ISO

Hi, I just found out that there is indeed such a thing as an environmental management ISO.

All the information reflected here can be found in the series of PDF files in this website

There is a segment on Business Benefits of ISO 14001, which might help us :)


Here's a small teaser on the overview of the ISO 14000 family (but it's quite blur :()
However I was wondering, is simply changing to paper bags strong enough a case for getting the ISO?

Here is a short case study.

Double A was given the ISO 14001 environmental management standard certificate in 1997 because of its impressive eco-friendly record.

- mill operations require huge amounts of water. Double A cleared land to create its own reservoir to store water during the rainy season. This provides all the water required for mill operations and also clean water to the Double A village in Prachinburi (Thailand) where the mill's workers live.

- While the bark of the tree is cut into wood chips for papermaking, the rest of the tree is also used as fel to provide electricity to run the mill and the village.

In short, Double A is kind of self-sufficient in mill operations.

I got all these information from the Lifestyle magazine Worldview section by Ambiga Raju.

Research - Alternatives to plastic bags (besides paper)

Source 1 - Planet Ark, daily guide to helping the planet

The ultimate aim of plastic bag alternatives is to reduce plastic bag litter and to save on resources. Plastic bags are very lightweight so each bag is not in itself resource intensive, however, Australians use over 6 billion every year.
Several independent analyses have concluded that using heavier duty, reusable bags saves on resources as less bags in total need to be produced - especially those bags that can be recycled at the end of their life.

Stronger carry bags, unlike the lightweight bags, are also less likely to be littered and, even if they are, they are unlikely to be transported into sensitive environments like oceans and rivers.

Polypropylene Bags

Polypropylene bags, like the 'Green Bags' seen in Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, are made from non-woven polypropylene that is manufactured from polypropylene gas, a by-product of oil refining. These reusable bags often have a solid removable base that is manufactured from nylon or PET.

Polypropylene bags can carry more shopping than plastic check-out bags, so shoppers use less. They are sturdy and designed to be reused repeatedly. They have a lifespan of up to three years and can be recycled.

Polypropylene bags reduce consumption (and therefore environmental impacts) of single use bags and may encourage customers to be more ‘waste-wise’ in daily life.

Calico Bags

Calico bags are made from cotton, which requires a lot of water resources to be grown. However, they can be reused and will hold more shopping than a plastic bag. The expected life span of a calico bag is 1 year.

Like polypropylene bags, calico bags reduce consumption (and therefore environmental impacts) of single use bags and may encourage customers to be more ‘waste-wise’ in their daily life.

Ezra and Breadtalk! Delegation of Missions!

Hi everyone,

I managed to contact Ms Chew Sin Ying, Breadtalk today (finally). Sandra tried umpteen times yesterday but was unsucessful. Ms Chew says that they have not reviewed our proposal yet and asked me when I needed a reply, and I replied if possible next monday? because it's a school project and we have deadlines to meet, and she said she would get back to me.

Which means our SL project will have to extend beyond Term 1, I know that most of us will have Research Module (RM) and the sports tournaments start Term 2, so we'll just put in our very best and we'll end SL with a bang!

Actually, we are already working quite hard. Thank you Zong He and Timothy, they have been calling so many companies to get quotations and whatnot :) Sandra too, she has been our secretary, drafting all our letters and also collating our investigation results :) and Cheryl for diligently writing down our minutes and also our first timeline :) Margaret for being ever so enthusiastic and getting our creative juices going (and coming up with so many ideas! )! Ganesh, for turning stale and boring meetings into fun ones and also attending every single meeting as of yet :)

Hopefully we can keep the enthusiasm going till the end of SL.

Now, we just need to prepare our presentation should Breadtalk be interested in our proposal. They must! They must!

Timo and ZongHe, can you two come up with quotations, measurements of the bags, and cost comparisons/long term savings, (possibly prototype?)

Margaret can you do some research and come up with a short summary, maybe around 1 slide worth of info, on paper being biodegradable and the like?

Cheryl, can you please try and think/research on other possible benefits for Breaktalk if they change from plastic to paper?

Sandra, could you summarise/collate the investigation results and analyse them? I think you have already done them, good job!

Ganesh, can you anticipate some questions that they may ask us and come up with answers?

and me, I'll collate everything and put them in a powerpoint. So.... can I have everything by, say one week from now, Thursday 9pm?

Thank you sooo much :)

Marjorie

minutes for 6th march

(we are currently waiting for sinying's reply regarding the email we sent her) the email was sent on friday 6pm, if she does not reply soon, we would call her on wednesday and enquire if she received it..

what we did today, during SL period:called up
- polar puffs
- old chang kee
- auntie anne's
- delifrance

only polar puffs replied (auntie anne's hung up half way while replying) and told us to send an email to huishin.ho@polarpuffs.com.sg. an email was sent promptly and she promised to reply the next day (tuesday.)

what we have to do: prepare a presentation of our proposal for breadtalk, when xinying replies with a meeting date.

proposal

hi, great work sandra!

just a few comments.

- shall we explicitly state that the project will be long term, since they asked?
- mention that paper is biodegradable will plastic is not.
-mention that we are in the victoria integrated programme and not just in vjc. (they might be more interested in hearing what we have to say)
- "All of us love BreadTalk as much as food loves salt." is it a bit exaggerated? maybe give real facts like we visit breadtalk at least twice a week. something like that
- mention the no. of breadtalk outlets after saying the estimated no. plastic bags used in a day to give the seriousness of the situation.

other than that i think its very good, especially how you fit in all the praises =D

margaret
marjorie