Sustainability is in CIRCON Environmental's DNA, with good reason. Businesses and consumers alike are becoming more concerned about environmental issues, and they're actively looking for ways to change their practices to better care for the planet.
A 2019 survey conducted by Computer Generated Solutions, a global provider of business applications and outsourcing services, found that nearly 70 percent of consumers, when given the option, will make the sustainable choice when it's available to them. Nearly half would even pay more money for a product they knew was made sustainably.
CIRCON's foundation -- and every service it provides -- is built on its "Four R's:" recover, recycle, repurpose and results. These four principles are at the core of CIRCON's mission to create a better industry and world by minimizing harmful waste and embracing the circular economy.
What is a circular economy? Such an economy is built on the practice of treating all resources, even those previously considered "waste," as materials to be given value and new uses. By finding ways to repurpose these materials, the elimination of waste becomes a very tangible possibility. It's something CIRCON has long promoted.
Across all CIRCON facilities and operations spanning the U.S., and across the various waste streams the company discovers, the journey of the Four R's starts with recovery: identifying waste streams that may still contain value, and aggregating and extracting these valued materials from those streams.
Recovered resources are then recycled, treated and cleaned to meet the industry's various codes and safety standards.
Finally, they are repurposed and given new life as waste-derived fuels or blended fuels that are used to power other sectors of industry.
The results speak for themselves. In the past five years, CIRCON has been responsible for recycling 500 million gallons of water and repurposing 700 million pounds of waste to create fuel. CIRCON has kept 175,000 tons of waste out of landfills, offsetting 800,000 barrels of crude oil.
In the past year, as CIRCON has expanded its geographic reach as well as its client roster, the company has discovered a need to get even more granular in its sustainability mission.
From the roots of the Four R's, "Eight Pillars of Sustainability" have sprouted:
- Waste designation
- Carbon footprint
- Water conservation
- Zero landfill
- Recycle and reclaim
- Waste to energy
- Transportation optimization
- Containerized waste
These eight sustainability pillars have inspired a fresh marketing initiative in which CIRCON is emphasizing clients' successes with creative sustainability.
"When we first started doing this, we paid attention to and tracked three metrics: landfill avoidance, coal displacement and waste-derived fuel generation," said Gary Higginbotham, chief sustainability officer of CIRCON. "Now, we're also tracking net carbon offset, amount of water treated, amount of oil recycled and amount of water conserved. We worked with several refinery partners, collaborating on how to collect and track these statistics. We want to make sure we're using formulas and source materials that are specific to our clients' focus and that are easily calculated and quantified."
As an example, consider a recent tank-cleaning project completed by CIRCON for a refinery client. The client anticipated it would reap the benefits of the Four R's. But with CIRCON's commitment to its eight sustainability pillars, the customer received an in-depth breakdown of all its circular-economy wins as a result of the project: landfill avoidance, oil reclaimed, water treated and conserved, coal displaced, waste-derived fuel generated and carbon offset. Details about the collection method for each metric were included in the breakdown, further shedding light on a process that CIRCON hopes more of the industry will start embracing. The results support CIRCON's mission, and the company that is served gets all the credit.
Such messaging and metrics provide CIRCON's clients with a greater understanding of their own facilities, projects and contributions to the growing circular economy. It has also become a driving factor in CIRCON's continued push to drive innovation and find new solutions to advance its mission.
For example, containerized and drum waste, the eighth sustainability pillar, may easily be considered one of the more challenging parts of CIRCON's business, as it revolves around the most difficult and wide-ranging waste streams, from paint waste to used batteries, from spent solvent to motor oil.
In the past year, CIRCON's development team recognized the need for more aggressive sustainability solutions for this part of the business. Innovation and commitment led to the invention of CIRCON Box, a piece of proprietary equipment that allows for the bulking of materials to process and repurpose them as fuel. The box enables CIRCON to be significantly greener than incineration options for this type of waste. It keeps waste out of landfills, and completely eliminates residual ash created from the incineration process. The impact of such innovations is significant.
They demonstrate the long-term value of CIRCON's focus -- Four R's and the Eight Pillars of Sustainability that represent the foundation of the company's focus and mission statement.
By paying close attention to all levels of service, and by steadily measuring the results, CIRCON offers technology-first solutions, creating transparency that gratifies its clients while driving the entire industry toward a more sustainable future.
For more information, visit www.circonenviro.com, call (281) 474-4210 or email info@circonenviro.com.