12th International Congress on Geosynthetics – Rome

In September, I attended the 12th International Congress on Geosynthetics, the flagship event of the International Geosynthetics Society. In addition to presenting a paper – “White Polyethylene Geomembrane: Forensic and Laboratory Evidence for Superior Durability” , co-authored with Adam Maskal of Solmax, I received an IGS Service Award, recognizing my contributions to the IGS.

It was also a very active event for the IGS Foundation – a video I produced recognizing the Foundation’s continuing donor is linked on the IGS Foundation https://theigsfoundation.com/ website and a second video announced the launch of the IGS Sustainability Calculator – an initiative I completed in my role as the IGS’s Sustainability committee co-chair. The video and other details can be found here: https://www.geosyntheticssociety.org/sustainability/calculator/ .

It was good to see many old friends and colleagues, including many from China, who sent a large delegation. Other activities included the Diversity initiative breakfast, a Foundation donors meeting and many other events.

Ramsey was to deliver Ethics lecture

I was scheduled to deliver my sixth ethics lecture and discussion at an FGI webinar in June. Unfortunately, the event was cancelled as I refused to accept edits to my presentation….well, shit!

Convicted? No, I was never convicted….

Ramsey 2023 Lectures

In th first half of 2023, I delivered lectures at the USA Geosynthetics Kansas City event and a Keynote lecture at the IGS Morocco chapter event held in Marrakesh. Both focused on barrier materials and advanced usage techniques. The Morocco event was held immediately following an Educate the Educators event held to instruct 21 Moroccan professors on how to add geosynthetic content to their universities curriculum.

Flight CO2 emissions were offset with the appropriate donations, but I continue to worry that this is not a sufficient balance and encourage more video conferencing and less physical travel. I realize that there is less impact via video than by “being there” but environmentally it may be “worth it”.

2022 Sustainability review – Boyd Ramsey

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.

Ramsey Australia travel and GeoANZ #1

I was very pleased to be in Australia for 2 months this year in June and July. The initial focus of my trip was my participation in GEOANZ #1, which was held in Brisbane. It was a very good event. In addition to the strong technical content, it was wonderful to see colleagues in person again and share conversation, meals, experiences and discussions. In addition to technical content on the longer lifespan of white geomembranes, Preston Kendall and I carried the banner for the IGS Sustainability Committee, making certain that all the participants were aware of the IGS Policy and the work the IGS is doing in this critical area. This was followed by regulator. customer and client visits throughout Australia including site visits and presentations on PFAS containment options and techniques. On the fun side, I was finally able to visit the Australian Great Barrier Reef – a lifelong goal that had been missed during my prior visits to Australia.

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

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 to travel (!) to Australia

Ladies and Gentlemen, Australian and NZ friends and colleagues,

I will consult for food….well, actually for money, but I promise to use the money to buy food! Assuming declining covid and open borders, I will be coming to Australia for a long visit, June 1 to July 15. I already have a plane ticket.

The primary purpose is to attend the IGS Australasian chapters conference event, GeoANZ #1 (link https://www.acigs.org/events/geoanz-1-advances-geosynthetics), in Brisbane June 7-9th, I would encourage you to attend. But in addition to that I offer geomembrane and geosynthetics expertise on a more specific basis. I am available for educational presentations, updates on the latest activities in geosynthetics and site visits. I can help you solve and understand your geosynthetic issues and problems.

My website is listed below, in case you wish to learn more about me. I would love to hear from you and look forward to seeing you’all in person and meeting people again!

Best regards, wear the masks and be safe.

Ramsey delivers “Ethics in Geosynthetics” lectures

Two webinars were held in December with two of the IGS chapters – IGS UK on December 1st (recording linked here: https://www.igs-uk.org/events/past-events/) and the IGSNA chapter on December 16th. Two comments on these – the first, my disclaimer that I include in each of these: I do not claim to be any more or less ethical than anyone else, I simply have “done the reading” of reviewing companies and trade group publications and websites for standards, both on ethics and on sustainability. One of the themes of the lecture is that ethics are usually a grey area and responsible, honest and ethical people often disagree on what should be done in a certain situation. Secondly, I think that we, as a human race, have not advanced philosophy and ethnics to the degree we should. We make major advances and changes in science, technology and the digital world, but we spend a vastly smaller amount of time and energy addressing and improving our priorities and standards. So this is my little contribution to fixing that…

Ramsey leads panel discussion on geomembrane durability – It’s not just OIT!

On November 23 (with a rebroadcast on November 30th) Boyd led a panel discussion on the “other” facets of geomembrane durability besides OIT. The webinar was sponsored by the IGS Technical Committee on Barrier Systems (https://www.geosyntheticssociety.org/committees/technical-barrier-systems/) and I was joined by Graham Fairhead of Fabtech and Catrin Tarnowski of Solmax. We discussed a broad range of topics including resin selection, masterbatch and stabilizer delivery systems, manufacturing quality and machine type/conditions, MQA/MQC inspection and testing and others. There is a great deal to consider when selecting a geomembrane for critical applications, and like any complex engineering task is is much more than just one property, event, test or action. Organization, long term record keeping and inspection and general good technical and business practices remain important.

Ramsey Fall 2021 speaking schedule

Your’s truly has committed to several virtual speaking engagements in the coming months. I will again present an updated version of the “Ethics in Geosynthetics” talk, once for the IGS https://www.igs-uk.org/ UK chapter (December 1) and in December for the IGS https://www.igs-na.org/ North America Chapter. I will be a lecturer at the Huesker GeoForum event, November 10 and 11th that is being organized by the Brazil and North American organizations – the topic there is a sustainability overview, Geosynthetic materials make a great contribution to sustainability, but the operation of our manufacturing industry and engagement with future recycling of both raw materials and finished goods could use some improvement.

Also, I will be hosting a mini-lecture and panel discussion at an event sponsored by the ISG Technical https://www.geosyntheticssociety.org/committees/technical-barrier-systems/ Committee on Barrier Systems. The topic is the durability of geomembranes, but the perspective is uncommon. Our industry spends lots of time, money and attention on OIT (Oxidative Induction Time) results, an important factor, however there are several other equally critical factors that we tend to ignore almost completely in industry discussion.