Truck idling and the environment
We often get asked, why do your drivers leave the trucks idling when they leave the truck? This is an excellent question.
I have researched this internally and have asked our VP Ops to explain to me why this is the case.
Urban Impact’s fleet of diesel trucks are all turbo charged diesels. They are the cleanest combustion engines in the market place. When the trucks are working under a heavy load (carrying their cargo) the exhaust gas temperatures are very high (1000 degrees F), this is hotter then a barbeque! If these engines are shut down immediately after working hard (carrying their cargo) it may result in premature bearing failure (in the turbo charger) and this is a very costly repair (in excess of $10k). If the trucks have worked under load conditions, they need to run for approximately 5 minutes to cool down before they can be shut off. Urban Impact trucks all have anti idling technology. This means that if the temperatures have decreased enough to be warrent shut off, the truck does so automatically if they are in Park.
The Hybrid truck that we put into operation in August of 2009 is the ultimate anti idling machine. This truck can work (while parked) on its Hybrid battery. We have tested and measured the results of the Hybrid’s performance and are very pleased with the results. The Hybrid truck consumes 50% less fuel then its equivalent counterpart. In addition the truck engine hours are 50% less then its counterpart. This is a remarkable “savings” and achieves a remarkable improvement in its impact on the environement. The Hybrid truck we employ works best in an urban or dense client setting, the benefits are not achieved in a more rural or driving style route.
Urban Impact hopes to move all office paper and shredding trucks to Hybrid technology in the next 4 years.
Reducing plastic bag consumption
I keep thinking about this plastic bag issue. Last night I was in Shopper’s Drug Mart and for the first time the cashier asked if I would like a plastic bag before just assuming and bagging up all my items. She told me that they now in fact charge 5 cents a bag. My mother was quite flustered by this saying that the only reason they charge is to cover their costs for the bags. I disagree.
So my question is: Does charging for each bag reduce consumption?
Humans have a funny nature of thinking twice when there is a price attached. Whether 5 cents or $20, people tend to think more when they are being charged. I think charging for bags can help reduce consumption in 2 ways. 1. People want to spend less and therefore use less bags 2. Retailers aren’t just assuming that you NEED a bag, and asking which makes the consumer think “do I really need a bag?” . With any hope, consumers will give their head a shake and realize it’s not that hard to bring a reuseable bag and with any luck cut back the drastic over consumption of plastic bags. My hopes is to eliminate the use of plastic shopping bags all together!
Here are some shocking facts on Plastic bags: http://www.greenerfootprints.com/plasticbagfacts/
The Film “Clean Bin Project”
I took my 8 year old daughter with me to go see the Vancouver premier for The Clean Bin Project. This is the 2nd time I have seen the film in less than 3 days, and I am happy to report I enjoyed it as much the 2nd time as the first.
Grant and Jen who are in the documentary (Grant is the producer) bring a wonderful amount of energy and enthusiasm to their commitment to zero waste for one year. The project set out on a very simple quest: 1. to produce no (or virtually) no garbage for one year and 2. other then food, buy nothing for one year and 3 (more importantly) Grant and Jen were competing with each other to see who could create the least amount of waste. I won’t give it away who won, but I can tell you it is amazing and admirable how little garbage they created or needed to create when they put their minds to it.
It certainly would take a considerable effort to get my family to no waste. With four kids under 8, the consumption habits are prohibitive and to reason with a child that no new toys should be acquired would be tough, for sure. My 8 year old was asked what she thought about the movie? Her response was very sweet and painfully honest “I enjoyed it a lot, but thankfully mummy is not making us live zero waste!” She got it, zero waste means no stuff, for her.
One of the painfully realistic things about zero waste, you do have to consume less in order to try and achieve “it”. A tough change for our society. One that I am trying to make.
I am not sure if I can achieve zero waste right now, but I am going to try and get it to 90% at home and at work. Stand by for results!
RCBC Conference 2010 at Whistler
Many positive thoughts on the RCBC conference @ Whistler Westin Hotel. By the way, if you decide you don’t need your room tied or cleaned, the Westin will donate $5 to www.carbonneutral.com, seems like a reasonable gift in lieu of making my bed and replacing 1 day old practically unused towels.
In any event, the most postive experience yet (other then Urban Impact winning the Private Sector award – yeah!) was meeting Grant Baldwin and Jenny Rustemeyer a couple who lived waste free for 1 year. Can you believe it? Amazing and inspirational. The premier of the film is tomorrow at the RCBC Conference and the Vancouver Premier is on Saturday May 29 @ Granville 7 Cinema.
The movie trailer: http://www.vimeo.com/3301133
Their website: http://cleanbinproject.com/
I admire and applaud what they have done!
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