Sustainability my journey….

Sometime in year 2016, while based in Singapore I was called upon by our regional head to have a short discussion. I had extensive exposure and experience in successful leading the change to transform the processes, and procedures to new global certifications for ISO9001, ISO14001, and then called OHSAS 18001. Preparation of the regional reporting for Asia Pacific offices for submission to the global office was part of my job. With this meeting, my official journey to learn more about sustainability started. ?

1.???? Reporting for the Asia Pacific offices:

During this discussion with my regional head, asked me to lead and coordinate the efforts for the Asia Pacific offices for sustainability inputs reporting. No one in our office had any clue what is all about and its requirements. I am sure, some of you have gone through similar experiences for new trends and technologies launched. Being always eager to learn new things, I was excited to take on this simple addition to my other day to day work load.

My first telecon with my global sustainability lead based in the United Kingdom made me aware of this new buzz word. That time sustainability was not as popular as today. Based on our brainstorming and discussions, we developed a format for reporting parameters for Singapore, and other regional offices. We agreed to have one appointed representative for each of the offices in the region. I was tasked to collate the report, review, and submit to the global sustainability lead on regular basis.

Report content was very simple with basic inputs on:

·?????? Electricity consumption, trends, set-up, lights auto-switch for non-regularly used areas such as toilets, corridors, staircases, etc.?

·?????? Water consumption, trends, saving devices, flushing system for the toilets, etc.

·?????? Type of air-conditioning systems, temperature control and set-up, zoning of the areas, etc.

·?????? Waste management, segregation of type of waste, paper usage, electronics waste, and disposal.

·?????? Number of employees trend, benefits, gender data, diversity, procedures, policiesregarding rights, labour practices, etc.?

·?????? Senior management engagement records with the office employees via townhall meetings, announcements, published information, etc.

In the beginning, it sounded too much of work and needed buy-in from every stake holders involved. Being in the regional position, I had opportunity to fly to various offices on regular basis. With clarity on what needs to be done, I took this new initiative to the other offices and got their alignment. Some of the inputs were not easy to gather for all the offices on time on monthly basis but we had an idea on how to manage it better in next few months. ?

That’s the beginning of the my involvement in the sustainability understanding and involvement in reporting. Later, I got opportunity to learn more and reach a point to contribute more through teaching at the universities, courses, workshops, and helping the organizations on the subject.

2.???? Education “improving employability”:

Since past two decades, I am always involved in delivering lectures, seminars, and trainings at the universities in Singapore as well as outside in the region. The main objective of this involvement is to “improve the employability of the graduates”.

I spent my personal time to prepare and deliver the various programs at various universities.

Brunei University O&G training program was initiated and developed by me in year 2013. This was a popular program delivered by the industry professionals and received highest level of attention by various parties. This program was also appreciated by the head of the state of Brunei.

This program was aimed to provide practical aspects of the various topics taught at the university such as:

·?????? Engineering (various disciplines).

·?????? Project Engineering.

·?????? Project Management.

·?????? Cost and Schedule Management.

·?????? Soft skills topics.

This program gave me another level of exposure and motivation to do more for the society in improving the education quality. There onwards, I started to get involved more in similar initiatives at other educational institutions too.

3.???? Capital Efficiency Model Development- Improve efficiency and productivity of chemical projects:

By this time in 2017, I had a good understanding and taste of doing something more in the direction of improving efficiency of energy systems, managing waste better, reducing pollution, and improving education quality. I had led quality and operational excellence projects in my career at Asia Pacific level.

?

One of the major clients from the United States requested us to develop a new program to improve efficiency and productivity of their upcoming mega project in Singapore. I was tasked to develop this new model to suit the operational requirements for Singapore project.

This newly developed program was aimed to review every aspect of the project on regular basis to unearth potential savings for cost, schedule, and environmental aspects with operations considerations:

·?????? Design phase of the plant facilities.

·?????? Procurement phase.

·?????? Execution phase.

·?????? Supply chain considerations.

·?????? Effective and efficient resources deployment.

·?????? Others.

After proposing the newly developed program, I was tasked to lead this initiative on the project through the execution. The program implementation was a big success and saved a quite good percentage of the total investment cost for the client through better management of design, resources, people, and policies.

4.???? Consulting:

I run my own consulting firm to provide guidance and help the clients around their new initiatives towards sustainable capital efficiency, cost savings, efficiency and productivity goals.

My involvement with the clients gives me opportunity to learn more by sharing. ?

5.???? Rewards:

The best rewards I got from my this journey is amount of learning in various field around various other topics to strengthen my expertise. A few are listed as follows:

1.???? Knowledge attained around sustainability. It is not a new topic to me anymore but still there is a lot to learn more.

2.???? Invited Speaker @ QS World Conference: invited speaker at the conference to speak about my work around education quality improvement.

3.???? World Economic Forum: my work around the education quality improvement was presented at the forum.

4.???? Invited to teach sustainability related topic at the universities.

5.???? Ability to understand importance and embedding sustainability topic in Project Management.

6.???? Driving sustainability in Design, Procurement, Execution of the projects.

7.???? Learned about GRI standards and

8.???? Learned about ESG Reporting.

6.???? Conclusion: never fear new horizons:

I was working out of my normal routine with positive attitude to learn something new in my life without knowledge of its importance in the sustainability framework. It was only recently I realized that my work performed in the areas of energy related reporting for the offices, contribution to the education field, and developing capital efficiency model fits so well in sustainability goals.

All of us are a certain phase of our life and sometimes feel less convinced to step out of our comfort zones. Based on my experiences, it is absolutely worth trying out something new and venture the opportunities it may offer. It is not always necessary for us to land into a successful path but at least we tried. Every journey is faced with unknown challenges and pains on the path less travelled but the rewards at the end are so motivating to get you going.

My journey of challenging myself beyond comfort zone has helped me to reach where I stand today. I have been enjoying the journey of my life towards sustainability, and ?????what about you?

Have you taken step forward to think of climate, environment, society, economy, etc.?

I am sure some of you are thinking the same or already taking steps towards something new. I wish you best for your journey. ?

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.

Ravish Maqsood