Sustainable Business Magazine 01/17

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SUSTAINABLE ISSUE 01/17

B U S I N E S S

M A G A Z I N E

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

URECON

LOGSTOR

MOSKO GROUP UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

SAN FRANCISCO

TENOVA HYL ALSO FEATURED THIS ISSUE

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Editor:

Fiona FitzGerald

Assistant Editor:

George Newell

Senior Writer:

Marcus Bonnano

Contributors:

Rob Thornton

Ralf Nielsen

Meghan Fay Zahniser

Commercial Manager: Graeme Watts Web Administrator: Steve Phipps

CONTENTS ISSUE 01/17

Welcome to the latest North American edition of Sustainable Business Magazine Sustainable Business Magazine aims to spread awareness of the values of sustainability, as well as the brilliant ways in which organizations continue to meet challenges and champion corporate social responsibility.

We start 2017 with the latest installment of our ‘District Energy’ series in partnership with the International District Energy Association (IDEA). Each installment of the series features detailed profiles of companies demonstrating state-of-the-art best practices in district energy across North America and is prefaced by a foreword from IDEA President and CEO Rob Thornton. For this installment we spoke to Carl Vreugde, Senior Director and Managing Partner at Urecon, Tommy Lorenzen, Export Sales Manager at Logstor, and Ron Gawer, Director of Energy Operations at Stanford University, about European standard hot water piping in North America, 40km of piping at Stanford University, and the district energy trends of the future. We also spoke to Ted Borer, Energy Plant Manager at Princeton University, about natural disasters, economic dispatch, and the community benefits of microgrids.

Our ‘Sustainable Campuses’ series in partnership with AASHE celebrates how universities continue to develop and operate sustainably, as well as the role they’re taking in educating students and the wider public about sustainability. The series is prefaced by a foreword from AASHE’s Executive Director Meghan Fay Zahniser. For the latest installment we heard from Gail Lee, Sustainability Director at the University of California, San Francisco, who discussed the challenges and successes of their drive to incorporate sustainable practices into the operations of a leading medical school and hospital.

In an in-depth Q&A, Ralf Nielsen, Principal and Director of Sustainability at Colliers Project Leaders, explains how they are contributing to a more sustainable future.

In the Bahamas we spoke to James Mosko, President of the Mosko Group, about family businesses, sustainable projects, and learning through mistakes. In Trinidad and Tobago we spoke to the Trinidad and Tobago Solid Waste Management Company. CEO Ronald Roach and General Manager for Communications, Sales, and Marketing David Manswell spoke to us about education, efficiency, and an innovative new project for handling contaminated water.

We also spoke to Wilfred de Gannes, Chairman and CEO of the Shipbuilding and Repair Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SRDC), about the development of a major new shipyard port which is set to play a central role in the country’s future economy.

Finally in Mexico we spoke to Stefano Maggiolino, Managing Director of Tenova HYL, about bringing the ancient art of iron smelting into the modern world of environmental sustainability.

Details of upcoming sustainability events can be found on our events calendar. For more information on Sustainable Business Magazine, or to view our previous editions, please visit www.sustainablebusinessmagazine.net.

We hope that you find this issue both interesting and inspiring. Thank you for reading.

The Sustainable Business Magazine Team

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International District Energy Association (IDEA)

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Urecon / Logstor

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Princeton University

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The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)

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University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Q&A Ralf Nielsen, Principal and Director of Sustainability, Colliers Project Leaders

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Mosko Group

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The Trinidad and Tobago Solid Waste Management Company Limited (SWMCOL)

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Shipbuilding and Repair Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SRDC)

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Tenova HYL

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Global Events

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Advertisers Index COVER IMAGE: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY COGENERATION PLANT. IMAGE PROVIDED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY.

© SBM Media Ltd 2017. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form for any purpose, other than short sections for the purpose of review, without prior consent of the publisher.

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INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT ENERGY ASSOCIATION UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN COOLING TOWERS.

“DURING THIS ERA OF HISTORICALLY LOW FUEL COSTS, THE IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY AND RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IS ESCALATING.”

DISTRICT A foreword to the ‘District Energy’ series by Rob Thornton, President & CEO of the International District Energy Association (IDEA).

ROB THORNTON, PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT ENERGY ASSOCIATION (IDEA).

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On behalf of the board of directors and over 2100 members of the International District Energy Association (IDEA), I am pleased to support this special focus on district energy and combined heat and power

(CHP) for Sustainable Buildings Magazine. In light of the growing interest and investment in district energy/CHP as a more efficient and sustainable energy solution for cities, communities, and campuses, we applaud

SBM’s interest in sharing successful case studies from our industry. In particular, IDEA institutional members at colleges, universities, and healthcare campuses are demonstrating highly valuable and innovative approaches to reducing energy and carbon footprints while enhancing operational resiliency and economic sustainability.

Now in our 107th year of operation, IDEA members are witnessing a profound paradigm shift “back to the future” in the way energy is produced, distributed, and consumed locally. In fact, the district energy renaissance marks a return to local generation of power and heat, reminiscent of the era of Thomas Edison when cities first turned to district energy/CHP to cut emissions, reduce fire risks, and improve urban air quality. Today, the convergence of generating electricity and useful heat and cooling is a proven technology that can reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions and help to optimize the grid. As our cities expand in population and the need for more resilient energy services increases, the value and appeal of district energy/ CHP widens.

Even during this era of historically low fuel costs, the importance of energy and resource efficiency is escalating. Conserving water, recovering surplus heat, and balancing renewable energy supplies are all possible when multiple buildings are interconnected and a district energy system provides the thermal network scale to optimize production and distribution. We appreciate SBM’s interest in advancing understanding and providing insight to these

useful technologies, business practices, and integrative strategies.

For his 2016/2017 term, IDEA Chair Tim Griffin has established “Sustaining our Success” as his theme to represent the importance of continued relevance, attention to environmental performance, and building on our legacy of collaboration and knowledge-sharing. We believe the ensuing articles and case studies to be shared in SBM will strengthen our outreach and support our mission. We are pleased to engage with the readers of SBM and welcome your inquiries at www.districtenergy.org. c

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CO-GEN PLANT.

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URECON / LOGSTOR

“WE SPECIALIZE IN PROVIDING ENGINEERED THERMAL PIPING SOLUTIONS FOR COLD CLIMATES, OFTEN WITH ELECTRIC HEAT TRACING, AS WELL AS PIPING FOR HOT CLIMATES WHERE CHILLED WATER IS USED IN COOLING.”

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HOT WATER

PIPING Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Carl Vreugde, Senior Director and Managing Partner at Urecon, Tommy Lorenzen, Export Sales Manager at Logstor, and Ron Gawer, Director of Energy Operations at Stanford University, about European standard hot water piping in North America, 40km of piping at Stanford University, and the district energy trends of the future.

Urecon, a Canadian insulated pipe manufacturer, has been in business since 1969, producing factory-insulated pipe systems with a focus on freeze protection. “We make systems for the municipal, industrial, and mining sectors, often in Canada’s far north,” explains Carl Vreugde, Senior Director and Managing Partner at Urecon.

“We specialize in providing engineered thermal piping solutions for cold climates, with or without electric heat tracing, as well as piping for hot climates where chilled water is used in cooling.” The company recently built an ultra modern production facility in Montreal, Quebec which doubles as corporate head office. Urecon also has a manufacturing plant in Edmonton, Alberta.

In the early 1990s, Urecon recognized a need for hot water piping systems in North America. “The North American producers at the time were building steam distribution systems, which is a completely different design,” says Mr. Vreugde. “At that point, we established a partnership with Danish company Logstor, who were, and still are, considered the leaders in pre-insulated pipe systems for low-temperature district heating.

This turned out to be a perfect complement to the Urecon range of products.”

“We’re the market leader in Europe for pre-insulated piping systems,” explains Tommy Lorenzen, Export Sales Manager at Logstor. “Our main markets as a supplier are Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and Finland, and we have production facilities in Denmark, Poland, Finland, and Romania.

Outside Europe, we have distributors like Urecon. They operate as our representative, taking care of the North American market.”

Logstor was, in fact, founded by the inventor of pre-insulated pipes. “The founder of the company was a local coppersmith in a small Danish town,” says Mr. Lorenzen.

“In the sixties, he saw a new material on the market, polyurethane foam, and he thought: ‘Would it be possible to insulate pipes with this?’ So he did some experiments in his kitchen with his wife, and he found it was possible, and he and his wife developed the company like a family business over the years. Constant development of the insulation properties and improving the energy efficiency of the system remains a core value at Logstor.”

MARKETPLACE ACCEPTANCE Initially, the low temperature European-style projects in North America were SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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URECON / LOGSTOR LOGSTOR TWINPIPE INSTALLATION AT UNBC.

“THERE’S A NEW TREND WHERE, INSTEAD OF TWO SINGLE PIPES, WE BUNDLE THE SUPPLY AND RETURN TOGETHER INTO WHAT WE CALL TWINPIPE”

scarce, but with time more projects began to be built, particularly in Canada. “The first European-style district heating projects in North America were Cornwall, Ontario, Oujé-Bougoumou, Quebec, and Charlottetown, PEI, as well as District Energy St. Paul in Minnesota,” says Mr. Vreugde. “They all continue to operate to the present day.

Since this time, EN253 piping, referring to the European norm for these pipe systems, has largely become the standard for new district energy systems in North America.” Today there are well over 50 individual EN253 pipe systems on the continent, all developed over the last 25 years.

Hot water systems have several advantages over steam systems. “Hot water is a simpler system to design, install, and maintain, plus there’s far less heat loss over longer distances,” says Mr. Vreugde.

“Compared to traditional steam piping, EN 6 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

hot water district heating requires no vaults or manholes. No anchors, or very few anchors. No traps. No requirement to lay pipe at angles to feed steam traps. No aggressive condensate return, which is often prone to failure over time. There’s less fuel required to produce hot water relative to steam, which has a direct effect on emissions. There’s a lower overall installation cost, because there are far fewer welds, and then there’s less maintenance required on the system. It’s rather an uncomplicated pipe system, as far as its construction. It’s straight steel, foam and jacket, as opposed to a complicated class-A style arrangement commonly used for high pressure steam supply.”

Then there’s the distinction between European-style and North American-style hot water systems. “With Logstor’s hot water district heating pipe, there’s a predictable behaviour underground largely due to

quality during production and attention to every detail required by the EN standards,” says Mr. Vreugde. “In North America, there are separate standards for all the individual components, but there are no recognized requirements for the compliance of the entire system, and that’s where it differs from EN253. The experience with hot water district energy systems is simply far greater in places like Scandinavia. Logstor products also come with a five-year warranty, whereas traditional North American warranties are only one year, offering some additional peace of mind for decision makers.”

MINIMIZING HEAT LOSS EU-standard pre-insulated pipes are particularly well-suited for use in district energy systems and steam-to-hot water conversion projects. “If you consider the background in Europe, it’s all about the heat losses,” says

Mr. Lorenzen. “How can you minimize the loss of heat when you’re transporting hot water? The energy price in Europe is very different from in North America, and so the incentive to reduce heat loss is much higher.

Polyurethane foam has extremely high insulation properties.”

“British Columbia has been the epicentre for district energy development over the last ten years” says Mr. Vreugde.

“All the new systems that we’ve seen in Canada have been EN253 European hot water systems, including the City of Vancouver, the City of Surrey, the City of Richmond, Lonsdale in North Vancouver, plus numerous university and college campuses in B.C. including UBC, Simon Fraser University, UNBC, and more.

There are other success stories, like Markham District Energy near Toronto, ENMAX in Calgary, Hamilton Community Energy, Regent Park Toronto, Sudbury District Energy, and La Cité Verte in Quebec.

The United States is also beginning to recognize EN systems, and we’ve seen that in a few projects over the last few years, like Montpelier in Vermont, and of course Stanford University. So there’s this movement or trend with campuses all around North America and they’re looking at converting aging steam distribution systems to modern hot water piping networks.”

Urecon has supported steam-to-hot-water projects for over a decade. “We worked on the University of Rochester project in upstate New York beginning back in 2006, where we converted 25 km of distribution piping to hot water, including 95 building

connections,” says Mr. Vreugde. “Then we did UBC Vancouver from 2011-15, which was about 15km of piping, and 131 building connections. We’ve done similar systems at MIT, at UNBC, at Simon Fraser, and at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. We provide guidance and training through the entire process, from feasibility to detailed design to logistics right to training of the contractor and field assistance. We also support the Logstor system with an entire team in North America, and we carry a healthy inventory of EN253 stock in our Canadian stockyards, for materials that are required quickly.”

STANFORD ENERGY SYSTEMS INNOVATIONS The most ambitious project Urecon has been involved with took place at Stanford University, where they converted a 40 km steam system to Logstor hot water piping as part of the larger Stanford Energy Systems Innovations (SESI) project. “Stanford actually invited four different companies to install a small project,” explains Mr. Lorenzen. “They evaluated the individual products, and determined which were the most economical, the easiest to install, and the safest.

Stanford has a commitment to reduce CO2 emissions, and they wanted to save on their energy any way they could. They were also looking for a stable, safe system to operate – one that offered more resiliency. One of the reasons they chose Logstor is because, compared to other systems, when you’re putting the pipe in the ground you don’t have to go very deep.” With this European URECON FIELD TRAINING SESSION TO ENSURE PROPER INSTALLATION OF LOGSTOR PIPING AND LEAK DETECTION.

MONTPELIER, VERMONT.

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URECON / LOGSTOR PRE INSULATED PIPES AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY.

style shallow bury approach, Stanford was able to avoid existing legacy sewer pipe, duct backs, telecommunications cable, and other necessary services.

“There were several factors which were considered by Stanford Engineers when they chose Logstor piping,” says Mr. Vreugde. “The strict EN standards were important to them, and the long history of successful hot water district heating in Europe. Thinner-walled steel pipe, which results in reduced overall stress, allows

unique laying methods which save on expansion loops and welds. Shallow-buried piping allowed for extremely fast installation on relatively long runs – we installed 10 miles of pipe from June 2012 to June 2013. Direct-buried valves, so no need for vaults or manholes. Reliable joints and contractor-friendly installation.

Simple, effective central surveillance (leak detection) which constantly monitors the pipe network for faults or leaks in precise locations. And a 30-year service life.”

POST-INSTALLATION Since the system’s installation three years ago, it has run faultlessly. “Once an EN253 district heating system is properly installed, it can run almost maintenance-free,” says Mr. Lorenzen. “With proper water treatment, it can operate for the next thirty plus years.

We have been in contact with Stanford, and they’re very happy with it. They have had a lot of visits from all over the U.S. from people who have come to see the system, and a lot of universities right now are considering

Spectacular energy savings with Alfa Laval Maxi ETS Plenty USA universities have chosen to install the Alfa Laval Maxi Energy Transfer Stations (ETS) on their campus. These high-quality standardized district heating substations offer preconfigured solutions for all heating and domestic hot water requirements, saving a lot of energy costs.

Each Maxi ETS unit is built according to customer’s need, whether it’s a residence hall or research facility we have a solution.

8 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Please contact : Joe Garcia, District Energy Manager Mobile: 215-760-5459 | joe.garcia@alfalaval.com

similar systems modelled after the Stanford experience. Institutions like Dartmouth and Harvard have been over to see the project in California, and we’re talking to them about the possibility of converting their legacy steam networks to EN hot water.”

“We have experienced a substantial reduction in operations and maintenance related to heat distribution following conversion from steam to hot water,” says Ron Gawer, Director of Energy Operations at Stanford University. “We have reduced maintenance costs, as there are no steam traps or associated check valves, strainers, and threaded fittings to PM and repair, and no manholes to pump during rainy weather. We have also reduced heat loss in the underground piping, reduced heat loss and the associated cooling load in building mechanical spaces, cooler and less humid mechanical spaces which reduces the corrosion of other mechanical equipment, reduced maintenance in mechanical rooms due to no pressure reducing stations or condensate pumps to maintain, and zero complaints that I know about from buildings about inadequate heating.”

Recently, the overall SESI project received an award for 2016 Global Best Green Project from Engineering News-Record, an award Stanford shared with Affiliated Engineers, Inc., the prime consultant and lead engineer. “We as a team got together in New York City at the end of last year for the award,” says Mr. Vreugde. “It’s very gratifying to see the project receive all these accolades.”

LATEST TRENDS As the state-of-the-art moves forward, Mr. Lorenzen expects the new trends which are appearing in pre-insulated hot water piping in Europe to transfer to North America shortly. “There’s a new trend where, instead of two single pipes, we bundle the supply and return together into what we call TwinPipe,” says Mr. Lorenzen. “That allows you to reduce heat losses up to 50%. Today in Denmark, more than 70% of the new pipe that’s being installed is TwinPipe. We’re also now seeing district heating companies trying to reduce the supply temperature. Previously, you sent out heat from district heating production at maybe 90 to100 degrees, and it came back at 60 or 70. What people are trying to do in Europe is to lower that forward temperature to reduce heat losses.

Another exciting development is what we call fourth-generation district heating networks.

Those are networks where they’re trying to combine the way the district heating is used with an overall system. So you think about how you’re integrating the district heating with the electricity you’re getting, and when you’re using the heat, and so on. It’s a wider picture, where you consider how to operate a municipality in the best way.”

“Globally, we see lots of wasted surplus heat in cities.” says Mr. Lorenzen. “So instead of throwing all that heat up in the air, why not capture it, and distribute to local buildings in the form of hot water? So the big picture is saying: Why don’t we use the surplus heat we have in the world? It’s there anyway; we have it for free. We just have to convert it to hot water.” c

NEW URECON PRODUCTION FACILITY AND HEAD OFFICE, COTEAU-DU–LAC, QC.

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

PRINCETON’S MAIN 15MW GAS-FIRED COGENERATION PLANT CONSISTS OF STEAM BOILERS, WATER CHILLERS, AN ELECTRIC GENERATOR, AND A THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE TANK.

GOOD NEIGHBOR Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Ted Borer, Energy Plant Manager at Princeton University, about natural disasters, economic dispatch, and the community benefits of microgrids.

The story of district energy at Princeton University goes back to the 1860s, when Princeton began using coal-fired boilers to produce steam and distributed it to a dozen 10 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

buildings. By the 1890s, the university began using a back-pressure steam turbine to generate electricity, sending the steam out at a lower pressure, and using the electricity

to power lighting. For much of the twentieth century Princeton ceased onsite generation and purchased power through the public utilities, though in the 1960s the campus

PRINCETON ENERGY PLANT.

back-pressure steam turbines elsewhere across campus. The chilled water plant from the 1960s remains, in an upgraded form.

“It was originally all steam-driven,” says Mr. Borer. “Now as we’ve grown we’ve added a lot of electric-driven machines and reduced a couple of the steam driven machines, which gives us the flexibility on most days to pick whether we’d like steam-driven equipment or electric-driven equipment, allowing us to economically dispatch those assets.

We also added thermal storage in 2005, which allows us to buy more inexpensive electricity at night or weekends, and to shut down our electric-driven equipment when electricity’s very expensive.”

HURRICANE SANDY The resiliency of the system was dramatically put to the test during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when much of the Eastern seaboard was out of power for days. “The State of New Jersey was largely dark,” says Mr. Borer.

“Because of our system, we were able to run the campus using our gas turbine in a co-gen mode, and were able to provide steam and chilled water. We scaled back some of the loads so the demand was less than what we might need on a peak day, but we were able to keep all the core business running throughout the entire storm.”

As well as preserving research, some of it decades in the making, and avoiding the

shutdown of any mission-critical activities, Princeton’s functioning heating, cooling, and electricity allowed them to contribute to the community-wide recovery efforts.

“One thing that might not be obvious about having a microgrid is that, though it helps you take care of yourself, it can also help your neighbors,” says Mr. Borer. “We were able to be a place of refuge for the first responders who were out there helping the community, so they had a place which was clean, well-lit, and warm, where they could get a meal and have meetings and recharge their cellphones and their radios.

We were also able to offer the community a big gymnasium where we set up a lot of beds, where people could stay if the power was off in their homes.”

brought in central air conditioning, with steam-turbine-driven pumps in a chiller plant.

By the 1980s, however, Princeton’s sixtyyear-old boilers had come to the end of their useful life. “The question was: Do we rebuild the boilers?” says Ted Borer, Energy Plant Manager at Princeton University. “Looking at the spark spread over a number of years, it became obvious that the most financially attractive lifecycle was going to be building a CHP plant.”

Today, Princeton’s main 15MW gas-fired cogeneration plant consists of steam boilers, water chillers, an electric generator, and a thermal energy storage tank. There are also SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY rid with CHP is you run it every day, and in doing so you exercise the equipment.”

RELIABLE EMERGENCY SYSTEM During Hurricane Sandy, Princeton discovered a significant benefit of a district energy system compared to backup generation systems. “If you have a diesel generator which is only for emergencies, and you kick it on during an emergency, it’ll probably work,” says Mr. Borer. “But maybe it hasn’t been maintained recently, or maybe you tested it but you didn’t run it for six hours, or even thirty hours. And

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it turns out the radiator is clogged with dirt, and when you run it for thirty hours, it overheats and fails. But if you run it every day, for revenue and savings, it will be ready when you want it. We witnessed that with the hospital down the street.

Their emergency generator ran fine for a while but failed over time, and they nearly had to evacuate the hospital, because it was only an emergency asset, not a dayto-day asset. The advantage of a microg-

ECONOMIC DISPATCH The Facilities Engineering team at Princeton run their CHP plant every day using a sophisticated economic dispatch system, combining analysis and real-time data to determine which assets to use for best economic benefit. “The system is always asking: ‘Is it more cost-effective to run a steam-driven chiller or an electric-driven chiller?’” says Mr. Borer. “‘Should I burn natural gas or diesel fuel? If I’m running two identical chillers, should I run one at a hundred percent and one off, or is it more efficient to run one at eighty percent and one at twenty percent, or both at fifty percent?’ We don’t look at just the design numbers for those two chillers, but we actually do real-time measurements. Maybe this one ran on a really dusty day, and that one ran on a really clean day. Or this one got cleaned and that one didn’t get cleaned.

They’re going to perform differently. We do real time measurement of the efficiency of every major piece of equipment, so even two identical chillers will get dispatched at

PRINCETON ENERGY PLANT.

“WE HAVE 180,000 DIFFERENT DATA POINTS WHERE WE’RE MEASURING TEMPERATURES AND PRESSURES AND HUMIDITIES ALL ROUND CAMPUS.”

different load points because of their most recent performance.”

On the demand end, the team at Princeton Facilities Engineering also maintain a constant stream of real-time operating data.

“We’re looking for things like simultaneous heating and cooling,” explains Mr. Borer.

“Looking for one piece of equipment that trends very differently than others and asking what’s wrong with it. We have 180,000 different data points where we’re measuring temperatures and pressures and humidities all round campus.”

This economic dispatch system has benefits for the grid overall. “When we generate

as much power as we possibly can on a peak day, effectively we’re unloading the power grid at the time when it’s most stressed, and we’re avoiding asking the utility to run their least efficient and most polluting equipment,” says Mr. Borer. “Then when we buy power in the middle of the night, we tend to be loading up the base load equipment, which is primarily nuclear and very low carbon footprint.”

IMPROVING, EVOLVING The Princeton Energy Plant is in a state of constant evolution. “If it’s broken, we look for ways to fix it so that it won’t fail the

same way again; if it is working, we look for a way to make it more efficient or reliable,” explains Mr. Borer. “We’ve changed boiler feed pumps and retrofit them with variable frequency drives, and we’ve used a new style of pump, so now what used to be a sixty-horsepower pump is only a thirty-horsepower pump, but it’s running on a variable frequency drive so it uses even less than half the energy that it used to.

We’ve added what we call a free cooling heat exchanger that can either run in series with one of our chillers or by itself. A chiller normally uses a cooling tower to reject its heat to the environment, and then the

COGENERATION FACILITY STAFF.

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

PRINCETON’S CHILLED WATER PUMPING SYSTEM.

chiller runs a refrigeration compression cycle to cool off the water. But if it’s cold enough outdoors, you can just run cold cooling tower water through a heat exchanger and cool off the chilled water that way. And it uses much, much less energy. We’ve also figured out a way we can run the heat exchanger in series with chillers, allowing the heat exchanger to do work on a much warmer day than we could if the heat exchanger was doing all the work, which increases the period of

time we can do free cooling. We’re using way less electricity in the chilled water plant this winter than we did in previous winters.”

PRINCETON ENERGY PLANT GAS TURBINE.

PRINCETON ENERGY PLANT POWER TURBINE.

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COLLATERAL BENEFITS On the demand side, Princeton is tightening up their buildings’ energy consumption. “Since we last spoke, the university has launched itself well into a process of changing over 100,000 lightbulbs,” says Mr. Borer. “That saves us not only kilowatts and

kilowatt hours, but the LED lights need to be changed a lot less frequently. So that’s a hundred thousand ladder climbs that you don’t need to do, and you’re not risking a person falling. Your injury rate goes down, and the maintenance time goes down too.

It all adds up.”

“When you look at the whole process, some of these things which might be done just to reduce carbon footprint, they have two or three other layers of benefit,” says

Mr. Borer. “For example, right now we’re in the process of buying new air compressors.

The old ones are 20 years old; they’ve come to the end of their effective life.

But we’re buying new ones with variable frequency drives. They’re going to save us a whole lot of money from energy, but also the plant becomes quieter. That just lowers the environmental stress in the plant. You can think in terms of collateral benefits. You do something wrong, there’s often collateral downstream damage. When you do something right, there’s often unanticipated benefits which surprise and delight you.”

SCALABLE TECHNOLOGY Beyond the boundaries of the campus, Mr. Borer sees the next step as being the widespread adoption of microgrids and CHP in cities across North America. “When you’ve got population density, if you can put up a power plant that is an appropriate scale for that community then you can really double the efficiency, because you’re going to make electricity and then distribute thermal energy,” says Mr. Borer. “The challenge is you need courage. You need to make a decision that might be a 20- or even a 50-year

decision, and if you’re focused around the next “quarterly earnings call”, the next annual report or the next 3-year period, you’re anti-motivated to do these things. But if you can think about the lifecycle of the process, it’s by far the best financial decision.”

“All this stuff scales up; all this stuff scales down,” says Mr. Borer. “All these things can be impactful on a national and global scale, and they really all translate down to the residential scale. I say that having put a lot of my own personal money into

it at my home. A lot of these pencil out with a 5- or an 8-year payback. And if I look at my youngest child and realize I’m going to be in the house for a decade, it’s a no-brainer. It’s financially attractive, and incidentally I’m reducing my personal carbon footprint.

From a business continuity standpoint, it can’t be about extracting the most possible money in the next three months or three years. If you want business continuity, look ten, twenty years out. With that kind of courage, we all win.” c

PRINCETON CAMPUS.

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AASHE SAINT MARYS COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA.

SUSTAINABLE

CAMPUSES A foreword by Meghan Fay Zahniser, AASHE Executive Director

MEGHAN FAY ZAHNISER, AASHE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.

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The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is proud to support the “Sustainable Campus” series that recognizes achievements of the higher education sector and their efforts towards developing a thriving, equitable, and ecologically healthy world.

AASHE empowers higher education faculty, administrators, staff, and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. We enable members to translate information into action by offering essential resources and professional development to a diverse, engaged community of sustainability leaders.

Additionally, we work with and for higher education to ensure that our world’s future

leaders are equipped with knowledge and tools to address sustainability challenges.

We support the higher education community through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), the AASHE Conference & Expo, partnerships, and other professional development opportunities.

STARS STARS launched in 2010 as a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS was designed to provide a structure for understanding sustainability in all sectors of higher education, enable campus sustainability comparisons over

time, incentivize institutions to boost future sustainability efforts and initiatives, as well as provide an open platform for information sharing both nationally and internationally.

With more than 650 ratings since the program’s inception, the importance of the rating system as a valuable tool for both seasoned campus sustainability leaders and institutions just beginning their sustainability endeavors is clear.

2017 AASHE CONFERENCE & EXPO Expected to draw over 2,000 participants, AASHE’s annual conference is the largest stage in North America for sharing effective models, policies, research, collaborations, and transformative actions which advance sustainability in higher education and beyond.

As we continue our work towards advancing sustainability globally, I am confident that our passionate and strong AASHE community will continue, and accelerate, our efforts toward a more sustainable future. As our 2017 AASHE Conference & Expo theme suggests, we are “Stronger in Solidarity”.

This year’s conference takes place Oct. 15-18 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Attendees can expect thought provoking keynote speakers, hundreds of sessions to engage all higher education sustainability interests, and an expo hall with innovative products and services sure to inspire.

PARTNERSHIPS We work with a wide variety of partners to help advance our mission to inspire and catalyze higher education to lead the global sustainability transformation. Our partnerships help to better align our work and create space for collaboration.

APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY.

With the aim of increasing international collaboration and accelerating the campus sustainability movement, AASHE continues to work with many international partners throughout the globe. A common theme amongst our discussions has been supporting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are an important framework for recognizing the depth and breadth of sustainability. These goals align with our mission and provide an incredible teaching tool for students and others to understand the complexities of sustainability. We encourage businesses, colleges, and universities to embrace and share these important goals.

It is more important now than ever before, that we come together to learn from one another and work vigorously toward a

more sustainable world. The “Sustainable Campus” series provides us the opportunity to better understand what strategies and programs are working well at institutions throughout the world. Higher education, in many ways, leads the sustainability transformation and other sectors can learn a lot from the successes of colleges and universities. My hope is that we will continue to come together, to learn, innovate, and advance sustainability everywhere.

Meghan Fay Zahniser AASHE Executive Director BOWDOIN COLLEGE.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO UCSF STETHOSCOPE. CREDIT: ELIZABETH FALL.

THE CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY AT ALL 10 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA (UC) CAMPUSES IS TO ACHIEVE 1990 LEVELS BY 2020, AND CARBON NEUTRALITY BY 2025.

SUSTAINABLE HEALTHCARE Gail Lee, Sustainability Director at the University of California, San Francisco, discusses the challenges and successes of their drive to incorporate sustainable practices into the operations of a leading medical school and hospital.

Written by Gail Lee and Sustainable Business Magazine.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a research and teaching institution, and a health system with three medical centers (UCSF Health), but more than any of these things, it is a community. As the 18 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

second-largest employer in San Francisco, we draw on the creativity and energy of the Bay Area, bringing diverse, talented people together to deliver world-changing breakthroughs. UCSF is home to five

Nobel laureates, a century-old health center consistently ranked as one of the best in the United States, and highly competitive schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. Our operations cover 350

LIVINGGREEN CERTIFIED LABORATORY. CREDIT DANIEL GAINES.

sustainable operations have reported some great successes. Two further workgroups focused on toxics reduction and culture shift were also created to engage with the broader UCSF community.

EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS The climate change policy at all 10 University of California (UC) campuses is to achieve 1990 levels by 2020, and carbon neutrality by 2025. To this end, we’ve implemented a number of programs. We’ve driven down campus energy use intensity by 24% since 2004 through efforts focused on energy efficiency in existing buildings, including five large Monitoring Based Commissioning (MBCx) projects, a Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) with our local utility to research laboratories, 3000 professional and graduate students, 1500 residents and fellows, and 22,000 faculty and staff, while our three medical centers have a combined 1076 beds, with 33,521 admissions last year, in addition to 14,773 inpatient and 18,004 outpatient surgeries, and 54,064 visits to the emergency room.

UCSF’s focus on health and sustainability started in 2008, when the Academic Senate Task Force on Sustainability recommended to our then-Chancellor, Michael Bishop, MD, that he create the UCSF Advisory Committee on Sustainability, the Office of Sustainability with a website, the post of Sustainability Director, and workgroups dedicated to various areas of sustainability. Over the past 8 years, these recommendations have all been implemented, and workgroups focusing on climate change, water conservation, zero waste, green procurement, sustainable food, green building, and

fund projects, a new Smart Labs program that includes a fume hood competition, and an Ultra-Low Temperature Freezer Rebate Program. Between all these projects, we are expecting to save about 3.0M kWh and 70,000 therms annually. We’ve also implemented 9 large energy efficiency projects at UCSF Health, saving 2.5M kWh and 738,000 therms a year, and we’ve moved the data center to Washington state, where it is 100% powered by hydroelectricity, with zero emissions. Furthermore, we held two Carbon Emissions Strategy Sessions with cross-campus stakeholders, which yielded strong support for continued energy efficiency, electrified transportation, and more stringent technical performance criteria for new construction/buildings.

AWARD WINNER, CORINNA ZYGOURAKIS, MD. CREDIT: SUSAN MERRELL.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO IRVING ST ELECTRIC STREETCAR. CREDIT: SUSAN MERRELL.

In transportation, the campus single occupancy vehicle rate has decreased from 48% to 30.2% since 1991. UCSF garages now provide Scoot electric scooter pods and 38 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, with plans to add 48 stations by June 2018. In these garages, we have over 100 green vehicle-preferred parking spaces and 1,200 bicycle parking spaces with secured bike cages, as well as 18 green vehicle and car share vehicle parking spaces available at seven different campus locations. We have also signed an agreement with Volta to install eight EV charging stations at no cost to the university, and procured 15 Build Your Dreams electric buses. From 2009 to 2015, UCSF has been recognized as a Best Workplace for Commuters with Silver, Gold, and ‘Best of Gold’ awards

from the National Center for Transit Research at the University of South Florida.

WATER CONSERVATION, WASTE REDUCTION UC’s water conservation goal is to reduce water use by 36% from the 2007 baseline by 2020. We have already met this goal four years early. We’ve saved 9.5 million gallons of water at the Mission Bay campus by reducing turf irrigation alone, and we’ve started a program to replace and to retrofit bulk sterilizers in laboratories, as well as removing eleven sterilizers in operating rooms, saving more than one million gallons for each sterilizer. UCSF Health has implemented an electric chiller conversion and Medical Air upgrade, saving 4.79 million gallons a year. On top of that, a

new state-of-the-art pool treatment system has been introduced, using a new UV filter to treat two indoor pools, which cuts pool drainage in half and saves over 200,000 gallons of water each year.

In addition to reducing our water consumption, UCSF aims to achieve zero waste by 2020 consistent with UC policy.

Last year, the campus diverted the highest rate to date, achieving 80.32% of waste diverted from landfill. Key contributors were 26 E-Waste and Bulky Item Pick Up days at four campus locations, which donated 31 tons of waste to reuse organizations, recycled 58 tons, and diverted 40 tons of e-waste; a Consolidation and Sorting Project which saved over $100,000 and diverted 893 tons of waste; and our partnership with the Bio-Link Depot, which

INDOOR POOL WITH HI-TECH TREATMENT. CREDIT: ELENA ZHUKOVA.

BICYCLES ON CAMPUS. CREDIT: SUSAN MERRELL.

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AWARD WINNER - EARTHEALTH1 TEAM. CREDIT: SUSAN MERRELL.

MISSION HALL COURTYARD.

helped UCSF give new life to discarded laboratory equipment, and allowed us to donate 11.6 tons to K-12 science programs over the course of the year.

In addition to this, UCSF Health diverted 25% of its solid waste over the course of 2016 through recycling and composting programs like patient-room recycling, the composting of paper towels in bathrooms, and composting 90% of all patient and retail food waste. A blue-wrap recycling program at the Mission Bay ORs is diverting more

than 24,000 pounds of plastic from landfills annually. 40 bottle fillers were installed in drinking fountains and sinks across campus to encourage reusable water bottles and reduce waste. Furthermore, when UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital moved to its new facility at Mission Bay, it donated 63,000 pounds of medical equipment, furniture, and supplies to Harare Children’s Hospital in Zimbabwe. Over the past five years, UCSF Health has continued to increase the reprocessing of single-use devices in the OR, cath

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lab, and patient care units, which diverted 62,000 pounds of waste and generated $1.167 million in savings in the financial year 2015-16 alone. Despite the challenge of solid waste diversion in hospitals, we expect continued focus in this area.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO MISSION BAY CAMPUS.

is now 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) paper, with a lower cost than 30% PCW, while on campus, 99% of offices and labs use PCW paper. Both the UCSF campus and UCSF Health have adopted e-procurement and DocuSign, eliminating paper signature printing and document storage costs equivalent to a full pallet of paper. A newly-negotiated print management contract has resulted in all Energy Star printers using 100% PCW paper. We have also negotiated with our vendor to replace a number of single-pass water-cooled sterilizers on campus, and there are plans to replace two large ones in the next fiscal year, which will save millions of gallons of water per year.

UC’s policy includes purchasing 20% sustainable food by 2020. UCSF received an honorable mention from the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC) for our work on reducing the use of meat and poultry products raised with non-therapeutic antibiotics. Our Retail

Services and Nutrition and Food Services updated their Smart Choice campaign with a new design, targeting ‘scrumptious, sustainable, satisfying’ foods. UCSF received Responsible Epicurean and Agricultural Leadership (REAL) certification from the United States Healthful Food Council, acknowledging our commitment to holistic nutrition and environmental stewardship – the first time a healthcare organization has received this accreditation. UCSF Health has now achieved 25% of total food spend on sustainable food, exceeding the overall goal five years early.

To further protect the health of staff, students, and patients, UCSF has pledged to incorporate best practices in reducing the use of Chemicals of Concern, excluding those managed by Environmental Health & Safety in their operations and activities at UCSF facilities. We have completed a peer review and update of the Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit to train health prac-

titioners nationally to advise patients and their families about eliminating exposure to everyday chemicals. We’ve also eliminated Glyphosate use for weed control in landscaping and grounds, and Triclosan from hand soaps.

BUILDING GREEN As far as construction goes, all new buildings at UCSF must be certified LEED-NC Silver or better. So far, 29 LEED-certified projects have been completed across UCSF’s multiple campuses, with 11 as new construction projects and the rest as renovation projects.

Our most recent LEED-NC Gold certified project is the Medical Center at Mission Bay, one of the first acute care hospitals in California to achieve this level of LEED accreditation. We have also created a webpage to document our LEED projects as part of a walking tour for a UCSF-hosted United States Green Building Council’s Building Health Forum. We established a technical performance criteria document intended for our Block 33 office building and adapted for all future new buildings, focusing on energy efficiency, water conservation, and green interiors. The Living Building Challenge’s The Red List was included in this document.

CHANGING THE CULTURE UCSF also recognizes that institutional change begins with cultural change.

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CHESC BEST PRACTICE AWARD. CREDIT: SETH JOEL.

ARIANNE TEHERANI, MD. CREDIT MARCO SANCHEZ.

EARTHEALTH1 AWARDED. CREDIT MARCO SANCHEZ.

That’s why we have a Culture Shift Goal to encourage the UCSF community to act more sustainably. To this end, we’ve implemented a number of programs to spread awareness and promote sustainable behavior. A partnership with SunShares offered a 15% discount on residential solar PV installations and the all-electric Nissan Leaf vehicle for all employees, students, friends, and family. We hosted a Greening of Healthcare post-conference workshop as part of the CHESC, a student-run climate change conference called EARTHEALTH1, and the Annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference with the theme of ‘Bridging for a Sustainable Future for Global Health’. In May, we held a UCSF Curriculum Workshop as part of the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative, and our LivingGreen Fair and Bike to Work Day was a big success. We also participated in the UC Carbon Slam, a competition between all ten UC campuses on sustainability pledges.

UCSF has donated to and participated in NOMADgardens in Mission Bay, an ongoing

Climate changes health.

More pollen means more asthma and more allergies for her.

Many people at UCSF help to reduce climate impact by: Taking the stairs.

Taking alternate transportation.

Turning off display monitors.

project to create ‘roaming’ community gardens and event spaces, transforming vacant lots into vibrant hubs for the local residents.

We formally shared sustainable best practices with our affiliates at Children’s Hospital Oakland, John Muir Health System in Walnut Creek, and Washington Hospital Health System in Fremont, as well as hosted visitors from South Korea, China, and Australia, through Health Care Without Harm. We have an ongoing Climate Changes Health campaign across UCSF to increase awareness of the link between climate change and health through a series of banner posters and digital posters. Also, in June last year, Chancellor Hawgood presented Sustainability Awards to faculty, staff, students, and teams at the 6th Annual Sustainability Awards ceremony.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION A key accomplishment for us was receiving Practice Green Health’s (PGH) Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award, the organization’s highest honor for hospitals, two years in a row. UCSF Health also received

two PGH Circles of Excellence awards for exceptional achievements in the Climate and Green Building categories, in addition to their Greening the OR Recognition Award. For two years in a row, UCSF Health was also listed in Becker’s Hospital Review 50 Greenest Hospitals in America.

CHESC honored UCSF with three best practice awards, one in 2014 and two in 2016, and the campus has also received the San Francisco Business Times’s ‘Gold’ and ‘Best of’ ratings for Best Place for Commuters every year since 2010. Individual members of faculty have contributed to a growing research landscape in sustainable healthcare.

Nicole Jackman, MD, PhD, Resident Physician, Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Care, presented on the efficient utilization of inhaled anesthetics at the UC San Diego Carbon and Climate Neutrality Summit in 2015, also discussing how medical centers can be involved in creating a culture of sustainability and how there is room for improvement in hospital energy efficiency.

Arianne Teherani, PhD Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and a research faculty member in the Office of Research and Development in Medical Education, was awarded the UC President’s Faculty Climate Action Champion Award for her research project on developing a new curriculum for health professionals that takes into account sustainability issues on health.

UCSF is proud of our accomplishments thus far and with the future full of opportunities to engage faculty, staff, and students, we will continue towards our UC President’s ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2025 and zero waste by 2020. Alongside the continued focus on the expansion of UCSF to provide higher quality healthcare for more patients, our philanthropy-fueled research enterprise, and our focus on precision medicine to treat disease worldwide, UCSF intends to continue leading the way in sustainable healthcare. The challenge of achieving carbon neutrality within these growth goals is the focus of our next four to nine years. c SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Q&A RALF NIELSEN

Ralf Nielsen Principal and Director of Sustainability, Colliers Project Leaders.

How long has Colliers Project Leaders been an advocate for sustainable development?

We have been advocates for sustainable development for almost a decade. Every two to three years, as the industry matures, we see our own role mature. In the early 2000s, as the Canada Green Building Council was being formed, we realized that we needed to advocate for a more holistic view of building and infrastructure performance, one that took into account the full building life cycle. In 2006, we made it mandatory for all of our project managers to gain their LEED® accreditation alongside their Project Management Professional certification. In 2008, we developed our first Sustainability Policy and began spreading the message that Sustainability is Free™. This essentially means that incorporating sustainability into the project life cycle comes at no net cost, and that it yields long-term dividends for our clients. In 2010, we began tracking our sustainability performance with indicators chosen from the Global Reporting Initiative. In 2011, we revised our Sustainability Policy to apply to the natural environment, our office environments, the materials we purchase, and the work we do in the community. In 2012, we published our first Corporate Sustainability Report.

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Can you tell us about your new Sustainability Impact Report?

When we published the Colliers Project Leaders Sustainability Report we had several objectives in mind. We wanted to reflect on how far we’ve come over the last 10 years, and chart a course for where we want to go in the future. We wanted to engage stakeholders and staff on this issue, and discover how we can all innovate and support the transformation we know has to occur. Most of all, we wanted to ask important questions such as: Are we merely sustaining sustainability? Are we sustaining a system that is broken?

At what points in our service delivery can we push a client’s project towards net zero? Ultimately, the Report helped us to identify how sustainability is evolving for our clients, and how our practices contribute to a sustainable future for our clients, employees, and the communities they serve.

Have you been involved in any significant green projects recently?

I have three examples to share. First, “significant” is a relative term. A project might be insignificant in terms of dollar value, but significant in terms of impact. It might even break new ground.

We’ve been leading the replacement of 9,000 high-pressure sodium streetlights with new LED fixtures for the Public Utility Commission of

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. For this project, our team worked in partnership with an engineer, a local developer, Ontario Works, and the local Batchewana First Nation people. We supported a program that recycled 26.8 tons of metal and diverted 43 tons of material from landfill, while providing an intensive, skills and employment program that has established a socio-economic value chain in the community.

Thinking about capital projects in the context of local community socio-economic systems has enabled energy savings, greenhouse gas reduction, job creation, and meaningful employment that support the circular economy and eco-efficiency.

Second, The Water Resource Centre for the District of Sechelt in British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast is another project of which we are very proud. It’s a world-class, $23-million water treatment centre that will meet the community’s needs for the next 20 years. It creates a closed-loop system for the community’s water use. The facility features a greenhouse that uses organic processes to filter waste products, creating a self-regulating ecosystem of plants, animals, bacteria, and other organisms. Beyond being noiseless, odorless, and meeting the highest provincial standards for water quality, energy efficiency, and resource recovery, the facility implements a water and watershed management approach that integrates both built and natural assets. The LEED® Gold facility, delivered using a design-build procurement methodology, was the largest infrastructure project in the District’s history. The project has earned numerous awards, including the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Sustainable Communities Award for Water Projects.

Lastly, since 2012, we’ve been working with Public Services and Procurement Canada to create a ‘made in Canada’ energy solution for the National Capital Area in Ottawa. We are helping them transition from a high-pressure steam to a low-temperature hot water district energy solution. This aligns with a major Government of Canada building upgrades and conversions initiative taking place in the Parliamentary Precinct. A systems approach that encompasses this transition in central heating-cooling plants, as well as the buildings they serve, will achieve significant greenhouse gas and energy reductions.

What are the benefits for your clients in incorporating sustainability into a project?

I hate to say it, but “it depends”. Every project is different. Sustainable infrastructure, vertical or horizontal, is more resilient and adaptive to climate change. For office relocations or renovations, the benefits are footprint reduction, reduced operating costs per square foot, energy savings, and user well-being and comfort. Some short-term benefits can include energy efficiency, reduced operating costs, greenhouse gas reductions, and reduced environmental footprint. Long-term benefits interest clients who plan to own and operate their assets for 30, 50, or even 70 years. In this case, we help these clients to “future proof” or secure the investment they made in their assets – by ensuring the assets are more resilient, adaptable, and less susceptible to climate change risks.

How have you incorporated sustainability into your own practice?

In 2011, we made the decision to integrate sustainability practices into our professional practice processes. From planning and initiation through commissioning and operation, we do this in three main ways: • Get It Ready – Our advisors help determine a client’s functional needs for today and the future. In doing so, we optimize resources, create a project that is resilient to a changing climate, and prepare it

for a low-carbon economy. We can also determine whether a client should sustain, renovate, rebuild, lease, or build new and integrate sustainability and social return on investment considerations into feasibility studies, business cases, and accommodation strategies.

• Set a Vision – During the project initiation and planning stages of a project, our team establishes environmental and social sustainability objectives and goals for the project owner, key partners, and stakeholders. We also guide clients through the decision-making process for green building/infrastructure certification, and help them understand the value proposition, risks, and benefits.

• Get It Built – When we procure consultant and contractor services, our team of experts integrate sustainability environmental practices and compliance criteria into our selection process. When we act as contract administrators, we also apply consultant and contractor holdbacks for green building/infrastructure certification.

We are responsible for advocating on behalf of our clients and advising them on sustainability options throughout the project lifecycle. Our professional practices will evolve along with our role as a professional services firm and advocate for sustainability.

How does your work help to create vibrant communities?

We believe the key to creating vibrant communities is to listen to user and community needs, and integrate their views into the planning and design phases of a project. This leads to better planning and design decision-making, and community-enhancing solutions. For example, we worked with the City of Iqaluit in Nunavut to plan, build, and deliver a multi-use aquatic centre in the downtown core. Iqaluit has a young demographic; in fact, half of its residents are under 30.

The City’s recreational facilities were inadequate and could not meet the needs of its young and growing population. City Council wished to provide a place for residents to gather, strengthening Iqaluit’s sense of community and fostering economic and social benefits for all Nunavut’s residents. Our team of experts recommended recreational programming to the City that dealt directly with its needs, as well as those of Iqaluit residents and the territory.

What contribution do you envisage Colliers Project Leaders making to a sustainable future?

At Colliers Project Leaders, we are a key leader in getting our clients’ projects ready, built, and performing. We must continue to ask ourselves: At what points in our service delivery can we push a client’s project towards creating a sustainable future, towards net zero, and towards a climate that is still 50 years in the future? We envision ourselves creating a future where buildings and infrastructure are part of a circular flow of resources and materials that help regenerate our planet. Businesses and governments alike know that sustaining our current path is no longer an option. We see our company leading the charge by challenging our clients and ourselves to ask the tough questions.

Only then can we help create innovative project solutions to usher in a prosperous, low-carbon future that leads to resilient communities. c SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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MOSKO GROUP

THE MOSKO GROUP WORK CLOSELY WITH THE BAHAMAS ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY (BEST) COMMISSION TO ENSURE THEY COMPLY WITH ALL APPROPRIATE REGULATIONS.

BREADTH OF

EXPERTISE Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to James Mosko, President of the Mosko Group, about family businesses, sustainable projects, and learning through mistakes.

In 1924, a Greek immigrant called James George Moskovakis arrived in the Bahamas and set up a carpentry shop, changing 26 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

his name to Mosko. Ninety years and three generations later, the Mosko Group is one of the largest civil engineering and con-

struction groups in the Bahamas, with companies active in general building contracting and development, project management,

import the cement, mix the concrete, and sell all these things to other companies and to ourselves. On top of that, we’re now into electrical and plumbing and air conditioning, specialized foundation work and marine work. We cover the full construction spectrum, but each company has to stand on its own.”

STANDING ON THEIR OWN Mosko Group’s broad reach can be seen in their work on the new development of Albany on the island of New Providence.

“It’s a two billion dollar resort community Joe Lewis is spearheading with Tiger Woods and Ernie Els,” says Mr. Mosko. “We managed the first construction of the three

marine construction, ready mixed concrete, bulk cement, and aggregate supply, as well as property development, hotel and marina operations, museums, fixed base operations, insurance, air conditioning, and treasure hunting.

“It’s the nature of family businesses,” says James Mosko, President of the Mosko Group. “The more the family grows, the more people depend on the business, and the more the business has to grow.

My dad was the only son, and he had to expand the company. Then myself and my two brothers Milton and John came along, and we’ve expanded it further. About fifteen years ago, we entered another expansion phase and tried to vertically integrate our companies. Now not only are we involved in construction, we also import the aggregate, import the sand, SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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MOSKO GROUP

condominium buildings, including the air conditioning, the concrete, the electricals, the plumbing, the fire protection services, and the piling. We also built the marina there and the golf course. It’s been a huge project and we continue to do a lot of work there to this day. We’re no longer doing the general construction, but we’re installing

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underground utilities, the electricals, the plumbing, and the air conditioning and supplying concrete and equipment.”

Important to the ongoing success of the Group as a whole is ensuring the individual companies are forced to stay competitive. “We can’t just create work for ourselves,” says Mr. Mosko. “Each one of

our businesses has to stand on their own two feet. I can get them in the front door, but it’s up to them to stay there. So we make sure they bid against our competition, so everybody knows that when we get a price from one of our other companies, it’s the same price that’s going to everybody else. If they’re successful in bidding, and their quali-

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MOSKO GROUP

ty of work stays good, they’ll get the work; if not, that’s fine. But it has to be that way.”

SUSTAINABLE PROJECTS The Mosko Group is looking at a lot of work in the Exumas. Mr. Mosko was on the board of directors for the Arawak Cay Port Development Company, the first private-public partnership Mosko Group did with the government of the Bahamas, developing the new Nassau Container Port. “It’s very sustainable because it’s an integral part of bringing freight into the Bahamas,” explains Mr. Mosko. “We worked closely with the Prime Minister at the time, Hubert Ingraham, to deliver a project which benefited

the whole Bahamian community. We’re now looking into exporting through the port. The government is our partner, and we’re shareholders in it, as are 12,000 other Bahamians.

The port is good for the local Bahamians because they’re making dividends every year. We have a great CEO there, Michael Maura, and it’s a very efficient port.”

SAFETY AND RESPONSIBILITY At the start of every construction project, the Mosko Group mandates safety meetings. “We’re very, very careful,” says Mr. Mosko. “We’re using big pieces of equipment, so it’s necessary. We have a safety manual we go through. If somebody isn’t

wearing their belt, they get warned. If they do it a second time, they get let go. It’s just too important.”

As for environmental protection, the Mosko Group work closely with the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission to ensure they comply with all appropriate regulations. “The BEST Commission is very, very strict,” says Mr. Mosko. “We have pristine waters here in the Bahamas. We’re very fortunate. You can see the bottom of the water in the commercial port, which is unheard of. So we’re very conscious that our environment is a big part of selling the Bahamas. Sometimes, if a job involves working in the water

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and it’s very sensitive, we’ll use vegetable instead of hydraulic oil in the equipment, which is biodegradable. It’s measures like this which ensure we’re maintaining the natural environment here.”

SPACE TO SUCCEED The Mosko Group has taken the lead in training and advancing promising employees, and entrusting key people with responsibility. “I make sure I’ve got people that are smarter than me around me, because it makes my life a lot easier,” says Mr. Mosko. “Nobody’s ever the smartest guy in the room, and I want people who can point out my mistakes. That means surrounding yourself with young, aggressive people. Our father made myself and my brothers work from an early age and we were the first generation in the family to go to college. Now we have some really bright young people working with us, so we give them a lot of rope. They have to make mistakes and learn from them, so we let them make small mistakes and try to make sure they don’t make big ones.

Because it’s easier to pull someone back than push them forward.”

The Group ensures that educational disadvantages don’t hold employees back.

“We try to move people up the ranks and train local Bahamians to do things,” says Mr. Mosko. “That’s probably the proudest thing we’ve done, moving people forward.

We’ve got a lot of very smart Bahamians who didn’t go to school. They came up as greasers to operators to superintendents, and now they’re foremen on the job. Or the mechanics’ helpers are now the mechanics. If you can create good jobs, and make people happy with their stage in life, then you’ve done well. My dad never got out of high school, and in 2001 he got an OBE for service to the construction industry.”

FOREVER MOVING FORWARD As the companies under the Mosko Group umbrella keep growing, more responsibility will be passed down. “It’s going to be up to the younger generation to figure out what to do next,” says Mr. Mosko. “We’re in new businesses now, some of which are a complete departure. For example, we now operate three restaurants; two are at the Baha Mar development which is about to open shortly. But we’re very fortunate to be in a place like the Bahamas. The government is consistently friendly towards business. It’s a country that’s got great potential. We’re in a beautiful place; the proximity to the US is fantastic. And we’ve

got a small population, so we’ve got a whole lot going for us. Now for the country to grow, the middle class has to grow. I was lucky enough to get a very good start from my father, which makes it easy, because the banks will work with you. I want to look for business opportunities with people who want to get a small business going, particularly people who didn’t go to university.” c In Memoriam of George James Mosko Sr. 1925 - 2017 Founder of Mosko’s United Construction Co.

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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SWMCOL

SWMCOL’S VISION GOING FORWARD IS TO INVEST FURTHER IN SUSTAINABILITY MEASURES.

GOOD WASTE

MANAGEMENT Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Ronald Roach, CEO of the Trinidad and Tobago Solid Waste Management Company Ltd, and David Manswell, the company’s General Manager for Communications, Sales, and Marketing, about education, efficiency, and an innovative new project for handling contaminated water.

The Trinidad and Tobago Solid Waste Management Company Ltd. (SWMCOL) is a state-owned company responsible for managing solid and hazardous waste in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as public education and the development of recycling activities. Founded in 1980, the company has rehabilitated two landfill sites, at Beetham and Guanapo, and established another at Forres Park.

“Prior to 1980, the dump sites were operated very haphazardly,” explains Ronald 32 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Roach, CEO of SWMCOL. “They were just open sites where they burned the waste. It was an eyesore and a health hazard. When we came in, we procured equipment to raise the standards by spreading and compacting the waste, and we began covering it. Because they were preexisting sites, we weren’t able to develop engineered site in the true sense of the word, but we were at least able to improve on the activities that were taking place and improve the environmental situation and the public health aspect.”

ENGINEERED WETLAND One problem has endured. None of the three sites currently have any treatment facilities for leachate, the contaminated water which drains from the landfills. “The leachate which is produced just dissipates into the environment, either through seepage into the ground water or runoff as surface water,” says Mr. Roach. “It’s a serious problem.”

Today, SWMCOL is developing an innovative, sustainable solution to leachate.

The Guanapo Landfill Site is due to host an

OVERVIEW OF GUANAPO SITE.

engineered wetland system, built in collaboration with the ENMAN Group (featured in Sustainable Business Magazine issue 04/16).

“We at SWMCOL are very excited about it,” says Mr. Roach. “The central government provided us with a limited budget to treat the leachate, so we were looking for a low-cost system, and over the course of our research, we concluded that an engineered wetlands solution would be within budget and sustainable.”

SWMCOL put out a tender for this unusual project. “Mr. Baldeosingh of ENMAN and his team sent us a very good proposal,” says Mr. Roach. “They have worked on identifying local plant species which have the ability to absorb the toxic components of the leachate, and developing a nursery to grow those plants. The project will serve to

benefit the environment at Guanapo, and then we can begin to replicate it at our other sites, which is another great part about it.

The wetland will be up and running by early 2017, and then it’s a case of monitoring and testing.”

LOW-COST SUSTAINABILITY An engineered wetlands system is a cost-effective option for SWMCOL compared to purchasing a package treatment plant. “Those package treatment plants tend to have a lot of mechanical components,” explains Mr. Roach. “Because they’re purchased from abroad, they use foreign exchange, and it begins to become quite expensive. This system will focus on using local plants. That way, our people can easily learn the process and implement it

GUANAPO LEACHATE TREATMENT PONDS.

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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SWMCOL themselves and manage it themselves, so we don’t have to always depend on foreign counterparts coming in and providing these services for us. Our people are going to be there as the project is implemented, learning and training so they can carry on the project long after it’s complete.”

Mr. Roach hopes that this initial wetland will serve to inspire more projects of the same nature. “It’s the first project of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, and I know that across the various island states they also have challenges with leachate treatment,” says Mr. Roach. “We hope once this project is completed it’ll serve as a good example of what can be done on a Caribbean island with a very limited budget, and that other islands will begin trying to implement the same kind of system.”

PROPER MANAGEMENT To ensure that waste collection and disposal are as efficient as they can be, SWMCOL has invested in technology which allows them to better manage their services. “It’s about proper management,” says Mr. Roach. “We always look closely at our operations; look for opportunities to do things better, and

keep an eye on the progression of technology and what we can employ. That’s our job as management. When new technology appears, we research it, do a cost-benefit analysis, and often the benefits outweigh the costs, so we go ahead with the project.

For example, our trucks have a GPS system, which allows us to manage where they are and ensure all the clients have been covered. We have also recently invested in RFID systems installed on our bins, so we can get real-time communications when they interact with our services and so forth. We’re currently looking at similar technology for the management of fires on the landfills, so

we can get real-time responses and be able to deal with fires in the incipient stages.”

EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS In addition to managing Trinidad and Tobago’s waste responsibly, SWMCOL’s remit extends to educating the populace about waste management. “Our task is to close the loop,” explains David Manswell, General Manager for Communications, Sales, and Marketing at SWMCOL. “We’ve established a program called CYOP, which stands for Community Youth Outreach Program. Through this program, we visit schools and educate them on waste. We

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34 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Trinidad and Tobago Office: +1 868-652-3104/0434/0958 Email: oilfieldandmarine@yahoo.com www.oilfieldandmarine.com

Dealers in: Engineering, Safety, Hardware & Construction Materials, Ship Chandlers, Equipment Rentals, Welding, Transport and Civil Contractors, Recycling and Renewable Energy.

also visit regional corporations throughout Trinidad and Tobago, setting up initiatives and programs to do curbside recycling. At the Tunapuna-Piarco Regional Corporation, we have introduced a recycling initiative where the burgesses separate their waste at source. We’ve also educated the burgesses in business ventures and opportunities relating to proper waste management, like downstream industries from recycling.”

Where the communication program at SWMCOL had previously been ad hoc, recently, the company has focused on two key stakeholders. “The first stakeholder is the youth,” says Mr. Manswell. “We believe through the youth we can influence the waste behaviour of the future. The second stakeholder is residential areas, because we believe some people have the passion or the desire to change but don’t have the know-how or the methodology to do that.

From these initiatives, we have begun to see a real change in behaviour. In the pilot project we did in the Tunapuna-Piarco Regional Corporation, the burgesses have brought in close to 1 million units of recyclables in three months. That’s a significant achievement for individuals who were void

of any understanding of recycling. We’ve seen similar shifts in schools towards recycling, as well as teachers who have invited SWMCOL in to conduct public education forums. We believe this changing attitude could provide momentum going forwards to where we can capture the entire population of Trinidad and Tobago.”

TO PROTECT AND ENHANCE SWMCOL’s vision going forwards is to invest further in sustainability measures. “We want to expand our engineered wetlands initiative,” says Mr. Manswell. “We’re also investing in Material Recovery Facilities, or MRFs, where we can separate the waste and send the valuables for recycling. It’s a major accomplishment, and you’ll find a reduction in the leachate problem as we reduce waste going to landfill. Our strategic initiative going forwards is to form public-private strategic alliances. Because we can’t do it alone we’re inviting the greater populace to join with us as we change the way we manage waste here.”

“The very nature of solid waste management and waste disposal is for the protection and enhancement of the environment,”

says Mr. Roach. “The company was formed based on a public health study done in 1979. People don’t realize the impact of good waste management until you don’t have any. What we do is to compact and cover the waste when it is brought into the sites, and in doing so, we prevent the spread of disease. Because our operations are deficient in some ways, we haven’t always been able to do as good a job as we need to, so we’re taking steps to improve the sustainability of our operations, and we intend to continue investing in projects which benefit the environment and the public health of Trinidad and Tobago.” c

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CULTIVATION OF PLANTS IN NURSERY.

NEW FLEET.

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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SHIPBUILDING AND REPAIR DEVELOPMENT COMPANY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO IS A COUNTRY PROUD OF ITS ENVIRONMENTAL HERITAGE. SRDC RECOGNIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS NATURAL BEAUTY.

SHIPPING IN TRINIDAD Wilfred de Gannes, Chairman and CEO of the Shipbuilding and Repair Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SRDC) speaks to Sustainable Business Magazine about the development of a major new shipyard port which is set to play a central role in the country’s future economy.

The Shipbuilding and Repair Development Company of Trinidad & Tobago (SRDC) is responsible for the development of an important new shipyard on the major Caribbean island. It was begun by the current 36 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Prime Minister, the Honourable Dr. Keith Christopher Rowley MP, in 2007 when he was the Minister of Trade and Industry. There was recognition at the time that the country’s economic reliance on a single sector, the oil

and gas industry, would become increasingly fraught as time went on, so Dr. Rowley sought methods of diversification.

SRDC was established as the commercial entity of the Trinidad and Tobago Ship-

WILFRED DE GANNES, CHAIRMAN & CEO ONBOARD SERANADE OF THE SEAS CRUISESHIP.

CHAGUARAMAS, TRINIDAD.

building and Repair Maritime Cluster, an initiative that looked to tap into the maritime potential of a country as geographically valuable as Trinidad and Tobago. Strategically located between the Atlantic Ocean and Panama Canal, and between South America and North America, the island of Trinidad also benefits from being outside the active hurricane belt of the Caribbean region. These factors, in concert with the country’s history of skill and expertise in the energy sector, mean that it is able to offer their local and international stakeholders many opportunities for growth.

The Maritime Cluster plays an important role in this.

Using a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, the Maritime Cluster and SRDC have brought 58-stakeholders together in a pro-

ject that will play a defining role in Trinidad & Tobago’s future economy. Many of these stakeholders have a history which includes building of offshore gas platforms at La Brea for bpTT, but there has been an effort to bring in a wide variety of other capabilities including ship repairs, logistics, non-destructive testing, hull blasting, and even an environmental consultancy called Green Alternatives in Action (GAIA).

Since recently being elected Prime Minister, the Honorable Dr. Keith Rowley and his new Minister of Trade and Industry, Senator the Honourable Paula Gopie-Scoon, have both publicly confirmed the Government’s commitment to urgently continue the country’s diversification thrust away from the energy sector, which includes manufacturing in its various forms, agriculture, develop-

ment of the creative sector, and maritime services - including shipbuilding, repairs, and dry docking services. Wilfred de Gannes, Chairman and CEO of SRDC, expands on this positive news: “This was recently presented in the Budget Statement for 2017, in a report titled ‘Shaping a Brighter Future - A Blueprint for Transformation and Growth’.

The report was presented by the Minister of Finance, the Honourable Colm Imbert MP, on the 15th September, 2016.

THE NEW SHIPYARD La Brea Shipyard Port project is a USD500 million project located on the southwestern side of Trinidad that will provide dry docking alongside facilities for various types of ships that other yards in the region cannot necessarily service. Since the Panama Canal’s SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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SHIPBUILDING AND REPAIR DEVELOPMENT COMPANY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

USD5.4 Billion ‘Third Set of Locks’ project was inaugurated on the 26th June 2016, it is able to accept larger ships including LNG Carriers which are now passing through the region mainly from the United States of America to Asia, and SRDC is keen to provide them with the services they need.

“La Brea will primarily be used to dry dock ships up to 300+ meters in length

using a graving dock,” says Mr. de Gannes.

“The shipyard port project is to be built in phases and this will be part of the first phase. The second phase will involve another graving dock for ships, known as Post-Panamax. Alongside it would also have a number of berths for both Aframax and also Suezmax ship sizes. The Aframax are some of the ships used in the transportation

of crude oil between Venezuela, our closest neighbor, and the USA.” Increasing activity in the global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) sector has also been an important hook for SRDC and the La Brea shipyard port. On the 25th November, 2016, Europe Technologies Group CEO Dr. Patrick Cheppe signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the SRDC in Nantes, France, to INTER ISLAND FAST FERRY. TT EXPRESS GOING TO TOBAGO FROM TRINIDAD.

SIGNING OF MOU WITH THE ARTHUR LOK JACK GSB ON MAY 25, 2016.

38 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

repair LNG Carrier membrane containment systems. This Trinidad-based ship repair arrangement with the expert guidance of the Europe Technologies Group will provide both project management and skilled personnel in organizing the working party with the ship-owner, the shipyard, the technology owner (which has around 310 LNG carriers equipped with its technologies), the Classification Company, and other service providers, to achieve the best on-time quality Cargo Containment System solutions required by LNG Carrier owners.

These specialized ships require specialist ship repair knowledge, knowledge that SRDC is looking to develop jointly with a leading French-based membrane technology organization alongside with Europe Technologies. “We plan to offer specialized repairs to LNG Carriers, as Ninety-Two percent (92%) of the World LNG Carrier Fleet are now able to sail through the expanded Panama Canal,” explains Mr. de Gannes.

“Trinidad and Tobago is also the sixth largest exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas in the world having recently crossed its 3,000th LNG shipment safety milestone, since LNG exports commenced in 1999 from the twin-island State located in the southern Caribbean. So we have a number of ships that already come to the southwestern part of Trinidad to collect cargoes from the Atlantic LNG Terminal, located in Point

Fortin. La Brea will be perfectly situated to provide these passing LNG Carriers with maintenance and repair services.”

Mr. de Gannes continues, outlining some of the other services that the shipyard will be able to offer clients once it is completed: “Other areas would be inspection of and replacement of anodes that are used on the hulls, propeller repairs, maintenance and repair of engines, on-board machinery, and navigational and safety equipment.

It will also offer welding, fabrication and renewal of steel plating, ‘GTT Approved’ shipyard services, cryogenic pump inspec-

tion and repairs, certification, and supply of on-board fire suppression equipment.

Oily-water treatment facilities will also be sited at and nearby the shipyard, as well as solid and liquid waste treatment and disposal services. We will also offer general surveys required for the insurance of all ocean going ships, including LNG Carriers which are required to be dry docked every five years.”

The idea was first proposed in 2010 and construction is set to finally get underway in early 2017. It is being financed by The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) with Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) work being undertaken

by China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC). It is expected to open in 2019 and will offer 24 hour a day, 7 day a week services so that it can become the vibrant hub that the region needs.

A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY Trinidad and Tobago is a country proud of its environmental heritage. SRDC recognizes the importance of this natural beauty and will seek not only to minimize the impact of La Brea’s construction but also to use the project to promote the beauty that the country has to offer.

Before any work could even begin, the SRDC needed to acquire a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) that meant the shipyard would be built in accordance with Environmental Act 35-05. This was achieved through evidence-based analysis ensuring minimal impact to all levels of the environment. The acquisition of the CEC means its project will begin from a point of excellent eco-credentials. In addition to this, the group continues to work with SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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SHIPBUILDING AND REPAIR DEVELOPMENT COMPANY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

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local community groups, including the La Brea General Council, so that the project can meet their expectations as well, in the process even getting positive backing from environmental activists.

One important side project as part of La Brea will be SRDC using its environmental reach to try and get the famous nearby La Pitch Lake – a naturally forming asphalt lake – listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This natural wonder is an important tourist destination for the country and obtaining official UNESCO recognition will 40 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

safeguard it for future generations, a longterm goal that SRDC are passionate about.

SOCIAL IMPACTS “The La Brea area including its surrounding environs has a high unemployment rate,” explains Mr. de Gannes. “The shipyard will not only be a direct employer but will also lead to other downstream activities and opportunities. For example, Cruise-ship tourism is another area we are closely looking at, as La Brea was visited by famous English writer, poet, and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh

in 1595 who repaired his wooden exploration ship using the naturally occurring pitch.

La Brea was also visited by Princes Albert Victor and George (later King George V of England) aboard the ‘HMS Bacchante’ in 1880, so we are looking to develop this area as well.”

When Dr. Rowley first developed the idea of the Shipbuilding and Repair Maritime Cluster in 2007, it was with a view to strengthen the Trinidad and Tobago economy through diversifying its income and earning valuable foreign

BRITISH MERCHANT, 1ST LNG CARRIER FROM TRINIDAD TO CROSS EXPANDED PANAMA CANAL.

exchange. La Brea, as a project primed to take advantage of many different opportunities inherently available from the country, goes a long way to achieving exactly this vision. By taking advantage of the skillsets in the oil and gas industry that the people of Trinidad and Tobago have cultivated and applying them to sectors that are up and coming, SRDC will help sustain the national coffers long into the future. Additional long-term support will be provided through link ups to nearby academic institutions such as universities and

business schools, training new generations of people to capitalize on the potential of the maritime sector.

DRY DOCK FUTURE La Brea is SRDC’s main focal point at present, as the shipyard brings together the many skills and abilities of all stakeholders within the Maritime Cluster. As shown, the shipyard port will also play an important role in the future of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy by expanding possible opportunities in the country. It will also open the country up even more to the

international shipping community, forging stronger links and bonds between them.

Mr. de Gannes concludes on a positive note about what this project could mean for Trinidad and Tobago’s role in the global maritime community: “Ship repairs have been going on in Trinidad for over 105+ years now. In the past, these ship repairs were carried out in the northwestern part of the country. A new shipyard located in the southwestern part opens up a whole new world, one in which we believe we can continue building an excellent track record.” c SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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TENOVA HYL

“WE HAVE THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY FOR A FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE STEEL MAKING.”

42 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

THE REDUCTIONISTS Stefano Maggiolino, Managing Director of Tenova HYL, speaks to Sustainable Business Magazine about bringing the ancient art of iron smelting into the modern world of environmental sustainability.

Tenova HYL are truly an exceptional company: They are one of only two outfits in the world able to offer direct reduction iron (DRI) to the international iron and steel market.

DRI is significant in today’s industry for many reasons including its economic efficiency and metal purity, but it’s low environmental impact that really makes it stand out from other iron processing methods. Tenova HYL, part of the Tenova Company, is based in Mexico but has DRI plants across the world serving local customers.

HYL began in 1957 as the R&D division of Hylsa, one of Mexico’s largest steel producers, tasked with finding alternative sources of iron due to a lack of scrap iron following World War 2. HYL’s researchers pioneered the direct reduction technique and built the world’s first DRI plant, a feat recognized with an ASM International plate for being a historical landmark in steel making.

In 1998 the company pioneered yet another development by opening up an industrial plant in Monterrey, Mexico, that lacked an external reformer. By 2005 Hylsa was acquired by the Techint Group. Hylsa’s steelmaking facilities merged into Ternium

while as a strategic move, Hylsa’s former R&D division became Tenova HYL. TECHNOLOGY FOR A HEALTHIER WORLD Stefano Maggiolino, Managing Director of Tenova HYL, explains the DRI process and why the lack of external reformer was another leap forward for the industry: “You know by experience iron tends to get oxidized and therefore rusty. You see it on your car, on your tools, etc. By nature all iron in the world is available as iron oxide. For millions of years, all iron ore is in the earth in the form of oxide. That is the natural tendency of iron. Direct reduction is a process that removes oxide from iron oxide in order to get pure iron.”

“How do we do that? We need to inject carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) into a reactor at high temperature. CO and H2 strip the oxygen atoms from iron ore so it becomes pure iron. CO then turns into CO2 – carbon dioxide – and H2 becomes water, or H2O. We get the CO and H2 with a reforming process. Reforming is done by combining natural gas (CH4) and H2O and, with this reforming process, we produce CO SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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TENOVA HYL

COMMITMENT TO COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT PLACES THEM IN A UNIQUELY STRONG POSITION.

and hydrogen. The trick of our technology is we don’t need an external reformer. In our reactor, reforming and reducing take place at the same time. It was a breakthrough because from that moment it made our technology the most advanced, simplest, and most efficient while giving the highest quality of DRI available.”

Because the two processes feed into each other, the resulting harmful emissions from a DRI plant without an external reformer are far lower than from traditional blast furnaces and other DR competing technologies. Furthermore the CO2 that is one of the main byproducts of Tenova HYL’s method is actually trapped and used – for example as bubbles in soft drinks – rather than simply 44 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

dumped or released into the atmosphere.

What is polluting emissions for other companies is a source of revenue for Tenova HYL. Their DRI plants are also noted for having low particulate waste. Tenova HYL’s technology operates at much higher pressures than blast furnaces meaning that when gas enters the reactor it travels at much lower velocities. This lower velocity creates less draft as gas flows counter-current to the iron ore and therefore creates lower volumes of particulate waste.

GLOBAL REACH The company have expanded their presence across the world drastically over the past decade, with new plants in some of the

most important primary industry economies in the world. Mr. Maggiolino elaborates further on these successes: “Our projects have a long life. From the signature of a contract to commissioning it takes more than three years. During the last 10 years we have done three projects in the UAE, two projects in Egypt, and a project in the US that constructed the largest DRI plant in the world. That is something we are particularly proud of. Right now we are commissioning a plant in the Far East.”

“Of course the demands of each project are unique but in terms of sustainability we can say that the plants in the UAE which we have built for Emirates Steel after the commissioning of the DRI plant are

some of the most special. This is thanks to technology that allows the CO2 produced by the DRI plant to be recycled for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). That project, based in Abu Dhabi, was put into operation last year.”

Reaching out across the world has cemented Tenova HYL’s position, not only as successful in life after Hylsa, but also as an important name in the wider iron and steel market. Due to the difficulty of engineering and operating the technology there are only two companies offering DRI plants and Tenova HYL, together with its partner Danieli, are one of these. Commitment to commercial development and technological advancement places them in a uniquely strong position.

IRON FOR THE FUTURE Blast furnaces – the traditional method of making iron ready for steel – are a technology on their way out. As demands for more sustainable practices continue to grow across all sectors, the steel market will begin looking towards more economically and environmentally sustainable ways of obtaining iron. Ways such as DRI. Tenova HYL are confident that they are already perfectly placed for the market’s rising expectations.

“We see the future is with DRI, especially with the higher availability of natural gas,” says Mr. Maggiolino. “Production will be decarbonized much more and carried out with the use of natural gas. Another

nice thing is that, once the hydrogen is more available, the process will become a lot cheaper. It is expensive at present to produce but once it is less costly our technology is a perfect fit. We already use hydrogen for reduction and it will be a no-brainer to use hydrogen for reforming.

That will mean at the end of the process, where blast furnaces create CO2, our technology will create water.”

“We have the highest quality of DRI on the market in terms of metalization and carbon content. We are proud to think that the future will definitely have more DRI use and that this will mean more HYL technology because we have the right technology for a future of sustainable steel making.” c SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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GLOBAL EVENTS

APR

Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program, Advanced Edition Toronto, ON, Canada

This training program offered by Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) aims to give you all the latest tools and resources required to implement or upscale existing sustainability initiatives taking place in your organization.

Wind O&M Dallas 2017 Dallas, TX, USA

The USA’s leading onshore wind O&M and AM conference on learning how to maximise value from every wind turbine.

The Sustainabilty Consortium (TSC) Summit Washington, DC, USA

TSC members and partners drive change and make more sustainable consumer products. The 2017 TSC Summit will focus on three main themes: Impact, measurement, and innovation.

Canada’s 2017 Food Loss + Waste Forum Mississauga, ON, Canada

Bringing together leaders in food loss + waste from across Canada’s food value chain. Hear from local and global experts on innovative technologies, solutions, and best practices and interact with solutions providers.

22nd

Earthday 2017

Celebrated Worldwide.

26th - 27th

Ceres Conference 2017 San Francisco, CA, USA www.ceresconference.org

Hear from leaders who are catalyzing the biggest breakthroughs on issues that recognize growing global sustainability challenges.

28th

MIT Sustainability Summit Boston, MA, USA

The student-led event during Earth Week, the 2017 MIT Sustainability Summit, will focus on Funding the Future.

5th - 6th

www.cse-net.org

2017

10th - 12th

www.windenergyupdate.com

11th - 13th

www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/

12th

www.ncseconference.org

sustainabilitysummit.mit.edu

Planet:Tech 2017 New Orleans, MA, USA

Innovative startups, business giants, influencers, and controversial voices from the fields of sustainability, talk green and environmental tech, energy efficiency, and clean tech.

7th - 10th

Sustainatopia 2017 San Francisco, CA, USA www.sustainatopia.com

This event features over 200 speakers covering a wide range of topics relating to sustainable impacts, strategies, investing, and innovation.

8th - 10th

Grey to Green Conference Toronto, ON, Canada

Discussing the benefits of the green infrastructure industry with designers, policy makers, manufacturers, growers, landscapers, and other professionals.

ICSREE 2017 Montreal, QC, Canada

Leading academic scientists, researchers, and research scholars exchange research and results in Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering.

Solar Summit 2017 Scottsdale, AZ, USA

The premier conference for Networking opportunities and a unique mix of market intelligence with engaging panel sessions among industry leaders.

2nd - 4th

www.collisionconf.com/planet-tech

www.greytogreenconference.org

11th - 12th

www.waset.org 17th - 18th

Search: Solar Summit 2017

20th - 22nd

CSE Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program New York, NY, USA

www.cse-net.org

46 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Offered by Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) to give you the latest tools and resources to implement or upscale existing sustainability initiatives taking place in your organization.

MAY

2017

ADVERTISERS INDEX A Agreen Tech Expo 2017 Alfa Laval B Bay Street Garage Ltd.

Inside Front P08

P30

E Edged In Stone LLC

P30

G Global Re-Energy, Inc.

P34

H Hookmally Ali Ltd.

P40

J JBR Building Supplies Ltd. M Mia Green Expo 2018 N Non Destructive Testers Ltd.

P29

Inside Front

P40

O Oilfield & Marine Sales & Services Ltd. P34 R Recology P21 Ruhrpumpen P45

S Sofidel Back Cover Stryker Sustainability Solutions P21 Sun Oil Ltd. P29 T Tozour Energy Systems Truck & Equipment Sales & Services

W Wafiq Transport Ltd. Water Expo 2017

P12 P29

P35 Inside Front

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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