Author: Waseem Ashraf

Environmentalist by Profession with more than 3 years of experience in Environmental Management , Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Compliance & OHS

Best Available Techniques for Leather Industry

Leather Wet Blue - Leather Industry Best Available Techniques
Leather Wet Blue

Following are some of the best available techniques that can not only reduce your environmental footprint but can also contribute to increase your process efficiency leading to reduced overall costs.

  • Installation of water flow meters at all water supplies and maintain water consumption records on monthly basis
  • Insulate the surfaces above 50°C with optimum thickness
  • Remove redundant utility lines and optimize the routing of utilities
  • Plan evaluation of efficiencies of utilities (Boiler, Generator, Compressors, etc) generation, distribution and utilization on periodic basis
  • Inspect the steam, hot water, freshwater, compressed air lines and fittings for any leakages
  • Use desalting drums
  • Switch to new technology of tanning drums
  • Switch from continuous, “running water washes” to batch washes
  • Water used in washing hides before the Main Soaking process can be collected and reused in Pre-Soaking.
  • The water used in the liming process can be reused in next liming process batch after filtration. The pollution loads up to 70% of Sulfate [S2-] and 93% of Lime [Ca(OH)2] load can easily be reduced, which can contribute in reducing 7% load of BOD and 26% load of COD in overall wastewater at end of pipe.
  • Water used in Deliming washing can be collected and reused in Post Liming.
  • Water used in Post Deliming & Bating washing can be collected and reused in Pre-Soaking wash.
  • Carbon dioxide deliming can be used to neutralized lime it decreases pollution load of effluents if feasible
  • Wetback water can be collected and reused in next Wetback lot
  • Water from washing of Wetback can be collected and reused in wetback of successive lot
  • Reuse of pickling and tanning floats in successive cycles
  • Rechroming Water which is drained to waste after completing the process can be collected and recycled back for the rechroming of next lot or can be directed towards in house chrome recovery plant.
  • Post Neutralization Washing Water can be collected and reused as Neutralization Water for the next lot.
  • Recycle cooling water from Machines like Vacuum Press, Sammying, pumps, compressors etc.
  • Curing salt that is attached to the raw hides [Cow, Buffalo] and skins [goat] can be recovered and reused. It is estimated that 50 kg of salt can be obtained from desalting 1,000 kg of raw stock.
  • Decrease the amount of salt used to preserve hides by adding some environmentally acceptable antiseptics (boric acid, acetic acid and sodium suplhide) or commercial bactericides based mainly on ethyldithiocarbamate and isthiazolin. Pollution load in soaking wastewater is reduce to 50%.
  • Processing of green hides (unsalted fresh hides) is preferred if cooling and chilling is feasible.
  • Dyes containing hazardous heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and chrome VI shall be avoided.
  • Fat liquoring agents based on chlorinated paraffins shall be avoided and other environmental friendly synthetic fat liquors should be used
  • Benzidine and other azo-dyes which may be reduced to carcinogenic amines should be avoided.
  • Avoid finishing operations with pigments containing environmentally hazardous heavy metals and other restricted products
  • Whenever possible use water-based finishes/solvents
  • Use of Solar water heating for process water heating
  • Use solar air drying for hides and skins wherever possible
  • Integration of photovoltaic in existing power supplies available
  • Build training routines for staff at all hierarchical levels

Climate Change: Some Facts and Solutions

Climate Change - There is no Planet B
Photo by Bob Blob on Unsplash

Climate change is a major environmental issue. The world is facing climate change level where there is no point of return. This article highlights few facts about climate change and few solutions.

Facts:

Few facts about climate change are as follows:

  • Two hundred & eighty six billion (286,000,000,000) tons of ice is being lost every year in the areas of Greenland and Antarctica
  • There have been a reduction in the snow cover in the northern hemisphere in last five decades
  • There has been an increase  of eight inches (8 in) in the global sea level
  • The frequency of extreme weather events i.e. flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes have been on increase.
  • There has been an increase of ocean acidity by thirty percent (30%)
  • The temperature of upper twenty three hundred (2300) feet of ocean have been raised by 0.4 degree Fahrenheit (°F)
  • There has been an increase of 1.6 degree increase in temperature of earth atmosphere due to the continuously increasing level of greenhouse gases.
  • Since 2010, there have been five (5) warmest years on record. 2019 as well have been the warmest year. Germany have faced historic high temperature.
  • The present-day warming trend on the earth is ten times greater than the past warming trends recorded at the end of an ice age.
  • In the Himalayan a glacial retreat mountains have been observed by the scientist
  • The intensity and frequency of wildfires have been on increase globally. Amazon rain forest have been burning since 3 weeks up-till now.
  • The Indonesian capital city is being moved because it was sinking due to the ever increasing sea levels.
  • In last forty year, sixty percent (60%) drop in wild life have been observed.
  • The carbon emissions have been increasing on our planet since 2011.
  • Tropical forest are facing destruction continuously due to anthropogenic activities
  • It is has been estimated by scientists that there are ninety-five percent (95%) chances that climate change is due to anthropogenic activities.

Read: Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Solutions:

According to scientist climate change can be slowed down to it natural level. Level where everyone gets a chance to adopt to the changing environments. Few of the solutions that you as an individual can adopt to help control climate change are as follows:

  • Use public transport instead of using your own cars all the time
  • Switch your vehicle to environment friendly fuels e.g.  electric or hybrid vehicles
  • Invest in the renewable energy e.g wind , solar, biogas, geothermal etc.
  • Encourage legislation which discourages the use of fossil fuels.
  • Use energy efficient lights, fans, AC invertors and decrease energy losses in the house
  • Garments can be washed in cold water instead of hot water to save energy.
  • Basic food/vegetables can be grown in your own house (roof gardening)
  • Plant trees and also encourage other to plant more and more trees
  • Buy local items
  • Buy garments, which are more sustainable.

We as individuals needs to do more and change our pattern of life so that we can protect the planet for ourselves and our future generations.

Calculations used in Daily Operations of Effluent Treatment Plant

Effluent Treatment Plant utilizes different types of calculations to keep the operational efficiency of ETP at maximum.

Read Further here on Effluent Treatment Plant

Calculations used in daily operations of a typical effluent treatment plantDownload
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Benefits of Becoming a Sustainable Business

Sustainability is not simply a trend, and therefore the international community has touched on the far side of the “going green” motto. Sustainability could be a universal, long-run approach to only solely manage environmental risks, however social and financial risks as well. A sustainable business consists of three sphere knows as triple bottom line (3Ps) i.e. People, plant and profits.

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If you take sustainability approach, it means that your business has no significant negative impacts on the society and environment while your organization is flourishing financially. Sustainability approach encourages organizations to concentrate on long term objective, targets & strategies, and it can offer a wide range of benefits in return.

For organizations to accept the sustainability model and take it  as a serious business strategy, we must be able to define and quantify the business benefits that can be achieved from this strategy. Then it can become criteria to measure the success of the organization, because as with any other model, return on investment is ultimate measurement of success.

Improved brand image and competitive advantage

In one study conducted by Natural Marketing Institute from more than 53000  US consumers, it was revealed that 58% consumer consider the impact of an organization on environment before choosing to purchase any goods or services from  it and are more intended to purchase from organization with sustainability approaches incorporated in their system. This leads to approximately 68 million on American clients who favor those companies that have good track record in social and environmental values.

It was also found that these consumers were willing to spend even 20% more on products that are environment friendly. Brand awareness and image building is becoming increasingly important. Creating awareness campaigns like water or energy conservation or paper conservation not only conserve resources but also improves awareness about brand.

Productivity increase and cost reduction:

The people critical of sustainability approaches claim that these practices can reduce the corporate profits. But in reality if we develop sustainable business practices, it leads towards operational efficiency improvement due to streamlines efforts, resource conservation, which enhances employ productivity and reduces costs. Cost reduction can also achieved through energy conservation by few simple practices likes switching off un-neccessory lights and appliances and using energy efficient equipment. Sustainable practices might have huge initial investment but long terms results will justify the investment.

Compliance with regulations:

As with the increase of awareness about climate change, global warming, reduced energy resources and other environmental impacts, governments are increasingly trying to develop and enact different regulations to protect and conserve environment. If an organization integrates sustainability into its business, the organization will be in a position to meet the always changing regulations.

You can read here ” What is Compliance and its Requirements “

Attract employees and investors.

People, especially the young generation is attracted towards organizations who work on environmental conservation as they have been raised in an environment where there is continues message of environmental protection/activism and does not want to work with organization who have environmental disasters and social scandals. Presenting your organization as respectful to environment and employees/society will not only attract component people but will also attract investors.

Waste Reduction:

Waste reduction is the most common and simple way to encourage organization to be engage in sustainable practices. Utilization of 4Rs technique to reduce the solid wastes, replacement of energy efficient equipment’s to reduce energy waste.

Minimize Carbon Risk and Improve Energy Efficiency

It is expected from all companies to cut down 25% of their Carbon emission till 2020 and further cut down 50 to 80% till 2050, which will become mandatory by Law. This will also effect the cost and availability of electricity.

Read Here: ” What you can do to help save Environment “

Man-eating Great White Shark That Was Washed Up on Shore Had Horrifying Cause of Death

What’s been going on in our oceans? A very strange phenomenon that only happens in horror movies had been taking place on the Gansbaai beaches in South Africa. The fourth great white shark was found washed up dead along the coastline of South Africa with its liver “precisely” removed back in May 2017. In the [ ]

Read on the original site

Safe to Wear Standard by Inditex

Inditex Safe to Wear Standard
Inditex Safe to Wear Standard

Download Inditex Safe to Wear Standard 2018

Also look at Inditex other standards, i.e. RTM 2.0 , The List III Edition, CTW 2018 , GTW

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Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Climate Change, barren Land
barren land

Introduction

Climate change is the most alarming and threatening issue in the present age.it is the biggest challenge we are facing right now. Many publishers observed that due to the climate change several factors are changed in the surrounding environment e.g.:

  • Rain fall pattern
  • Temperature
  • Humidity
  • Seasonal changes
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These changes in the environmental conditions cause different types of impacts on environment e.g.

  • Extreme Events
  • Droughts
  • Rise in Temperature
  • Sea level Rise
  • Food insecurity
  • Loss of biodiversity
  • Water insecurity
  • Ocean acidification
  • Coastal flooding
  • Health Risks

Sustainable development is the concept that ensures balanced relations between its three pillars, economy, society and environment. It is the type of progress that fulfills the needs and requirements of the present generation without overlooking the needs of the future generations

Link between Sustainable Development and Climate Change effects:

If we look into history, the policies and science has always influenced the concepts about development. The continues degradation of environmental quality, the boosted population and increased rate of consumption of natural resources, usages of energy, and other living standards has motivated a lot of centuries to formulate their own legal frameworks as follows:

  • Development Water and air quality standards
  • Hazardous Waste Management
  • Regulatory changes
  • Natural resource efficiency

To beat climate change at the global level there were different laws, plans, policies were formulated e.g

  • Agenda 21
  • Rio summit

The impact of climate changes is adverse and if they are responded with ill design it could even derail the current policies on sustainable development goals and may effects goals already have been achieved. They climate change effects a lot of sectors e.g. agriculture, forestry, energy, coastal areas, and may cause challenges for the governance. For example, climate change effects on environmental resources and systems can paralyses the sustainable development of the natural system. The impacts of climate change can be seen in sustainable development in all regions of the world but the countries/regions with low adaptiveness suffer the most. Different publication reveals that climate change will make the unsustainable and unjust growth of society and make it more vulnerable to environmental degradation.

The prominent effects of climate change relevant to sustainable development are as follows:

  • Ecosystem services losses
  • Challenges in land management
  • Challenges in water management
  • Human health effects
  • Prices increase in the food markets
  • Increased Risks of flooding
  • Food insecurity
  • Risks to infrastructure due to extreme events
  • Biodiversity losses

Globally the above mentioned risks vary depending on the scale of climate change and local social and economic variances. Some ecosystems are temperature sensitive, even if there is a little change in the global mean temperature, they got effected heavily. Many of the climate change responses and sustainable development systems often overlap and the sustainable development systems are better designed and planed so, they are preferred.

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Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Sustainable development

As the climate change is among the most prominent issues of mankind in 21st century the world has agreed to tackle it for the sustainable development. It is very important to understand the past experiences and current innovation efforts so that we can take effective and efficient action to tackle this issue. It can be addressed through mitigation strategies as well as by improving the ways by which societal and economic systems work to adopt to the climate change effects.

For this purpose, IPCC has developed 17 Sustainable development goals that are universal and have a common vision of progressing the world towards a safer and sustainable environment for the whole mankind.

UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN Sustainable Development Goals

The mitigation and adaptation measures of climate change can produce oppurtunieties for the sustainable development if they are planned and executed properly. The strategy for climate change mitigation and sustainable development are highly interactive. The climate change adaption and mitigation measures both have the likely strong chance of contribution to the sustainable development as well as the sustainable development measures and choices have possibility of contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation.  These action/measures may trade off with each other during the implementations

Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Pakistan

Pakistan is Specially susceptible to climate change because it has a hot climate; it is located in a geographical area where the increase in temperature is expected to be higher than the world average Their rivers are fed mainly by Hindu Kush-Karakoram glaciers of the Himalayas, which retreat quickly due to global warming; its economy is largely agricultural and, therefore, very sensitive to climate; and because the country has an increasing risk of varying the rain, causing large floods and long droughts. All these factors are influenced by water safety, flood safety and the security of the country’s energy supply. To compound these problems, the coastal areas and the Indus Delta region are expected to face increased risk due to sea level rise, coastal erosion, seawater intrusion and flooding. Increase of the cyclone effect in the sea. The delta region is influenced not only by local climatic conditions, but also by meteorological actions due to the climatic conditions of the Indus and the seas in the south.

 Adaptation has already begun to address vulnerabilities related to climate change in humans health, coastal areas, infrastructure and food security. Resilience to most Asian areas on a scale change is very bad. Extending irrigation is difficult and costly in many countries. In Asia developing countries, climate change is only one of the problematic problems, such as hunger, water and pollution, and energy. Available resources adaptation to the climate is limited. Adaptation activities are closely related to development, which should be taken into account in the assessment of adaptation options. The challenge for Pakistan is to find opportunities for sustainable development with its strategies which make climate-sensitive areas flexible for climate change.

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Recommendations

  • Natural resources efficiency
  • R&D for renewable resource development
  • Development of effective
  • Reducing the usage of fossil fuels
  • Reducing environmental degradation

Further read on what else a person can do to help save environment