Pollards ‘builds sustainability’ into the design process

What was considered as a good to have, is increasingly becoming a must have. And this rings true for organizations across the globe, especially as the conversation around topics such as sustainability, circular economy, and ESG metrices are gaining steam. Governments, environmental agencies, industry associations, among many others, are all moving to tackle this new reality of depleting resources, coupled with climate crisis, that we are faced with today. Everybody is thinking about it. Everybody is talking about it. Many are even doing something about it. What is missing, however, is bringing them all at the same table, says Dr. Trevor Thornton, a senior lecturer at Australia’s Deakin University. In an insightful conversation with Kamal Raj, who leads Solid Waste Management as part of the Green Initiatives team at Infosys, discussed with Thornton a range of topics from waste management, to circular economy. “It was Carl Sagan that said that waste is stuff that we are too stupid to use,” says Thornton, who believes that people across sections of the ecosystem, such as governments, businesses, industry associations and conservationists should work together to figure out how to actually manage waste better. “It was Carl Sagan that said that waste is stuff that we’re too stupid to use.” Thornton, who teaches at the Faculty of Science Engineering & Built Environment, School of Life & Environment Sciences, believes that at an organizational front some companies are looking at the aspect of circularity, and are realizing that this is the way of the future. “Some companies are saying that, yes, there is that environmental and social aspect of doing things. But they’re also realistic to know that there’s the economic benefits associated with it,” he says, adding that they are starting to use the principles of circular economy, and some are even entering…

Flint Group Packaging Inks, a global leader in the supply of print consumables and services to the packaging industry, has signed up to the HolyGrail 2.0 project that seeks to solve the complexities surrounding the recycling of post-consumer plastic packaging. Project HolyGrail was established in 2017 to speed up the transition to a global circular economy for plastics by improving recycling rates through more effective, high quality sorting of materials. In 2020, the second phase of the project, HolyGrail 2.0, was launched to open it up as a cross-value chain initiative with greater scale and scope. Partners involved in the project are exploring the viability of tagging packaging with unique, machine-readable codes to improve automated detection and sorting within current recycling systems. One technique being considered is to apply an optical code utilising digital watermarking technology. The watermark would be applied directly within the packaging artwork and printed onto the expanse of the printed package, usually in a repeatedly tiled manner. Paul Winstanley, Senior Director – Technology & Innovation at Flint Group Packaging Inks, commented: “HolyGrail 2.0 aligns perfectly with our vision to support the packaging industry achieve a circular economy by developing responsibly-built products and sustainable solutions. It made absolute sense to commit ourselves to working with the European Brand Association (‘AIM’), which is spearheading the project, and other HolyGrail partners, to further develop this technology that will significantly increase the recycling of plastic packaging. “Flint Group Packaging Inks can bring some unique capabilities and expertise to the project to drive the development of digital watermarking and coding. This includes our Global Innovation Centre where we can design supporting ink and coating technology and test full scale simulations of any proposed solutions.” One of the biggest hurdles to achieving high volumes of quality recycled plastics lies in the complexity…

Fugro has completed a geotechnical site characterisation, earthquake hazard and geotechnical vulnerability assessment for the Port of San Francisco’s multi-year, multi-billion dollar Waterfront Resilience Program. The work was conducted over a period of 3 years as part of a multi-hazard risk assessment (MHRA) to identify immediate and long-term hazards, such as those associated with earthquakes, flooding and sea-level rise. As the port’s lead geotechnical engineer for future programme phases, Fugro will use the MHRA inputs to develop and design optimal retrofit solutions for the port’s ageing seawall.