6.03 Sustainable Development

Traditional asset management historically prioritized infrastructure over the natural environment. This approach has led to many conflicts between the natural and built environment (e.g., flooding, pipeline exposures, property loss, etc.). As we respond to these conflicts and experience new weather patterns related to climate change, the design approaches of the past are transitioning to techniques that re-frame water and natural systems as valuable assets. Natural systems provide value to communities through the provision of ecosystem services. The realm of ecosystem services is diverse and includes flood mitigation, mental well-being, wildlife habitat, and pollution control. Understanding these services and systems allows proponents to manage and maximize the value of their natural assets. This presentation will describe two types of approach for managing natural systems as assets. The natural system type used for this discussion will be surface water drainage systems (creeks, channels, rivers, or ditches). The first approach to management is using proactive planning around natural systems to prevent conflicts between watercourses and infrastructure from occurring in the future. The second approach is used to manage existing conflicts in and around watercourses when built infrastructure cannot be relocated according to the recommended planning measures. In this case, existing conflicts can be resolved through applying knowledge of natural system function and design. Examples will be used to explore how these approaches benefit communities and project proponents alike.

The energy landscape is shifting with the rise in electrification of transit and the rise of renewable energy shaping a new energy era that is changing the way we think about infrastructure decision making. This presentation will articulate how electrification of transit and an increase in renewables will impact medium and long-term infrastructure planning by providing examples and a practical perspective (case study) to demonstrate how Asset Management decision-making played a vital role in a utility company’s response to this change. This utility company is a key contributor to several electrification initiatives. They recognized the challenge associated with these initiatives and the overall success of the first implementation phase with minimal disruption to current operations. They are also preparing for electrification of the government transit’s first all-electric bus garage to support future procurements of battery-electric buses (eBuses) and will be working on the design and implementation of charging systems infrastructure across the city(?). Over the past 20 years, more than 50 renewable energy systems have been installed on City buildings and properties. In 2020, the city developed recommendations for the utility to achieve greater outcomes for energy efficiency, demand management, and renewable energy. The city also mandated installation of renewable energy systems on all buildings, where feasible, by 2020. The rate of development in electrification and technology in the transit sector is faster than implementation of major infrastructure developments; changes in demand patterns impact everything from the transmission and distribution networks to generation, dispatch and peak-load system capacity design; so it is not possible to “wait and see” before committing to infrastructure investment decisions. This presentation will cover how the utility is dealing with these changes by ensuring an appropriate long-term decision-making framework is in place to assure business continuity and reduce the impact on climate because it poses a particular risk for asset owners and operators. AMCL will present best practices for long-term decision-making and how the impact of change should be taken into account during the development of long-term infrastructure planning processes, in the context of a public utility.

Business improvements require changes. In reliability and maintenance, some of the change factors are within our control, but many are not. If we stick with small changes, they can often happen but they often fail to achieve their full potential. Why? The short answer is that there are many factors we can’t control and usually we have limited influence. Some of those are related to people and are dealt with by “change management”, but others are related to how our businesses are structured and organized. If we want to make big changes we need to get past that! This presentation will give you something to think about and share with your senior management. If they want miracles from you, then they will need to make it possible!

Many maintenance and reliability staff are so busy fixing problems that they never get the chance to prevent them. In a reactive work environment, there is simply no time to spare. Root cause analysis (RCA) gives us an easy-to-implement approach to preventing failures that integrate with our current troubleshooting efforts and drives bottom-line business improvement. We can make our workplaces safer by reducing the number of unexpected failures, which will then result in improving our business performance, increasing our facility’s throughput and reducing the money spent on repairs – straight to the bottom line.

Asset Management Roadmaps aren’t always perfect. Often they are a work in progress. In this webcast participants will see the journey that EPCOR Water Services Inc. (EWSI) undertook when developing its Asset Management Roadmap/Framework, and learn that even with challenges along the way, the organization overall ended up with a greater understanding and acceptance of asset management.EWSI’s initial framework, developed in 2011, was closely aligned with BSI PAS 55 and later revised to reflect ISO 55000 standards. Participants will learn more about the organization’s first attempt at a typical management system development process that took place over the next 24 month period, and see how this initial approach was unsuccessful.With lessons learned, the organization revised its approach in 2013, looking at asset management related gaps with EWSI operations and used process improvement methodology to develop procedures and tools to resolve those gaps. One of the major gaps identified was lack of asset management plans. The next year, a pilot project focusing on the 10-Steps of asset management (SIMPLE) was completed.Participants will see how this pilot project demonstrated the start-to-finish development of an asset management plan, and the development and field testing of several standards, procedures and tools that would become part of EWSI’s asset management framework. This approach demonstrated the value of asset management, resulting in greater understanding and acceptance of asset management throughout EWSI.

Maintenance activities have a direct effect on the environment that surround the facility where they are executed. There are three aspects in which maintenance strategies contribute to a facility foot print in the environment: 1) Resources needed 2) Efficiency of the equipment 3) Waste introduced into the ambient as part of maintenance activities. In order to be a sustainable maintenance department, the first and third aspects must be reduced or closely controlled and aspect two should be maximized.There are a number of techniques and actions ready to help us achieve asset efficiency and reliability but the real question is, if we are willing to commit to be environmentally responsible in our maintenance activities; do we understand the environmental impact of keeping our assets reliable?Join this session for a lively conversation about how making cultural changes, all the way to adapting new technologies, organizations can start making changes that will endure economical trending, while positively impacting all our surroundings.

Over the last few years at Toronto Pearson Airport there has been a significant increase in the number of travellers and subsequently a number of new retail food establishments have been added to cater and meet the demand. This session will highlight the challenges of this growth and the increased strain it put on the airport's mechanical systems infrastructure causing service interruptions which affected travellers, tenants and internal operations. In this session participants will see the process Toronto Pearson underwent to assess and diagnose the problems using a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) model, and how we developed and implemented solutions.  Participants will see that the reliability initiative was not only able to identify and assist us with technology improvements but helped Toronto Pearson develop new internal standards which have propelled us to a new phase in "water sustainability". Toronto Pearson was the first airport in North America to receive the ISO 14001 certification. These initiatives will help us to meet our commitments to the environment and sustainability into the future.