Sustainable holiday
6 July 2018 • Ype Wijnia and John de Croon
asset management strategie, risk management, policy development, planning, program management, manage changes
This afternoon the summer holiday officially begins[1]. Now the first thing you apparently do in the summer holidays is getting stuck in the traffic jam. We do not quite understand that, trafficking is far below the optimal speed, from any point of view. You can better travel when it is a bit quieter. By the way, we have lost track of the holidays for a while now, when you look at the amount of caravans on the road, the summer holiday starts somewhere in April and does not stop until October. In terms of temperatures, this year is also quite correct, the first day above 20° C was 7 April.
Back to the last working day before the holiday. Normally a nice time to paint the inside of the electronic mailbox, but we have something else to do. In the beginning of this column series we said that we would conduct a management review before the summer to see if our Durable Asset Management Plan is well implemented. In short, we had included 2 objectives:
1. Develop a way to include sustainability in the asset management system
2. Be sustainable when writing the columns through recycling
With regard to the first substantive objective, we can be brief. The climate is changing like an idiot, and that is due to CO2 caused by fossil fuels (say cremating dead dinosaurs). These CO2 emissions can largely be prevented by switching to renewable electricity, and can also be removed from the air (with the same electricity). It only costs a little, about 1 € per kg of CO2. This is much more expensive than the current market price (about 5 euros), but (to our surprise) cheaper than the CO2 penalty in the highest tax bracket for new cars in the Netherlands. Integration of sustainability into asset management can be fairly straightforward by pricing CO2, on 1000 € per ton. If you apply this consistently, a number of decisions will be different, but not radically. You have to drive a little slower and you use your things longer, but still within the limits of the reasonable. If these become real costs (by means of CO2 tax) then the money can be used to get things out of the air again. From an economic point of view, a CO2 neutral optimum will then arise. The difficulty is to introduce this gradually all over the world, because finding out the actual environmental burden of products was not easy. But that should be possible. Our conclusion: mission 100% successful.
The second objective was more of a process-based challenge for ourselves. After all, writing columns every week is a considerable effort, and it would be nice if we were able to take advantage of earlier work. For those who have counted well, we can say that in the past 15 columns, we have included 20 references to previous columns. In quantitative terms, we easily have achieved the target. But whether that also had the desired effect is still very much the question. Writing columns is just a lot of work, especially if you're exploring a new field. Strictly speaking, the objective was fortunately only recycling, and that is why the conclusion is also: excellent.
With 2 of such fantastic results, we really deserved the holiday. And from the asset managers in the financial sector we have learned that a bonus should really be a big bonus. Because the Netherlands is not participating in the World Cup of football, we do not have to take an orange final into account and we can go far and long. With everything that we have recently read about climate change and its impact on the world, we have come to the realization that a lot of nature (phenomena) are disappearing. It is perhaps now the last chance to see them with your own eyes. So what is in the context of sustainability a better reward to really see them? We start at Spitsbergen, which seems like a good starting point for the sustainability gurus[2]. Now we have heard that it is dangerous there[3], but a polar bear garment on the floor also saves energy. After Spitsbergen we urgently need to go to Africa, then we can see eternal snow on Mount Kilimanjaro[4]. Perhaps we also see a black giraffe, though they seem to be very rare[5]. For the northern white rhino we are in any case too late[6], but maybe we can see some lions hunting for poachers[7]. The next stop will be South America. That continent has many special natural phenomena. We do not know whether they are about to disappear, but the cruise by plane looked attractive[8]. After the holidays we come up with an argument why it was absolutely necessary. Perhaps we are still on the move in the other continents.
We also doubt about North America. In the United States, climate change does not play, so we do not have to go there. Too bad, because seeing with your own eyes how a country suffers from the consistent refusal to build decent dikes must be very impressive. Beyond that, a tornado or tropical storm at his time is also not to be sneezed.
The question is of course whether we do not have an excessive effect on the planet with this vacation. All that travel only produces CO2 and plastic soup. But we have a solution for this: we are going to compensate. We do this for 5 euros per ton and all the plastic that we leave is weighted with lead so that it stays well on the soil. And besides, to prevent fossil fuels from being used in the future, you have to use them as soon as possible. In the end, there is nothing more sustainable for nature to think that humanity helps itself to disaster as quickly as possible. With this exciting thought we wish you a fantastic summer.
Ice cap on Spitsbergen
[1] https://www.nu.nl/binnenland/5349527/anwb-verwacht-veel-files-europese-wegen-begin-zomervakantie.html
[2] https://www.ad.nl/economie/topmensen-naar-spitsbergen-om-klimaatverandering-te-zien~ae5c6764/
[3] https://www.marathonreizen.net/blog/arctic-marathon-op-spitsbergen/
[4] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ice_Field
[5] https://www.hln.be/wetenschap-planeet/dieren/amerikaanse-poseert-trots-met-doodgeschoten-zeldzame-giraf~a0766220/
[6] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noordelijke_witte_neushoorn
[7] https://www.nu.nl/dieren/5349047/groep-stropers-vermoedelijk-opgegeten-leeuwen-in-zuid-afrika.html
[8] https://aircruise.nl/aircruises/air-cruise-parels-van-zuid-amerika/
John de Croon and Ype Wijnia are partner at AssetResolutions BV, a company they co-founded. Periodically they give their vision on an aspect of asset management in a column. The columns are published on the website of AssetResolutions, http://www.assetresolutions.nl/en/column
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