the pavement watch for the bin lorries and bin men, who may not use the Green-Cross Code! Eric criticised the proliferation of road signs explaining that if you are driving in the country with fields on both sides, the sign “Beware of Farm Traffic” seems superfluous, also the main hazard for a motorcyclist crashing off a moving bike is hitting a road sign. Members were advised that when entering a motorway from the slip road to match their speed with Lane1 traffic. Driving at about 60mph gives flexibility, to slow for a heavy goods vehicle or increase for faster 70mph traffic. Be courteous, but not too courteous; do not stop in motorway Lane 1 to let a slow vehicle out! 30mph limits must be obeyed – do not drift past the sign at 35mph and make sure you know the difference between ‘Stop’ and ‘Give Way’ signs.
After his presentation, Eric introduced other IAM volunteers who accompanied members on a half-hour drive. Comment and advice was given to the suitably nervous drivers and members were reminded that the latest edition of the Highway Code was published in September. On return to the showroom there was feedback and a question and answer session which emphasised the message that quality in driving will save lives.
The Branch thanked Eric for his presentation, the other IAM volunteers for their contribution and the John R.Weir Mercedes Dealership for their generous hospitality at this very successful event.
East of Scotland Branch Meeting - Tuesday 11 September 2007
Carbon footprints (CF)
Kings buildings, Edinburgh University
Hosts: Joint Meeting with the Institute of Environmental
Management and Assessment.
Speaker: Howard Metcalfe, MD, NIFES Consulting Group
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NIFES was set up during WW2 as a government organization to improve the efficiency of non-domestic clients by reducing waste. They were the first government body to be privatised in 1953. Howard has been practising Energy consultancy for 25 years.
He started by asking the question - is carbon footprinting run by conscience or commerce? CF can be split into four parts:
- What is it?
- Why do it?
- How to do it?
- What next?
1. What is it? - He indicated that the current greenhouse gas emissions are measured in tonnes of carbon (or CO2). Other greenhouse gases are methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (NO). The sources of these are the outputs of industry, transport, buildings and agriculture and are expressed in tonnes of carbon equivalent. The global warming potential of these over 20 years is:
CO2 - 1
CH4 - 62 times CO2
NO - 275 times CO2
The main source of these gases is our complete supply chain. He gave an example of one of their clients who is familiar to everybody - Walker's Crisps. Their carbon footprint can be broken down into: agriculture - 44%; processing 30%; packaging - 15%; distribution - 9% and disposal of empty packets - 2%.
2. Why do it? - There is increasing pressure on organizations to quantify responsibility. What are our carbon emissions? Where are these emissions in our supply chain? Organizations will have to identify their business risk because, if their carbon footprint can be measured, there is a strong possibility that there may be a future tax regime to cover it!
Carbon emissions can become another performance measure. They can be benchmarked against competitors and used as a marketing tool.
3. How to do it? - There is no defined method yet of calculating a carbon footprint. One method employed by NIFES can be illustrated by considering a school. The first component of the carbon footprint concerns the direct emissions from the school and buildings. The second component concerns the transport emissions from commuting pupils and teachers. The third component concerns the embodied emissions of the goods and services consumed in schools.
A new British standard is being developed jointly between the Carbon Trust (CT) and BSI Systems. This standard will provide, " a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for the measurement of the embodied greenhouse gases (GHGs) in products and services" and a pilot project is underway to devise and develop the carbon footprinting methodology.
A proposed methodology is:
Step 1 - Analysis of the internal product data
Step 2 - Build a supply chain process map
Step 3 - Define the boundary conditions and identify data requirements
Step 4 - Collect the primary and secondary data
Step 5 - Calculate GHG emissions by supply chain process steps
Much data has already been calculated e.g. aluminium used in construction has a value for Embodied Energy of 154.30 MJ/Kg and for Embodied Carbon of 11.9 kg CO2/kg. Using the tables, the carbon footprint of an organization can be calculated. One utility area that needs serious consideration is that of water treatment (sewage and drainage) which is twice that of water supply.
4. What next? - Howard next discussed the need for a "Power Hierarchy"
Combined heat and Power Plants (CHP), supply energy efficiently Be Clean
Use Renewable Energy Be Green
Energy Efficiency Be Lean
There then followed a series of slides which outlined the advantages, disadvantages and payback periods of various energy sources: photovoltaic, Bio-energy, pellets and chips, micro wind generators, ground source heat pumps, CHP (details can be found in the references at the end of the article). "Offsetting" has now become a factor in purchasing decisions. Even the purchase of an easyJet airline ticket offers the option of paying £0.89 to balance 68kg of CO2 per passenger on an Edinburgh to London Gatwick flight.
Howard wound up by saying that, currently, carbon footprinting is driven 85% by conscience and only 15% commercially.
There then followed a very lively Q & A session which greatly enhanced the learning experience for those present.
References:
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.html
http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html
http://www.carbon-label.co.uk/
http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/Global_Warming/Older/GWPs.html