The Coalition for Responsible Fire Protection
Published: 01 September, 2011
A coalition has been formed by the fire industry that aims to bridge the gap between the need for the protection of life and property and the need for the protection of the environment.
Tom Gillmore, Director of Market Research & Strategy at Tyco Fire Suppression & Building Products, is one of the founding members of a movement that has generated membership from well-known fire companies such as Amerex, ATK, RemTec, Solberg, and Sevo Systems.
Some key aspects make the coalition stand out from similar-sounding interest groups. Firstly, each member company can hold one vote only (meaning additional votes cannot be purchased) and secondly membership is open to the entire fire supply chain - from manufacturers to buyers. 'One of our goals is that the entire fire protection group will constitute less than a third of the coalition, with the rest being made up of environmental consultants and end users, because if we allow the fire industry to write standards then they will end up being self-serving. We have to have everyone around the table,' explains Tom.
A significant benefit of opening up the movement to all parties, explains Coalition member Jennifer Woofter of Strategic Sustainability Consulting, is that it provides a single point of reference - and one with credibility - in an industry where 'green' guidance has been thin on the ground. 'Uncertainty is frustrating and that is why you see companies rushing out to make their own green standards - and this drives cost. If we know what we are doing we can be a lot more focussed on resources as we will know which is the green industry standard to apply.'
In practice this could entail a company choosing to adopt a green standard for fire suppression that has been developed by the coalition, rather than develop one from scratch. 'We have seen the federal government doing that with standardised energy efficiency ratings as well as waste certification, and companies like Walmart adopting them for their energy policies and in their use of FSC-certified paper.'
The main aim of the coalition is to develop standards that define what 'responsible' means for the fire industry. Tom Gillmore acknowledges that this can be ideologically tricky ground: 'I stay away from the word "sustainable" because I don't believe anything we do is truly sustainable - but "responsible" in the context of fire protection is an absolute necessity. We protect life and property, and the extra dimension of responsibility is to protect life and property with the least environmental impact we can possibly have.'
Tom is convinced that environmental responsibility will open up important opportunities in the market, but only as long as there is some sort of economic incentive - and for that to happen there needs to be agreed guidelines and rules. 'And the coalition has to create those guidelines and rules so that companies like mine have the incentive to create more responsible products.'
Actions speak louder than words and Tyco has started moving towards lifecycle management and recycling of fire protection products and systems. Tom is convinced that as the company moves down this road its costs will go down and not up. 'This has been borne out in other industries that have gone through this ahead of us. The US Government a while back, forced Dell to implement a program to take back computers and ensure they were disposed of properly. At first Dell thought this would be a burden but now they've found it's one of the most profitable groups. They figured out how to reprocess materials and reclaim metals such as gold - so environmentalism isn't simply something that makes us feel good, it's a very good business strategy if you follow it through.'
Tyco Marketing Director John Allen also points at the work currently being done by the UK Civil Aviation Authority on CAFS (compressed air foam system) for airports and an Environmental Impact System (EIS) for firefighting foam as an example of business strategies aligning themselves with environmental objectives and end-user requirements. 'Firefighters are looking at the potential for a higher performance in firefighting with a lot less foam using CAFS, and that objective is aligned with the other objective of greater focus on the environment. A lot of other groups are now considering how to use less foam and deliver better firefighting performance. He adds: 'In essence the EIS proposal simplifies the information required by firefighters to make purchasing decisions and tries to link it in with that what they are looking for. Many firefighters are hesitant to use foam because of the potential impacts on human health and the environment, so we have to put all the information and standards together so we can reassure them to manage the situation.'
A transparent standard that measures the environmental impact across the lifetime of a group of products - and makes the results clear to the buyer, explains Jennifer, will be the lasting legacy of the coalition. Tom points at a number of trends that suggest that sitting back and doing nothing is not an option, such as the fact that Japan and Germany are no longer allowing dry chemicals in portable fire extinguishers to be used as landfill - they need to be recovered. 'Also there is a large base of green buyers out there that want to do business with companies that have standards and are working towards sustainable gains. These companies don't necessarily want to buy a green product, but they want to do business with companies that are doing the right thing in terms of the environment.'
The first standard
An guide to calculating the life cycle impacts of clean agent fire suppression systems is the first project being undertaken by the coalition and Tom estimates this alone will take between three and five years to produce. Working on this first standard has revealed the complexity of such an undertaking, explains Jennifer: 'What is interesting is we don't even have the vocabulary for discussing some of these issues, but we would hope that working on the first calculation methodology will provide us the roadmap to begin working on other systems.
While the coalition's goal is to have its standards adopted on a global basis, it is under no illusions as to how it's pioneering work may be used by other countries and organisations, explains Tom: 'The fact of the matter is that countries use standards as non-tariff trade barriers and even if you look within the EU - which is supposed to be standardised - a lot of countries choose to do slight modifications which create additional barriers, and my expectation is that the same will happen with the standards we write.'
Any company or individual can attend the meetings of the Coalition for Responsible Fire Protection, although voting rights are reserved for members.
There are two tiers of membership: voting membership costs $1250 per annum, and affiliate membership is $750. Affiliate members can vote within the committees they sit on, but cannot sit or vote on the Board of Directors.
The annual sustainability conference and general membership meeting (takes place September 12-15, 2011 in Park City, Utah. For more information click here.
