Assigning Targets for Programs in a New Company

[Randy]

With the subject matter at hand it's simply do what you want, to the level you want, within the time frame you want.

In other words be able to make a decision while at the same time taking into consideration those things that must be.

This ain't rocket science.

 

[Steve Prevette]

With the subject matter at hand it's simply do what you want, to the level you want, within the time frame you want.

In other words be able to make a decision while at the same time taking into consideration those things that must be.

This ain't rocket science.

Please be aware there are differences of opinion on this. As Dr. Deming might say - nothing is so simple, yet so dangerous. Such pronouncements of "do this by then" can have unintended consequences as folks focus on nothing but that statement. The Vietnam conflict is full of stories of actions taken to fulfill the numbers Washington DC wanted, to the detriment of accomplishing the mission.

 

[tigerfan51]

Recycling efforts normally come in three stages:

1 - Establish a recycling program
2 - Improve the program to capture as close to 100% of the material as possible
3 - Reduce the absolute amount of material recycled (still capturing as close to 100% as possible) - ie why are we using so much paper and how can we reduce the amount sent for recycling

Your overall objective in stage 1 could be to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill - specific target establish a paper recycing program by ___ (date)

In stage 2 you could have an overall objective of improving your recycling program - specific target - capture say 95% of all waste paper in the recycling bin (dumster diving or waste auditing (in Ontario) is probably needed here)

In stage 3 you could have an overall objective to reduce paper use and set whatever specific target you deem reasonable.

Remember the standard says objective and targets should be measureable where practical. Not all initiatives are measureable.

By the way I agree Randy''s advice seemed very sanguine to me for someone who said they were lost and close to tears

 

[Randy]

Thanks Tiger for the nice comment...

1st Steve old buddy.....I stated "subject matter at hand" which was environmental O&T's ....whatever quality krap or other things you might have had on your mind don't matter. What is required and what is allowed is very clearly defined for the user in the standard, all one has to do is look, understand and apply.

2nd...Don't be refering to VN, numbers and anything like that please...remember we try to stay off of the political and sensitive things as much as possible (and I'm sensitive as are others of those who don't have 1st hand knowledge of that period)...Other than that I enjoy what you do say because it is great and I frequently refer folks to your postings.

 

[jmurph01]

Recycling efforts normally come in three stages:

In stage 2 you could have an overall objective of improving your recycling program - specific target - capture say 95% of all waste paper in the recycling bin (dumster diving or waste auditing (in Ontario) is probably needed here)

tigerfan - you beat me to it. I was going to suggest a waste audit as well. Must be an ontario thing!

Also, as others suggested, try talking to your waste haulers. I'm certain you'll find that they know the weight of the paper being sent out each month. Wether or not they give you that info easily is another story but I don't see why they would have 'tude with you on this.

In the case where you're growing, your waste will grow and so will your recycling efforts. You can assume the waste generated would be somewhat proportional to the growth in people. The problem with using # of paper dumpsters recycled, is that as your number of people go up, so with the amount of paper generated. So if you do a waste audit right now, you could find out what % of paper is in your garbage. Then do another audit in a few months/year (whatever you decided) and see what the % is at that time. Set your goals based on the initial audit.

Once you have the recycling program in place, another good objective would be to reduce the amount of paper being used, which can be measured by the amount of paper you are purchasing.

Good luck BruisedOrange...I always find setting measureable, specific targets for my objectives to be the hardest part!

 

[Helmut Jilling]

You don't have to define targets first thing. Implement the program. Evaluate Aspects & Impacts. Establish the significant ones. Begin to track and measure your performance. Eventually you will have the data where you can begin to establish objectives and targets. If you do it too soon, you will only be guessing.

 

[ugurkavi]

Since you are thinking about objectives, targets and management programs to achieve them I guess you have already finished with evaluating your aspects and impacts. I agree with most of the posts above. Indeed you need to gather data to get an idea of how much waste is going out. When I started working on establishing environmental management in our company, I have bins put on the shop floor in key locations to gather contaminated rags, got 1 ton IBC containers to collect used solvents and chemicals and waste paper bins to collect waste paper to recycle. These were my starting data points. I also started a database to record how much oil we use per month and how much used-oil we send waste facility so forth and so on....

Oh and indeed you will need to check the bins for paper recycle, garbage containers. For example, I check our garbage bins we placed next to our contaminated-waste-collection bins to see if there is any contaminated waste in them, record and build a basic frequency table monthly to see if our efforts do pay off. I hope I didn't fall off the target of the topic