Pieter Jan Bots Discusses EHSQ Elite and Environmental Concerns
We honored to have Pieter Jan Bots as our featured guest for today’s blog post. Mr. Pieter is very well known for his LinkedIn group of over 40,000 + members on EHSQ Elite. He has extensive background in safety management and is able to provide valuable information and tips pertaining to environmental safety. The EHSQ Elite has helped thousands of members to enhance their overall safety awareness and management. Many subscribers bounce ideas off each other and share valuable tips and information which makes EHSQ Elite one of the leading safety groups on LinkedIn.
Below are three interview questions regarding the environmental paper industry and EHSQ Elite.
Contents
Can you explain some of the biggest environmental concerns in the Paper Industry?
Pieter Jan – Sourcing of pulp from Forest Stewardship Council certified pulp producers is important, to ensure that the pulp used for producing paper is produced in a sustainable way. The Paper Industry consumes considerable amount of energy for producing paper. Reduction of the energy consumption and reduction of the carbon footprint is another area were we continue to work on. Closely related to this is the net water consumption (water extracted from the source and not returned to this source cleaner or as clean as it was extracted). Most of this water is evaporated, which requires much energy. The water taken from the source is nowadays often returned cleaner than when extracted; it is cleaned before use, and cleaned again after use. Good stewardship with respect to handling and containment of chemicals is important to avoid pollution in case of an emergency or upset (e.g. flooding). One of the challenges for specialty products in the paper industry is reduction of the waste to landfill. It is not always possible to recycle the rims and offspec material to the pulper, if the material is specialty paper containing also other than cellulose fibers. Paper mills also have other waste, such as waste water sludge, lubrication oil, etc. There are still opportunities for our industry to improve recycling or if this is not possible, use as energy waste.
EHSQ Elite is one the fastest growing Linkedin Safety groups with over 44,000 members, Can you explain how EHSQ got started?
Pieter Jan – EHSQ Elite got started in May 30, 2008, as Loss Prevention and Safety Promotion in the Process Industries. At that time, I was member of the organization committee of the Loss Prevention Symposium, a Working Party of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering organizing every third year a symposium. I started the Loss Prevention group a bit earlier in Google Groups growing fast to some 50 members (mainly from China), and as I learned that LinkedIn also had a Group feature, so I established a group with the same name in LinkedIn. My Google group was merged with a Google group called EHS Elite, and as my job responsibility grew to EHSQ, I decided with the consent of the Google group owner of EHS Elite, to change the LinkedIn group name to EHSQ Elite. I felt that this name described best as what I envisaged the goal of this professional group, to support each other in the EHSQ arena.
How has EHSQ Elite made an impact in your professional life?
Pieter Jan – Since the Loss Prevention symposia, I have participated in the organization of some ten events related to EHSQ Elite, mainly around the subjects of safety and process safety, and part of the speakers and participants to these events came via EHSQ Elite. Some of the active members in EHSQ Elite I have actually met. The best of this group is that if you have an EHSQ related question, you can rest assured that if you put your question, you will get good and sometimes provoking answers, which can help you further and challenge your thinking. Sometimes, I need to moderate some of those exchanges, but luckily this is rather rare. I do keep out the spammers, so that the group continues to be a real discussion group and not only a marketing group. EHSQ Elite is important for me professionally.
If you haven’t yet checked out EHSQ Elite, you can find it by clicking here.
Pieter Jan Bots Background
Vice President health, safety, environment, and asset management on corporate level in a global company with a strong background in engineering for the Chemical and Oil industry and some experience in Property Damage & Business Interruption insurance. Strong networker, able to create commitment in top management and experience with leading Business Area EHSQ and Plant EHSQ managers. Experience with setting up EHSQ policy & KPI’s and EHSQ management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001), internal and external EHSQ audits and assessments, process safety, and EHSQ software selection and support. Some Business management education. Interested in the whole EHSQ field including process safety management and asset management. Experience with and interested in working with different cultures. Speaks fluently english, dutch (mother tongue) and finnish and has a good command of german.
Similar Posts
- Janet Froetscher Discusses Workplace Safety
- Discussing Workplace Safety with Eric Glass
- A Conversation on How to be an Effective Safety Professional
- Talking Safety with J.A. Rodriguez Jr.
- When it Comes to Safety, there is Often More Fiction than Fact
- Corporate Eco-Offenders & You
- Universal Safety Standards in the Workplace
- Are Safety Professionals Often Snake Oil Salesmen?
- Enhancing Workplace Safety