Issue 1/2013. PipeLine

Transcription

1 Issue 1/2013 PipeLine Environment and Safety at h 1 OHSAS ensures highest safety and optimum health protection for h Employees 2 h Australia is the only pipe supplier Down Under to sell carbonneutral pipes 3 h Calls Environmental Protection by its Name: ISO Selected Green h Projects 6 Green Talk with Victor Vladimirov, h Environment and Energy Expert 8 h - Protecting the Environment throughout the Entire Product Life Cycle OHSAS ensures highest safety and optimum health protection for h Employees You can t make an omelet without breaking eggs. And you can t do work of any sort without potential safety hazards. We are fully aware of our responsibility and see it as our duty to reduce these hazards to a minimum and to create an optimum environment in which our employees can be safe and productive. Within the HOBAS Group, we follow the international standard OHSAS (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) 18001, which defines the organization and structure of a safety and occupational health management system. OHSAS provides a comprehensive system to improve planning, implementing and monitoring the legally required work safety measures in order to sustainably reduce accident risks. In combination with ISO 9001 and 14001, OHSAS provides HOBAS with an extensive and standardized management system in the areas safety, quality and environment. Within the scope of the OHSAS certification, potential safety hazards are systematically identified and minimized. Among other things, each HOBAS Plant creates a manual, conducts a risk analysis and appoints a safety administrator. At the beginning of the year, HOBAS Germany was certified to OHSAS by TÜV SÜD. Within the next months, the HOBAS Factories in Romania and Poland are going to be certified, too. The other production plants will follow. It is important to us to prevent accidents and to offer our employees sustainable health protection, says Victor Vladimirov, expert for energy, environment and safety issues of the HOBAS Group. As an international company it is our responsibility to meet high industrial standards. Thanks to the OHSAS certification we can provide our customers with even better service. If you have any further questions regarding the 18001, please send an to victor.vladimirov@hobas.com.

2 h PipeLine Issue 1/2013 Page 02 h Australia is the only pipe supplier Down Under to sell carbon-neutral pipes HOBAS Australia is actively minimizing the company s carbon footprint by taking part in the NoCO 2 Certification program of the Carbon Reduction Institute. Despite not being subject to the new carbon tax the government introduced for large CO 2 emitters in July 2012, HOBAS thereby addresses its climate change action and the company s declared aim, which has already become a widely acknowledged success: offering carbon-neutral HOBAS Pipes as a certified Low Carbon -Company. We assessed the carbon footprint of HOBAS Pipes by means of a Greenhouse Gas emissions analysis, which was verified by the Australian Carbon Reduction Institute. Through the Institute s NoCO 2 Certification program we are measuring, reducing and offsetting our climate change impacts through a variety of carbon offset programs, says Andrew Holman from HOBAS Australia. The carbon footprint study was conducted by the principles included in PAS 2050:2011 a publicly available specification originally published in 2008 as the world s first framework methodology for product carbon footprinting, which is built upon ISO 14040/44 standards and provides a method for assessing the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. The respective project offsetting calculations are performed according to international standards, e.g. the CDM Gold Standard. By supporting different offset programs, HOBAS Australia makes up for the emissions created in pipe production, packaging and transport by helping to reduce emissions in another place, eventually selling carbon-neutral pipes on a project-to-project basis. At this point, HOBAS Australia is the only pipe supplier on the Australian market to provide this service. Currently, HOBAS supports two projects: The building of an environmentally friendly biomass plant in the Indian state Chhattisgarh, as well as a program for reducing deforestation and improve living standards in Cambodia. We are therefore not only reducing carbon emissions but are also supporting communities in developing countries. Being involved in both community-based and environmentally based initiatives, we are successfully attracting the interest of government bodies and private organizations, says Holman. To Australian water authorities, HOBAS offers a special treat : Whenever they purchase pipes from HOBAS, the company is not only offering carbon-neutral pipes but is additionally giving 1 % of the earnings to Water Aid an international non-profit-making organization which works to improve the water supply and discharge of sanitary waste in developing countries. Fmd: holman.andy@globalpipe.com.au

3 h PipeLine Issue 1/2013 Page 03 h Calls Environmental Protection by its Name: ISO ISO is the world s most recognized framework for environmental management systems. Implemented in numerous countries from Argentina to Zimbabwe, it helps organizations to both manage better the impact of their activities on the environment and to demonstrate sound environmental management. The challenges companies all around the world have to face nowadays are by no means just economical: Protecting the environment, reducing the carbon footprint and fighting climate change are issues that considerably contribute to the sustainability of a business. HOBAS is continually striving to improve the company s environmental performance and therefore adopted the ISO several years ago. After the certification of HOBAS Pipe Austria and HOBAS Engineering Austria in 2009, all HOBAS Production Facilities around the world have committed themselves to meeting the standard s requirements. The requirements and implementation of the ISO are audited once a year, and every three years a re-certification audit is performed by the TÜV SÜD Organization. Since the system has been implemented, HOBAS Organizations have been actively working on embedding environmental protection in the pipe design and selection of raw materials, the production process, pipe transport and installation as well as the everyday lives of all HOBAS Employees. The measures to do so are manifold: Pressing waste to fit more of it into a container and thereby reduce transports and costs, systematically separating and recycling garbage, reducing styrene, dust and noise emissions, increasing work efficiency and safety. The certification to ISO is already included in a few project tenders. In Austin, Texas, a wastewater tunnel crossing under Lady Bird Lake had to be extended to prevent sewer overflow and provide additional capacity for future expansions in the Austin downtown area. The main reasons the city of Austin chose HOBAS Products for the implementation of this project were the pipes corrosion resistance, long service life and the ISO certification. 5,600 m HOBAS Gravity Pipes ranging from DN 1400 to 2300 were successfully installed in a depth of 15 to 24 m. In addition to HOBAS Pipes benefiting the environment, HOBAS Pipe USA is an environmentally friendly company. The ISO certification reaffirms our commitment to the environment, says Victor Rivera, Area Manager for HOBAS Pipe USA. Year of construction 2010 to 2012 Construction time 2 years Total length of pipeline 6 km Diameter DN Pressure class PN 1 Stiffness class SN Installation method Microtunneling Application Wastewater Client City of Austin Contractor SAK Construction Advantages Corrosion resistant, long lifetime, leak-free Fmd: info@hobaspipe.com

4 h PipeLine Issue 1/2013 Page 04 Environmental Awareness Around the Globe Selected Green h Projects Strict environmental constraints had to be respected for the renewal of a sewer discharge in the protected area Hexbachtal, in Austria. In constant consultation with ecologists HOBAS Jacking Pipes were installed with minimal impact on flora and fauna. At the waste incineration plant of Linz AG, 650 meters HOBAS Pipe DN 1200 mounted to a steel structure make sure that waste air is safely and environmentally soundly brought from fuel storage to the power plant. HOBAS SewerLine Pipes have been utilized to renew heavily damaged sewer networks in coastal areas and harbors without influencing tour- ism or inhabitants for many decades. With the installation of corrosion resistant HOBAS Products the most beautiful beaches in the world have been step by step protected from being flooded despite the aggressive sea water. In order to improve the quality of the Venetian lagoon and to protect it from future pollution, the local government launched an extensive masterplan. A part of it is a sea outlet for which HOBAS Pressure Jacking Pipes D e 1720, PN 6, SN have been installed beneath the Lido sandbar.

5 h PipeLine Issue 1/2013 Page 05 To make sure that untreated water is first clarified at a treatment plant before it reaches the Vistula river, HOBAS Jacking Pipes DN 3000 have been installed beneath Warsaw. Thanks to trenchless installation instead of open dig 376,734 tons of CO 2 could be saved. Pumps were not necessary thanks to the smooth inner surface of HOBAS Pipes the inhabitants as well as the environment can be glad about the energy savings. More than 7 km of HOBAS Pipe DN 300 to 1400 and about 200 HOBAS Shafts have been utilized for the safe discharge of storm- and wastewater of the newly erected ferry harbor Zadar. Not many materials can withstand the rough conditions at the Adriatic coast (sea water, partly railway crossings, laying pipes with divers under water, but also above ground installation). HOBAS succeeded with flying colors and there is nothing that stands in the way of a flourishing tourism, fisheries and shipping. Nested inside each other HOBAS Pipes travelled all the way from Germany to Melbourne. In a residential area with high groundwater they were installed swiftly and trouble-free in difficult soil for the discharge of sanitary sewage from the northern part of the city.

6 h PipeLine Issue 1/2013 Page 06 Green Talk with Victor Vladimirov (VLV) Environment, Energy and Safety Expert of the h Group How do you see the global developments regarding environmental awareness? VLV: The complete society including more and more companies is increasingly aware that each of our choices impacts the environment. Everyone is responding with growing care as well as better environmental performance and particularly municipalities are a lot more aware of their responsibility in this area. In some parts of the world they have begun requiring proof from companies regarding their environmental performance a pre-requisite for winning a job. In the Netherlands, for instance, proof for environmental achievements is partly given more importance than the price. Australia is another environmentally aware role model, particularly regarding the reduction of carbon emissions and some states in the US request certificates such as ISO (see page 3). Authorities around the world will be tightening legislation step by step; they are obliged to by the social progress. How has HOBAS been reacting? Which developments have you observed since you started working for HOBAS in 2008? VLV: We can be proud to say that we are part of the cutting edge in our market sector. Meanwhile all of our factories are ISO certified. The first implementation of ISO was launched in 2008 at the production plant HOBAS Austria and we received our certificate from TÜV SÜD about a year later. At the time, only 16 % of players in our industry in Europe and the US were ISO certified. When we repeated this study in 2010, more than a quarter had the certificate, so you can observe an increase here. The more authorities ask for this kind of proof the more this trend will of course increase. However, there are other environmental activities HOBAS pursues such as the product life cycle analysis and carbon footprint which are not required for the ISO but complement it very well. Examples are, for instance, the project calculation for Czajka, a trenchless project in Poland, or carbon neutral pipes in Australia (see page 2). It should also be mentioned that HOBAS is involved in standardization work in Europe since the standards for these calculations are still to be fully established in order to make values comparable. You mentioned that HOBAS is putting effort into many environmental areas, where is the group particularly active? VLV: There has been a lot of development in waste management. First, HOBAS attaches a lot of importance to employee trainings and workshops, and then we have reevaluated our existing waste management partners and have also put new ones in charge to optimize for instance recycling. A good example for this is recycling waste oil at the HOBAS Plant in Houston, Texas. The management always follows everything very closely and introduced a corporate Waste Report which spurs us to continue reducing waste in production step by step.

7 h PipeLine Issue 1/2013 Page 07 Then there is energy management: Once we had implemented ISO in the whole group, we took a closer look at energy consumption. We established an Energy Report which showed us where we could reduce the consumption of resources such as gas, water, diesel and electricity. Some of our factories have invested in new equipment such as a brand new regenerative thermal oxidizer at HOBAS Germany. Closed cycle process water systems have been introduced at the factories to reduce water consumption. Apart from this, we are looking into live energy monitoring systems which will tell us the status of consumption any point in time and which notifies us if there are irregularities that need to be tended to immediately. The HOBAS Group consists of many organizations in different countries, how do you decide on environmental measures? And why is investing in environmental protection so important to HOBAS? VLV: HOBAS is a business and has to secure its standing in the market just like any other business, of course there has to be some sort of economic benefit for the companies taking environmental measures. There needs to be balance between increased efficiency as well as adapting to an increasingly environmentally aware market and environmental concern per se. It s a win-win situation, really, in which we reduce our costs and protect the environment. At HOBAS Austria, for instance, we have invested in a new waste shredder and the shredded waste is subsequently used as fuel at the neighboring cement factory. This was a big investment that increased efficiency and fulfilled the requirements set by Austrian legislation. Which brings me to the point of environmental management on group level: We coordinate the group s goals while each factory sets its own targets in regard of local specifications and regulations. These targets are followed up annually and discussed with the TÜV SÜD auditors. And since the ISO is integrated with ISO 9001, environmental as well as quality measures and targets are always under the close attention of the management. How environmentally friendly are HOBAS Products compared to competitive materials? VLV: Our pipes have quite some advantages compared to other materials regarding environmental care. They are relatively light and are therefore more easily transported, their compact walls result in less excavation material and smaller equipment for the installation. HOBAS Products can also be installed via trenchless technologies with comparably low jacking forces. There is little maintenance and the products provide a long service life. Moreover, the pipes inherent characteristics such as a very smooth inner surface result in less pumping energy in pressure systems and more output for green energy sources such as small hydropower plants. All of these factors prove beneficial in terms of the product life cycle (see life cycle analysis page 8) and at the same time save costs. What plans does HOBAS have for the future how is the group going to proceed? VLV: From 2008 to 2012 we experienced a profound change in how we perceive environmental care, on what we do, what employees do and how they act. If you take HOBAS today and compare it to 4 years ago you ll see tremendous development in reporting and implementation of measures. You can see how seriously the topic environmental care has been taken. What started with a few people attending the audits which now may involve 20 people of a company or more one can literally see how we have shared responsibility and grown in this respect. Next we will increase our focus on safety topics, with HOBAS Germany being the first ever HOBAS Plant to receive the prestigious Occupational Health and Safety OHSAS certification from TÜV SÜD. Fmd: victor.vladimirov@hobas.com

8 h PipeLine Issue 1/2013 Page 08 h Protecting the Environment throughout the Entire Product Life Cycle As a producer of glassfiber reinforced plastic pipe systems, HOBAS is committed to optimally protecting the environment in every phase of its product s life. Potential impacts of HOBAS Products on the environment are systematically analyzed by means of a life-cycle assessment (eco-balance): from the production of raw materials and pipe manufacture to transport and subsequent installation of the pipe systems. Pipe design and raw materials HOBAS Products are tailored to customer specifications and environmental protection is ensured through a certified environmental management system. The carefully chosen raw materials are subjected to strict quality control. Production In production, minimizing resources and waste are given top priority. The electronic programming of the production equipment precisely controls the amount of material inserted during the various phases of production. Furthermore, a large part of the thermic energy used for the production process is recycled. Application of HOBAS Pipes Compared to other pipe materials, HOBAS Pipes are relatively light in weight and have a comparably small outer to inner diameter ratio. For transport the pipes can be nested, meaning that smaller diameters are inserted into larger diameters, which results in lower CO 2 emissions and transport costs. Thanks to their longevity as well as their corrosion and abrasion resistance, HOBAS Pipes offer a reliable service life and minimum maintenance. We are continuously implementing measures to improve the environmental compatibility of HOBAS Products on all levels of the supply chain. In cooperation with other producers of plastic pipe systems, we are currently also developing a European environmental declaration (Environmental Product Declaration, EPD) for plastic pipe systems. This standard provides environmentally relevant information regarding a product s life cycle and makes it possible to compare single products. This increases the transparency of the market and will help our customers and business partners to evaluate and chose products and manufacturers with respect to environmental criteria in the future. If you have any further questions regarding the life cycle of HOBAS Pipe Systems please contact victor.vladimirov@hobas.com. E Engineering GmbH Pischeldorfer Str Klagenfurt Austria T F info@hobas.com