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

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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

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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

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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 sustainability update #3

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In keeping with the theme that small changes can make a difference, here are some of the efforts I plan for 2022.   First, and probably the most impactful is tracking and reducing the number of automobile miles that I travel as well as other modes of transportation.  I assume the train and public transport are “good” events.  Since covid, I have not taken any air flights, although I realize that I have a huge history of air travel that I need to balance.  But car travel is likely my largest contributor to “unsustainability”.  I have made some other changes: Switching from my beloved diet coke in cans and bottles to a SodaStream system that really tastes the same and has much lower transportation and recycling impact and complications.  I have begun to request recycling at the hotels where I stay and lacking that service at the hotel, I am carrying my own recycling to the collection points – not as difficult as it sounds, France has “déchetteries” all over the place.  And a continuation of home composting of organic matter. 

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

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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 Sustainability Update #2 – Golf and Cars

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One of my hobbies is golf – a wonderful game. (Not quite tennis, but better suited for my age.) However, a golf course can be very environmentally unfriendly: chemicals particularly but also energy consumption,, etc. The FFG (France Federations de Golf) has a broad program on making golf courses as environmentally benign as possible, reducing use of chemicals and operating in a much more sustainable fashion. The program is linked here: https://www.ffgolf.org/Transition-ecologique. So I have joined a club that participates in this program – one benefit, and is also geographically much closer – a reduction in car/Uber miles. Perhaps the second benefit will be greater than the first, but we will have to see. In any case, I encourage my golfing friends and colleagues to consider this theme.

Ramsey Sustainability Changes Update #1

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While working on my personal sustainability metrics, I have read several items that have prompted me to act immediately. One of the reading themes is that our personal consumer choices are an important driver for sustainability. Individually, all the choices are small, bur cumulatively they add up to make significant impacts.

So a couple of immediate changes. I have moved over to a product called “Sodastream” several months ago. Much like the transportation reduction with geosynthetics vs. natural materials, this system drastically reduced transportation volumes for carbonated beverages. You move gas cylinders and concentrated solutions, not cans and bottles of bulky and cumbersome (environmentally inefficient) soda. I am on my 5th gas cylinder and will no longer purchase Diet Coke and carbonated water in bottles.

Organic waste to landfills is another area where I can have immediate impact – I have begun, and will continue composting of organic waste and will begin to lobby for a community composting facility and iniative.

Again on the consumer side, I have made 5 or 6 brand changes to move to more sustainable packaging consumption – concentrated products and those with reusable packaging.

We all have to do our parts and this is a very little bit, but every little bit helps – at least I hope so.

Metrics for sustainability objectives – Program goals

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There are several levels to the human race’s changes to achieve a sustainable environment and behavior. It starts, as many things do, with a goal. That goal is presented, within this site, on my page titled “Environmental & Sustainability Policy”. But while have as goal is necessary – as Peter Drucker stated ” “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”, so step two is metrics – How and what do I plan to do in support of my personal sustainability goals and how am I doing in meeting the goals? This section of my website will contain that.

As this is the first posting, the metrics will follow…things that are on the table for personal consideration right now, in no particular order: degree of recycling contributions, waste to landfill minimization, if/when travel resumes – how to balance flying, automobile ownership and usage, personal water conservation., composting, how to play more responsible golf, and more to come…

From a business perspective, serving as an industry resource for sustainability efforts, participation and support of the IGS Sustainability Committee, preparing my/our industry to address the “plastics problem” and more…

So my pledge is to complete more specific goals and metrics and list them here by the end of 2021. I hope you and your company do the same.

Ramsey Fall 2021 speaking schedule

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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.

Boyd Ramsey presents Sustainability webinar for IGS North America chapter

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On July 20, 2021 I presented a webinar titled: Geosynthetics and Sustainability – How is our industry doing?

This webinar/presentation gives an overview of the activities of our industry and some organizations, with interviews and discussions with industry participants including: Jean-Louis Vangeluwe – Solmax, Dennis Grech – Geofabrics, Sam Allen – TRI Environmental, Richard Bathurst – Royal Military College of Canada, Steve Thaxton – Owens Corning and John Krause – Executive Director IGS. Our industries products make great contributions to the cause of sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals) , but we can improve on our manufacturing operations and our communication of the engineering benefits of geosynthetics. Some best practices were highlighted and improvement needs discussed. As a result of this event and the increasing importance of sustainability contributions, I have enacted am Environmental and Sustainability policy – it can be found here https://boydramseyconsulting.com/environmental-and-sustainability-policy-statement/.