Doha: Addressing environment and sustainability issues must be a top priority for companies. Using right procurement techniques will enable sustainability goals to be introduced in a way that delivers value for money, said an expert during a webinar held recently.
Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply organised a webinar supported by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) entitled ‘SME Procurement Strategies for the Future’ - focusing on sustainability, climate change, zero carbon. Harry Sealy, Global Technology Lead for Jacobs in Middle East for Sustainability and Climate Change and Environment & Sustainability Manager in Qatar since 2012, said “Environmental and sustainability issues should be number one priority. Sustainability should not cost you more, bad procurement does. And using the right procurement techniques to ensure a competitive, engaged, and competent supply chain will enable sustainability goals to be introduced in a way that delivers value for money.”
He pointed from Qatar’s perspective, a great work has been done by Ashghal in the last several years. Citing the Ashghal Recycling Manual – Guidance on planning and implementation of recycling and use of recycled materials, he said materials specially aggregates and reclaimed asphalt pavements (RAP) can be reused for the projects. The technique is based on milling old roads and recycling RAP materials in new asphalt mixtures, with the conservative use of gabbro and bitumen. RAP recycling has positive impacts on cost and the environment, with the potential use of 100 percent materials to improve aggregate supply chain and accelerate project completion.
Harry noted QDB’s Materials Recovery report 2017 documents all the work done in Qatar on recycling of various materials and the pathways which proved to be very important reference document for environmental management in the region. Segregation of waste at source is a major challenge facing solid waste management activities. The role of recovery and recycling of waste is linked to stage of waste management at which an item is captured and separated.
He also praised the sustainability team of Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) who make sure the sustainability is at the core of the designs of the FIFA World Cup 2022 stadiums, highlighting Ras Abu Aboud Stadium in West Bay, he said it is a marvel which is completely dismantlable as shipping containers are used for seating and other facilities. This is taking innovation in stadiums designing, construction and operation to a whole new level, he added. He discussed about the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organisation which is the driving force in the climate current trajectory towards increased global warming and how the Paris agreement is trying to keep it under 1.5 degrees of warming by the year 2100.
