Spanish SOHOs and SMEs have faced in recent years to a very complex macroeconomic environment. Indeed, it might be more precise saying that they are still facing this situation. The fall in the domestic consumption, along with financial constraints, has caused a contraction of the main economic indicators in most productive sectors of our economy.
Despite this unfavorable scenario, we happily can see that the adoption of ICT –Information and Communications Technologies – tools is clearly consolidated in the daily procedures of management and control. ICT tools introduction is considered absolutely necessary for survival in the market. IC Technology keeps being one of the best allies of entrepreneurs in their attempt to improve the competitiveness of their business, allowing the opening of new markets and the optimization of the internal management processes.
Regarding their information systems, one of the biggest challenges that these companies may face, is the adoption of an advanced management system capable to accurately identify the current and future situation of their business. That is, a system that centralizes all the company data and numbers.
However, unfortunately, much more often than expected, we can found SMEs who have suffered serious problems in the process of implementing such systems. If we wanted to enumerate the different possible causes for the occurrence of these problems, every entrepreneur, worker or implementation technician that have faced a situation like this, could probably provide two or more reasons based on their particular suffering experience. What we can state is that, in too many occasions, projects fail because their excessive implementation required time. Companies must adapt to the new market trends while they are implementing already obsolete tools associated to their production processes.
However, we must not understand these problems as an obstacle to the adoption of such systems within our companies. We simply must consider it as a warning of the deserved importance of the implementation processes within the company. It is crucial to accept and understand that, every worker in the company must be an active element in the implementation process, and each worker role is equally relevant, with completely independence on their position within the organization. In order to success in the implementing project, there are two equally important choices to make: system and people. The final selection of the system, in order to choose the most suitable one for the company profile and the required objectives. The company personnel, involved in the data collection must be aware of the importance of doing it rigorously in time and place.
Obviously, all the responsibility for the success or failure must not be attributed only to the company staff. The role developed by the technician staff of the outsourced implementing company will be also essential. Implementing tasks will face predicted and also unexpected problems. The external technicians must be able to early detect them and choose the most suitable solution for each situation.
Regarding this last issue, in CARTIF, we have developed our own advanced management ICT system specifically oriented for the SMEs: SAGIT. It was initially though and designed targeting the agrofood industrial companies and their traceability requirements. First developments and implementing were focus on the vegetables and winery sectors. After that, additional functionalities were added in order to be implemented in diverse sectors like fresh and cured meat, flour mills, daily-products, industrial bakery, snacks, etc. Over time the system has evolved into a multi-sector solution capable of managingany company in any sector. In addition, we managed to create, build and maintain a work team with extensive experience in adapting and implementing the same solutions in many different processes and situations.
Six more aspects to know everything about Energy Performance Certificates
Even though at first sight Energy Performance Certificates required nowadays when selling or renting a property might seem a burden for the owner; they are a huge source of information for the future property tenant or buyer. When choosing a new residence or premise for rent or sale, its price, location or size should not only be what matters to us, but we should worry as well about its energy demand and, thus, the expense that it will generate in the future. If those topics matter to us when we buy a car or an electrical appliance, why shouldn’t they matter to us as well when talking about real state with a much higher repercussion?
What is it?
The Energy Performance Certificate is a report written by an accredited person, which entails a global rating of our property based on the carbon dioxide emissions that we are producing through heating, domestic hot water, cooling and lighting. Moreover, it also provides us with the energy demand coming from heating and cooling and primary energy consumption. At the end of the certificate a series of recommendations are offered to us in order to improve our rating and, therefore, save in our invoices.
What does the energy rating mean?
The rating obtained is organised in a scale that ranges from A (most efficient) to G (less efficient), which depends on our CO2 emissions. This scale is not proportional and, for example, the difference between an A and B rating is much lower than the one existing between an E and an F, as it can be seen in the picture.
How is it done?
An accredited person will visit the property and will gather information regarding windows, building envelope, energy systems, and hot water production system and, in case of business premises, information related to lighting. The data is introduced in a tool validated by the State (CEX, CE3X, HULC or CERMA in the case of Spain), where the certificate will be issued. Moreover, this certificate should include at least two recommendations about how to reduce energy.
What are the recommendations about how to reduce energy?
The energy certificate tool asks to introduce recommendations which can be classified into four categories: insulation, windows, thermal bridges and building systems. The accredited person will have to value, after having covered the previous steps, which are the best recommendations to offer in each case. This means carrying out an energy audit of our property, which provides us with highly valuable information to be able to implement an energy retrofit.
Dwelling certification vs certification at building level, what is mandatory?
Energy certificates can be done both for the complete building, as well as for individual business premises or dwellings. For buildings built less than 50 years ago it is not mandatory to issue a certificate at building level (except regional or local specification), therefore it is common practice that the owner requests this certificate whenever he or she has to rent or sell their property. However, it is worth noting that issuing the certificate at building level is less expensive than the individual ones.
If our building is more than 50 years old or we want to apply for a grant we will be asked to carry out the IEE (in Spanish – Informe de Evaluación del Edificio – a building assessment report) which specifies the conservation state of the building, the accordance to the accessibility regulation and its energy efficiency rating at building level. Certification at building level is compulsory either way for new buildings.
Foods like quinoa (or quinua) and amaranth are consumed for centuries in the Andes regions. An example of this is that in tombs more than 4,000 years old remains of these products are found which consumption is demonstrated by cultures like the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas, thereby leaving an important food legacy linked to the consumption thereof. In countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Peru consumption is very common and rooted in the basic diet.
Did you know that one of its main nutrients are proteins?
Proteins are molecules formed by amino acids that are necessary for the growth of the organism and perform bio regulator functions (form enzymes), the body’s defense (antibodies are proteins), homeostatic (collaborate to regulate the body’s pH), among others.
As you can see is very important protein intake to help the proper functioning of the body.
And where you can find it?
Dietary sources include proteins are meat, eggs, legumes, nuts, vegetables and dairy products.
Did you know that our body is unable to synthesize all the amino acids necessary for its correct functioning?
These amino acids are called “essential amino acids” and are ten; valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, methionine, threonine, histidine (essential for infants), lysine, arginine (semi essential). For a protein is considered complete should contain all the essential amino acids, which is why the food we eat should contain, but most foods contain some of these, being necessary for it to use mixes of food, which in its set covering the daily intake of these amino acids. Foods that can mention which are complete proteins are meat, fish, soy, spirulina, quinoa and amaranth among others.
Consumption of quinoa and amaranth began in Europe relatively few years ago, attracted by the existing biodiversity in other regions to provide products with high nutritional value. France has a high consumption of quinoa while in Spain has not yet become widespread. One of the groups that increased consumption of these products have, are celiacs because they do not contain gluten and therefore is used as substitutes for the wheat. In Europe and the United States is consumed as whole grains, flakes, general flour, wholemeal toasted amaranth, amaranth popped the popcorn style, pre-gel powders amaranth, oils Amaranth, cereal bars, breads amaranth, tortillas amaranth and corn, among others.
Quinoa is recognized by the World Health Organization as a great source of nutrients and in 2013 was declared the International Year of Quinoa. NASA procures its crew with quinoa for extended space missions, because it is a very nutritious food. Quinoa is not only used for human consumption but serves as fodder for animal feed because of its nutritional value.
Here are some products that have been developed in other countries on the basis of Quinoa and amaranth.
Already exists wide variety of products containing quinoa and amaranth, and we believe this can be expanded much more if we trust in the capabilities of research centers such as CARTIF that are in continuous search for alternative methodologies to help alleviate various problems, they search for new applications for traditional products or obtaining products with high added value of raw materials and agricultural food waste.
There is a restaurant in Japan where if its clients left one only rice grain in the plate, should pay a fine. Specialized in shellfish, the “Hachikyo Restaurant” offers a dish that consist of salmon roes over a white rice bed. The restaurant informs the customers who order this dish: “Working conditions of fisherman are hard and dangerous. To express our gratitude to the food that they provide, it is forbidden to leave one only rice grain in the plate. The costumers who don’t finish their tsukko meshi should give a donation.
These punitive measurements are been applied by some restaurants in different countries around the world to make people aware of the food waste in the hospitality sector, where in the case of Spain are thrown 63.000 tons of food per year, a wastage that costs 255 M€.
On average 21% of food waste arises from spoilage; 45% from food preparation and 34% from consumer plates (WRAP. 2013. “Overview of Waste in the UK Hospitality and Food Service Sector”).
If a restaurant wants to reduce their quantity of food waste, it have to identify what are the critical points where is throwing the food and them to apply solutions. Mismanagement purchasing, incorrect storage and conservation of products can become in waste of product, economic and resources (personal cost that prepare food that later rather will throw it, waste of energy during cooking, conservation, etc).
A point of improvement to reduce waste food can be the practices in food preparation at kitchen. Peel, chop, clean, cut are techniques that if it doesn’t do efficiently or it don`t use the correct utensils the quantity of product that is thrown can be very important.
The leftovers are the sign more obvious about the food waste. Portions too big or garnishes not consumed, should be an indication for take the initiative by the restaurant and provide some changes to the customers. These changes can be very attractive to clients concerned with the problem of food waste. Some tips to reduce waste:
• Offer in the menu different sizes of portions (whole, half portion, mini-portions, portions for kids, etc). • Inform to the customers about the size of portion before they order their meal. • Include in the menu some pictures of the dishes, in this way the customers can make an idea about the size of portions. • Garnishes are very important in the quantity of waste, the restaurant have to analyze which are thrown it by the customers to suggest some changes. It possible that the restaurant is offering the same garnish for different plates and so that the customer will leave it. In other cases, garnishes very “thoroughgoing” are offered where the customer don’t know if they are part of the menu or they are put like ornament. Offer the garnish separate to the customer can serve himself the quantity that he wants is a good option for reduce this kind of food waste. • Many times the client doesn’t want dessert because he is aware that is too big for finish it, a solution could be to offer “minidessert” or “miniportions”. • Bread is one the food more wasted is restaurants. In many occasions bread is served as an individual portion, when the consumption of bread is different between customers or it is dependent on the kind of meal. Bread can be served in a little hamper in small portions to the clients to eat in based on their appetite.
Food waste due to client is much higher in buffet restaurants, because the customers can serve all the food that they want. This promotes the wastage in an important way. In this kind of restaurants is possible carry out some initiatives to reduce the waste, like:
– Use plates and utensilsmore little in the moment of serving. The quantity that the client can serve it is not limited, but the big plates promote that the client pick a lot of food that it will end up being thrown in the bin. – Don’t use trays which promote that the clients serve themselves a large quantity of food. – Posters with material informative about food waste are found in some restaurants to make aware of the problem of food waste. In these posters it is recommended serving only the food that it is going to be consumed.
“Doggy bag” is offered in some restaurants in others countries, this kind of lunch box is used to carry the leftovers by the customers when they don’t finish their menu, and contribute to reduce the waste and to become aware of the problem. This habit it is not very common in Spain, because the embarrassment of the customers to request the leftovers, but this trend is changing thanks to customers worried about food waste and there are more and more restaurants that offer their own “doggy bag”.
In 2012 the campaign “No lo tiro” was launch by “San Miguel” brewing company in collaboration with restaurants of Madrid and Barcelona. This campaign encouraged to clients to request the leftovers of the menu.
Even there are restaurants where their menu is elaborated only with leftovers, using surplus goods from the food industry, these are foodstuffs which shops cannot sell for various reasons due to the demands of consumer culture – such as those discarded for purely aesthetic reasons of standard shapes, or surplus seasonal produce.
The hospitality sector has a lot of improvement opportunities in this sense, and restaurants managers and customers it can achieve in an important way the reducing of food waste.
Beyond painting your factory or your products in green color
In our previous post, we mentioned two corporate sustainability initiatives (one from IKEA and another from Google). It is true that these two companies are somehow unique cases, without easy extrapolation to other industrial sectors related with the “traditional manufacturing”. However, these two keep being good examples of the current emerging trends regarding environmental concerns.
In an increasingly globalized and competitive world, the concerns of citizens about environmental issues are not always considered with the required priority by lawmakers.
Luckily, consumers begin to ask companies a greater commitment to the environment.
More consumers reject the most polluting products, and even, some of them are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly goods and services. In this new scenario, companies are worrying for showing to the community that they are as “green” as possible. However it does not always correspond to reality, and the so called “greenwashing” occurs.
Wikipedia defines greenwashing as a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly.
Evidence that an organization is greenwashing often comes from pointing out the spending differences: when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being “green”, than is actually spent on environmentally sound practices.
Ok, so this is another type of misleading advertising, why this type represents a bigger problem?
Seems like anything and everything has “gone green” these days. Airlines, car companies, retailers, restaurants… Thankfully, more often than not, that’s a good thing. It’s only bad if it’s greenwashing — that’s bad for the environment, consumers, and, ultimately, for the very businesses doing the greenwashing.
Environment: At its very worst, greenwashing is bad for the environment because it can encourage masses of consumers to do the opposite of what’s good for the environment. At its most benign, greenwashing makes claims that are neither good nor bad for the environment — it’s just making green claims to sell more stuff.
Consumers: Nobody likes to be taken advantage of, especially when it comes to money. The last thing consumers want to do is to spend extra money on a product or service they believe is doing right for the environment, but in reality is not — or not as much as the ad might lead them to believe.
Businesses: Smart businesses are finding out that doing right for the environment actually does increase profitability in many cases. With so many easy ways for businesses to reduce their environmental impact or improve their products and processes, it’s just sad when they don’t. It’s even worse when they don’t make changes and claim to be a green company. Once properly informed and trained, consumers become able to distinguish honest companies from cheater ones. Sooner or later, the practice of greenwashing will explode in their hands, therefore, destroying the reputation of the company and consequently also their sales.
Ok, problem understood, what can we do to eradicate this practice?
In 2008, the Oregon University launched the GREENWASHING INDEX, where everyone who wishes can send and evaluate ads claiming friendly environmental properties. Users then, evaluate –with the corresponding justification- the truthfulness of the ads on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 means Authentic and 5 means Bogus.
In the same year, the British association Carbon Trust, launched its certification program Carbon Trust Standard, that includes protocols for measuring the real reductions of the companies’ environmental impact and therefore prevents greenwashing practices.
In Spain, currently there are not similar initiatives. Some companies are voluntarily making Environmental Product Declarations, (EPD) of their goods and services based on the ISO 14025 standard. This regulation requires certified methodologies and the publication of the obtained results and therefore making a real environmental transparency exercise. Unfortunately, the number of products or services covered by this certification is merely a token.
In Spain, as citizens-consumers and regarding our options to change the world, it seems we are not yet aware than our wallets are more powerful than our votes.
Other possible example or indicator of this awareness difference is the direct comparison of the effect that the “Dieselgate” has produced on the sales of Volkswagen vehicles in Spain and the United Kingdom.
And you, do you know any greenwashing case? How much more would you accept to pay for a more environmentally friendly product or service?
Have you ever wondered how it is decided when a road or a tunnel should be repaired? The most common is that an operator notes damages down in his notebook while he goes walking, and then, these annotations are used to determine the state of the infrastructure. Operators often walk on the hard shoulder, while traffic circulates normally around them, with the corresponding threat to themselves and to users of the road. This task is really monotonous and repetitive, resulting in eyestrain that difficult to obtain an acceptable degree of reliability in the inspection. Furthermore, although the visual inspection adapts well to new situations when it is performed by human operators, it has a high degree of subjectivity, which causes that two different operators, or the same operator on different times, could provide different results.
The implementation of new technologies to perform these inspections can reduce the risks described, get objective results, increase the speed of inspection and make these data digitally available. In brief, working conditions of operators and the quality of the results are improved.
Among the different variables that are required to be measured in road infrastructure it can be found surface deterioration. To measure this deterioration is necessary to analyse the visual appearance of the surface. The technology that allows us to obtain this information, as you can imagine, are the cameras. But we must keep in mind that these surfaces have some quirks that do not allow us to obtain the desired results using conventional cameras.
Such surfaces are defined by having a limited width and indeterminate length but much greater than its width, so they could be considered continuous surfaces. The images of these surfaces should be taken in motion and as fast as possible in order to make the acquisition efficiently. To do this, although it would be possible to use area-scan cameras, it is much better to use linear camera. A linear camera builds the images capturing them line by line, and therefore a continuous image in the forward direction is constructed. The camera consists of a linear sensor, which is usually between 512 and 12,000 pixels. For capturing the object, it has to move relative to the camera, or the camera must move relative to the object.
The main advantage of using linear cameras is that it is only necessary to illuminate a thin line of the object to be inspected. As a result, the amount of energy required is reduced drastically and it is easier to illuminate homogeneously the area to be inspected. The lighting of a line is done primarily through LED light sources that focus light through optical in a desired line width. To achieve this, the lighting system must be at the proper distance from the object to be inspected and must be aligned with the camera sensor accurately. Laser illumination sources are also very effective, with the advantage that concentrate the light at any distance. Finally, incremental encoders are used to synchronize the acquisition of each image with the displacement of the surface to be inspected relative to the camera. Incremental encoders generate a pulse each time the inspection vehicle moves forward a certain distance, indicating the camera the exact moment for acquiring the line image.
Having the images of the surface to be inspected available is itself extremely useful for the infrastructure manager. However, what really gives added value to the inspection system is the automatic interpretation of images. You must remember that the ultimate goal is to detect damages on the surface and classify them by its type. Often, it is difficult to automatically differentiate defects from areas without deterioration and, moreover, defects of the same type have a very uneven visual appearance.
In order to process the images successfully, complex image processing techniques have been developed characterizing anomalies in the space-frequency domain.
CARTIF has collaborated with companies from the construction industry to address the inspection of this type of surfaces in several research projects. In one of them, it has been developed an inspection vehicle for detecting road surface deterioration. Furthermore, it has also been developed a platform for inspecting the surface of tunnels. Similar techniques also have been applied to the inspection of industrial products that fall within the definition of continuous surfaces, such as coils of cold rolled steel.
In all cases, the results of the inspection are displayed to the end user, so that appropriate decisions can be taken and, most importantly, it can be determined when the infrastructure has to be repaired.
