It is often difficult to grasp the nature, scale, and impact of the resources your organization uses. Therefore, there are suggested techniques for identifying opportunities to make savings, including a process known as resource mapping. This involves undertaking an inspection of your facilities (also called a site walk-around) and making notes and mapping elements such as:

• The types, volumes, and costs of resources your organization uses. Remember this includes materials, any energy (in the form of electricity or fossil fuels used within processes), and water consumption.

• Where these resources are used. What are the primary resources being used in different areas? How does this differ across a site and between sites?

• The types, volumes, and costs of the wastes produced in your daily activities. What kinds of solid and liquid wastes are being produced? This should also include any wasted heat or off-cuts of materials involved in manufacturing.

• Where do the wastes occur? What are the larger waste volumes, and how does this vary across the site? If multiple sites are operated with similar functions, is there significant variance between them in terms of waste generated?

• Why are these resources being used, and why waste occurs? What is the benefit of using the resources identified, and why is waste produced? Does it provide benefits to the organization?

You can download the Site Walk-Around Checklist below, which suggests what to look out for during your inspection of the site.

Before you start the site walk-around, consider the following:

• Accessibility - do you need keys or assistance to access any areas?
  
  
• Are any areas only used at particular times of the week or month, or processes that rotate over time? E.g., for different product cycles? You will want to record when they are operating and consider visiting the location when it is being used and when it is not in use.
  
  
• Do you need a Health & Safety / Risk assessment? This should be discussed with facilities managers and individuals in charge of health and safety.
  
  
• Let people know when your walk-around will happen and why you are doing it. Reassure them that it’s not a check on their performance and that they should proceed as usual.
  
  
• Consider the people who will know critical resource use and waste generation in the areas you will be visiting. Book time with them or ensure they will be present during the walk-around. This can help you to understand why materials are used, and waste is produced within an area.

When conducting a site walk-around, it will be helpful to have a map of your site to hand.  

Making a rough map of the site makes it easier to visualize this. This can be adapted from site floor plans or roughly drawn by hand, and it should not require significant detail or effort to produce. This plan can then be annotated as the site walk-around is undertaken and will help identify critical areas to focus on. For example, this may identify an area where significant wastes are produced or resources are lost. The Site Walk-Around Checklist has a space for drawing your site map.

It is essential that you keep an open mind and that you critically examine each area. It is also important that you use a camera to help you recall details after the walk-around.

A resource flowsheet lists the materials you use to produce your goods and services. It also details the outputs or waste generated. This should identify the significant resources that need to be addressed, e.g., electrical energy or critical raw materials. 

Inputs – consider the resources coming into your organization:

• What raw materials are you buying?
• Are other materials (like packaging) coming in along with these raw materials?
• What utilities (electricity, gas, oil, water) are you consuming?

Outputs - track these resources through the various processes in your organization until you can identify how they exit as ‘outputs’:

• What products are you producing?
• What is ending up in your bins/trash – raw materials, packaging? This includes material that you have set aside for reuse or recycling.
• What is escaping as heat loss from equipment and the building fabric?
• What electricity is wasted through unnecessary lighting and equipment left on when not needed?
• What is escaping down the drain as wastewater, and what does it consist of?

Anything that doesn’t end up in a saleable product or is not essential to the service you provide should be minimized or prevented as an unnecessary cost.

Here is an example of what your resource flowsheet might look like: 

After completing the resource mapping and flow exercises, you should collect data for the identified inputs and outputs. This will allow you to manage your resource use and waste generation by understanding the costs involved. You can target the areas that are most inefficient and also track the impact improvements have.

Usually, organizations will already have significant quantities of useful information on the resources consumed. At this point, it is helpful to consider:

• Who to ask about it?
• What format is it in (e.g., paper, digital)?
• How often it is updated or received?

Your site walk-around will have helped to provide some of this information and flagged which resources and waste streams need to be quantified.