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Sustainability performance 2023

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So how did I do last year?…well, better, but still not good enough.

On a personal basis, I am relatively content. I dramatically reduced automobile usage in 2023, converting to train for several trips that I would have driven prior, as well as reducing the overall volume of travel. Lots of video conferencing and only two airplane voyages last year – Morocco and Rome for the IGS ICG. My indication of success is that I have zero frequent flyer status with any airline and the two flights I did take were offset with carbon credits. My consumer choices were also much improved: re-use of items is up dramatically, I am a regular at several brocants (resale stores) and buy very little “new” stuff. That which I do buy, I scrutinize, primarily for transport – no more out of season fruits and vegetables transported overseas in container ships. Buy local whenever possible, even if it costs more. My personal recycling also remains quite high – My waste stream is over 50% heading to the recycling bins, not the landfill/incineration pathways. Composting has increased as well.

On the negative side, I still travel by car for a great number of things, short distances but using the car every other day or so. I should measure how much gasoline I buy each year to see if I am really declining, or if I am kidding myself.

While I am not content, my answer to the question “What if the whole world lived as I do?” has certainly gotten more reasonable. I continue to balance my consumption with efforts within my industry to provide positive environmental benefits. Having stepped down from the chair, I continue to serve on the IGS Sustainability committee and I have accepted a leadership position with FedIGS https://geoengineeringfederation.org/ supporting their sustainability efforts there. I have expanded my work area to include sustainability and life cycle analysis calculators and software and am working with multiple clients in this arena.

I promise to keep at it!

2022 Sustainability review – Boyd Ramsey

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At the end of 2022, I feel compelled to spend some time and words on my personal sustainability progress this year.  A bit of good news is that this topic tends to be in the forefront of my thoughts and my conscious decision making, at least more so than in the past years.  I still have not applied specific metrics – this is a fault, but I’m not certain how large of one. 

From my (admittedly likely incorrect) perspective, I have improved a bit.  Not enough, but a bit.  Automobile usage is down considerably, which I consider to be one of my largest opportunities for impact.  My consumer choices continue to reflect my desire to improve sustainability – generally less and less of those items that are just indefensible.  No more fruit from South America, disposable plastic sacks, etc. etc.  I think I have improved in the area of re-use.  There are many items that now serve three or four functions before finally ending up in the recycling bins and my volume of plain household waste is down significantly.  I have failed in personal composting – with my volumes and type of organic waste, it just did not work.  I am hopeful for a community composting program and participated in a site selection meeting to support it, but it has not been realized as yet.  All of my airline voyages (only 3 big trips this year, so less…) have been offset by charitable / CO2 balancing contributions, but I don’t feel that has a big impact.

On the positive side, I remain proud of my work and my industries movement towards greater sustainability and less environmentally unfriendly behaviors.  More policy publications by client companies and a general increase in the industry recognition of the importance of this area.  However, there is clearly more work to do.  ‘

I remain plagued by what is described in one of my book recommendations as “Prognostic Myopia“.  (If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity, chapter 7, by Justin Gregg.)  I know and realize that individual actions and behaviors are not sustainable, yet I do them anyway…. Sigh, I suppose if we humans did exactly what we were supposed to all the time, we would be very boring. 

In any case, better this year than last and I will continue my efforts.

Sustainability update #5

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I continue to extend my efforts in personal (and industry) sustainability.  I have made a second trip to Australia and again offset my CO2 emissions.  I write this from a hotel in the USA on my third and likely final trip of the year.  I continue to struggle with the conflicting need to “physically see my customers” and what I can do to reduce my impact on the planet.  There is not an easy fix for this, but I will continue to use video conferencing to the greatest extent possible.   On a personal front, my “consumption level” is down considerably.  Much use, nearly exclusively, of public transport.  On this trip to the USA I will not rent a car and I believe in retrospect humans will view the personal automobile as a source/symptom of many of our environmental problems.    I continue to believe in the sum of all our small personal choices – recycling levels, minimization of useless packaging, consideration of transportation distance and impacts in purchase selection, there are many more things influencing my personal choices these days.   Of course, this is hard to see the evidence of on a daily basis, but I remain committed to the principle.

On the industry front, it is easier to see progress.  I remain very proud of the geosynthetic industry, but we need to, and are doing more.  I hope that the sum of all the contributions makes enough of a positive effect.

Ramsey sustainability activities (Update 4)–May 2022

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I continue to make efforts on the sustainability front, in multiple ways, some very small, but some more significant. One of the largest environmental/sustainability impacts I have made recently is a flight (and upcoming return) from Paris to Brisbane to attend an Australian chapter IGS conference event and make other client calls. I recognize my past history of lots of air travel as being a negative impact to a sustainable planet. It is my hope that the “good” value that I bring with my efforts on geosynthetics helps to balance this, but I feel that I need to make a more direct adjustment. I have looked through several on-line “flight impact” calculators and the results indicate my contribution to the flights emissions is roughly 14,585 Kg of CO2 with an appropriate financial amount of 377 AUD. To that end, I have made a charitable contribution to an Australian organization for that amount. I state this not as boasting, but acknowledgement that I and we all, need to do a better job of understanding and accepting the broader costs and impacts of our actions – the singularly capitalist economic model does not seem to be doing this sufficiently well. The concept of EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_producer_responsibility should guide individuals as well as manufacturers. I am trying to “walk the walk” as well as “talk the talk”.

Ramsey assumes IGS Sustainability Chair, publishes cover article – Geosynthetics Magazine

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The first week of April 2022 was a busy time on the sustainability topic with two important events. An article, authored by Boyd Ramsey was the cover article of the April issue of Geosynthetics Magazine – an IFAI/GMA publication. The article is linked here: https://geosyntheticsmagazine.com/2022/04/01/geosynthetics-and-sustainability/ The article summarizes the geosynthetics industries positions, with interviews with several industry notables and a call to our industry to continue to improve. Geosynthetics are well positioned as sustainable materials, they provide benefits that are not only economic, but sustainable in all key regards: energy savings, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, durability and total [life-span] analysis. They also deliver sustainable outcomes for communities through water preservation, prevention of coastal erosion, avoidance of pollution and more resilient infrastructure. As manufacturers, our industry needs to further improve – environmetnal and sustainability statements and goals, operational and environmental impact improvements all are independent of the benefits of the materials themselves.

Further to this effort, I have accepted a position as co-chairman of the IGS Sustainability committee along with my esteemed colleague, Preston Kendall. I look forward to working with Preston and the other committee members who are working hard to support and defend our industry on this front. Geosynthetics have an extremely positive environmental and sustainable impact, we need to further communicate and support the contributions of our products.

Additional information can be found on the IGS webpage – https://www.geosyntheticssociety.org/sustainability/

Ramsey sustainability update #3

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In keeping with the theme that small changes can make a difference, here are some of the efforts I plan for 2022.   First, and probably the most impactful is tracking and reducing the number of automobile miles that I travel as well as other modes of transportation.  I assume the train and public transport are “good” events.  Since covid, I have not taken any air flights, although I realize that I have a huge history of air travel that I need to balance.  But car travel is likely my largest contributor to “unsustainability”.  I have made some other changes: Switching from my beloved diet coke in cans and bottles to a SodaStream system that really tastes the same and has much lower transportation and recycling impact and complications.  I have begun to request recycling at the hotels where I stay and lacking that service at the hotel, I am carrying my own recycling to the collection points – not as difficult as it sounds, France has “déchetteries” all over the place.  And a continuation of home composting of organic matter. 

Ramsey Sustainability Update #2 – Golf and Cars

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One of my hobbies is golf – a wonderful game. (Not quite tennis, but better suited for my age.) However, a golf course can be very environmentally unfriendly: chemicals particularly but also energy consumption,, etc. The FFG (France Federations de Golf) has a broad program on making golf courses as environmentally benign as possible, reducing use of chemicals and operating in a much more sustainable fashion. The program is linked here: https://www.ffgolf.org/Transition-ecologique. So I have joined a club that participates in this program – one benefit, and is also geographically much closer – a reduction in car/Uber miles. Perhaps the second benefit will be greater than the first, but we will have to see. In any case, I encourage my golfing friends and colleagues to consider this theme.

Ramsey Sustainability Changes Update #1

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While working on my personal sustainability metrics, I have read several items that have prompted me to act immediately. One of the reading themes is that our personal consumer choices are an important driver for sustainability. Individually, all the choices are small, bur cumulatively they add up to make significant impacts.

So a couple of immediate changes. I have moved over to a product called “Sodastream” several months ago. Much like the transportation reduction with geosynthetics vs. natural materials, this system drastically reduced transportation volumes for carbonated beverages. You move gas cylinders and concentrated solutions, not cans and bottles of bulky and cumbersome (environmentally inefficient) soda. I am on my 5th gas cylinder and will no longer purchase Diet Coke and carbonated water in bottles.

Organic waste to landfills is another area where I can have immediate impact – I have begun, and will continue composting of organic waste and will begin to lobby for a community composting facility and iniative.

Again on the consumer side, I have made 5 or 6 brand changes to move to more sustainable packaging consumption – concentrated products and those with reusable packaging.

We all have to do our parts and this is a very little bit, but every little bit helps – at least I hope so.

Metrics for sustainability objectives – Program goals

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There are several levels to the human race’s changes to achieve a sustainable environment and behavior. It starts, as many things do, with a goal. That goal is presented, within this site, on my page titled “Environmental & Sustainability Policy”. But while have as goal is necessary – as Peter Drucker stated ” “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”, so step two is metrics – How and what do I plan to do in support of my personal sustainability goals and how am I doing in meeting the goals? This section of my website will contain that.

As this is the first posting, the metrics will follow…things that are on the table for personal consideration right now, in no particular order: degree of recycling contributions, waste to landfill minimization, if/when travel resumes – how to balance flying, automobile ownership and usage, personal water conservation., composting, how to play more responsible golf, and more to come…

From a business perspective, serving as an industry resource for sustainability efforts, participation and support of the IGS Sustainability Committee, preparing my/our industry to address the “plastics problem” and more…

So my pledge is to complete more specific goals and metrics and list them here by the end of 2021. I hope you and your company do the same.