As humans evolve and the impact on our planet increases, we find new ways to describe the problem and the solutions we come up with. A term that may have popped up on your radar recently is &#;circular economy&#;. You might be tempted to think it&#;s a joking reference to the Australian (and world) economy chasing its tail, but it&#;s a lot deeper than that.
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It actually refers to &#;circular&#; business models that are helping guide new consumption patterns. This is important because, as global wealth increases, so too does our drain on our natural resources.
State of Green, a Danish not-for-profit, describes traditional consumption as a linear &#;take-make-dispose&#; model that has characterised industrialised societies for decades. While this model works well in times of economic growth, it has increased pressure on earth&#;s scarce resources.
New &#;circular&#; business models that challenge these traditional consumption patterns are on the increase. But, to be successful, the organisations that are front-footing this challenge first need to know what their current consumption of resources looks like. After all, as management guru Peter Drucker said, &#;If you can&#;t measure it, you can&#;t improve it.&#;
So, why is it so important to understand your business&#;s consumption of resources as you go through your operational life cycle? We call it &#;business consumption intelligence&#;. There are four main reasons:
iugis takes the consumption of resources very seriously. We understand that we will all be measured by the legacy we leave for future generations, so we&#;re doing something about it. We&#;re bringing data-driven solutions for food waste, hygiene and energy to businesses who care about where their food waste ends up, how safe their environment is for their staff and customers or how energy efficient their business is.
Why food waste management kicks off this conversation
Food waste is a big problem that is close to our heart. If you&#;ve read some of our other blogs, you&#;ll know that a third of all food produced ends up in landfill. C02-emitting trucks haul food waste to these landfills, polluting our atmosphere. And rotting food waste emits methane and discharges toxic leachate into our waterways.
In Australia, over five million tonnes of food ends up as landfill &#; enough to fill 9,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Around 35% of the average household bin ends up in landfill as food waste, costing our economy around $20 billion every year. We see similar horrifying statistics in other markets in which we operate.
Because of the cost and environmental impacts, we&#;re big advocates for aerobic food digesters, which operate much the same way as the human stomach. Businesses and large organisations in the hospitality, healthcare, schools and events industries are increasingly turning to food digesters as a better way of dealing with food waste.
Just like humans chew food and the stomach churns food through a process of digestion, food digesters first break food into small particles then continue the digestion process through a process of aerobic digestion. This is then discharged safely into the existing wastewater system.
One of the greatest benefits of digesters is that you not only get a view of your food waste compared with other waste when it is separated before entering the digester &#; you also get a dashboard that calculates your volume of waste.
Day in and day out, kitchen staff see how much food waste is going into the digester and watching the food waste tonnage growing. This business consumption intelligence sparks important and healthy conversations about the issue, which prompts sustainable practices that are vital to maintaining our planet&#;s health and wellbeing.
Creating a benchmark for success
By quantifying how much waste is generated, your business can get to grips with the extent of the problem and is empowered to act upon it. You can&#;t ignore or deny verifiable food waste figures being tallied up by a food waste digester.
A word of encouragement: Understanding your food waste &#; regardless of the number &#; is not a conversation to fear but to embrace. It can help you identify and address shortfalls in your processes and practices moving forward, which will save you money and prevent waste. This will help you and your team embrace and apply the concept of a circular economy.
Make data-driven decisions
A iugis digester will help you understand how much food waste was diverted from landfill and the impact you&#;ve had on the atmosphere by reducing the number of waste truck journeys, with the CO2 they emit and the fossil fuel they use. See an illustration of the level of detail in the screenshot of a dashboard below.
We find it incredibly rewarding when our clients tell us how their business consumption intelligence has grown as a result of this information. While we never set out to be educators in sustainability; we have by default because of the products we provide.
But it&#;s not just in the area of food waste that data is playing a key role in making business environments safer and healthier for customers and staff. Our UV-C disinfection system, Surfacide, disinfects rooms without the use of environmentally harmful chemicals.
Like the digester, it also provides a smart dashboard, which monitors cleaning time and effectiveness and lets you track the safety of your premises throughout the cleaning process. In the age of COVID-19, being able to track the efficiency and effectiveness of disinfection through a cloud-based portal is like gold; something manual cleaning processes can never offer.
Surfacide also saves time and cost; multiple emitters are placed in a room and through a process of laser mapping, all high-touch surfaces are disinfected. Depending on the size of the room, the process can be completed in as little as 5 minutes.
If you want to grow your business consumption intelligence in the area of food waste and/or disinfection, get in touch with our iugis team today.
This blog first appeared on the iugis website here.
What if your food waste could reduce your organization&#;s electric bill? It&#;s possible through a process called anaerobic digestion.
Anaerobic digestion solutions help companies, schools, and other large food waste producers save money while reducing their carbon footprints. However, this can be a complicated topic.
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That&#;s why we&#;ve created this guide. We&#;ll explore together how this form of sustainable waste management can help your organization thrive. Keep reading to learn more.
Most of us are familiar with the idea of composting food. But that&#;s not the only way to break down organic waste.
Anaerobic digestion is an alternative process through which organic materials are broken down to produce methane gas. Special systems turn that gas into energy sources such as biogas and electricity.
You&#;d need a piece of equipment called a digester. These take your food waste and turn as much of it as possible into usable energy. Any remaining waste becomes nutrition-rich liquid fertilizer.
Biogas is a renewable source of energy. It essentially comes from capturing the gasses created during the natural decaying process of organic matter. These gasses, if released directly into the environment, can harm the atmosphere. So, by capturing them, you can reduce your organization&#;s overall carbon footprint.
Biogas production is good for the environment, but it can also be great for your organization&#;s bottom line. There are several ways you may be able to benefit economically by embracing the process. We cover three examples below.
First, anaerobic digestion helps you reuse more of the organic waste you generate. The result may be a meaningful reduction in your waste management costs.
Next, you can use the energy you create through anaerobic digestion to power your operations. EcoRich makes digesters that simplify this process. These digesters can immediately recycle the energy you create to help power your facilities and, thereby, reduce your electric bill.
Anaerobic digestion also turns leftover food waste into usable fertilizer. If you have no need for that fertilizer, you can sell it to create a new source of revenue for your business.
Governments across the world incentivize organizations to use renewable sources of energy through tax credits. You may be able to qualify for these after adopting the practice of anaerobic digestion.
The exact amount of green energy incentives that you qualify for will depend on where your business is located. But the savings can be substantial &#; especially if you generate large amounts of organic waste.
Making the transition to anaerobic digestion can feel daunting when you&#;re just getting started. However, you can simplify it by breaking down the process into easily digestible steps. Check out our steps below.
The first question you need to answer is whether anaerobic digestion makes sense for your organization. Factors such as the amount of organic waste you generate and the market demand for biogas and fertilizer in your region can influence this.
If your feasibility study shows that your organization can benefit from anaerobic digestion, the next step will be researching options for technology. Factors that can impact the kind of digestor that&#;s right for you, include the:
If you had trouble zeroing in on the right type of digester in this step, feel free to skip ahead to the next step. A good technology manufacturer will always be happy to walk you through options based on your unique needs.
Once you understand the type of anaerobic digestion technology that you need, you can start looking for providers that offer it.
Be sure to choose a company that has a solid reputation in the industry, can provide references, and has a history of helping companies like yours make the switch to anaerobic digestion.
Even if you find the perfect anaerobic solution for your needs, it will still be important to monitor the performance of the solution as it operates. You&#;ll need to watch gas production, digestate quality, and other data streams to find new avenues for optimization as your needs evolve. This last step is critical because it helps you improve your return on investment over time.
Anaerobic digestion can save your organization money while reducing its carbon footprint. However, you may face various challenges while using this strategy.
For example, anaerobic digestion requires a significant upfront investment. If you can&#;t afford this, then don&#;t give up just yet. Funding opportunities and subsidized loans may be available in your area. This could qualify as a green investment your business is making.
You&#;ll also deal with technical complexity while setting up, operating, and optimizing your digestor. The solution to this problem is being thoughtful about partnering. That means taking your time to vet potential partners before you invest in a digester and ensuring that whoever you choose will be there to help every step of the way.
There can also be market uncertainty to deal with as the demand for biogas and organic fertilizers can change over time. You can overcome this by diversifying your revenue streams, fostering stronger relationships with stakeholders, and researching end users to better meet their needs.
Anaerobic digestion is an innovative way to reduce your organization&#;s costs while improving carbon footprint. Embracing this type of sustainability can also help you stand out from the competition to grow your revenue.
But anaerobic digestion is difficult to do on your own. It helps to have a partner you can rely on to guide you through the transition and then provide ongoing support. That&#;s where EcoRich comes in. Usually anaerobic digesters are for bigger volume waste, but EcoRich offers solutions for 400 lbs to lbs per day. Now smaller facilities can afford food waste to energy solutions.
We offer leading anaerobic digestion solutions combined with support from real experts. That could be just what you need to take advantage of this powerful emerging technology.
So why wait? Get in touch with an expert today to learn more.
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