EDITOR’S COMMENT
What’s in a Word? Graham Collins Email: graham.collins@ mdmpublishing.com
I have used it, you have used it; every newspaper, TV station, politician and pundit has used it. But what do we really mean by Sustainable? It seems to have been bandied about so much that I am not at all sure that we have not lost a real understanding of what it means and what it is all about. And the fire protection industry is no exception, often pirating the word and attaching it to a multitude of claims in the hope the word alone will engender a belief that the product being described must be okay.
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ut what does the word sustainable mean? Turning to the dictionary we have numerous options, but typically we are presented with such offerings as: “able to be maintained at a certain rate or level” and “conserving a balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources”. Arguably, these terms are more than a little vague and imprecise. Of course, in everyday use, the term sustainable is most frequently associated with the environment, but even then the thinking does not go deep enough and is all a bit murky. Surely, to be sustainable it should mean that whatever is being offered as a “sustainable” solution must be assessed at each and every stage and every level. The product itself may not harm the environment or deplete natural resources, but what about the energy used in its manufacture or processing, the materials used for its storage and packaging, the fuel used to transport it across the world, and the impact of its disposal at the end of its working life? These are all issues that impact on the credibility of sustainability claims – or at least, they should! Even that is not the end of the sustainability story. To be truly sustainable, design, raw material acquisition and usage, engineering, reliability and longevity all must come into play, as does the financial resilience and trading commitment of the company providing the product. For example, a fire safety solution proudly heralded as a “sustainable solution” is, in practice, no such thing if, for example, replacement parts are not readily available years down the line (not to mention being available without the necessity to fly them across the globe) or worse, if the company manufacturing the product goes out of business or ceases manufacturing of that particular line. So the sustainability of businesses is equally important and companies rightly need to ensure
that their competitiveness and profitability is such that they will be supporting the original performance of their “sustainable” product way, way down the line. In short, this means that the business, and not just the product, needs to be sustainable. Achieving this should mean that products last longer, which could well impact negatively on future sales, so the ability and willingness of businesses to invest in research and development in ever more improved solutions is another consideration in the sustainability equation. Sustainability is not so much a result as it is a never ending journey. There will always be scope for improvement from one end of the supply chain to the other. In addition to ensuring that their own house is in order, manufacturers need to be equally demanding with their component suppliers, their sub-contractors and trading partners. They should also have thought through the implications of disposal at the end of the product’s life. At the other end of the chain, end users must accept that regular inspection, servicing and maintenance are essential investments in sustainability rather than a cost to grudgingly be endured and minimised or even avoided. End users need to be much more searching when selecting which supplier and solution to use. It is not enough to simply accept the word “sustainable” as some sort of badge of acceptability, otherwise it will remain IFP a word with very limited meaning. The more eagle-eyed readers may have noticed a subtle change with this edition of International Fire Protection. We have moved the cover date forward by a month to more accurately reflect when the magazine is current. So, in future, IFP will be flagged as March, June, September and December, but the editorial copy and advertising deadlines remain unchanged.
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