COVER STORY
• We will send no waste to landfill • We will recycle 95% of our waste • We will reduce waste at point of procurement
• We will incorporate as much of our ‘waste’ back in to our supply chain as possible
• We will ensure everyone is accountable and that everyone can make a difference
BE AMBITIOUS Businesses that are prepared to disregard what has
gone before and adopt an openness to change can enjoy a new way of working. They will benefit from a service aligned to their business objectives and optimised for the materials they produce. This willingness to change, coupled with a focus on the desired outputs, will facilitate a radical change in the way they manage resources and the potential to unlock a host of commercial, reputational and environmental benefits.
“GENUINE PARTNERSHIPS AND INNOVATION ARE CAPABLE OF DELIVERING IMPROVED
ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE.”
This links to my next point, but one way to do this is to take a starting point of wanting to deliver as much brand value as possible. Thinking this way can help us take a more holistic and effective view of how we manage these resources. This in turn will hopefully encourage contracts that support the development of genuine partnerships and innovation, which are capable of delivering improved environmental performance and substantially lower costs over the lifetime of the contact.
Still further, if we can avoid material ever going into a bin then perhaps it never becomes waste and by default we’ll view and manage it in a far more positive fashion.
BUILD YOUR BRAND One benefit of effective waste management that is
often overlooked, is the potential to use it to build brand value. Businesses often go to great lengths to develop systems that will both control their waste management costs and improve their environmental performance. However, the majority still fail to leverage the opportunity that this presents to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and to develop a new and engaging dimension to their brand.
You don’t need to be one of the UKs biggest and best known retailers to do this. Businesses of any size can take an approach to developing their waste and recycling plan, which sets out to generate as much environmental brand collateral as possible. I believe any business open-minded enough to set this as their primary objective will, by default, end up with the most commercially and environmentally sustainable solution possible.
www.tomorrowsfm.com
JOIN THE ZERO WASTE ECONOMY A Zero Waste Economy is an economic model that moves
away from a throwaway society to one where any waste generated is viewed as a resource and is fully valued both financially and environmentally.
All businesses should have the vision to actively participate in and contribute to the development of a Zero Waste Economy. Over the coming years, we will need to find ways to decouple the generation of waste from our income and realise the value of the materials we dispose of. Furthermore, we must seek to contribute to a circular economy by taking all practical opportunities to reuse and recycle waste and close the loop by reusing products or purchasing goods with a recycled content.
COORDINATE OBJECTIVES
ACROSS THE BUSINESS All too often it seems like there is a disconnect between the way we talk about managing our waste and how we go about procuring the services to manage it.
My experience of waste and recycling procurement is that it often does not reflect the ambition set out in companies’ environmental objectives or more broadly in their CSR policies. We still see tender processes driven by pricing waste in the most unimaginative way e.g. price to bin lift. Whilst we see commentary in procurement documentation relating to an aspiration to embrace innovation and be more ‘circular’ the reality is that when it comes to evaluating the service providers’ solutions, cost is still king.
MEASUREMENT, MONITORING
AND PERFORMANCE Once implemented, businesses should monitor the effectiveness of their plan using performance indicators. These could include some of the ‘traditional’ performance indicators below:
• Absolute reduction in tonnes of waste generated • Tonnes of waste generated per business unit • Percentage of waste streamed at source for recycling • Percentage of construction waste diverted from landfill
• Percentage of the total value of construction materials derived from recycled and re-used content.
In light of what I have said before, however, it might be even more powerful to develop some completely new indicators aligned with the business’ brand or broader CSR objectives.
Helistrat works with some of the UK’s best-known brands and across a range of sectors to develop waste, recycling and resource management strategies capable of delivering a real step change in commercial and environmental performance. Customers include M&S, Poundland, Apple and McArthgurGlen.
www.helistrat.co.uk TOMORROW’S FM | 17
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