Minutes of Meeting – Sustainability Team

Green Spot “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. "
Albert Einstein 

Meeting No. 18
Attendees Chair: Gary Boschen; Edgar Camacho and Matthew Cheshire
Date 31 March 2009
Cc. Hussain Halai, Ilan El, Peter Rose, Craig Blanchard, John Budd, Sam Allen, David Chapman, Dominic Russo
Next meeting 28.4.09 10.00 – 11.30AM

Monthly Goal
This month’s goal is to focus on a few key case studies. Our team plans to provide input on the ANZ rollout program and the ANZ docklands Sky sign project.

An update of the team’s achievements will be presented to the company in our next Monday WIP.

Policy, Website and Marketing Statement
Matt has presented a draft to the team.

Matt to post the draft statement to the Blog for comments. Send to Kelvin for comments. Tailor material into a policy and website format. Matt to also check what is required for ISO accreditation.

Information register
Edgar will manage this ongoing. End goal is to link ideas into Brandscape – Establish a link for information into Brandscape. Eventually centralise all information and rating system.

Edgar to check/organise information on the server each month.

Diadem Sustainability Blog
It was suggested that this Blog should become the homepage on all the computers within the company. This will keep all the employees up to date with all the new findings from the team.

Gary to check with Andy to workout if we can include as a homepage or as a icon on the desktop Minutes from the meeting to be posted on the Blog.

Rating System
Key points are to gain metric results to show to our clients a rating for a design / project. Set up and run key projects. 5 Key areas – Establish Key areas and devise a simple system to calculate ratings. Ideas (Transport/design/materials/lifecycle/Carbon Emissions). Suggestions to set up check sheets for each material / element to allow for individual ratings to be calculated (These can easily be updated and completed by any trained staff). R+D best areas to address. Basic rating system to be developed through Microsoft Excel. Eventually transfer this into Brandscape once well established and worthwhile. Ideas to keep it simple. Start with a check sheet and evolve it from there. (Dominic added that it needs to be clear to illustrate the benefits to our clients).

Edgar suggested that a rating system should consider tangible things that will be easily be understood by the client. As an example, if a project is done with all the standard manufacturing and installation methods and procedures, this will be qualified as a job with no stars/ticks. A project that considers a substitute or environmentally friendly material will gain one star/tick. The option of offering a carbon offsets to our clients, an innovation in the production or installation process that will benefit the environment or any environmental consideration within transportation will add up the maximum score within this rating system. Other factors could also be considered for this rating system (refer to GBCA Course report in the server).

Carbon emissions from manufacture within our industry still needs more research due to its scale, specially if compared with the building and auto industry. Establishing the amount of CO2 produced by a single sign will vary depending on its size, weight, material used, manufacturing process and where this material comes from.

Supplier questionnaire
Dom to develop further and send out to suppliers. Encourage suppliers to have a environmental and waste management plan to increase our sustainability initiative. (Align with the questionnaire).

Gary to create a post on the Blog to enable supplier contacts etc to be added for issue of the questionnaire.

Carbon trading
Establish what this means through R+D. Define this and it’s impact on diadem.

Hussain to post Draft to the Blog ASAP for team review.

Blue sky projects
Any projects undertaken by the team need relevance to our goals and need to focus these on key areas of interest and tie into the rating system.

ANZ docklands; LED vs Neon (Matt to head up numerical analysis. Edgar to send information required). Edgar to provide a statement on the report with diadem’s commitment to sustainability. Comment on end of life cycle (Recycling by manufacturer?)

ANZ rollout; TBC. Gary to organise a meeting with the team and Dominic to determine how to best tackle this project.

Greenboard
See Blog.

New projects
Create an awareness that staff, are to come to ‘us – as a team (Sustainability)’ with any requirements for new projects, to seek information and share knowledge, prior to starting any projects with sustainable interest.

This will be achieved with the introduction of Diadem’s Blog.

Additional Ongoing items:
1. Diadem could provide maintenance guides with our products (Matt
2. Update RFQ/RFT template to include a sustainability section (Matt)
3. Update Design drawing template to include a sustainability section (Ilan)
4. Hussain to develop a simple report to demonstrate the benefits of the TAB job as discussed (Hussain)
5. Design to develop a case study as discussed last meeting http://www.greenflyonline.org. This should be included in the Blog (Ilan - Follow-up)
6. Sustainability team to receive alerts when new posts or updates are available in the Blog (Ilan)

Team to action items as required for above and present at our next meeting. Please nominate to me if you are able to tackle any of the Open items above prior to our next meeting.