Brought to book

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Hasan Afzal is a security officer at a West London Retail Park, which like all sites of its kind can suffer from issues associated with antisocial behaviour and elements of criminality. It is a single-person site, where Hasan has created an exemplary environment of retail security operations that recently earned him the title of Outstanding Security Officer at the 2022 UK Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs).

Here, Afzal shares a key component of his award-winning security strategy: creating and maintaining a secure library of information.

What is your library of information and what is included in it?

Hasan Afzal: It’s a secure record of known offenders, as well as targeted locations, dates and times of criminal incidents, and CCTV footage of any suspicious behaviour. The library helps me in my role to be more effective at monitoring and preventing any crime across the park.

I work closely with the local police and I understand the importance and value of data, which is why I ensure that I keep a good record of everything that is happening at Kew and that can later support the store’s safety or prove useful to the police.

I always store important data within a secure area and keep it locked in my security office. Anything held electronically is on the company device and is password protected on the internal cloud system to ensure that only

SECURITY PERSONNEL

Brought to book

By creating and maintaining a library of information, security officers can be far more effective in their roles, says Hasan Afzal in this security best-practice primer article

HASAN AFZAL is a security officer at Atlas Security people with approved access can see it. I am the only person with access because of data protection and only share incident footage upon request from the police.

How have you used the library to support your clients and authorities to solve crimes and convict criminals?

in and out of the retail park during patrols and via CCTV. Whenever I spot a familiar face known for criminal and/or antisocial behaviour, I inform the store managers to warn them about the potential threats. If I spot any acts of criminality, I immediately contact the police directly.

Over the years I have assisted the police with hundreds of incidents, many leading to convictions and, in the process, I have helped to recover thousands of pounds’ worth of goods for the targeted stores.

A note from Facilitate: Over the past four years, Afzal has recorded more than £130,000 across 565 separate incidents at the retail park – that’s an average tackling and solving 12 incidents a month.

What do you consider the three most important characteristics to be an outstanding security officer?

HA: That’s simple: 1 Be honest and trustworthy; 2 Be fair and impartial; and 3 Think outside of the box.

A message from Afzal’s employer Gary Stanton, managing director of Atlas Security: “Hasan is a shining example of what can be achieved with focus, drive and a desire to consistently operate at the top of one’s abilities. His enthusiasm for the job is contagious and his commitment to the safety and security of those who visit the retail park is second to none, making all of us at Atlas Security feel incredibly proud and lucky to work with him.”

While businesses have become much better at recycling waste, current current rates still sit at around 4555%. What’s left over, and how it is dealt with, remains a key sum of the waste management equation.

“We’re very focused on ‘hidden waste’ – the residual waste left behind after all the really good work of recycling,” says Dr Stephen Wise, chief strategic development officer at Advetec, an environmental biotechnology company focused on waste management and sponsor of Facilitate webinar held in March.

Wise urged organisations and waste service firms to do more to tackle waste at the source before it is removed from site.

Reasons to tackle at source:

● Reduces carbon emissions caused by transport; ● Reduces waste management costs to the waste generator and/or facilities management company; ● Transforms waste into a product and commodity; and ● Helps an organisation move closer to net zero.

How Advetec’s biotech works

Advetec’s biotech processing units – varying in sizes from a shipping container to a box that is 3m long by 2m high and able to fit a typical shopping centre parking bay – can process up to 10 tonnes of residual and organic waste a day.

Put in the residual waste – such as contaminated food packaging, unseparated food waste, and “all of those things you find in a general residual bin at home or at work” – and the bacteria breaks it down, generating heat and drying up moisture. The result is a material with: ● 50% reduction in mass; and a ● 70% drop in volume.

What normally takes four to six weeks to occur in nature, the biotech can do in three days. And even if the residual waste ends up in landfill, it will release less methane

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Hidden value

New tech enables on-site processing of residual waste. Here are the key takeaways from our recent webinar on the topic

as it doesn’t need to break down and it won’t release any CO2.

It’s more than diverting waste from landfill or following a typical energy from waste (EFW) process. “We have increased the value of that material through what we call the thermal hierarchy,” Wise explains. “We’ve generated solid recovered fuel that can be used in cement kilns and for coal combustion. We’re tying the circular economy to chemical and fuel production to replace carbon and fossil-based sources of fuel.”

The biotech machinery can either run on electricity – “it’s not a huge user,” says Wise – or it can run off-grid through solar or wind, which is useful for sites in remote locations.

Challenges to overcome

The UK sends about 11 million tonnes of waste to landfill every year. Roughly half of that, Wise reveals, comes from industrial and commercial sectors. It’s key for generators of this waste to know what their waste management partner does with it.

1People don’t challenge their

waste contractors.

Wise gives the example of an NHS trust that thought none of its waste ended in landfill. However, upon questioning its waste contractor, the trust discovered 200 tonnes of waste went to landfill each month.

2Energy from waste (EFW)

is not straightforward.

There are only a few EFW facilities in the UK and most do not use the heat that is generated. Feedstock waste, for example, goes into the combustion process, and only about 40-45% is used to generate electricity. The rest is wasted heat.

3There’s a lack of innovation. Wise says smaller disruptive companies are entering the marketplace challenging larger contractors that are typically averse to risks and change. ● Focusing on waste hierarchies or designing out waste by eliminating certain products from the supply chain and procuring recyclable and reusable products when possible; ● Challenging waste and other supply chain partners to design out waste too, whether that’s through plates and cutlery, cleaning mop buckets or technical services equipment; ● Changing behaviours of clients, service users and direct staff to segregate waste streams better and understand disposal routes; ● Aiming to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025 through a mix of better menu planning, produce sourcing and anaerobic digestion; and ● Optimising waste collection scheduling to accommodate changing workplace occupancy levels and variations in amounts.

Burrows urges all clients to audit their providers and consider it a core part of their duty of care.

WEBINAR PARTICIPANTS:

DR STEPHEN WISE Chief strategic development officer at Advetec

LUCY JEYNES Managing director at Larch Consulting

CATHERINE BURROWS Head of waste management at Sodexo UK & Ireland

ANN BEAVIS Head of sustainable development at Crown Workspace and IWFM Sustainability SIG From operational to strategic

On the webinar, Larch Consulting’s Lucy Jeynes said that one issue to tackle is the classification of where waste management sits within an organisation.

“Waste isn’t really considered to be a strategic part of FM and clients find it quite confusing compared with other FM services,” Jeynes explained. “Clients don’t necessarily know which area to be looking at first. Is it technology or behaviour change, or creating the right balance between them?”

Take the example of a big sports club site using post-mix Coke, Coke in cans and bottles across the cafe, and Coke in vending machines. “You have three waste streams for one product. Who’s going to take the initiative to pick just one to make waste management more efficient? It’s not clear who would be the lead person.

“Waste usually goes with cleaning rather than with sustainability. So there’s a lot of work to be done between us as an industry and the clients to get the dialogue going with the right people inside the client organisation.”

Immediate questions a client might ask about tackling waste at source include: 1 How much space does it take up? 2 How much labour do you need to get the waste into the thing? 3 How messy would that be? 4 How near can it be to other buildings?

What FM providers can focus on

Sodexo manages more than 100,000 tonnes of waste a year for its clients across healthcare, corporate live events and government sites.

Waste management, said Catherine Burrows, head of waste management for Sodexo UK & Ireland, is one part of the greater net zero and sustainability focus. Sodexo has committed to being net zero by 2045 with a 55% carbon reduction target by 2030. Initiatives to reach this kind of target include the following: Beware new legislation

Ann Beavis, head of sustainable development, Crown Workspace and IWFM Sustainability SIG, says she recently met with Defra and that “there’s going to be more legislation coming through [with] consultation in the last couple of years around business weights feeding back into the formation of new targets.”

Advice from Beavis is to:

● Investigate what can be done with waste to maximise its economic and/or social value; ● Turn waste into a tactical aspect of FM services by emphasising the connection between waste and organisational sustainability goals; ● Get to grips with emissions generated by an organisation’s supply chain partners; and ● Free up resources to determine what innovations are happening in waste management and how these can be applied in your case.

To watch the full webinar: tinyurl.com/Fac-0506-Waste

Working women operate within a system that assesses their potential to contribute based on an antiquated view of gender – that their work will be compromised by an and inevitable familial disruption. The result is many companies unconsciously prefer to hire ‘the unencumbered worker’.

If we don’t change our assumptions and expectations for all employees, we won’t equalise women’s experience. We will keep signalling to women that success requires balancing home, work and career progression. But change is possible. Here’s how to start.

1Extend paternity leave We assume a pregnant woman will take time off work to care for her baby but we don’t assume it will disrupt the career of her male counterpart. It’s not about changing the priority of family but about encouraging men to share caring responsibilities.

Companies that incentivise men to take paternity leave during the first five years of a child’s life signal to everyone – male, female, parent or childfree – that the organisation wants men and women to succeed at home and work, and understands that both are equally likely to take care-based breaks during their careers. Let’s not assume that only women will be a compromised resource so we can balance everyone’s value to the company.

2Update policies to address

the new reality of ‘family’

The family unit is no longer

GENDER-ROLE ASSUMPTIONS

Leading roles

Challenging assumptions about gender roles will deliver a truly human-centric workplace that benefits everyone, says Braelyn Hamill

just a heteronormative couple and 2.5 children. There are single-parent households, co-parenting partnerships, same-sex marriages, multigenerational households, those who foster, adopt or care for family members, and single people with pets.

Many benefits packages typically focus on providing maternity/paternity leave. As the definition of ‘caring’ adjusts, and workplaces embrace new perspectives on the human experience, definitions of leave should shift too.

Amid this cultural shift, companies have to understand their employee’s needs to support them. As our work and personal lives become increasingly entangled, organisational support to help employees care for their varied family units will be integral to enhancing their experience, attraction and retention.

3Support a variety of

‘success pathways’

Success often looks the same: one partner, two kids and owning a home. This definition is problematic as it assumes:

BRAELYN HAMILL is senior workplace strategist at Cushman & Wakefield ● Everyone wants the same from life; and ● Women who climb the corporate ladder without at least two of the three have done so at great cost.

The definition also diminishes people’s aspirations outside of the ‘family ideology’ of success. For example, it’s more acceptable for colleagues to leave work for child care than to spend an hour in the gym. In the modern workplace, companies need to value everyone’s time and personal definitions of work-life balance.

4Reconsider what it

means to be human

The future of work requires an inclusive human-centric ecosystem, but data, office culture and design standards are still based on white, male metrics. This ignores women’s biological and physical needs – just think about room temperatures, table heights and widths of chairs. Think too about women’s ongoing fight against the assumption that they are weak.

One in three women deals daily with hormonal complications while at work but talking about it remains taboo. PCOS, endometriosis, menopause, periods, and IVF treatments – women are dealing with a lot. Ignoring this leaves an important part of women’s lived experience at home, and this ignorance extends to mental health requirements for all colleagues.

Without a cultural shift that normalises open discussions about our biological needs, mental health and physical requirements, any claim to inclusivity will be an empty gesture at best.

This article has been adapted from a longer piece at tinyurl.com/ Fac050622-Hamill