FEATURE


The power of marginal gains in achieving a sustainable future


Alastair Scott, Sales Director at Robert Scott, explains how a concept that propelled Sir Bradley Wiggins to the first British win of the Tour de France for 12 years provides an interesting parallel for cleaning businesses targeting ambitious sustainability goals.


In 2010, Team Sky faced the task of producing a British Tour de France champion within five years. The odds were long, but the team had a secret weapon. Rather than making sweeping transformations, team head Sir Dave Brailsford introduced an unassuming yet potent strategy: the idea of marginal gains.


Margin gains saw the team seek incremental improvements in every conceivable area – from training routines to the kind of pillows they slept on. Just two years later, Sir Bradley Wiggins emerged victorious in Paris.


At Robert Scott, we believe that achieving ambitious sustainability targets likewise isn’t about making one monumental change, rather a series of smaller, carefully calculated adaptations which come together to make a big cumulative effect. Across our industry, this marginal gains mindset has a powerful potential for propelling businesses towards their sustainability goals.


Changing products


In our commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2045, we've immersed ourselves in understanding (quite literally) the fabric of our operations. When we looked at the material we used, we recognised an opportunity to embrace recycled plastic more broadly.


Subsequently, we’ve adapted a significant amount of our plastic products to encompass over 70% recycled content, which has led to a reduction of over 200 tonnes of virgin plastic in just a year. Adapting our 15L professional bucket and wringer from 0% recycled to 97% recycled content alone has seen us use 55 tonnes less virgin plastic.


What’s more, by moving to 30%+ recycled plastic packaging, we’ve removed a further 10 tonnes of virgin plastic from our supply chain.


We also realised that small design changes can have notable environmental impacts. Take our mops, for instance. A reduction in the amount of plastic has reduced our annual plastic consumption by over 17 tonnes.


Toucan Eco play at that game


We’re also introducing new products that help businesses reduce the carbon impact of their operations without requiring major alterations to their cleaning routines.


Our Toucan Eco range, for example, makes an antibacterial cleaner using just water, salt and electricity. It’s chemical- free, more cost effective than traditional cleaning systems and reduces around 80% of a typical user’s plastic waste.


22 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING


One of our customers, The Restaurant Group, was able to reduce plastic packaging by 2.7 tonnes and chemical usage by 35,000 tonnes in just one year, replacing the need for 11 different chemicals.


Reducing logistical footprints


Shipping and transportation is another area prime for a marginal gains approach. By optimising packing methods, we have reduced our container load, making a marked difference in our carbon footprint.


Even seemingly minor alterations, like adjusting delivery frequencies, can accumulate to sizable CO2


emission


reductions. A mere reduction from three to two deliveries per week for a single customer could, for instance, cut about 30 tonnes of CO2


annually. Powering our approach


Using renewable electricity has become a cornerstone of our approach – yet was a relatively simple and painless switch to make. By choosing an energy provider that supplies 100% renewable source electricity, we have also been able to reduce our Scope 2 emissions.


No pain, big gain


We’ve learnt to embrace the philosophy of marginal gains in everything we do, as we strive towards our big goal for 2045. As we’re discovering, it’s often the journey of a thousand small steps that leads to the most remarkable destinations.


www.robert-scott.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning


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