Interview with Engineer Noroozi, One of most successful Iranian nationally and internationally
On the eve of being winners of two major national and an international awards
Please introduce yourself
Ebrahim Noroozi, a graduate from McGill University and have been residing in Montreal since 1975.
Please explain your educational and professional experience
Graduated with M.Sc. in food science engineering from McGill in 1978 and after almost 10 years of industrial experience in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and environmental joined McGill University in 1987 where I am presently director of teaching laboratories and faculty OHS advisor. Besides I have number of other executive board membership in scientific and accredited organization for outreach such as Chairing Quebec Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professional Organization in Canada for almost past 25 years.
Explain some of your professional accreditation and their importance
Besides more than a dozen different scientific and professional societies there are several accredited organizations with distinct characters and requirements to be eligible to join and maintain as for accreditation each 5 years as follow:
- 1st Iranian and among first few hundred worldwide to be inaugurated as “Certified Food Scientist” (CFS) from The International Food Science Certification Commission (IFSCC) / Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) since its foundation in 1943; USA since 2013,
- Certified Safety Professional, Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (CRSP), Canada since 1995.
- Ordre des Chimistes du Quebec (P. Chemist), Quebec 1989 – 2009.
- Commissioner of Oath (#115418), Quebec Ministry of Justice; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Renewed each three years. 1990 – Present.
- Continuous other certification in many OHS courses each 3 years and or five years for staying accredited by above organizations.
Please describe your success in receiving some other awards, honors and recognition
Recipient of more than three dozens of provincial, national and international awards, honors and recognition and most recently two other major awards as follow:
- The 1st award I was informed of being the international selected candidate by Iranian Food Science & Technology Association (IFSTA) called “Dr. Hedayat’s Award, as known to be the father of food science engineering and a hero” in Iran and which I will be delivering a lecture to receive it on March 2019 which we can update at that time.
- The 2nd award I was also informed of being final candidate selected and received it after competing among more than one thousand laboratories and 40 departments, schools, institutes, units, centers, faculties including teaching hospitals at McGill University is “Sustainability Labs Award” which is the 1st of its kind not only at McGill but also in Canada and internationally and which is the important issue facing humanity and planet earth we will be talking about today.
Can you please explain the “Sustainability” its importance globally?
Sustainability – When sustainable products first came into the market, many people bought them because they wanted to do something positive for the environment, or they wanted to try new things. Many people liked the idea of sustainability and the majority of consumers supported the idea. However, very few people actually realized how important sustainability was. Even ten years ago, the idea of sustainability wasn’t taken so seriously. But, sustainability and consciousness about the environment among the general population has increased and the idea has become global today.
Sustainability means things to continue doing what they were supposed to do in order to sustain its survival and whatever else depend on it and continue forever in a simple term it means avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources. Sustainability is not just environmentalism. Embedded in most definitions of sustainability we also find concerns for social equity and economic development.
Sustainability is the process of maintaining change in a balanced fashion, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations.
Where does the term come from?
While the concept of sustainability is a relatively new idea, the movement as a whole has roots in social justice, conservationism, internationalism and other past movements with rich histories. By the end of the twentieth centuries, many of these ideas had come together in the call for ‘sustainable development.’
The Bruntdland Commission
In 1983, the United Nations tapped former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland to run the new World Commission on Environment and Development. After decades of effort to raise living standards through industrialization, many countries were still dealing with extreme poverty. It seemed that economic development at the cost of ecological health and social equity did not lead to long-lasting prosperity. It was clear that the world needed to find a way to harmonize ecology with prosperity.
After four years, the “Brundtland Commission” released its final report, Our Common Future. It famously defines sustainable development as:
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The Commission successfully unified environmentalism with social and economic concerns on the world’s development agenda.
Sustainability is a holistic approach that considers ecological, social and economic dimensions, recognizing that all must be considered together to find lasting prosperity.
Did you know?
Adopting sustainable practices, whether large or small, can have significant impacts in the long run.
If every office worker in the United Kingdom used one less staple a day by using a reusable paper clip, 120 tonnes of steel would be saved in one year.
For our planet sustainability means for earth to be able to provide clean air, water, provide food and allow human to have a high quality of life.
Presently our planet is not sustainable. Twenty (20) years ago scientist in Sweden proposed four (4) basic principles as instruction for our planet survival and sustainability:
Reduce our dependence on fossil fuel
- Heavy metals
- Reduce synthetic chemicals harmful to nature
- Reduce of our destruction of nature
Remember demand for food, water and clean air increases also as the population rise and climate affected accordingly to our own activities for what we depend on for survival as basic human needs.
The Three Pillars of Sustainability
The three pillars of sustainability are environmental, economic and social practices as follow as referred Mr. Noroozi the inaugural recipient of McGill University Sustainability Labs Award:
- Environmental Sustainability
Ecological integrity is maintained, all of earth’s environmental systems are kept in balance while natural resources within them are consumed by humans at a rate where they are able to replenish themselves.
- Economic Sustainability
Human communities across the globe are able to maintain their independence and have access to the resources that they require, financial and other, to meet their needs. Economic systems are intact and activities are available to everyone, such as secure sources of livelihood.
- Social Sustainability
Universal human rights and basic necessities are attainable by all people, who have access to enough resources in order to keep their families and communities healthy and secure. Healthy communities have just leaders who ensure personal, labour and cultural rights are respected and all people are protected from discrimination.
Lately, most Americans, as claimed to be the greatest democracy and economy, regardless of their political leaning, have been asking themselves “how did we get here”, become a land of crumbling roads, income inequality, bitter polarization and dysfunctional government, where the result has been protected few rich that continue getting richer (the winners) who don’t need government and the other side are unprotected many hard working as they look to their government to preserve their way of life and improve it as witnessed very much the same or even worth across the globe 9?
However, as the Great Recession of 2008 demonstrated, weakness in the other pillars can directly weaken the environmental pillar. Many nations and states are cutting back or postponing stricter environmental laws or investment, since their budgets are running deficits.
Many environmental NGOs are seeing their income fall. If the Great Recession grew substantially worse and morphed into another Great Depression, you would expect the environmental pillar would get severely less attention, since eating now is a priority over saving the environment
Sustainable practices is applicable at indoor, outdoor, various workplaces such as production, and or in laboratory.
Major practices and issues to be considered in laboratory include but not limited to green chemistry, consider reusable product, repair and maintenance, machine and equipment purchase and their sharing, energy conservation, peak energy demand, season, liquid nitrogen storage practices, low temperature fridge and freezer efficiency, workplace comfort (lighting, thermal, humidity, ventilation etc.), waste reduction, design, space and storage consideration.
For example laboratories are some of the most energy-consuming places at Penn State. As a research university, with scientists and researchers who understand conservation methods, it is important for us to implement energy-saving strategies in the workplace.
Penn State’s lab buildings cost $5 to $10 per square foot for utilities. A classroom or office building consumes less than $2 per square foot. Therefore, our labs cost 3 to 5 times more to operate than other buildings.
Another example has been environmental concerns, says Brian Robinson, Assistant professor in geography at McGill University, locusts a type of grasshopper caused $ 2.5 billion dollar of damage to crops in Africa between 2000-2003.
Shaping the future
Integral elements of sustainability are research and innovation activities. A telling example is the European environmental research and innovation policy. It aims at defining and implementing a trans formative agenda to greening the economy and the society as a whole so to make them sustainable. Research and innovation in Europe are financially supported by the programmer Horizon 2020, which is also open to participation worldwide.
Encouraging good farming practices ensures farmers fully benefit from the environment and at the same time conserving it for future generations. Additionally, instigating innovative and sustainable travel and transportation solutions must play a vital role in this process 4.
We have advanced in science but the inevitable conclusion is that our way of life cannot be sustained without further harm to our health, earth and the planet.
Some of the most sustainable wonders and inventions of the world have been bicycle, ceiling fan, clothesline, public library and interdepartmental envelop even at IT age. They are all cheap, reusable, energy efficient and simple to maintain.
The opposite of “Wealth” is not “Poverty” but rather ‘Sufficiency” and “Sufficiency” is not a matter of “Sacrifice” or “Deprivation” but rather a means of working out different ways of achieving satisfaction in our lives. Ownership of bigger, excessive, more complicated and faster approach has not always led to happier and healthier lifestyle for human planet as a whole.
We must learn a balancing act in life, accept and learn to enjoy slower life-style while trying to improve it. We must learn to enjoy simpler thins such as sleeping, seeing, tasting, eating and walking because one day we will realize they were in fact big things in life.
12 Factors to Promote Sustainability
- Reduce, Reuse, Repair & Recycle 2. Make informed choices 3. Grow organic garden 4. Minimize waste 5. Watch your utility bills 6. Purchase energy efficient product 7. Compost your kitchen waste 8. Carpool / transport wise 9. Plant more trees 10. Support sustainable organizations 11. Be water wise 12. Eliminate plastic & chemicals.
We have to continue looking farther and deeper in order to come up with more sustainable solutions, through educating and changing attitude within society as a whole.
One example in recent years has been promoting consumption of insects as they are available in much of the world. Entomology, the practice of consuming bugs as food, occurs “in at least 113 countries with over 2,000 documented edible species,” according to a 2017 study. The benefits are innumerable. Insects are nutritious and sustainable: they produce lower greenhouse gas emissions and require less water and land than traditional livestock
Remember today the greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will do it for us and saddest aspect of life is that science gathers “Knowledge” much faster than “Wisdom”.
We must learn to be happy for what we have and strive to improve it as Douglas Mallach the American Poet said back in late 1800 “We have to be best of whatever we are”.
If you can’t be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway some happier make;
If you can’t be a muskie then just be a bass–
But the liveliest bass in the lake!
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew,
There’s something for all of us here.
There’s big work to do and there’s lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.
If you can’t be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can’t be the sun be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail—
“Be the best of whatever you are!”
Congratulations to #CRSP Ebrahim Noroozi from McGill University(@mcgillu), who was recently announced as the recipient of Iranian Food Scientist of the Year from IFSTA for work in promoting #OHS in food & beverage processing industries. Award to be given in March 2019. pic.twitter.com/Y9uF5hJyKb
— BCRSP (@BCRSP) October 15, 2018
Congratulations to #CRSP Ebrahim Noroozi on receiving McGill University's inaugural Sustainable Labs Award. https://t.co/7YwHxpqlLI
— BCRSP (@BCRSP) September 22, 2018