Fire Protection – A Sustainable Practice in the World’s Changing Environment

Fire Protection – A Sustainable Practice in the World’s Changing Environment

What is environmental awareness?

Environmental awareness is understanding the environment, the impact that humans and their behaviors have on it, and the importance of its protection.

It is an awareness of our natural environment, our choices that may positively or negatively impact the world we live in and realizing the survival of the earth is dependent on us.

Top environmental issues include oil drilling, deforestation, and plastic goods production. Whilst these are the top environmental issues, each person could make changes in their daily lives, personal or business, to have a positive impact on the environment.

What are greenhouse gas emissions?

Greenhouse gas emissions are gases in the earth’s atmosphere that trap heat and make the planet warmer. During the day, the sun shines through the atmosphere, warming the earth’s surface. At night, earth’s surface cools, releasing heat back into the air; but some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years.

Human activities include fires started by arson, as well as lack of fire protection in buildings. Fires release carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to climate change.

What role does fire protection play on the environment?  

We often refer to the negative impact fires have on the environment, but have we ever thought about the positive impact fire protection systems can have on the environment? We focus on saving lives, damage to businesses and property, but rarely talk about this impact on the environment.

Fire protection systems can be considered a sustainable practice. Sustainable practices are actions taken from an economic, society or ecological perspectives to reduce or eliminate the negative impact on the environment.

The aim of fire protection systems is to protect a building’s occupants and minimize the damage associated with fires, by extinguishing or controlling fires, and preventing them from spreading. Preventing, extinguishing, or controlling fires in itself is a sustainable practice, as they reduce greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other greenhouse gases.

In a public release by FM Global in March 2010, they found that the use of automatic fire sprinklers reduced the greenhouse gas emissions, consisting of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide, and reported as equivalent mass of carbon dioxide (CO2), by 97.8%.  

Another finding by FM Global was flashover never occurred in sprinkled rooms, and in the non-sprinkled rooms flashover occurred at approximately five minutes after ignition. The occurrence of flashover prior to service intervention was an indication that the fire would have propagated to adjacent rooms, resulting in greater production of greenhouse gases, greater water demand to extinguish the fire, and additional materials to be disposed of in landfills.  

Going “green” could be negated by a single fire event

While businesses and companies the world over do what they can to minimize their negative impact on the environment by changing to eco-friendly equipment, recycling, and reducing plastic, all this could be negated by a single fire.

We now know that fires emit CO2, and other greenhouse gases, which increase greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Should your building not have sufficient or maintained fire protection systems to reduce the spread of a fire, all your hard work to conserve the plant by making the necessary changes could go to waste. Your fire alone would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and all damaged equipment and company property would be contributing to landfills, which are already under significant strain in South Africa.

Johannesburg, Tshwane and Cape Town have only less than 10 years of useful landfill life left and while the Department of Environmental Affairs has a strategy to divert waste from landfills, damage to property caused by fires only put departments under more pressure.  

Fixing or the rebuild of damaged property also contribute to greenhouse gases, as machinery required to reconstruct buildings require petroleum or diesel to operate and is one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Get fire safety signs installed with Elite Fire Protection

At Elite Fire Protection we offer inspections, installation, and maintenance of automatic fire sprinkler systems.  

Don’t let your fires contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Let us help you find the best solution for you, your property, and your people. Contact us today!