Behaviour matters

Lately, I developed a habit. When I walk around the office, on every floor I visit I cannot help looking in the waste bins. I realize this might look weird. As some of you might associate this behaviour with someone looking for scraps of food.

I can assure you, in my case, it’s for a completely different reason. It’s out of curiosity. And I would like to explain this curiosity to you. I am wondering whether the different sorts of waste are disposed of in the correct manner. And sometimes I am suddenly busy taking out materials which are incorrectly disposed of and sorting them again. And then I ask myself: Why am I doing this?

How did I get this far? Well, because I believe we must save valuable materials from being wasted. In the stuff, we call waste is so much more potential. Perhaps that potential is hidden for the average person. Every time you dispose of waste and take care of sorting it the right way you create valuable resources of raw materials that can be reused.

The recent published IPCC report reaffirmed that measures are desperately needed to limit global warming. The premise of not allowing the Earth to warm more than 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 must be more than a goal, it is an absolute necessity to achieve this objective. Governments and large companies are powerful enough to limit large amounts of CO2 emissions. The Paris agreement goal is to halve emissions by 2030 to zero (net) in 2050.

To achieve this, we need to let go of the linear economy as soon as possible and invest in circular solutions. A circular economy is based on reuse and keeping raw materials in the cycle for as long as possible. According to the Circularity gap report reducing CO2 and circular economy reinforce each other. The road to a low-carbon future is circular.

SDG 13, climate action, is one of the focus sustainability goals for FMO, and circular operations is one of the strategic goals of Facility Management at FMO. Circular procurement is an important instrument for achieving a circular economy and can contribute to achieving this objective. The road to a circular economy is through purchasing; What you get is what you ask for and that applies just as well, on a macro as well as on a micro-level.

Marchall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher, and scientist once wrote: On Spaceship Earth there are no passengers; everybody is a member of the crew (…) everybody’s activities affect everybody else’.

Human behaviour is the main factor of uncertainty in the studies collected by the IPCC. That is about our activities and the choices we make, whether it concerns booking a flight or not, political choices or carefully separate waste and recycle materials. Everything you do has an impact. The recent announcement by the pension fund for the metal electronics (PME) that it has sold all fossil investments proves that it is possible to convert policy into action.

Facility management at FMO has already gone through many circular procurement processes. Some examples: We reduced electricity usage by installing LED light, and since 2014 we participate in a wind turbine which now produces 100% of our yearly electricity usage. The company bikes are recycled from discarded ones, and we lease recycled printing paper, which means the same amount of printing paper that comes in must go out through our secure paper bins. We encourage our suppliers to reconsider single-use packaging through our new procurement policy, where the supplier remains responsible for the disposal of those materials. Catering reduces waste by using a smart menu cycle that allows the use of leftover ingredients.

Catering also adopted the Zero Waste Office that was introduced by FM in 2018 with the aim to change our waste flows into raw material flows and thereby reduce the incineration of materials. By separating as much as possible, we can prevent valuable raw materials from ending up in an incinerator. Everyone's behaviour influences whether the Zero Waste objective is achieved.

Never think that you are just a minor player and automatically suggest that your behaviour has little or no impact on global warming. As IPCC puts it, our behaviour influences climate change and how warm it gets on Earth. Each individual can make a difference. Sorting your waste correctly is a good start.