Sustainable

Business
case studies:
Innovation
and inspiratio
incorporate n
sustainability

Introduction
This year saw a record number of entries into the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards,
which recognise and champion innovation and positive leadership happening within
business, from the supply chain to the board room. These case studies represent those
people and projects which are helping businesses do better and be better.
At a time when the corporate business-as-usual mentality will no longer suffice, it is
inspiring to see so many projects and initiatives which are actively pursuing meaningful
sustainability. This year weve included two new categories: net positive and natural
capital, to reflect the evolving nature of corporate sustainability action.
This ebook profiles the winner(s) in each category, and all the runners- up, from a family
dairy producing green cheddar (in a good way!) to large companies working to integrate
sustainability into their business model.
Weve also created a useful searchable database of this years case studies, along with
those from previous years, so its easy to pull out specific themes.
Enjoy the read.

Introduction | 2

Contents
1 Communications
Communicating sustainability
Innovation winner - Carbon Tracker: Changing the financial language of climate change
Impact winner - Tesco: Sparking the debate on food waste
AT&T: Encouraging employees to do one thing for sustainability
Carlsberg: Makes website about its social enterprise achievements
diva creative: encouraging young people to use buses
GabiH2O: Campaign involving animated camel saves UK 540m litres of water a year
Keep Britain Tidy: Putting insects on the menu
Mediae: Making farming tips irresistible for Kenyan farmers
Nestl: Puts QR codes on its products
Nokia: Dancing its way to a sustainable future
Positive Luxury: Butterfly mark creates a community of brands
PwC: Giving employees the confidence to discuss sustainability with clients
Sainsburys: Explaining sustainability goals using movies
The Capital Institute: Field guide to how money can do good
WasteSolve: Helping Lincolnshire food firm to transform its waste policies

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2 Impact
Social Impact
Innovation winner - Shared Interest: Mutual society lends money to farmers no one else will help
Impact winner - Accenture: Helping Vodafone identify socially useful new services
Alquity Investment Management: Investments that change lives
AT&T: Message on texting and driving: it can wait
Carbon Clear: Low-smoke stoves save lives in Sudan
Carillion: Flying the flag for apprenticeships
Casual Films: Offering work experience to disadvantaged wannabe film-makers
Friska and Deki: Microfinancing helps businesses in poor countries
Give as you live: Plugin makes charitable giving an everyday thing
H&M: Collects 3,500 tonnes of old clothes in one year
Heineken: Suggests we should dance more and drink slowly
Impactt: Educating child workers
Manchester University: Brings its skills to finding state school governors
Morgan Stanley: Connecting students with local charities
neighbourly: Helping business become a force for good
O2: Encourageing social entrepreneurship among the young
RBS: Unleashing the UKs inner entrepreneur
Royal Mail: Apprenticeships target youth unemployment
SwissLeg: Makes and fits affordable prosthetic legs for war victims
The Resilience Centre: Helps town in Gloucestershire generate own energy

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Supply Chain Category sponsor WRAPP

Innovation winner - BT: Inspiring its suppliers to innovate
Asda: Cutting its environmental impact by focusing on supply chain

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Contents | 3

CeDO: Making bin bags from plastics film

Green Oil: Offering cyclists the worlds greenest bicycle maintenance range
M&S: Emerging Leaders and M&S teach management skills to Kenyan workers
Marcatus QED: Introducing agricultural techniques to Indian smallholders
Sainsburys: Suppliers development groups offer farmers support
Taylor & Colledge: Aims to make South Pacific vanilla market Fairtrade
Tesco: Working with suppliers to cut food waste

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Carbon and energy management

Innovation winner - LanzaTech: Turning pollution into fuel
Impact winner - Interface: A carpet-tile revolutionary
Arup: Produces construction industry strategy for tackling climate change
Citi: Cutting carbon and energy use
Dearman: Making clean engines with liquid air
lan: Inverurie hair salon gets green rinse
npower: Leads by example in energy efficiency
PepsiCo: Cutting carbon in its Walkers crisps supply chain
Sainsburys: Shrinking its carbon footprint
SC Johnson: Has its own wind turbine, among other sustainability measures
Veolia Environment: Finding value in rubbish

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Collaboration
Innovation winner - Hewlett-Packard: Introducing large-scale e-waste recycling in Africa
Impact winner - Barts: Links energy saving to patient care and saves 105,000 in first year
2degrees: An online community for sustainable business
AkzoNobel: Backing renewable raw materials
Anglo American: Shaping a legacy to be proud of in Brazil
AT&T: Blueprint for water efficiency
Business Benchmark: The animal welfare index
ColaLife: Makeing an affordable anti-diarrhoea kit
The Cool Farm Tool: A better way of engaging with farmers
Ecotricity: Ecotricity and Nissan install UK electric-car-charging network
Forum for the Future: Leading an energy revolution
Impactt: Working to improve garment workers lot
MITIE: Sky, MITIE and Bunzl work together to reduce food packaging waste
Patagonia: Urging customers Dont buy new, search eBay
Recofloor: Making new floors and traffic cones from vinyl off-cuts and waste
World Business Council for Sustainable Development: Vision 2050

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Net Positive
Innovation winner - Abundance Generation: Invents democratic finance
Impact winner - Kingfisher: Pioneers environmental philosophy
Accor: Hotel guests help local farms plant trees
B&Q: Breathing new life into neglected woodlands
Considerate Hoteliers: Bringing sustainability to the hospitality sector
Dell: Wants to give back ten times what it takes, sustainability-wise
Digicel: Rebuilding Haitis schools
Levis Strauss: Pilot line of low-energy, sustainably made clothing
Nike: Releases app for designers containing index of materials
Straw Works: Helps clients build their own low-cost straw bale house

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Contents | 4

3 Resources
Waste
Innovation winner - Wyke Farms: Cheddar goes green in a good way
Impact winner - Kingfisher: Takes commercial make do and mend into the mainstream
ACE: Bringing carton recycling to the UK
B&Q: Selling bedding plants in compostable containers
Brother Industries: Recycling toner cartridges efficiently
CeDo: Making bin bags from plastics film
GENeco: Food waste and sewage does GENeco a power of good
Heineken: Beer dispenser saves landlords 90% of their energy bill
Magnum Opus: Opuss Magnum reduces legal paperwork by using the cloud
MBA plastics: MBA Polymers turns plastic waste into a raw material
Plastic Surgeons: Doing cosmetic repairs on any surface in the built environment
Unilever: Compressed aerosols cut carbon footprint by 25% per can
Veolia: South-East London facility runs homes on energy from household waste
Wasteless: Levis makes range of clothes incorporating recycled plastic

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Built environment Category sponsor - AECOM

Innovation winner - Citu: Green homes on brownfield sites
Winner N/A - Keepmoat: Defies government theory about cost of low-energy homes
ARUP: The White Collar Factory is an office where you can actually open a window
Hastoe Housing Association: Building homes from straw bales
John Robertson Architects: The most sustainable building is an existing one
Octavia Housing: Making eco-homes desirable and affordable
PwC: Creates the most sustainable building in the world
Skanska: Improves UK HQ to demonstrate benefits of sustainability
The Emerald: Zero-carbon holiday accommodation in Cornwall

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Natural Capital
Combined winner - Boots: Quietly getting on with improving impact of Botanics range
Conservation Grade: Paying farmers for wildlife friendly planting
Miko coffee: Funding rainforest protection
Nestl: Plants 65 acres of UK butterfly meadows

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4 Special Awards
Consultancy of the year
Innovation winner - Impactt: Consultancy demonstrates that ethics and profit go together
Impact winner - Arup: Consulting wins for scale and attention to detail

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Sustainable business leader of the year

Paul Polman: Embedding sustainability drives greater profitability, says Unilever CEO Polman

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Judges
Sponsors

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Innovation or impact?
Innovation winner
These organisations were set up to solve a sustainability problem or are
companies that recognise enshrining sustainability in their business from the
outset is a better approach to doing business. Past innovation winners have
included Cred, an ethical jewellery company which won the 2013 supply chain
innovation award and the charity SolarAid, which won the 2013 communicating
sustainability innovation award.

Impact winner
These organisations sought to become more sustainable by rejecting old
paradigms and finding new ways to do business. Past impact winners have
included B&Q, which won the 2013 carbon impact award and BSkyB which won
the 2013 communicating sustainability impact award.

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1
Communications
Communicating
sustainability
Inspiring action on
sustainability issues is
key. Judges looked for
stand-out examples
of campaigns that
have engaged and
entertained. Eliciting
action and leading
to tangible shifts in
behaviour.

Innovation winner

Carbon Tracker: Changing the financial

language of climate change

new vocabulary came into being when a team of financial and energy experts
used a groundbreaking report to question the huge scale of global investment in
high-cost, high-carbon fossil fuel assets, which are likely to become unviable in the
face of tougher regulation to limit climate change.
The degree to which global financial markets and climate policy were out of step with
each other, and the potential threat that posed to the financial system, became starkly
obvious in the Carbon Tracker Initiatives report Unburnable Carbon: Wasted Capital
and Stranded Assets, published in April 2013.
As a direct result of the report, ratings agencies, financial regulators and investors,
such as pension funds and investment banks, are now questioning the viability of
buying into coal, oil and gas companies when action to limit global warming will
mean many of their assets may become unviable and will need to stay in the ground.
The report reframed the climate debate by revealing the extent of misalignment
between global financial markets and climate security. It was unprecedented in
communicating to investors, in language they were familiar with, the risks associated
with capital expenditure ultimately warming the planet.
The report put the phrases carbon bubble, unburnable carbon and stranded
assets into the environmental and financial vocabulary. Carbon Tracker changed the
emphasis from looking at annual emissions to who was stockpiling carbon. In the
process the organisation has reinvigorated a global carbon budget debate, forcing both
individual and institutional investors to question their continued heavy investment
in fossil fuels.
Essentially, this small non-profit organisation translated climate risk into energy
demand and prices, so that it became relevant to people allocating capital today rather
than in five years time. The response was significant.
The concept of the carbon bubble has gone mainstream, declared the Wall Street
Journal, and the Guardian, The Economist, FT, Telegraph and New York Times also
covered the report. The International Energy Agency produced a special report on the
potential for stranded assets.
The team found innovative ways to spread the message. A talkie animation and
interactive map, hosted by the Guardian, brought the data to life with a simple
explanation of how coal, oil and gas reserves are distributed across the worlds leading
Communications | 7

stock exchanges and the likely impact of

tougher climate change policies.
Bloomberg hosted an event for investors
at which climate expert and former UK
government adviser Lord Stern introducing
the findings. Investment banks followed,
organising tours of their clients to debate the
reports findings, and then published their own
research for clients.
The Guardian judges commended the Carbon
Tracker, saying it created a real rumble
within the financial markets that could not be
ignored. [Its] use of design and infographics
was incredibly effective [and] had an elegant
simplicity.
Carbon Trackers report
caused ratings agencies,
financial regulators and
investors to question the
viability of buying into coal,
oil and gas companies.

It became clear that the Carbon Tracker

Initiative was able to transcend barriers between the scientific, financial and NGO communities
and, as a consequence, the concepts spread, stimulating new links between climate science,
campaigns and flows of capital.
Shareholders also began to question whether fossil fuel companies were disclosing risks to their
investors. The ethical investment group Ceres announced that 70 investors with $3tn in assets
would engage with the worlds largest 45 fossil fuel companies on how they were addressing the
carbon asset risk. Investors requested detailed responses from companies before shareholders
meetings.
Fund manager Storebrand pulled 19 coal and tar sands companies from its portfolio, citing carbonbubble risk. The $800bn Norwegian Petroleum Fund has halved its exposure to coal companies.
350.org launched its divestment campaign, based on Carbon Trackers maths, pushing for
investors in Europe to divest themselves of fossil fuels. Share Actions Green Light campaign
aimed to persuade members of pension funds to engage trustees on how they are managing this
risk.
When the UK environmental audit committee published its report Green Finance in March this
year, its chair, Joan Walley MP, said: The UK Government and Bank of England must not be
complacent about the risks of carbon exposure in the world economy. Financial stability could be
threatened if shares in fossil fuel companies turn out to be over-valued.
The Carbon Tracker team has just three full-time staff, including Mark Campanale, the founder
and executive director, who conceived the idea of unburnable carbon. He co-founded some of the
first responsible investment funds and has 20 years experience in sustainable financial markets.
The initiatives chief executive is Anthony Hobley, a lawyer specialising in climate change, clean
energy and international environmental law. The organisation is chaired by Jeremy Leggett, who is
a recognised expert on fossil fuel reserves, a writer and the founder of SolarCentury and Solar Aid.
The initiatives declared aim is to bring the capital markets and climate change objectives into
line with each other, reversing the unsustainable divergence occurring at present. As a non-profit
organisation, it is not driven by the need to make a financial return in pursuing that goal.

Communications | 8

Impact winner

Tesco: Sparking the debate on food waste

hen Tesco published food waste data in October

2013, it wasnt surprised by the outcry in the media.
The supermarket chain knew that revealing the amount
of food it discarded would open it up to public scrutiny,
but understood that was the price it had to pay to trigger a
debate about an urgent global challenge.
Publishing unflattering information about its operations
was a bold move, but it paid off.
Headlines in the Daily Mail and the Times and widespread
coverage on the BBC expressed shock at the 28,500 tonnes
of food wasted in Tescos stores and distribution centres in
the first six months of the year.

Tesco revealed that its

stores and distribution
centres had thrown out
28,500 tonnes of food
in the first six months of
2013.

Once the story was no longer in the headlines, however, the retailers aim in being the first
supermarket chain to publish food waste figures started to become clear: the debate about food
waste was ignited, and the medias surprise developed into a serious commentary on how to
tackle the issue.
Leading food waste campaigners, such as the Waste and Resources Action programme (Wrap), the
poverty charity Fareshare, Feeding the 5,000, Waste Watch and Oxfam, joined in. As they pointed
out, this wasnt just an issue for Tesco but for the retail industry as a whole.
Since its announcement, other retailers, including the UKs biggest grocers, have vowed to follow Tescos
lead and work with the British Retail Consortium to reveal how much food they waste each year.
Becoming a global leader in the fight against food waste is one of the ambitions set out in Tescos
new corporate responsibility strategy, launched in May 2013 with the slogan We use our scale for
good.
The retailer recognises that a company of its size, with 50 million customers and thousands of
suppliers around the world, has a significant part to play in helping to address some of the most
pressing issues facing society, including sustainability, health and employability.
Wasted food is a massive global problem, costing producers and customers about 460bn a
year. Its estimated that about a third of all food grown, worldwide, could be wasted primarily
in agriculture, in the supply chain and by customers. Every bag of food thrown out puts extra
strain on the environment at a time when the food system as a whole is coming under increasing
pressure through growing demand. Thats why Tesco decided to take a lead in reducing the
amount of food we throw away each year.
By talking to food waste campaigners and other experts in the field, the supermarket chain
learned that one of the key hurdles to dealing with the issue is a lack of clarity about how much
food is wasted and where. It decided that one of the most helpful things it could do was to shine
a light on the amount of food discarded by its own stores and distribution centres. Campaigners
welcomed Tescos transparency.
The Guardian judges agreed, describing the retailers admission about its own food waste as a
brave move, which showed [its] boldness as a brand. They thought it was a great example of
an organisation using its scale for good, and applauded the increased transparency the move is
bringing about in the wider industry.
Coming clean about food waste is the only way those striving to reduce the waste mountain can
see where the hotspots are and work out what to do about it. At the same time, Tesco released

Communications | 9

farm-to-fork profiles for five of its most popular products, setting out individual action plans to
reduce waste in each product. This included a promise to end multi-buy offers on large bags of
salad, one of the biggest waste culprits with about 40% thrown out in the stores or by customers.
The company is also sending surplus bran from bread milling to be used as animal feed, and
donating millions of surplus meals a year to Fareshare.
To calculate how much food it wasted, Tesco worked with Wrap. Its work is also consistent with
national and international campaigns and programmes run by bodies such as the United Nations,
European Union, Wrap and the World Resources Institute.
In admitting its food waste figures, Tesco set out to raise awareness of the issue, spark national
debate and encourage industry-wide change. In those terms the move has been a success. The
retailer is committed to working with others to find ways to tackle the challenge, and will continue
to campaign on the issue, make public the amount of food it wastes, and set up more plans to
reduce waste for each product.

Runners-up

AT&T: Encouraging employees to do one thing

for sustainability
T he worlds largest wireless provider, AT&T, is helping communities and the environment by
inviting every employee to do one thing (Dot) from exercising dogs to keeping office waste out
of landfill.
The Dot slogan is about making sustainability more understandable to employees.
In 2013, 21,000 employees did something and some did more than one thing each in total they
did 35,512 things to release their potential or make an impact.
The scope of employees activity ranges from volunteering to recycling, from using the companys
technology in innovative ways, to living healthier lives.
To boost the numbers of people willing to take part, AT&T set up special teams last year to move
the programme along. By the end of 2013 there were 689 Dot teams and nearly 1,140 employees
had volunteered to become Dot connectors, leaders who choose a Dot activity to share across the
company.
AT&T is based in Texas but has a presence in 225 countries. It runs the largest Wi-Fi network in the
US. It created Dot to make the idea of sustainability more understandable to employees, to increase
internal awareness of AT&Ts commitment to social and environmental good and to create a
simple way for interested employees to join in sustainability efforts on a personal level.
AT&T believes Dot equips and encourages people to speak knowledgeably about related initiatives
within the company. Dots could be individual or group accomplishments within AT&T and in
communities.
In 2013 Dot activities helped to save $351,138, some 552 trees and 18,310,294 gallons of water. They
helped employees shed 34,161 pounds, volunteer for 127,906 hours, took 643 cars off the road and
generated 79,432 It Can Wait pledges.
AT&Ts overall goal for the Dot campaign to engage employees in the companys citizenship
and sustainability efforts seems to be working. In the last three years participation has grown,
activities have broadened and enthusiasm has increased.

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Carlsberg: Makes website about its social

enterprise achievements
Carlsberg UK has brought its sustainability achievements to life on a website, introduced in 2012.
The website highlights the central role of collaboration with suppliers, customers and consumers
in Carlsberg being a responsible, sustainable brewer. Its employees play a starring role in the
story, with several of them sharing how they have helped to reduce Carlsbergs impact on the
environment, improve its products and make a valuable social contribution.
Sharing all its sustainability news and developments in one place with informative, visually led
content is helping the company to deliver strong, focused messages and clearly articulate what it
stands for. A colour printed booklet is also available.
Spotlighting Carlsbergs UK workforce has helped to reward employees efforts and provide a sense
of ownership of the companys sustainability achievements. Seeing their peers in action on screen
has inspired more employees to get involved.
Outside the company, the Engaged with Society website is helping Carlsberg demonstrate the
substance behind its words by transforming corporate rhetoric into easily accessible information
designed to engage and inspire. Improving its communications and illustrating the power of
collaboration is opening many new routes for cooperation.

diva creative: encouraging young people to use

buses
For the first time in 50 years the number of young people using buses in north-east England has
risen, thanks to an online advertising campaign.
A Sheffield marketing company, diva, researched how young people in Tees Valley perceived bus
travel and promoted a local sustainable travel website along with promotional tickets.
Website visitors increased by 80% and, for the first time in half a century, more young people in
the area began using the buses.
Councils nationwide have turned to the Sheffield-based marketing company to persuade more
people to cycle, walk, take the bus or car share and diva has become a leading expert on how to
change the way people get around.
It has identified barriers and motivators among different types of people and developed strategies
to fit. In 2013 these included videos, online advertising, public relations, corporate events, social
media and brand identities for sustainable travel projects.
Established in 1997, diva uses communications to promote social change, sustainability and social
justice. It has earned a strong reputation in social marketing, working for health organisations,
charities and government organisations across the UK, as well as local authorities.
In 2013, the company put its efforts into promoting sustainable travel in the UK and ran
behavioural change campaigns in south and west Yorkshire, York, Bedfordshire, Bournemouth,
Darlington, Wiltshire, Derby and Newcastle. diva argues it has a unique understanding of how
people travel. On each project it conducts research to identify barriers and motivators to change
among different target audiences.
Last year, the company increased its client portfolio by 300%. It worked with City of York council
to promote an online travel-planning tool which was nominated for a 2013 national transport
award for excellence in travel information and marketing. The campaigns website had 27,000
visits in a month.
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GabiH2O: Campaign involving animated camel

saves UK 540m litres of water a year
G abi, a water-conserving camel, was at the centre of a national campaign that has captured the
imagination of children and saved the UK 540m litres of water a year.
The character came to life in educational spots on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons TV, rapping to
promote water use.
A bespoke website featured videos, downloads, games and goodies for kids while an educational
campaign in partnership with Eco Schools, Southern Water and United Utilities reached a million
children in 29,000 schools.
The approach was developed by GabiH2O in association with the UKs leading authority on water
efficiency, Waterwise, and Nickelodeon UK, along with major sponsors from the water industry.
Waterwise also lent support to the development of GabiH2Os range of water-saving devices
including a shower head that delivers an optimum flow of 7.6 litres per minute as opposed to the
more common 12, 15 or even 25 litres.
Gabi the camel is the UKs first animated character dedicated to educating children about
environmental stewardship.
The challenge for GabiH2Os founder, Avi Djanogly, was how to bring about lifestyle change on a
mass scale. It was decided that spurring behaviour change among children would not only form
better life-long habits, it would create pester power and encourage parents to get involved too.
A series of 30 and 60-second educational advertorials featured Gabi encouraging things like
switching off taps while brushing ones teeth, taking a five-minute shower instead of a bath or
using leftover water to water plants.
Online competitions offered prizes including a singing toothbrush, activity books and trump
cards; and schools through the childrens newspaper First News were able to stage a Save Water
competition backed by posters and a lesson plan.
Waterwise provided advice on the development of schools materials and the companys
commercial water and energy saving kits. The latter were made available via a major online
retailer, enabling customers in an average family home to save up to 238 a year on utility bills and
reduce CO2 emissions.
GabiH2O reached 5.5 million TV viewers a month during the campaign, distributed more than
50,000 trump cards, received 315,000 online page views and more than 38,000 game plays and
downloads.
The campaign on TV and in schools saved a further 175 million litres, proving the power of creative
animation in sustainability education.
Introduced in May 2012, the we oughta save water campaign aired as the UK faced its worst
drought in 36 years and at a time when every UK citizen uses, on average, 150 litres of water a day.

Keep Britain Tidy: Putting insects on the menu

Insects as a source of protein was an idea put to the test on try something new Tuesday, part of Keep
Britain Tidys waste less, live more week. The unusual menu option was served at one of several events
challenging people to think about the social and environmental impact of their relationship with food.

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Keep Britain Tidy invited private, public and voluntary sector partners across the UK to stage a
week of activities that would explore the idea of better food.
More than 70 partners rose to a different challenge each day of the week from eating on the
breadline on thrifty Thursday and going vegetarian on meat-free Monday, to opting for the
most abundant ingredients on seasonal Sunday.
Keep Britain Tidy asked partners to reduce food waste, improve the nations diet and promote a
more sustainable food system.
It also hosted a conference to debate policy issues, with speakers from Tesco, WWF, FoodCycle and
FareShare. The conference brought together more than 100 people to hear from experts about the
links between food, waste and wellbeing and the need for collaborative change.
In addition, over 1,000 people took part in a series of partner events to help people think about
sustainability in its broadest sense, such as food foraging walks and lunches made entirely from
waste food.
Partners included the Feeding the 5,000 campaign and the Industry Council for Packaging and
the Environment.
Keep Britain Tidy merged with the charity Waste Watch in 2011 and has since made Waste Less,
Live More an annual event to communicate the message: whats good for the environment is good
for people.

Mediae: Making farming tips irresistible for

Kenyan farmers
K enyan farmers are embracing reality TV and it is changing how they grow crops and raise
livestock.
The supporting characters in Shamba Shape Up are pests, chickens and cows and the story lines
are centred on how small farmers turn struggle into success.
Around 6m people in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have watched the programme, broadcast in
English and Swahili, and it is on its fourth season.
Research shows dramatic improvements in viewers knowledge, attitude and farming practices.
After series one, 36% of viewers changed the way they farmed and after later series, this rose to
46% nearly half of all viewers.
A more extensive study indicated that the series prompted farmers to improve soil fertility and
dairy production, boosting the value of their product by $59m (35m). The model has proved
reality TV can influence farmers knowledge, attitudes and practices.
The production company behind the show is Mediae, based in Oxfordshire and in Nairobi, Kenya.
It secured funding for the project from the African Enterprise Challenge Fund and additional
finance from commercial sponsors and research organisations.
Mediae films on working farms in Kenya (shamba means farm). During each episode the presenter
and agricultural experts visit a farm to demonstrate sustainable ways of improving crops or
rearing dairy, cattle and chickens as well as helping farms adapt to climate change.
Farmers homes featured on the show are also given help to improve water trapping, better
cooking stoves and solar lighting to replace kerosene.
The development challenge Shamba Shape Up addresses is how to ensure smallholder farmers in

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east Africa receive first hand, relevant and appropriate information for their businesses. Scientists,
researchers, donor organisations and the private sector have struggled to communicate what they
know works to the people they want to reach.
While research has showed TV is the main source of information for those living in rural areas and
is a highly trusted source, there were previously no farming programmes.
Mediae was already working in eastern Africa. It has undertaken many successful projects in the
region over the last 15 years to support education and development in large rural and peri-urban
audiences.
Shamba Shake Up is produced by a local crew with initial support from a UK director. Mediae
makes the series interactive so that clips and full episodes can be downloaded on smart phones.
The most popular topics, generating the most SMS traffic, are cows, chickens, pest and disease
control. Mediae has sent out over 100,000 factsheets to viewers texting for further farming tips.
It is working on a digital platform, the Africa Knowledge Zone, where clips from productions will
be grouped by theme to provide an e-learning resource.
Mediae launched the long-running soap, Makutano Junction, which has 10 million regular viewers
in east Africa and is also being watched in UK schools. Like The Archers, it was conceived to share
information. Viewers identify issues that are incorporated into the story lines.
As Shamba Shake Up goes into Series Four, 12 other African countries have shown an interest,
along with Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Mediae was responsible for the award-winning
Kenyan radio soap opera Tembea Na Majira which ran twice weekly for more than 12 years until
2007. At its height, it had over 5 million listeners.

Nestl: Puts QR codes on its products

T he information on food packaging labels is often so small that even someone with 20/20 vision
can struggle to read it. So Nestl has introduced barcodes, scannable by smartphone, that make
nutritional and product lifecycle information instantly accessible.
The beyond the label initiative uses quick response, or QR, codes to open mobile applications or
websites. The company has started in the UK, with its best-selling chocolate biscuit, Kit Kat.
The website looks at raw materials, manufacturing, packaging and distribution. For instance,
it shows that two of Kit Kats main ingredients cocoa and sugar are from Fairtrade-certified
farms and explains how, in 2012, Nestl trained over 20,000 farmers in sustainable cocoa farming
practices.
Milk is sourced from the UK and Nestl has been working with dairy farmers to look at ways to
reduce their environmental impact. Since 2011, the farmers have reduced greenhouse gasses by
almost 6%.
The website includes details about some of Nestls UK environmental achievements. For example,
the Kit Kat factory in York, along with six other Nestl factories in the country, has been verified by
Bureau Veritas as sending zero waste to landfill.
There is also information on the social impacts of the companys products. For example the
company has committed to support the building of 40 schools in Cte dIvoire, where it buys
cocoa, over the next four years. The first two schools opened in autumn 2012.
Nestl is also supporting the food charity FareShare. In 2011, Nestl donated over a million meals
worth of food to the project, which also resulted in a reduction of over 450 tonnes of waste to
landfill. Beyond the label is the first initiative of its kind to use QR for nutritional, social and
product information. It is a response to the increasing sophistication of mobile technologies and

Communications | 14

peoples growing demand for transparency of product information. Although still in its early
stages, over 25,000 people have used the Kit Kat QR barcodes.
The company is planning to roll the initiative out across its products in developed and emerging
markets, to help people make more informed choices about what they buy and eat.

Nokia: Dancing its way to a sustainable future

M usic, dance, flash mobs, plays, puppetry, photography and digital design in its first year the
pieces created under Nokia Indias Create to Inspire Fellowship reached out to over 50,000 people,
making sustainable consumption a hot topic in Delhi and Hyderabad.
The initiative selected young people to act as champions for sustainability, encouraging everyone
to change their consumption habits by making greener, more sustainable choices. Around 100 18
to 25-year-olds in each city were mentored by renowned artists.
Working together they developed performances and campaigns around the use of energy, water,
transport and e-waste with the aim of starting conversations about sustainability and changing
behaviours.
A sister programme went to over 2,500 schools in 15 Indian cities and developed a range of
activities around environmental themes, from painting competitions to making short films and
plays. In total, 5,000 teachers and 60,000 students took part, getting parents, neighbours and
retailers involved in waste, water and energy audits, and e-waste collection drives.
To get the programme off the ground, Nokia developed ideas about sustainable living with
educational institutions, industry associations, cultural centres, artists and policy makers.
The approach emerged from the companys belief that changing consumption patterns requires
businesses to embrace environmental responsibility, encouraging and inspiring people to make
sustainable choices in all areas of their lives.
Nokia is in partnership with more than 30 organisations. The response to the youth fellowship was
so good that the company decided to take it to young people in Kolkata and Ahmedabad as well.

Positive Luxury: Butterfly mark creates a

community of brands
P ositive Luxury has awarded the butterfly mark to over 300 high quality brands that have
sustainability as an integral part of their business.
The butterfly mark tells a brands sustainability story by revealing its social, environmental and
philanthropic efforts on a website.
A growing band of consumers want luxury goods, but prefer to buy from brands that are striving
to have a positive impact on people and the planet. Transparency at the point of sale promotes
informed choices.
Each brand awarded the butterfly mark has to meet stringent requirements: brands need to
demonstrate how they make sustainability part of their business model. All brands featured take
great care over sourcing raw materials, manufacturing and marketing.
The Positive Luxury website features interviews with inspirational figures along with more
reflective articles and a weekly newsletter looking at issues of sustainability and lifestyle.
Communications | 15

Positive Luxury would like to redefine luxury as high quality products and services that generate
benefit all round: that many consumers agree is evident from the companys following on social
media. It has almost 30,000 Twitter followers and over 5,000 followers on Facebook.
Positive Luxury hopes its community of brands will become industry leaders, showing other
brands how to offer luxury goods in a sustainable way.

PwC: Giving employees the confidence to

discuss sustainability with clients
M anagement consultancy company PwC found that while 85% of employees said it was
important to integrate sustainability into client projects, only 28% had the confidence to do so.
It decided to create a more consistent sustainability mindset across its UK workforce.
To make the subject accessible, the company created a 40 minute e-learning module with a
short animation that took an everyday product the mobile phone and demonstrated how
sustainability could reveal risks and opportunities in areas including minerals and human rights.
The training involved an interactive 3D timeline, explaining how sustainability had gained such
prominence in recent years. Videos showed clients in a variety of industries talking about how the
challenges had changed their business, products, supply chains and reporting.
PwC did not make the training mandatory but, even so, 15,000 of its 17,000 staff watched it within
three months.
Evaluation surveys indicated that 74% 12,200 staff felt confident enough to speak about it to
clients; and 60% intended to include sustainability conversations as a matter of course in their
client work in future.

Sainsburys: Explaining sustainability goals

using movies
C lick on Sainsburys website and you will find a short film of a grown man playing make believe
with two little wooden figures. Click again and you willl find another man trying to book into a
bee hotel. The films are quirky, surreal and fun, and there is not an actor in sight all the people
featured are Sainsburys employees.
The films are being used by Sainsburys as a novel way to communicate to staff, customers and
other stakeholders its 20x20 Sustainability Plan, which sets out 20 targets the supermarket would
like to achieve by 2020.
The film with little figures is about a range of wooden toys made from Forest Stewardship
Council trees. By 2020, the company hopes to source many of its raw materials and commodities
sustainably.
The bee story is about helping people understand the vital role played by pollinators in our
ecosystem. Sainsburys is the only supermarket to employ its own beekeeper and is establishing
bee hotels for solitary bees at its stores. Solitary bees are very efficient pollinators and there is no
fear customers will get stung: the bees are docile as they do not make honey that they need to
protect.
The short films, which cover a range of complex issues from sustainable palm oil to carbon

Communications | 16

emissions, have been viewed more than 10,000 times and are one of the ways Sainsburys is
communicating its sustainability plans to staff, customers and others.
Another is the value of values campaign, in which consumers debated the importance of ethics
and provenance in everyday products, for instance comparing Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade
bananas. The campaign aims to highlight the fact that the budget crunch of recent years has not
led to a values crunch.

The Capital Institute: Field guide to how

money can do good
T he Capital Institute has produced a dynamic online guide, sharing stories that demonstrate the
power of financial capital to bring positive social change.
John Fullerton founded Capital Institute in 2010. He was an experienced impact investor
and former managing director of JPMorgan and was determined to transform finance into a
mechanism to create a more just, regenerative and sustainable way of living.
The Field Guide to Investing in a Regenerative Economy was published in 2010 and a dedicated
website launched in 2013.
It tells stories of regeneration from all over the world, highlighting the role of finance and weaving
them into a compelling narrative about ways to bring about change. Importantly, Capital Institute
seeks to empower people to participate.
The online guide is intended to immerse visitors in the possibilities of a regenerative economy. It
uses a variety of techniques to achieve this, telling stories through written articles, photography,
music, video and audio. Visitors can see where initiatives are located and identify regenerative
economy hotspots on an interactive map.
For example, a professor at the University of Wisconsin tells how the university set up a lending
platform that has loaned $9,000 (9,336) to 180 people in Haiti, provoking entrepreneurial activity
and boosting the Haitian economy.
A donation of $60,000 allowed social enterprise Detroit Kitchen Connect to provide food business
start-ups with access to kitchens that would otherwise sit empty most of the time.
The response to the field guide exceeded the teams expectations, attracting nearly 10,000 visitors
to its family of websites in the first six weeks.
The Capital Institutes work to promote Fullertons vision of hope through positive investment will
continue in 2014 with the release of a white paper and a series of new articles.

WasteSolve: Helping Lincolnshire food firm to

transform its waste policies
I t wasnt good enough to just achieve zero waste to landfill Wingland Foods wanted to go
further. So the company decided to empower its staff to think differently when it came to waste.
The company, which supplies salad and deli items to Waitrose, worked with communications
specialists WasteSolve to develop and launch the campaign We Nourish and We Flourish.
The campaign is based on the idea that for a business to be sustainable, it is important that its
employees play an active role in replenishing and nurturing the environment.

Communications | 17

WasteSolve began with a resource audit, as well as a staff survey, that highlighted the importance
of raising awareness on the potential for second life routes for waste. To help achieve this
awareness, the company created a range of communication materials focussing on different waste
streams. It also ran an interactive launch event for staff that used a variety of different learning
styles, as well as social and solitary games, to engage people on the issues.
The campaign encouraged staff to think about the entire lifecycle of Winglands products and
set up supply chain collaborations with farmers, community groups and customers, as well as
other food manufactures. The result has been a transformation in how waste is seen within the
company. Now 96% of Winglands waste is reused every month; the rest is classified as waste to be
converted to energy.
Each of the seven defined waste streams have seen significant annual improvements. For
example, 12 tonnes have been diverted from anaerobic digestion to community food banks
and charities via surplus food donation. For soft plastics, five tonnes have been diverted from
incineration to be recycled. At the same time, electricity consumption has been reduced to its
lowest level since 2006, and water consumption cut by 30%.

Communications | 18

2
Impact
Social Impact

Innovation winner

Business has huge

potential to contribute
positively to society.
This award went to
a project or initiative
that sought to solve a
challenging social issue
whilst simultaneously
creating shared value for
the business.

Shared Interest: Mutual society lends

money to farmers no one else will help

hen a 500-acre tea estate went up for sale in Uganda, local farmers were able to
buy it with the help of a Fairtrade lender. But their crops were poor they were
producing just 40% of their potential so they took out a second loan for fertiliser and
the yields went up to 100% in a matter of months.
The Newcastle-based Shared Interest Society lent money to the Mpanga Growers Tea
Factory Ltd that enabled it to buy the estate and the fertiliser. As a result, the farmers
are paid more, the community is better off and the cooperative is ambitious to
produce its own energy, either from a river running through the estate or from wind.
Tea is grown on the estate and by the farmers who own Mpanga, as outgrowers. Based
in Kabarole in western Uganda and established in 1995, the coop sells its tea at auction
and to Fairtrade buyers, including Cafe Direct. Mpangas general manager, Rogers
Siima, says: Shared Interest has provided finance to Mpanga when most needed and
when it is difficult to obtain financing from other lending institutions.
Research indicates that the worlds 450 million smallholder farmers provide 70% of
the worlds food. However, only 2% of their financing needs are currently met and
they feed some of the worlds hungriest people.
But the Shared Interest society is trying to redress the balance and its success
stories are numerous. In Chile, for example, farmer Joel Uribe is part of a beekeeping
cooperative, Apicoop, which is expanding into fruit growing and selling to the
cooperative, with financial backing from UK social investors through Shared Interest.
Apicoop has been borrowing from the Shared Interest society since 2002 and is the
first Fairtrade producer of blueberries. It has been supplying honey through Fairtrade
networks for at least 20 years and the success of Apicoop has enabled 1,000 children
to be educated, including Joel Uribes daughter, who graduated top of her class in
medicine thanks to the financial support he received.
The Shared Interest society is the worlds only 100% fair trade lender, its investments
funding loans and other credit services to businesses in disadvantaged communities.
It is owned and controlled by 8,800 members and each has an equal voice and vote,
regardless of account size.
Last year, the organisation made payments of 46.9m, reaching 375 fair trade
businesses, many of them in unstable parts of the world. Those businesses
included 97 producer groups representing 155,443 individuals and 6,532 permanent
Impact | 19

employees, who collectively earned revenues of more than

236m.
Cesar Rivas Pea of Caf Peru told the society: Thanks
to the way you scheduled our loan repayments, you have
aided us with the liquidity needed to grow our business and
increase sales volume. This allows us to pay a higher price
to producers than they can access locally, and positively
influences quality of life.
The society was established to provide capital at fair rates to
enable Fairtrade businesses to develop, grow and thrive. Its
finance supports entire supply chains, helping groups prefinance orders, buy materials, new buildings and machinery,
and to develop their own communities.
The Shared Interest
mutual society is the link
between UK investors
with a conscience and
Fairtrade organisations
trying to trade their way
out of poverty. Photograph:
Shared Interest

To qualify for financial support, businesses must either be registered with Fairtrade (labelling
organisations) International (FLO) or be members of the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO).
They range from sole trader handcraft producers to large scale coffee cooperatives.
The lending is largely unsecured because many customers have nothing to pledge, or have already
used their assets for conventional borrowing. By pooling investments, the society can use the
money over and over again. Its financial model is triangular so there is a flow of funds between
Shared Interest, Fairtrade producers and buyers.
Essentially, it provides the link between UK social investors and Fairtrade organisations needing
finance to improve their livelihoods so they can trade themselves out of poverty.
A team of 34 people works mainly in Newcastle as well as Kenya, Ghana, Costa Rica and Peru. The
society relies on partnerships with fair trade networks, Coops UK and Fairtrade Africa.
In 2013, the society increased its membership and share capital through sustained marketing
with the Big Issue and Caf Direct. It developed a network of 138 volunteers who gave 250 hours to
promote the society.
It has coordinated an international social lenders group to improve impact assessment and
reporting, and to spread best practice. In January 2014, investment was the highest ever, 120%
higher than 2013. Profit after tax and share interest was also 38% higher during the year.
The Guardian judges admired the fact that the society was a mutual organisation rather than a
business, commenting: Its name exactly expresses what its trying to achieve and all this in a
market with strong, dominant players.

Impact | 20

Impact winner

Accenture: Helping Vodafone identify

socially useful new services

ccenture identified over 30 innovations that Vodafone

could implement to benefit mobile users, society and
itself. These business opportunities have the potential to
make 1.7bn new service connections for Vodafone; to reduce
carbon emissions; increase smallholder farmer incomes
by $138bn (82bn); and save organisations around $70bn
through improved productivity and reduced energy costs.
Over three years, Accenture produced a series of reports for
Vodafone:
In 2010 Carbon Connections looked at the role of mobile
phones in a low carbon economy
I n 2012 Connected Agriculture considered the role of
mobile phones in food and agriculture
I n 2013 Connected Worker studied the ways mobile
phones can improve working life in emerging economies

Accenture has come up

with more than 30 ways
that Vodafone can improve
the lives of farmers and
other workers in developing
countries.

The studies concluded that mobile technology has the potential to give people access to financial
services, mobile health services and information vital to their livelihoods.
Machine-to-machine technologies could make transport systems, buildings and other aspects of
life more efficient.
Once the studies had been published, Accenture helped Vodafone take the opportunities they had
identified.
The Carbon Connections study, for instance, set out how Vodafone could reach potential
customers for machine-to-machine services that would help businesses reduce their energy and
fuel use, while making their operations more efficient.
The Connected Agriculture study found that mobile technology could boost farmers productivity
by $138bn by 2020 across Vodafones markets, primarily in India, Africa and the Middle East.
One example of the way mobile helps farmers is the Vodafone farmers club in Turkey.
This service gives farmers information to improve their harvests and livelihoods boosting
Turkish farmers productivity by an estimated 190m (156m) in 2012-13. Farmers who sign up to
the service receive SMS alerts with weather forecasts, crop prices and other information tailored to
their local area and crop. Vodafone is expanding the service to Kenya and other countries.
The Connected Worker research projected that across 12 markets, the six opportunities identified
could increase workers incomes by $7.7bn (4.6bn) by 2020, benefiting organisations to the tune
of a further $30.6bn through improved productivity. Innovations included job matching services,
using mobile to identify and authenticate workers identities, improved training and learning
through SMS or texting and the ability to monitor and track workers performance.
The results impressed the Guardian judges in a tough category where they found it difficult to
make a decision. On top of the impressive figures, judges felt that social impact is integrated into
the companys business case and not just an add-on.
The partnership with Accenture allows them to improve the livelihoods and productivity of 1.5
billion people 1.1 billion of them in emerging markets covered by Vodafones network.

Impact | 21

Runners-up

Alquity Investment Management: Investments

that change lives
Since its launch in 2010, Alquity Investment Management has changed the lives of over 12,000
people in Africa by reinvesting at least 25% of fee revenues from its investment funds into social
projects. It is proof of the companys determination to transform the investment management
industry, along with the lives of some of the worlds poorest people.
Alquity intends to produce attractive returns through sustainable investment in some of the
worlds most exciting emerging and frontier markets not simply because sustainability is good
ethics, but also because it can improve profitability and help manage risk.
Alquity believes investment should not be just about taking it is also about putting something
back into the communities where it invests. The company uses a proportion of its revenues to
provide low-cost microfinance loans to small businesses. This encourages entrepreneurship,
which in turn helps create jobs and grow local economies.
The first fund to follow the companys model, the Alquity Africa Fund, is an example of Alquitys
philosophy in action. An experienced investment management team invests in companies with
long-term growth potential from the Cape to Cairo, across different countries and sectors. After
that, 25% of the fee revenue goes back to Africa.
Since its launch Alquity has donated over $200,000 (119,000) through its microfinance partners.
Each $90 donated creates one job in Africa, with a single loan transforming at least five lives. That
is a great result in itself. But, on top of that, 2013 was also a successful year for the company, with
the fund providing great returns for investors. Longer term, giving a helping hand to entrepreneurs
will help drive consumer demand, creating the economic conditions to generate better returns for
investors.
For Alquity, this approach is about creating shared value where profits are high and sustainable,
and the bottom line is also a lifeline.

AT&T: Message on texting and driving: it can wait

AT&Ts multimillion dollar it can wait campaign sent a driving simulator to high schools across
the United States to give teenagers first-hand experience of distracted driving.
Research indicates that drivers who text are far more likely to be involved in an accident then
average and that teenagers who as a group send five times as many texts as adults are especially
vulnerable.
American telecoms company AT&T developed a simple message to spread the word to consumers
of all ages: no text is so urgent it is worth risking lives on the road.
What made the campaign even more effective during 2013 was its ability to enlist a range of
companies including Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile as well as 1,500 non-profit organisations, to
join the campaign. It rapidly reached millions of consumers through schools, stores and events.
Disney Parks, for example, shared it can wait with over 95,000 employees; Goodyear blimps
displayed the message in skies over Miami and Los Angeles; and the Girl Scouts worked with
112 councils nationwide to inspire pledges never to text and drive among scouts and local
communities.

Impact | 22

Central to the campaign was AT&Ts annual pledge day on September 19. Over 1,000 AT&T
employees visited 425 secondary schools, generating 10,353 pledges from young people on the day.
The company has spent many millions on the campaign. It sharedits research with communities,
customers, and suppliers and asked everyone to act.
The result has been a community effort to curb the practice.

Carbon Clear: Low-smoke stoves save lives in

Sudan
Ten thousand new stoves will radically improve the health of women and children in Darfur, who
are dying from breathing in smoke generated by indoor wood fires.
Families will be able to buy the stoves, powered by liquified petroleum gas (LPG) canisters,
through a micro-credit scheme managed by local women.
UK-based Carbon Clear, working with an NGO called Practical Action, has developed the project
with carbon finance. Low-smoke stoves prevent indoor air pollution, which kills more people
every year than malaria.
The stoves also cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent deforestation and desertification. The
charity points out that 90% of homes in Sudan use wood to cook on.
The project originates from a pilot in another part of Sudan funded by the Department for
International Development. Carbon Clear found private investment, developing a carbon credit
project that is funded through carbon finance.
The project is innovative on many levels. It is the first carbon credit programme registered in
Sudan and was developed at a time of political instability in Darfur.
It is also the first project to be financed through private capital in Darfur that is self-funding and
allows for expansion. The project is run by a local womens group, equipping them with expertise
to deliver micro-finance, sales and training.
It meets the strict requirements of The Gold Standard carbon credit certification process which
requires projects to reduce carbon emissions and deliver measurable sustainable development and
environmental benefits to local communities.
Demand for firewood for cooking leads to environmental degradation as trees are cut down and
not replaced. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves states that cooking with LPG reduces most
pollutants by over 95%.
The project, which eventually aims to supply 10,000 LPG stoves to the area, has already delivered
around 6,000 in and around El Fashir, Darfur.

Carillion: Flying the flag for apprenticeships

Carillion is helping to build a career path for young people and stimulate economic growth
by championing the value of apprenticeships. It has become the construction sectors largest
apprenticeships provider and supports the UK governments push to develop more structured,
vocational routes to employment.
The company has 13 apprentice training centres across the country and works with schools and
not-for-profit organisations to recruit young people from diverse social backgrounds, prioritising
Impact | 23

those facing distinct challenges.

Carillion employs the apprentices, placing them with trusted suppliers or Carillion-owned
businesses, where they receive solid on-the-job training. Additional support is provided to people
undertaking technically challenging apprenticeship qualifications.
More than 1,000 young people benefited from apprenticeships and NVQs delivered by Carillion
in 2013, with 86% going on to find employment or pursue further education. The company
celebrated its 500th modern apprenticeship in Scotland, created the first Level 2 rail engineering
apprenticeship and received the prestigious Good rating for its overall apprenticeship scheme
from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).
Among the high profile figures who visited Carillion to support its apprenticeship work in 2013
were the prime minister, David Cameron, and a transport minister, Stephen Hammond.
Equipping the nations construction workforce with skills and training is central to Carillions aims
to build a successful business, support the communities in which it operates and provide better
prospects for its people.
The company plans to continue working at the forefront of apprenticeships by engaging with its
supply chain to identify skills shortages and develop effective training solutions.

Casual Films: Offering work experience to

disadvantaged wannabe film-makers
A team of London film-makers is volunteering its time to help young people get work in the film
industry, in a scheme that is also helping small charities get their message across.
Their concern is that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds never get a chance to work
as film-makers because they do not have the right connections or cannot afford to take up low or
unpaid internships.
Casual Films runs an academy providing video production training for young people from
Islington, regardless of their backgrounds, with staff giving their time freely to help them get a
taste of working in the film and television industry. Over eight weeks the students,between the
ages of 16 and 24, work with experienced film-makers to produce a film from a charity brief.
Local charities, who often cannot afford promotional films, also benefit from the scheme. Films
produced so far include one about the living wage and another on breast cancer in the under 16s.
More than 90% of students said that they were more likely be a film-maker as a result of the
course. Out of the 26 young people who have taken part so far, 19 are still in education and most
are doing creative arts courses. Four are already working in the industry or actively making films
themselves.
Parallel to their work in London, Casual Films also supports Get Real Training, a Tanzanian charity
training street children in video production and helping them achieve professional standards that
will allow them to find employment. Casual Films collaborates with other production companies
to source unused equipment such as cameras, computers and sound kit to send out to Tanzania
to support the training project.

Friska and Deki: Microfinancing helps

businesses in poor countries
Impact | 24

Since Deki, a Bristol microfinance charity, got together with the Friska Food restaurant chain, eight
entrepreneurs in developing countries have been given loans they desperately need to expand.
Staff and customers at Friska, which has four outlets in Bristol and Bath, vote for a featured
entrepreneur, and 10p from each of certain items sold from the menu, called Deki Dishes, allows
Friska to fully fund a loan a month. Since March 2013, Friska has raised more than 1,300 and lent
to eight new businesses in faraway Malawi, Togo and Nepal, who were unable to borrow money in
any other way. Now they can pursue their ambitions, generate more income and give their families
financial stability. Their businesses often positively benefit the local community and some employ
local people.
Appropriately, many of the entrepreneurs are themselves in the food business as farmers or
traders. The first businesswoman Friska supported in its partnership with Deki was Mass Dosseh
from Lom in Togo. A loan allowed her to expand her shrimp-selling business, bulk-buy stock and
sell at a higher profit. Mass used her additional income to support her family and employ people
from her village.
The partnership has raised Friska customers awareness of Deki, a microfinance charity that
provides entrepreneurs living in poverty with ethical microloans and training. With the capital
and skills to start a business, entrepreneurs can create sustainable livelihoods and boost their local
economies.
As Friskas loans are repaid, the company reinvests to help even more Deki entrepreneurs. Its
estimated that for every loan, the livelihoods of five or more people positively benefit. As long as
Friska continues to raise funds, the pot of money being recycled grows so the partnership with
Deki is truly sustainable. All four Friska stores take part in the initiative.
Pho noodles has been the most consistently nominated Deki Dish. Customers can also donate to
Deki directly by putting spare cash in donation tins. An information board is kept up to date in the
restaurants with details about the chosen entrepreneur and the amount of money raised at any
given time.
A rather different business that Deki and Friska helped is Nancy Babys. She is a certified nurse,
from Magwi County, South Sudan. She started a pharmacy with a loan from her brother and
borrowed another 380 from Deki to increase the variety and volume of medicines that she sells.
Nancys loan will give her the opportunity to rejuvenate her business, so much so that she aims to
repay it within six months.
Other loans went to Nepalese poultry farmer Bindu Tamang, Malawian dairy farmer Lydia
Nyirongo and stallholder Prisca Gbebio from Togo.
Friska also works with FairShare so none of its food waste in the past year has gone to landfill sites.
It won Green Business of the Year Award 2013 and its food sourcing policy was given three stars by
the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

Give as you live: Plugin makes charitable giving

an everyday thing
Give as you Live has tapped into one of the UKs favourite and fastest growing activities: online
shopping. Over 3,000 retailers have signed up to the scheme and more than 4m has been raised
so far.
In 2013 a staggering 91bn was spent online in the UK, an increase of 13bn from 2012. Give as
you Live harnesses this boom in online shopping by re-directing a portion of the money shoppers
spend to UK charities.

Impact | 25

Give as you Live is an affiliate scheme. It works in much the same way as a comparison site,
with the retailer paying a commission for sending people to their sites only in this case the
commission is passed on to a charity of the consumers choice. On average, stores taking part send
2.5% of a customers purchase to charity.
To name their chosen charity, consumers download a plug-in. The technology works in the
background, tracking the purchases eligible for a donation to charity and automatically calculating
the amount the retailer needs to pass on. That means there is no need for shoppers to change their
online habits, whether they prefer to shop directly with the retailer or search for items in a search
engine. The only difference is that when they shop at certain stores a percentage of what they
spend is donated to charity.
Give as you Live works with all 20,000 UK charities and over 3,000 leading online retailers. At the
end of January 2014 shoppers using Give as you Live had raised 4,199,940 for national and local
charities.
In 2013, the scheme helped parents, teachers and children at Bishop Gilpin primary school in
Wimbledon raise over 1,000 for a new playground. The previous year shopping through Give as
you Live helped supporters of the Samaritans Purse campaign raise over 18,000, which went
towards buying life-saving mosquito nets.
In 2014 Give as you Live won the title of most committed company to the charity sector at the
annual Institute of Fundraising Awards. The year before, it won business of the year and biggest
social impact at the Smarta 100 awards.
Give as you Live has also become a source of valued advice and support.
The annual Digital Donor Review conducted by the scheme gives charities a detailed breakdown
of how their supporters behave online, from their giving habits to general online behaviours. Each
participating charity gets a customised report, giving them a unique insight into understanding
their customers digital preferences.
Over 500 charities have also signed up for a charity support kit containing marketing materials to
help them create a compelling emotional connection with their supporters.
Give as you Live believes its revolutionary approach to online giving has the potential to raise
billions. At the same time, with price comparison technology and big names like Amazon, Tesco
and Selfridges signed up, shopping through Give as you Live is a smart consumer choice.

H&M: Collects 3,500 tonnes of old clothes in one

year
Over one million tonnes of UK textiles go to landfills annually but we running out of landfill space
and it is a waste.
One high street label has become the first fashion company to institute a global garment collecting
initiative: H&M encourages its customers to see their old garments as a resource.
It has set up a collection scheme for customers to bring unwanted clothes to its stores across all
53 of its markets. The clothes can be any brand and in any condition. In just over a year, H&M has
collected over 3,500 tonnes of old clothes enough fabric to make 15m T-shirts.
The collected clothes are separated in three groups. The first group rewear is for clothing that
can be worn again, sold second-hand.
The reuse group is textiles that are no longer suitable to wear but can be up-cycled into other
products.

Impact | 26

And, finally, the recycle group is for textiles that cannot be reused, but can be turned into textile
fibres or used to manufacture different products.
By collecting used garments, H&M contributes to reducing textile waste and is turning old fibres
into new yarn. Recycled textiles decrease the use of raw materials like water and oil which are
needed to produce fibres such as cotton and polyester. Ideally the company would like to create
new clothes from the collected garments.
For each kilogramme of clothes the company collects, 0.02 (0.016) is also donated to a local
charity, chosen by H&M in each of its markets. In addition, revenue from the garment collection
programme will be invested in textil recycling technology and other social projects.

Heineken: Suggests we should dance more and

drink slowly
Heineken launched Dance More, Drink Slow, a campaign against binge drinking, in the UK in
January 2013 with the aim of making people more aware of what they are consuming.
While results are still being assessed, it is modelled on a global effort and video, Sunrise belongs to
moderate drinkers.
In four weeks almost 3 million consumers engaged with the campaign, conversations about
responsible drinking went up by 20% and the video was shared more than 21,000 times.
The campaign video shows a clubber drinking water and refusing beer through the night and later
emerging at sunrise into the city streets with DJ Audrey Napoleon. Napoleon was also the official
brand ambassador. Heineken projected the video in Times Square at New Year 2012 and later
Napoleon performed at a New York club.
Research showed Heineken owned 74% of the global social media buzz on moderate drinking,
while overall the campaign was viewed as credible and effective. Peoples awareness of their own
alcohol consumption increased by 20% according to MetrixLab results, published in January 2012.
The broadcast campaign delivers a responsible drinking message by making moderation
aspirational, highlighting the importance of staying in control when enjoying a night out.
The company believes that encouraging moderate drinking reinforces the brands position as a
premium beer that promotes quality over quantity. It works in partnership with the government
through the Public Health Responsibility Deal and with charities like Addaction to address misuse
and tackle anti-social behaviour.
It is also the leading supporter of independent education charity, Drinkaware, providing
funding and in-kind support to help improve education and raise awareness. The company
has also discontinued its high strength ciders, White Lightning and Strongbow Black, on social
responsibility grounds.

Impactt: Educating child workers

Impactt, an organisation helping companies improve working conditions in their supply chain,
has directly helped 138 child labourers leave work and return to education. On top of that, its stepby-step guide encouraging companies to take action against child labour is shepherding more
children back into school.

Impact | 27

With roughly 12 million children working in industry or a similar environment, child labour
is a pressing global problem. Impactt works to prevent child labour by addressing root causes,
improving wages and strengthening factory systems. When the organisation finds cases of child
labour it works quickly to facilitate a remediation programme (pdf), supporting the children to go
to school or join a vocational course.
Each programme is based on the interests and aspirations of the child. Staff work closely with
children and their families to build trust and select the best school or training college, whether
a child is returning to school or learning a skill such as graphic design, nursing or hairdressing.
Programmes last at least six months or as long as it takes for the child to reach the legal minimum
age for work. During that time, each child receives a monthly stipend.
As well as helping children directly, Impactt consulted with 90 stakeholders worldwide to develop
guidance on tackling individual cases of child labour. Among the organisations adopting the
procedures are B&Q, Monsoon, New Look and Tesco.
The remediation programmes have an immediate and long term effect. Children benefit from
increased confidence, better job prospects, higher earnings and the chance to study further. One
child helped by Impactt plans to open a computer maintenance store; another says her mother
will now support her to go to university.
And by getting the factories that employ child labourers to pay for the remediation programmes,
Impactt has found a powerful way to discourage child labour in the future.

Manchester University: Brings its skills to

finding state school governors
A pioneering initiative at the University of Manchester is swelling the ranks of highly qualified
state school governors.
Led by Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, a distinguished life scientist who is also the president
and vice-chancellor of Manchester University, the idea was to increase significantly the number
of talented staff and former students who contribute to the lives and success of young people at
school.
The university had already established a school governor initiative to attract academic staff to
school governor roles but wanted to give additional support to the strategic development of UK
state schools through volunteering.
School governors in the UK support and challenge head teachers, help set the strategic direction
of schools and monitor progress. But many schools are unable to recruit people with appropriate
skills and experience.
Manchester Universitys aim is to get well-qualified staff and alumni with academic, estate
management, finance, law, human resources and student welfare expertise into the right
volunteering roles for the right schools.
It is well placed to do so. Manchester is the largest single-site university in the UK. It has 22
academic schools and hundreds of specialist research groups undertaking teaching and research
of global significance. According to the results of the 2008 research assessment exercise, it is rated
third in the UK for research behind only Oxford and Cambridge.
In 2013, Manchester became the first UK university to partner with SGOSS, a national charity
whose goal is to match prospective governors to schools.
The two began data sharing, doing campus events and a full-time regional SGOSS manager was
appointed. SGOSS handles administration for the scheme, with two days a week input from a

Impact | 28

university staff member.

The partnership did awareness-raising, profiled potential new governors, created a staff network
for the scheme, devised supporting social media and held recruitment events on campus. It held a
first annual conference to share best practice and help staff stay abreast of developments in school
governance and widened the initiative to former students.
The impact has been swift. Starting with 52 governors, the university achieved its five-year plan in
one year, doubling its network of school governors. This generated the highest growth in governors
in the UK for all single-site employers and the best growth among campus-based higher education
institutions.
The vast majority of respondents to a survey agreed that their school governor experience had
exposed them to new skills and knowledge.
Manchester receives no financial compensation for staff time but puts the economic value of
volunteering during 2012-13 at more than 760,000. Participants donated an estimated 20,412
hours.

Morgan Stanley: Connecting students with local

charities
Eat That Frog a social enterprise that teaches employability skills in Exeter started in 2013
thanks to the Morgan Stanley University Community Impact Challenge, a scheme that introduces
charities to student volunteers and the business expertise of the financial services company.
In the course of Morgan Stanleys regular campus visits the company had noticed how few
students connect with their locality. At the same time, many local charities were crying out for
business skills and resources.
Morgan Stanley canvassed over 50 charities and selected one for each of 10 participating
university towns. It then recruited teams of six to eight students from diverse degree courses
with the promise that the best team would win a 5,000 donation to its chosen charity.
Each team was mentored by a senior manager from Morgan Stanley and each participant received
a crash course in business skills before they took part. The goal was to enable charities to improve
their sustainability while immersing students in local issues.
The scheme, which was run by corporate responsibility specialists Three Hands, demonstrated
benefits all round. Charities gained research for strategy; each student enjoyed an eight-week
personal development programme; and over 90% of students agreed that being involved had
improved their communication, teamwork and relationship-building skills.
Nearly 70% of the students went on to apply to the Morgan Stanley graduate recruitment
programme.

neighbourly: Helping business become a force

for good
neighbourly is a social network connecting community champions and small charities with big
business, in order to tackle social issues at a local level. Started in October 2013, it has attracted 110
projects and counting, and will pair them with socially responsible companies that can help.

Impact | 29

The neighbourly team knew that finding support for community projects manually could be time
consuming, and saw technology as the way forward. They sought the support of Richard Gillies, a
former executive director of Marks & Spencers Plan A, whose enthusiasm helped them secure the
funding to build a digital marketplace and bring the idea to life.
Individuals or groups striving to improve their communities can use the neighbourly platform
for free as a space to tell their story, seek local support and ask businesses for cash and in-kind
donations. Companies pay a subscription to find local projects tackling the social issues relevant to
their business, and can also use the service to report on community support programmes.
neighbourly launched the community side of the platform a few months before the corporate side
went live in February 2014, attracting more than 100 companies through social media and word of
mouth. M&S, Carphone Warehouse and BDO becoming founding partners, and many more have
expressed their willingness to be involved.
The team plans to create a neighbourly foundation in 2014, which will fund deserving projects
using a percentage of the profits from company subscriptions and external donations. It is also
working with a variety of organisations in Bath, including Bath University, to understand how the
neighbourly platform could help local collaborations to achieve more, with a view to sharing this
approach with cities across the UK.

O2: Encourageing social entrepreneurship

among the young
Those under 25 are almost four times more likely to be unemployed than older generations so
O2, the mobile phone operator, has introduced a think big programme to boost young peoples
entrepreneurial skills.
Think big offers opportunities based around an awards scheme: over four years, in collaboration
with youth organisations, O2 has awarded grants each worth 300 to over 5,000 young people.
From homework clubs to community radio stations, anti-violence campaigns to recycling
initiatives, think big offers young people the chance to take action on the issues that matter to
them.
The company encourages development as social entrepreneurs by offering further funding of
up to 2,500 to grow their ideas and take their projects to the next level. Additionally, it provides
leadership training and mentoring support to hone entrepreneurial skills.
The initiative is growing: in partnership with UnLtd, O2 has also awarded 21 grants of up to
10,000 to help grow social ventures.
An independent evaluation has confirmed that the project is as socially inclusive as it was
intended to be, reaching ethnic minority groups, disabled young people and the most deprived.
The programme has been rolled out to O2s other European markets.

RBS: Unleashing the UKs inner entrepreneur

Through its inspiring enterprise programme, RBS has committed to support 100,000 young
people, 20,000 women and 2,500 social enterprises by 2015. These three groups could play a
stronger role in the entrepreneurial economy, it believes.
Chief among its inspiring enterprise activities are holding informative events, delivering advice
and funding, partnering with enterprise champions and helping to connect people with experts,
Impact | 30

markets and professional networks.

RBSs mobile business school tours the country, visiting communities and universities to
inspire potential entrepreneurs and explain what it takes to start a business. It collaborates with
organisations including The Princes Trust, Social Enterprise UK and everywoman.
And to maximise its reach, the bank is providing 3m of grant funding to NGOs that support and
encourage young people and women in enterprise. Social enterprises can access finance through
the RBS Microfinance Fund.
Since January 2013, inspiring enterprise has supported 34,520 people, including 6,004 women
and 953 social enterprises. It has brought 300 businesses to life and created 327 jobs.
Inspiring enterprise is part of RBSs commitment to supporting sustainable and inclusive
economic growth in the UK, and sits alongside its MoneySense and Future Ready programmes,
which provide children with financial education.

Royal Mail: Apprenticeships target youth

unemployment
Through apprenticeship and graduate programmes, Royal Mail is helping to end unemployment
and underemployment for many young people in the UK at the same time making sure the
organisation has the skilled people and senior leaders it needs to safeguard the sustainability of its
business.
As one of the UKs largest employers, Royal Mail recognises that it is in a strong position to tackle
youth unemployment.
In 2013, the company ran three main apprenticeship programmes: these were a Vehicle
Technician Apprenticeship, an Operational Management Apprenticeship for people aged between
18 and 24, and an Advanced Apprentice Engineer programme, providing training for those who
wish to develop postal technology.
Royal Mail apprentices are paid around 15% more than the average UK wage for their age group,
which is comparable to the salary premium associated with a university degree.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research found that Royal Mails apprenticeships have
contributed 21.2 million to UK productivity since 2006.
Royal Mail also runs graduate programmes, and took on 100 in 2013.
In the same year, all commercial and professional graduates who joined in 2009 had progressed
to senior management positions. Over the past five years, almost a third of graduates have been
female and since 2011 almost 18% have been Black, Asian and minority ethnic. Royal Mails
graduate retention is over 40% higher than the industry average.

SwissLeg: Makes and fits affordable prosthetic

legs for war victims
A trio of graduates in humanitarian logistics management has turned an academic thesis into a
working social enterprise by providing amputee victims of war or natural disaster with low-cost
prosthetic legs.

Impact | 31

The idea of providing improved prosthetics at low cost in countries where strife and poverty
create an urgent need for such services came when the inventor, Mohammad Ismail, worked with
rehabilitation charities in Ethiopia, Iraq and Sudan.
He partnered with fellow students Paulo Gonalves and Roberto Agosta at the University of
Lugano to found SwissLeg. They produce an innovative high-mobility solution at a fraction of the
cost of alternatives.
SwissLeg prosthetics are manufactured from readily available, inexpensive materials to enable
comfortable below or above-knee limbs to be made in just three hours, allowing amputees to get
fitted and back on their feet in a single consultation.
Responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2013, SwissLeg opened its first manufacturing centre in
Irbid, north Jordan, and has since fitted 50 prosthetic limbs.
The plan is to open eight more centres across the Middle East, Africa and Asia over the next five
years and working with existing rehabilitation providers to manufacture and fit at least 9,000
prostheses.
Of 32 million amputees worldwide, just 5% in the developing world have a prosthesis fitted, say
the founders mainly due to prohibitive costs. SwissLegs solution not only makes prosthetics
affordable, it aims to create centres that are owned and managed locally and can be run by newly
trained prosthetist and orthotist technicians from within the community.
Each centre will employ up to 15 people and provide opportunities for thousands of amputees
to lead productive lives. The centres will act as local hubs from which to reach neighbouring
countries in need of a similar service.

The Resilience Centre: Helps town in

Gloucestershire generate own energy
The Resilience Centre has created a blueprint for community energy by establishing the UKs first
scalable, crowd-funded, renewable energy project, powering 300 homes and reinvesting more
than 70% of all financial returns in the community.
Community energy could be 90 times its current size while reducing energy bills by increasing
competition, according to think-tank ResPublica. In Germany, community energy accounts
for 46% of all renewable energy, yet in the UK, this is 0.3%. In order to create more interest,
cut emissions and keep the lights on for future generations, the UK government introduced a
Community Energy Strategy in 2014.
Joint ownership, between businesses, public sector organisations and consumers, is emerging as
the key to achieving scale.
The community of St Briavels in Gloucestershire wanted to localise its energy generation while
maximising the benefits to the local economy. The Resilience Centre partnered with landowner
Antony Cooke to develop a community-owned 500kW wind turbine project at Great Dunkilns
Farm, offering locals the opportunity to invest from as little as 5. The company raised 1.4m from
400 investors in five months.
The Resilience Centre sourced local suppliers as much as possible during the construction phase.
Once complete, the turbine whirred into action in January 2013. It feeds up to 1.5 million kWh of
clean electricity into the grid via Co-operative Energy and saves 565 tonnes of CO2 a year.
Investors receive 7-9% return on their investment, with returns within the first year of operation.
They can also invest in energy produced by the scheme through Co-operative Energy, allowing
them to part-own their energy generator and their energy supplier.

Impact | 32

The Resilience Centre sought agreement from all parties up front that 4% of revenue or 40,000
per year (per MW of installed capacity) would benefit the wider community: in its first eight
months, the scheme donated 8,000 to local good causes.
Hot on the heels of this scheme, the company is developing a further 12 community-owned
renewable energy projects under the banner of Resilient Energy, and has received more than 50
inquiries from communities across the country. In each case, The Resilience Centre harnesses the
energy most suited to the local surroundings to power local homes, including wind, hydro, waste
wood gasification, solar and tidal energy. The Resilient Energy model is being adapted to allow
communities to own their local water and food supplies.

Impact | 33

Supply chain
- sponsored by
WRAP
This award was for
initiatives that embed
a respect for human
rights and economic and
environmental impacts
across a business or
products supply chain

Innovation winner

BT: Inspiring its suppliers to innovate

T is blazing a trail with its Better Future Supplier Forum (BFSF), an initiative
designed to unleash a wave of profitable, sustainable innovation. The telecoms
company has an ambitious commitment to help its customers reduce their carbon
impact by three times the full carbon impact of BTs business by 2020. Its 17,400
suppliers represent 64% of its carbon footprint, so BT is starting there: helping them to
develop smarter products and services.
Introduced in 2012, the BFSF involves two main things: assessing suppliers against
global best practice and rewarding pioneering ideas through the annual Game
Changing Challenge competition.
Once a supplier is on board, BT analyses its strengths and weaknesses, identifying
opportunities to make a difference.
This exercise is accompanied by education and awareness training, and an
introduction to tools and techniques suppliers can use to improve their performance.
With BTs support, suppliers learn how to make changes, capture the savings and
quantify the benefits.
Among the topics covered are circular economy concepts, such as designing for
disassembly or maintenance, zero waste, measuring and reporting carbon footprints,
energy, water and resource efficiency, sustainable transport and stakeholder
engagement.
The act of innovating towards greater sustainability within their operations and
seeing a return on investment helps to stimulate product innovation ideas. Suppliers
are further incentivised to innovate by competing to attract BTs support for their
proposals.
Companies compete in a Dragons Den-style pitch with BT senior managers, who
decide which ideas will be taken to market. The competition also rewards suppliers
for their progress with a gold, silver or bronze BT sustainable supplier award that
they can use to highlight their sustainability credentials.
Thanks to the suppliers that have taken part, BT has been able to reduce the carbon
impact of its supply chain by 250,000 tonnes measured against the 2011 level.
Sagemcom, winner of the 2013 Game Changing Challenge, developed product ideas
that could reduce the carbon footprint of certain product lines by 20 to 40% while
enhancing the user experience, remaining cost effective and respecting BTs go-tomarket timelines.

Development organisations say that

BTs emphasis on suppliers employee
conditions has made a difference in
countries including China.

China-based technology company Huawei established a sustainability taskforce and

cut its carbon footprint by 23,000 tonnes in its first year of BFSF membership by
making changes in manufacturing, packaging, and logistics. Multinational mobile
and cordless phone manufacturer SGW Global has cut its
CO2 emissions linked to making BT products by 4% in 12
months, reducing water usage by 7.3% and solid waste by
15.4%. Both companies have achieved silver awards.
The forum is also helping to improve suppliers employee
health and well-being. Some companies have succeeded
in reducing employee turnover, accidents and illness rates
while increasing productivity by nearly 30%.
Importantly, BT makes it clear that suppliers keen to
progress within the BFSF must improve their employees
working conditions. Development organisations say that
Impact | 34

this stipulation has helped to raise labour conditions among participating suppliers in
countries including China.
Telecoms industry body Quest uses the BFSF concept as a best practice model for
operator and supplier collaboration at a global level. Quest will begin rolling this out to
its 600 members by the end of 2014.
The Guardian judges commented that the BTSF initiative has reducing supply chain
impact at its core. It stood out for focusing on product innovation and engagement
with suppliers, they said.
They were also impressed that BT had approached the project from a
business perspective and had subsequently shared the model with the wider
telecommunications industry.

Runners-up

Asda: Cutting its environmental impact by

focusing on supply chain
As over 90% of Asdas environmental impact lies within its supply chain, the
supermarket chain has made this a focus of its sustainability activities and has seen a
difference in 12 months.
One supplier has saved nearly 200,000 and over 80,000kg of CO2e after finding out
about an energy efficient cold store on the forum. Another, a family-owned vegetable
business, is predicted to save 3.5m over 25 years after installing solar PV.
The company created an online tool called the Sustain & Save Exchange (SSE) to help
suppliers reduce their environmental impact as well as making the overall supply
chain more efficient. In the past 12 months, the number of suppliers using the system
has doubled to 849, with participants across the fresh, frozen and chilled produce
areas.
The web-based tool is supported by free live events, which give suppliers access to
information and ideas about how to increase resource efficiency and offering them
a forum to share best practice. Asda believes one of the main reasons for the success
of the exchange is that it is funded directly by its trading teams guaranteeing that
the companys buyers, a group previously hard to engage in sustainable thinking,
are deeply involved. Each produce department has a hero buyer to ensure the
sustainability message is driven through all supplier relationships.
Since 2005 Asda has also reduced energy use in stores by approximately a third,
and in new stores by 45% together the equivalent of the energy used every year by
60,000 homes.
Today Asdas goods travel 18m fewer road miles than in 2005, and the company has
also diverted over 90% of its waste away from landfill.

CeDO: Making bin bags from plastics film

Saved From Landfill is a bin bag made from the crisp packets, carrier bags, food
wrapping and other packaging that UK households throw out because they cannot be
recycled. It has the lowest carbon footprint of its kind and is helping local authorities
Impact | 35

divert otherwise unrecyclable plastics from landfill.

Its inventor, Telford-based company CeDo, believes the refuse bag will enable the UK
to lead the world in this specialist area of recycling.
For the first time, UK local authorities and waste contractors will be able to collect
plastics film from UK households rather than having to treat it as rubbish.
The bin bag, designed and made in Britain, presents the recycling industry with a new
product and a new source of materials, since 99% of it is made of plastic currently sent
to landfill. CeDo, which has more than 15 years experience of plastics film recycling,
believes it is the UKs first true closed loop film recycling solution.
The bag was developed over five years. CeDo drew on investment funding and
guidance from leading international eco balance and life cycle analysis (LCA) studies
to arrive at the best environmental manufacturing solution.
Production is based on dry cycling and avoids using water a world first. For this
and other reasons, it needs 74% less energy than the industry standard. A UK-centric
design-and-manufacture supply chain ensures minimum physical movement of
materials and, therefore, far lower carbon emissions.
Every year CeDo puts 20,000 tonnes of recycled product into UK shops. Saved From
Landfill takes the companys waste management expertise and ambitions up a level,
technically, socially and environmentally.

Green Oil: Offering cyclists the worlds

greenest bicycle maintenance range
Simon Nash was still a student when he came up with idea for the first biodegradable
chain oil for bicycles.
Working in a shed in Kent, he experimented with ingredients and made his first sale
in 2007. That same year his Green Oil chain lubricant was recommended by the
Ecologist magazine and now the company has a UK distributor and a headquarters in
Brixton, and is manufacturing in Wales.
Nashs flash of insight came while he was riding his bike through a river near Bromley.
His chain was in the water and he realised the PTFE in the lubricant was a potentially
dangerous pollutant.
So Green Oil became the worlds first company to make fully biodegradable, fully
plant-based bicycle chain oil a lubricant without PTFE or petroleum. Instead, it has
been created using a closely guarded formula of more than 27 different plants and
natural ingredients.
Nash sold his first bottle of oil to a man in Trafalgar Square as cyclists gathered in
London to watch the start of the 2007 Tour de France. A Cornish business, Hayle
Cycles, was the first to stock Green Oil and the following year the company was
formed, winning What Mountain Bikes Gold Award.
To begin with, Nash was still hand-filling oil bottles. But as the Green Oil range grew,
he eventually started manufacturing in Wales. The company now makes the worlds
greenest range of bicycle maintenance products lubricants as well as accessories
and has clocked up a number of firsts; it was the first company in UK industry to use
100% recycled plastic for its bottles, and the Bicycle Brush is the worlds first bicycle
product with FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certification.

Impact | 36

The company also created the first fairly traded bicycle product the EcoSponge
made from recycled fabric and plant-based sponge.
Nash believed that plastic-based bike brushes were badly designed and wasteful
because they were not made to last, so he looked into plant-based bristles that would
have a longer life. FSC certified handles are made from waste rubber wood.
The EcoSponge is the only Green Oil product not made in the UK, but the company
has a supply chain partner in the Philippines, now providing employment for 25
people locally, that uses fair trade principles. The two collaborated on design using
recycled rice sacks and plants grown on the farm.
Green Oil also asked its bottle supplier to source recycled plastic, giving the company
a UK first with 100% recycled bottles.
Sustainability is central to Green Oil. Recycled plastic is also used for the companys
Eco Rider tub sets and is being phased in for Green Clean bottles. The company uses
reclaimed bottle caps on its 1-litre bottles because the caps are difficult to recycle.
But the company takes sustainability further than the product line. The Green Oil
office is insulated with lambs wool, fitted with recycled and reclaimed furniture and
100% LED lighting. It uses 100% recycled paper, re-fills ink cartridges and, fittingly,
takes mail order deliveries to the post office by bicycle.

M&S: Emerging Leaders and M&S teach

management skills to Kenyan workers
In January 2012, 100 workers from an M&S Kenyan supplier, VP Group, got a chance
to change their lives for the better by taking part in a pilot training course called
leadership for hope.
Developed by an NGO called Emerging Leaders with support from M&S, the intensive
three-day course benefited suppliers, trainees and the long-term sustainability of the
retailers supply chain.
M&S needs to train the next generation of workers if the company is to safeguard
its supply chain against a range of issues, from climate change and rising costs, to
declining yields and dwindling natural resources.
There is a need to adapt quickly to change and build resilience into the companys
supply chain. Leadership for hope develops leaders who are capable of coming up
with solutions that support business and the community.
Following the success of the pilot, in May 2013 Emerging Leaders trained 400
workers from 10 suppliers in a three-day event, which was also attended by 40
potential trainers.
Training workers who supply a wide range of produce, including vegetables, tea,
coffee and flowers, proved that the training worked for all businesses and sectors
and whetted the appetite for training among other M&S suppliers. In all, more than
2,000 people have taken part since May 2013 with M&S extending the training right
across its Kenyan supply base.
During the course workers are asked to teach what they have learned to others, make
a change that benefits them and set up an income-generating project.
In the workplace, businesses said communication, productivity and worker

Impact | 37

engagement improved. More than half the attendees set up income-generating

projects and for every 100 people trained, more than 20 projects are still running after
a year.
People close to participants noticed a difference too, saying that trainees had become
more positive and constructive, and more inclined to look for solutions to problems.
Increased financial literacy and earnings have led to higher savings and better
livelihoods for many people. In turn, that means more people are able to send their
children to school. The average household earnings for tea trainees, for instance, rose
by 94% and savings by 51%.
Emerging Leaders have turned leadership for hope into a professional product, have
developed a train-the-trainer programme that is training 17 new trainers, and created
a series of training DVDs explaining the effects leadership has on everyday life.
After running more training courses in Kenya and South Africa, the plan is to extend
the programme to west Africa and south Asia.

Marcatus QED: Introducing agricultural

techniques to Indian smallholders
Smallholder farmers in isolated parts of southern India are learning how to use agrichemicals safely, to compost and to use drip irrigation technology to preserve scarce
water.
Marcatus QED, a global sourcing and supply chain company headquartered in
Toronto, buys more than 40,000 tonnes of vegetables a year from farmers in
South India and has introduced a Responsible Farmer Programme to train them in
advanced agricultural technologies.
Indias monsoon-dependent farmers are highly vulnerable to climate change. The
company was aware that the 20,000 smallholders supplying it with produce were
struggling because of declining crop yields, an exhausted water table, and eroding
soil fertility.
Marcatus QED developed a programme of advanced training and special initiatives
covering composting, nutrient management, safe chemical use, drip irrigation
technology, waste management, field records and biodiversity. New techniques can
increase productivity, reduce dependency on scarce natural resources and improve
the livelihoods of farming communities.
The Marcatus QED team travelled to villages across 3 states to conduct training
demonstrations. They reached about 5,000 farming families in 2013, leveraging
partners, using classrooms and conducting live field demonstrations in three local
languages.
Marcatus QED designed chemical safety kits that were produced through cosponsorship and distributed to 4800 farmers. The safe chemical kits included personal
protective equipment and chemical storage boxes specifically designed for smallholders.
In collaboration with partners, more than 800 farmers invested in drip irrigation and
reduced their water consumption by 30-40%.
Another 1,000 farmers have started to scientifically compost, improving the soil
quality of around 500 acres. 3,000 indigenous fruit trees were planted to improve
local biodiversity and food security and as part of the programme, the team collected
150kg of waste packaging from villages and incinerated it, legally.

Impact | 38

Marcatus QED is one of the leading exporters of preserved vegetable condiments such
as cucumber pickles and onions. Its partners in the programme include Unilever,
Bayer CropScience, DuPont, Bangalore University of Agricultural Sciences, and the
Social Education & Development Society NGO.

Sainsburys: Suppliers development

groups offer farmers support
Despite extreme weather hitting the 2013 British wheat crop, Sainsburys stuck by its
promise to farmers to use 100% British wheat in the bread baked in-store. Sainsburys
has invested 30 million in farmer development groups since 2006, generating a
saving to farmers of over 10 million.
Sainsburys set up the groups because it wants its farmers to be sustainable and
profitable. First up was the dairy development group, established to help dairy
farmers improve efficiency, and animal health and welfare. In 2008 Sainsburys
pioneered the first carbon footprint measurement system in the dairy industry in a
bid to reduce farmers energy costs and carbon footprint.
They followed this up by introducing a highly praised cost-of-production model
in 2012. This rewards farmers for outstanding animal welfare and environmental
standards, and received overwhelming support from the 300 plus farmers in the
group.
Sainsburys has 10 development groups covering all the main agriculture and
horticulture industries.
Meeting regularly with Sainsburys agriculture team, the groups help the supermarket
offer benefits throughout the supply chain, like supporting pig producers on the
price for their pigs when the market price dropped. Fulfilling its 100% British wheat
commitment demonstrated the strength of Sainsburys grain development group and
meant customers could continue to buy British bread in store.
It is an approach that helps Sainsburys ensure that most of its own-label products are
sustainable, ethical and fit for the future, at the same time benefiting its farmers and
growers.

Taylor & Colledge: Aims to make South

Pacific vanilla market Fairtrade
In many ways, vanilla is quintessentially English, its flavour a distinctive feature of
staples including Victoria sponge and the ultimate comfort food custard.
Yet the vanilla pod grows many miles from Europe in some of the remotest and
poorest parts of the world, including Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.
It is not an easy crop to cultivate. Highly labour intensive, each flower is handpollinated and a crop yields just one annual harvest. There is nothing cosy about
being a vanilla farmer and many have thrown in the towel as it has become harder
and harder to eke out a living in competition with synthetic alternatives.
A family owned business, Taylor & Colledge, has been selling vanilla for over a
century. Dr Sam Himstedt, the companys managing director, said: We have seen
first-hand how irresponsible buying and sourcing practices have led to the decimation

Impact | 39

of vanilla growing in some of the poorest parts of the world. But if vanilla production
is managed responsibly and sustainably then the wider community benefits.
In 2013, Taylor & Colledge pioneered an ambitious programme in Tonga to regenerate
its neglected vanilla industry, where only 30 farmers were left growing the crop. The
company worked with the government, agricultural offices and landholders on the
island of Vavau to develop a vanilla rehabilitation programme to support farmers
throughout the growing season not just at the end when they have crops to sell.
The company provided funds to cut overgrowth around neglected vines, built fencing
and finance plantation management and development programmes to encourage
more growers into the industry.
The response from farmers, who on average each support six family members, was
overwhelming over 260 joined the programme in year one. Taylor & Colledge
guarantees it will buy farmers vanilla for which it is seeking organic and Fairtrade
status at a fair price. A year in, the programme is close to Fairtrade certification.

Tesco: Working with suppliers to cut food

waste
Tesco has become the UKs first retailer to disclose the volume of food waste it
produces, and is working with its suppliers to reduce this.
Around 1.3bn tonnes of food is wasted globally each year, according to the UNs Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), putting pressure on the environment and costing
producers 460m annually.
Working with sustainability consultancy Anthesis, Tesco developed a smart way of
measuring where food waste occurred from farm to fork for 25 of its top-selling
products. The company collected data from its producers and suppliers on why
and how much food was wasted, and combined this with waste data from its own
operations and Wrap statistics on domestic food waste.
By building a food waste footprint for each product, Tesco identified problem
hotspots and created action plans to cut waste, from ending multi-buy offers on large
bags of salad to ordering bakery products more accurately. It found that, for example,
17% of the grapes produced for its supermarkets are wasted by the consumer, and is
working with suppliers to obtain fresher produce and improve the storage advice on
packaging.
Tescos move to share its food waste data achieved widespread media coverage and
was welcomed by leading food and environmental campaigners, including Wrap,
Fareshare, Feeding the 5000 and Waste Watch.
The Farm to Fork metric is a first for the retail industry and has set a benchmark for
businesses keen to act on food waste. Major UK retailers, including all the countrys
biggest supermarket chains, have since agreed to work with the British Retail
Consortium to share their data from 2015.
Tescos focus on reducing food waste forms part of its wider commitment to
addressing the economic, health and environmental issues that are most important
to the longevity of its business, and improving the transparency of its supply chain.

Impact | 40

Carbon & energy Innovation winner

management
LanzaTech: Turning pollution into fuel
Reducing business
scope 1, 2 and 3
emissions is key to
meeting the UKs carbon
reduction targets.
This was an award for
initiatives that take a
holistic approach to
measuring, managing
and reducing emissions.

hey have given us beer, medicine, bread and the black death but one of the
planets tiniest organisms may provide a solution to its largest threat climate
change. Microbes could help clean up the gases belching out of the worlds steel mills,
refineries and industrial-scale waste dumps and transform it into something much
more useful.
US-based LanzaTech has discovered a microbe that ferments gas so that it can be
converted into ethanol a pure alcohol used as fuel. The microbe is as safe as the
yeast used in bread making.
It heralds a new generation of renewable fuels and chemicals, based on one of
humankinds earliest uses of biotechnology. But while neolithic humans made
ethanol to drink, modern humans are making it to solve the greatest problem of the
industrial age.
It is estimated that this process could provide a fifth of the aviation fuel the worlds
travellers are currently demanding. Full-scale production, using revolutionary new
technology, starts in China in 2015 and Virgin Atlantic plans to be the first commercial
airline to use it.
But the process also applies to gas produced by oil and chemical refineries, forestry
and agriculture, even municipal waste and coal.
With predictions that global demand for energy will double in the next 40 years
because of growth in China and India, more than a third will have to come from zero
carbon fuel.
Just using the worlds steel mill waste gases, LanzaTech could produce 30 billion
gallons of ethanol or 15 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel about 19% of what
is currently used.
LanzaTechs unique ability to reduce or eliminate the release of waste gases like CO
and CO2 has dramatic consequences on the global fight against air pollution it meets
a survival-driven need for places like China and India, said Andrew Chung, a partner
at one of the companys investors, Khosla Ventures, who is on the board of LanzaTech.

LanzaTechs proprietory microbe is a natural

biocatalyst that can capture CO2 and turn it
into ethanol for fuel.

Described as gas fermentation technology, LanzaTechs microbe uses waste gas as

a source of carbon. So the carbon is captured before it is released into the air and
re-used for products that can be used in diesel and aircraft fuels, nylon, plastics and
solvents.
The process has other major advantages:
it enables biofuel to be produced without
using food crops or agricultural land and it
allows industry to grow. So carbon-intensive
industries can cut emissions while helping
meet the demand for affordable, low carbon
fuels and chemicals.
LanzaTechs mission was to develop a
sustainable model for producing biofuels
and chemicals that would not rely on land
or water, that would not pit job growth
against carbon reduction and that would
revolutionise thinking about waste. Waste
carbon is transformed from a problem into an
opportunity.
Impact | 41

It is the only company to take gas fermentation technology to this level, developing
and successfully operating two plants at steel mills in China. Commercial operation in
China is scheduled to begin in 2015. The company has partnered with Virgin Atlantic,
Baosteel, Evonik, Invista, Petronas, Boeing, and other industrial giants as it develops
competitive biobased routes to other sustainable chemicals and fuels.
The Guardian judges felt that this was a very impressive entry, made even more
powerful because LanzaTech is seeking to address carbon issues in the most
challenging sectors.
Ethanol produced with the LanzaTech process cuts the carbon footprint of petroleum
gas by 60-80%. The companys plant in China is the first anywhere to earn the
sustainability certification from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials Services
Foundation for industrial carbon capture and use.
In March, LanzaTech announced a $60m (35.5m) investment led by Mitsui & Co,
including Siemens and four existing investors Khosla Ventures, Qiming Venture
Partners, K1W1 and the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund.
Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, said: The funding validates the confidence
our investors have in us, the strength of our technology, the quality of our
partnerships and the opportunity to make a big impact on the global fuels and
chemicals markets through capturing and reusing carbon.
Its clean tech done right, said Sir Stephen Tindall, of K1W1, another investor.
LanzaTech, founded in New Zealand and now based in the US, has partners and
investors in the US, India, Malaysia, Japan and the UK. Its proprietary microbe
is a natural biocatalyst, categorised as a WHO-risk 1 organism (like bakers
yeast). LanzaTech is the first company to develop a bio-catalytic toolkit for a gas
fermentation microbe.
LanzaTech has operated a pilot plant in New Zealand at Bluescope Steel Mill since
2008 and in 2012 it finished the first phase of a partnership in China with Baosteel,
the countrys largest producer. The plant converts 100,000 gallons of ethanol a year
from waste.
LanzaTech is planning a second in China with Capital Steel and in the US is
developing a biorefinery, Freedom Pines, using forestry waste. Together they will
produce 145 billion gallons of ethanol annually.

Impact | 42

Impact winner

Interface: A carpet-tile revolutionary

hen Interfaces founder, the late Ray Anderson, set

a target for his business to have zero impact on the
environment by 2020 many thought it an outrageous
ambition. But the company has made such great strides
that, twenty years later, its European operations are within
touching distance.
At a time when very few companies were making public
commitments to sustainability, mission zero was a bold
vision. Since then Interfaces journey towards sustainability
has seen a momentous shift in the way the company
operates and some outstanding results.

Interface embarked upon

its mission zero at the
instigation of its late
founder, Ray Anderson.

Since January 2014, Interfaces plants in Holland and

Northern Ireland have been using around 90% less carbon
and 95% less water than in 1996, with no waste going to landfill. Its plant in Scherpenzeel, The
Netherlands, has hit two of its zero targets.
All the gas used here is biogas produced from green waste that comes from a local fish processing
company. The gas is produced from the anaerobic digestion of fish waste, which is filtered to the
natural gas standard, pumped into the grid and bought by Interface. The switch to 100% biogas
has eliminated all energy-related emissions at the plant, which at the beginning of 2014 stood at
8,900 tonnes of CO2 a year.
The Dutch facility uses hardly any water in the manufacturing process the only water it
consumes is on the domestic front, amounting to less than 5,000m3. In Europe as a whole,
Interfaces manufacturing facilities use 95% less water today than they did 18 years ago.
Across Europe, 95% of Interfaces energy consumption comes from renewable sources, a massive
leap from 2012 when the figure stood at 33%. This has shielded the company from energy price
volatility and carbon-related price movements. In Ireland, Interfaces facility in Craigavon has used
100% green electricity since 2006 and has recycled all of its waste since 2008.
In 2014, the company will reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions in Europe by 90% from a 1996
baseline.
So how has Interface achieved such massive reductions in energy and water use?
Meeting the challenge of zero impact on the environment is not about making a few tweaks. It
requires a certain mindset, an aggressive energy efficiency programme and the technology to
go with it. It means an approach to sustainability that influences every aspect of the companys
business, inspiring Interface and its people to continually push at the boundaries.
This attitude was applauded by the Guardian judges who were impressed with Interfaces clear
and determined pursuit of mission zero to realise a radical and transformative change.
One of the innovations that helped Interface reduce its energy use is a new pre-coat manufacturing
line. Pre-coat is an important part of the backing that supports the look and feel of a carpet by
anchoring the yarn in place in Interfaces case this layer is latex.
The latex is dried and cured in an oven. The new pre-coat line makes more efficient use of hot air
through ultra-efficient ovens, cutting gas consumption and dramatically reducing the companys
dependence on fossil fuels. In use since the summer of 2012, the new pre-coat process has reduced
energy use by 40% per square metre of carpet produced and cut the use of materials by 8% in the
Scherpenzeel factory.

Impact | 43

It is just one of a wide range of energy-saving measures introduced by the carpet tile
manufacturer. Others include the use of alternative, more sustainable materials and
the installation of LED lighting.
When it comes to water use, many of Interfaces savings have come from
fundamental shifts in the way it makes its products. The company has also changed
the way it operates. A new closed-loop piping system in its Scherpenzeel plant, for
instance, recycles all cooling and manufacturing water, meaning the only water used
by the factory is for domestic purposes.
These latest achievements bring Interface closer to achieving its ambitious goal. To
put the results in context, in 2014 the companys European operations will achieve
a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. That exceeds the EU Commissions
proposed 2030 carbon reduction target by more than 100%.
Naturally, Interface is proud of these milestones on its mission zero journey. It is the
kind of progress that is beyond the imagination of many companies, but for Interface
it is by no means the end of the story. For Interface, mission zero is not just about its
own operations it is taking responsibility for the lifecycle of its products. And that is
where the carpet tile revolutionaries are going to focus their attention next.

Runners-up

Arup: Produces construction industry

strategy for tackling climate change
Arup has put the UK Green Construction Board (GCB) on course to tackle climate
change.
It has identified where the industrys carbon originates and who is responsible for
cutting it. The company has produced a Routemap demonstrating to sectors and
industries involved in construction how they can respond to the 2008 Climate
Change Act, which commits the UK to cutting 80% of green house gas emissions by
2050.
The Routemap sets out the challenges and opportunities presented by climate
change and lays out what the industry needs to do and which goals to set next.
It provides direction where previously very little existed, helps industry track its
own progress and has influenced the governments Construction Sector Industrial
Strategy.
Arup believes that the Climate Change Act is an opportunity for the UK to become
a world leader as it moves to a low carbon economy, by supporting new markets,
businesses and jobs.
To create its Routemap Arup brought together in-house specialists.
The first phase was to define the built environment and develop a baseline emissions
level for 1990 to 2010, also identifying major policies and initiatives already underway
to encourage carbon reduction.
Next, Arup developed a model with a carbon emissions trajectory for the built
environment and assessed the potential to achieve an 80% emission reduction.
Finally it drew up the Routemap and detailed its methodology and findings.

Impact | 44

Arup, which knows that clients increasingly expect projects to be sustainable, has
provided the GCB with knowledge to make better decisions, understand where
carbon exists and how issues like behaviour, performance gap and technological
advances affect emissions reductions.
Industry associations, property and asset owners, manufacturers and trade bodies are
already responding to the Routemap.

Citi: Cutting carbon and energy use

Using a three-pronged approach to reducing carbon emissions and cutting energy use
across all of its buildings, multinational banking group Citi exceeded its annual target
for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in 2013, saving over 10,000 tonnes of CO2.
Recognised by Bloomberg in 2013 as the Worlds Greenest Bank, Citis targets are
accordingly ambitious. The company aims to achieve a 25% absolute cut in CO2 and a
20% absolute reduction in energy use by 2015 against a 2005 baseline.
Citi allocates annual targets to each of its four global regions. The 2013 target for its
600-plus buildings in 50 EMEA countries was a 5.6% reduction. Citi exceeded this
target by achieving a 7.3% cut in emissions, subject to external audit, and reduced its
energy use by 25.08GWh.
Citi approaches carbon and energy reductions in three ways: operational efficiencies
that cost little to nothing, new technology and equipment upgrades, and encouraging
employees to support its goals.
Examples of operational savings in the UK include turning off UPS power supply
units in the data centre and a modified chiller system that uses the external air
temperature to cool the building. On the new technology and upgraded equipment
front, the company upgraded hot water heaters in Canary Wharf washrooms with air
source heat pumps, which work by absorbing the heat generated by employees and IT
equipment.
Electric car charging points and video conferencing facilities on individual computers
to reduce the need to travel are just two of the ideas Citi introduced to get employees
involved. They also organised a workplace Expo event where over 1,400 employees
took the chance to learn more about Citis projects, and how they can help.

Dearman: Making clean engines with

liquid air
The Dearman Engine Company is making clean engines a reality with a piston engine
powered by the expansion of liquid air (nitrogen). The engine could significantly
reduce the emissions of refrigerated transport, buses and commercial vehicles, and
help companies to make substantial fuel savings.
With a passion for engineering and a strong understanding of the challenges facing a
fossil fuel-dependent road transport system, Peter Dearman set about exploring the
potential of liquid air from his home garage.
Following rigorous testing at three UK universities, Dearman formed a consortium
including MIRA, Air Products and Loughborough University, and in 2013, won a
Technology Strategy Board grant to build and install a refrigeration engine on a
Impact | 45

vehicle.
The liquid air in the Dearman Engine expands, powering the engine, which emits
clean, cold air. The engine also provides free cooling, and so is particularly useful for
cold chain transport and bus air conditioning, which consume 20% of a vehicles
diesel fuel. Importantly, the engine is economical to build and maintain.
Air pollution is a pressing environmental and health challenge worldwide and nowhere is the impact more keenly felt than in China, where rapid and unsustainable
industrialisation, including the expansion of cold chains, has filled major cities with
noxious smog.
Fitting just a third of the UKs refrigerated trailer fleet with a Dearman engine could
remove 180 tonnes of particulate matter from the air annually, the equivalent of
taking 367,000 Euro VI diesel lorries off the road. Similarly, the Centre for Low Carbon
Futures estimates that by 2025, liquid air vehicles could save a million tonnes of
carbon and 1.3bn litres of diesel in the UK alone.
Dearman is on track to install its first engine on a vehicle by summer 2014 and is on
the road to bringing its product to market. It is also developing a heat-hybrid engine
that could reduce diesel consumption on a bus by 25%.

lan: Inverurie hair salon gets green rinse

Hair dressing has taken on a green tinge at a town centre salon in Inverurie,
Aberdeenshire.
lan Hair Design carried out a 250,000 green refurbishment in 2012, claims to be
the most eco-efficient salon in the UK and has seen its client base grow by 25%.
New equipment, practices and systems were introduced to strengthen the
hairdressers environmental and commercial performances.
The new-look salon has photovoltaic panels to generate electricity; solar-thermal
panels to provide hot water; an air-source heat pump that saves 80% on heating costs;
and LED lighting that consumes 80% less electricity than before and will last for a
decade.
Energy-saving motion detectors and low-temperature radiators have been installed;
new basins cut water consumption by well over half; a specialist eco-cleaning system
uses only cold water; and the company returns unused electricity to the National Grid.
The salons radical cut in carbon emissions and energy use is the result of an
environmental action plan. lan completed level two of the Green Tick scheme, a
Scottish environmental management system.
The salon switched energy suppliers to get the business 100% renewable electricity
and is due to install a voltage unit, which is expected to save a further 10% on
electricity.
The companys carbon management plan is endorsed by the Carbon Trust and has
resulted in a reduction in its CO2 emissions equivalent to 110 tonnes during 2013, a
38% improvement on the previous year.
Business is booming. Since the work was completed in March 2012, the companys
turnover has increased steadily. Sales rose by 14% to 323,398 in the year to
September 2012 and by a further 16% to 373,749 in 2013. The company is convinced
that many of its customers conscientiously select a greener, more sustainable service.

Impact | 46

Moreover, adopting a green ethos has reduced electricity costs from more than
6,000 a year to 787 a drop of 762%.
While the salon naturally uses high volumes of water, installation of the new basin
system has reduced consumption by 64%. In addition, the use of compostable towels
and capes has eliminated the need for washing machines, cutting water consumption
by a further 18% and saving the business around 900 a year.
lan uses only the most eco-friendly hair products and suppliers and is sharing its
expertise with other businesses locally.

npower: Leads by example in energy

efficiency
Determined to lead by example, npower has made significant progress on improving
its energy efficiency, meeting its target to achieve a 40% a year reduction in carbon
intensity and sharing its best practice with its customers.
It used an m3 strategy (measure, monitor, minimise) to embark on an energysaving programme in 2010. It measured where and when energy was being used
at its premises every half hour using metering, identified opportunities to lower
energy use and created dedicated plans for individual sites. It has also harnessed the
power of renewable energy, installing two wind turbines and 50kW solar panels at its
Sunderland office.
This m3 project resulted in a 16% reduction in electricity use and savings of more
than 740,000 in 12 months. npower saved approximately 160 tonnes of carbon by
installing solar panels, while voltage optimisation equipment at 11 sites generates an
estimated saving of 1,000 tonnes of carbon annually. One npower office in the West
Midlands saw electricity consumption fall by 40%.
Beyond its internal energy efficiency activities, npower has pioneered an approach to
energy procurement called direct budget management. This tool helps companies
to take greater control over energy purchasing by moving from fixed to flexible energy
contracts.
npower was awarded the carbon trust standard in 2013 and has also become the
UKs first major energy supplier to receive the ISO 50001 accreditation for effective
energy management.
The companys focus on energy saving forms part of its wider low carbon strategy to
reduce emissions, develop innovative products and services, and raise awareness of
the importance of using energy efficiently.

PepsiCo: Cutting carbon in its Walkers

crisps supply chain
In less than a decade PepsiCo would like its UK operations to be fossil fuel free. To
achieve this the company is working closely with its supply chain where most of its
environmental impact is generated.
It started with one of its biggest brands: Walkers crisps, looking at how the potatoes

Impact | 47

are grown, packaging and transported. It has introduced low carbon fertilisers and
modernised its transport fleet. The company has cut the carbon footprint of a packet
of Walkers crisps by more than 9%.
PepsiCo built a diagnostic tool to identify opportunities to boost efficiency.
Sustainability managers have been appointed to champion the companys internal
resource conservation programme.
Multi-use trailers are used these days to collect potatoes from farms as well as to
deliver boxes of crisps.

Sainsburys: Shrinking its carbon footprint

Sainsburys has cut the carbon footprint of its UK stores by saving energy, harnessing
renewable energy and encouraging employees and suppliers to do the same.
The company which is one of the UKs big four supermarkets recognised that
recently commercially viable technologies could save more energy, achieving larger
scale reductions.
The business case for this programme was reinforced when it became clear that if no
additional action were taken, Sainsburys energy costs would quadruple by 2020. This
was the beginning of Project Graphite, begun in 2011.
The idea was first to lower energy use and then to install low or zero carbon
technology to reduce the stores demand on the National Grid. The effect would be to
cut its stores carbon footprint: the company aimed to reduce its carbon emissions by
30% by 2020.
Sainsburys used sophisticated financial modelling to ensure that changes would
deliver a good return on investment, and partnered with Imperial College and the
Grantham Institute to optimise its planning, monitoring and analysis techniques.
The results have been impressive. Sainsburys cut its operational carbon footprint
by 35,200 tonnes in 2012-13, despite increasing its floor space by one million square
feet. The company reduced the volume of carbon produced per thousand square feet
by 17% compared to 2005-06 levels. There was an 11% reduction in electricity use
measured against 2007-08 levels.
Project Graphite involved 12 initiatives in 636 stores, the equivalent of 65% of its
estate.
Between 2011 and 2013, it made more than 3,000 changes, affecting refrigeration,
lighting controls including daylight-sensitive dimming and voltage optimisation.
Sainsburys reduced its demand on the national grid by installing 112,000
photovoltaic panels, 89 biomass boilers and 14 ground-source heat pumps.
Cutting the operational carbon footprint of its stores reflects Sainsburys wider
commitment to respect the environment, which it believes differentiates it from other
supermarket chains in a fiercely competitive market.

SC Johnson: Has its own wind turbine,

among other sustainability measures
Employees at SC Johnsons Mijdrecht manufacturing plant in the Netherlands have
Impact | 48

planted a hectare of trees around the site each year for the past seven years. It is one
element of the family owned companys plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from worldwide manufacturing by 48% by 2016, against a 2000 baseline.
As well as the tree cultivation project, the maker of Glade, Pledge, Duck and Mr Muscle
has put in place a range of energy and carbon management measures at Europlant
its largest European manufacturing hub.
The company has installed an 80-metre wind turbine that supplies 50% of the sites
annual electricity needs, and has built an electric train and track powered by the
wind turbine to transport goods and raw materials around the site.
It has also made room for a packaging supplier to operate at the Mijdrecht site so that
packaging is made locally and transported to the warehouse via the electric train
reducing supply chain emissions.
In addition, a switch to compressed gas technology for Glade aerosol products has
resulted in a 10 tonne reduction in liquid petroleum gas from the manufacturing
process, making SC Johnson Europes largest supplier of aerosol products using this
technology.
At Europlant which produces air fragrances and pest control products windgenerated electricity has eliminated 2,100 tonnes of green house gas emissions
annually, according to the company. The site has also achieved zero waste to landfill.
The initiatives support SC Johnsons five-year global sustainability strategy, which
also includes a goal to source 33% of its energy from renewable sources by 2016.

Veolia Environment: Finding value in

rubbish
One definition of rubbish is material that is considered valueless. But what if waste
were something to be valued?
Veolia Environmental Services hopes to do just that. From mining precious metals in
road sweepings to turning waste into organic fertiliser, the company is doing its best
to redefine rubbish as a resource that is highly valuable.
Antoine Frrot, the company chairman, said: We are moving away from water and
waste management to solving the problem of a scarcity of raw materials, water and
energy.
And at the heart of this shift is carbon reduction.
Last year Veolia created 21 times more energy than it consumed, at the same as
avoiding 1.2m tonnes of carbon a year and reducing landfill emissions by over 3%.
As a result it became the only net carbon creditor in the Governments CRC Carbon
Reduction Commitment energy recovery efficiency scheme for 2012-13. It achieved
a net zero CRC status with the electricity it generates from renewable sources and
combined heat and power plants.
Over five years, it is also investing over 1bn in recycling and recovery infrastructure.
This includes building Londons first district heating network, transforming waste
into energy for 10,000 Southwark residents. The five participating estates in
Rotherhithe, will no longer need to rely on gas boilers and will deliver a reduction of
around 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
Not only is the company a CRC creditor, it has gone one stage further and introduced

Impact | 49

a number of green products as part of its commitment to building a circular economy.

Veolia Environmental Services operates seven large-scale centralised composting
facilities in the UK, three in Hampshire, two in Essex, one in Merseyside and one in
East Sussex.
These facilities treat around 250,000 tonnes of biowaste a year, transforming it into
more than 100,000 tonnes of Soil Association certified sustainable organic fertilisers.
Pro-Grow is the companys range of organic soil and lawn conditioners, and it sold
60,000 30-litre bags of it in 2013. Around 7,500 biscuit bales of solid dry fuel, made
from unrecyclable commercial dry waste, were also exported.
One activity that has attracted wide interest is the sorting of road sweepings. Veolia
has contracts with cities across the country, generating a significant volume of street
waste. To turn the sweepings into a valuable resource, the company has introduced
an advanced treatment that involves wet and dry separation via, in effect, a giant
vibrating sieve.
After all the different materials are sorted, a sludge is left, which is spun to separate
the water from the solids. As well as creating individual recycling streams and landfill
restoration materials, the final separation of solids leaves a dust from which precious
metals can be recovered.

Impact | 50

Collaboration

Innovation winner

An award for a project

or initiative that breaks
down traditional
barriers. Judges were
looking for examples
of several partners
working together in nontraditional ways towards
a goal that delivers truly
sustainable outcomes.

Hewlett-Packard: Introducing large-scale

e-waste recycling in Africa

oday there are more mobile phones in Africa than there are in America and they
will all eventually need to be disposed of. Electronic waste is expected to top 60
million tonnes globally by 2017 an increase of a third in five years.
Get it wrong and the resulting e-waste is a toxic hazard. But get it right, and it can turn
into a valuable resource.
For every one million mobile phones, you can recover significant amounts of valuable
metals including 24kg of gold, 250kg of silver and nine tonnes of copper. You will
even discover a few kilograms of the rare palladium. This treasure of metals could be
an opportunity to turn e-waste into well-paid work.
Hewlett Packard has had an e-waste management project in Kenya since 2010, but it
had much bigger ambitions. While e-waste volumes continue to grow throughout the
developing world, modern recycling facilities are still rare. The company wanted to
extend its work in Kenya and develop a blueprint for a sustainable recycling system
that could be replicated in other developing countries.
To develop such a blueprint, Hewlett Packard knew it needed a range of partners to
break down traditional barriers between the private, public and academic sectors,
between bottom-of-the-pyramid individuals and multinational corporations, and
between local labour and global marketplaces.
In addition to Hewlett Packards expertise, the company brought together a group
of recycling experts, financiers, regulators and academics. For recycling knowledge
it partnered with the East African Compliant Recycling (EACR). For developing the
regulatory environment, the Kenyan authorities came on board, while the University
of Northampton delivered recycling training and awareness. A German investment
organisation Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft has experience of
funding and project management in developing countries.
Their remit was to develop a system in Kenya responsibly to separate and dismantle
e-waste, including domestic appliances, computers and mobile phones. In addition,
the system needed to ensure that Kenyans working on the project received a fair price
for the recovered materials.

This is one of 40 collection points in

Hewlett-Packards Nairobi e-waste recycling
network, housed in shipping containers.

The result was east Africas first large-scale recycling facility, in Nairobi, and Kenyas
first-ever registered collection network for e-waste. The micro-businesses that do
the collecting receive equipment and training
to ensure they meet global standards and
have 40 collection points housed in shipping
containers.
There is also a network of collectors who bring
e-waste to the shipping containers. Critically,
both the micro-businesses and individual
collectors are paid fairly.
This is the first model of its kind, not just in
Africa but anywhere in the world, says Robert
Truscott, chief executive of EACR. This model
is about connecting the collector to the global
markets for the materials, and providing them
with a fair and transparent price, to ensure they
get the maximum value for the waste.

Impact | 51

This collaboration is already having positive environmental, economic and social

impacts in Kenya. It is estimated that by the end of 2014, the initiative will have
created over 2,000 jobs in Kenyas e-waste management industry. The value created
from reusing e-waste is shared between the recycling facility and the collection
network of micro-businesses and individuals. Importantly the system allows for a
transparent e-payment that passes maximum value down the chain.
The projects IT system gives the recycling facility full traceability for its flow of
material and the financial transactions in the chain. Hewlett-Packard provided
funding, IT equipment and IT design expertise, which used mobile phones and cloud
technology.
To reduce unsafe e-waste disposal practices, Hewlett-Packard supports an
information campaign and training, as well as consulting with Kenyan authorities
to help develop national legislation, registration and infrastructure for responsible
recycling.
The Guardian judges were impressed with the impact of Hewlett-Packards project.
They praised it for creating a network from scratch and mobilising suppliers,
governments and individuals.
Hewlett-Packards sustainability strategy dates back to 1957 when its founders first
put global citizenship on its corporate agenda. Since then, it has recycled over a billion
kilogrammes of IT equipment from 70 countries. In Africa, it has e-waste recycling
projects in Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.

Impact | 52

Impact winner

Barts: Links energy saving to patient care

and saves 105,000 in first year

t Bartholomews (Barts) and the Royal London Hospital

in London wanted to cut a 12m annual energy bill.

Englands largest NHS Trust, Barts Health, has a workforce

of 15,000 and serves about 2.5 million people. In a hectic
and complex hospital environment, the challenge was to
engage staff.
The trust involved three external partners: behavioural
change experts Global Action Plan, technology pioneers GE
and facilities management specialists Skanska. Each has
sustainability at the heart of its rationale and they set about
involving employees in two of the trusts six hospitals in
behavioural changes.
The Global Action Plan at
Barts linked saving energy
to patient care and has
changed some entrenched
behaviours.

After interviews and focus group meetings, it was clear that the best way to encourage energy
saving was to help staff do what they do best: provide excellent patient care.
Thus Operation TLC was born. The campaign involved turning off equipment when it was not
being used, switching off lights at every opportunity and closing doors, while linking energysaving to greater patient safety, comfort and dignity.
By concentrating less on the energy message and more on the provision of care, the campaign won
the support of staff and saved more than 100,000 and the equivalent of 800 tonnes of CO2 in its
first year.
Combining the trusts sustainability, environmental management, estates, communications and
clinical research teams was central to the campaigns success.
The sustainability team, for example, made dozens of ward rounds to share success stories, deal
with signs of resistance and reward energy-saving activities until they became habitual.
A group of grassroots influencers became advocates for action for their own teams. Senior
hospital staff reinforced the message by featuring on computer screensavers and making threeminute films to demonstrate their commitment to the campaign.
The project was explained to staff as a simple way to create a more healing environment: by
reducing excessive heat and noise, helping to promote sleep and reduce light pollution, and
improving patient safety and privacy as well as better regulating room temperatures.
Operation TLC was reviewed by a specialist clinical research team at Queen Mary University in
the East End of London the first time the impact of energy-efficient behaviour change in the NHS
had been scrutinised in such a robust way.
It found that after four months 40% more lights were being switched off and 18% more doors were
being closed. More importantly, one in three patients reported fewer incidences of sleep disruption
and one in four experienced fewer privacy infringements.
The partnership estimates that when phase two of Operation TLC is rolled out across the whole
Trust it will save 800,000 a year. If replicated across the NHS, there is potential for 35 million in
energy savings, along with improvements in patient care.
The judges said the entry stood out because of the entrenched behaviours it had had to overcome.

Impact | 53

It was a clear example of how sustainable action can also help staff to do a better job.
Operation TLC was devised to be replicable across the whole NHS.
Aside from a first-year financial saving of 105,000 for Barts Health NHS Trust, the
programme highlighted many opportunities to decommission unused medical
equipment.
Many staff reported that the energy-saving element was far less of an incentive to
participate than their ability to offer better patient care.
Barts Health NHS Trusts medical director, Steve Ryan, said: For me TLC is ultimately
about tender, loving care providing a real healing environment. Operation TLC will
expand into four more hospitals and at least one other NHS Trust in 2014.
The project is highlighted as a model staff engagement programme in the NHSs
sustainable development strategy and is featured in the 2013 energy efficiency
strategy update from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Runners-up

2degrees: An online community for

sustainable business
2degrees is an online community for sustainable business that includes more than
35,000 people and organisations, and hosts platforms and regular events to inspire
collaborative solutions to common problems.
2degrees provides online services for companies including Asda-Walmart, Tesco,
GlaxoSmithKline and Kingfisher, allowing them to work more efficiently by cutting
costs and reducing risks.
In 2011, Tesco introduced the first 2degrees platform the Tesco Knowledge Hub
which was quickly followed by dedicated online networks for GSK, Asda and
Kingfisher. Each forum is designed to stimulate partnerships by providing the tools,
resources and technology to communicate best practice between businesses.
Collaboration with suppliers and stakeholders is the fastest way for major
corporations to reduce their environmental impact and secure supply chain
sustainability, argues 2degrees.
Tescos membership of the 2degrees buying club, for example, enabled the retailer to
install low-energy lighting at a 25% discount, resulting in an 80% reduction in energy
use. Typhoo has joined the club and expects to cut 900 tonnes of emissions by
installing the lighting.
Branston turned to the platform for advice on voltage technology and has since
installed systems that reduce the consumption and cost of electricity by 5-8%.
2degrees claims that millions of pounds of savings have been made through its
online platforms and that billions more are in the process of being unlocked.

Impact | 54

AkzoNobel: Backing renewable raw

materials
Paint and chemicals company AkzoNobel is moving away from fossil-sourced
materials in its products, and using biomass alternatives.
First, the company took a detailed look at its product lines to identify the chemical
components and processes involved. This highlighted the materials and businesses
within the companys value chain that are most susceptible to fluctuations in oil and
gas supply.
It then found biological substitutes.
The company has been building partnerships and hopes to get sufficient volumes to
secure a future market. Solvay, from Belgium, and start-ups Solazyme and Zeachem,
for instance.
It is negotiating deals that may reduce CO2 emissions across the company by up to
800 kilotonnes by 2020, it says.
As well as expanding the market for biomass and helping emerging businesses
gain access to finance, the strategy will help secure AkzoNobels raw material
supply. Meanwhile, the company is ensuring that bio-based materials are sourced
responsibly.

Anglo American: Shaping a legacy to be

proud of in Brazil
Mining and sustainability do not naturally go hand in hand perhaps. But mining
multinational Anglo American believes it can create real value for society.
It is a premise the company has put to work at its nickel mining operation in Barro
Alto, Brazil, which employs around 1,000.
Anglo American started building the infrastructure in 2007 and began full mining
operations in 2011. With a life estimated at between 30 and 40 years, the mine will be
a major part of the community for decades to come.
The company says it wants not only to leave behind an improved environment both
physical and socioeconomic but also to fulfil its commitment to the Millennium
Development Goals.
For example, it is working with Fauna and Flora International to plan how best to
return the area to its original condition post-mining; with CARE Brazil to support
new small businesses in the town; and with Health Repro Latina to provide workforce
support on social issues such as sexual health and pregnancy.
NGO partner Agenda Publica carried out an interim assessment in 2010. It found that,
measured against the United Nations Human Development Index, Barro Alto has
become one of the most improved municipalities in Brazil over the past 20 years.
There has been a 66.7% improvement in the number of people living below the
poverty line; 350% more 15-17 year olds complete secondary school; and more than
half of all children born in 2010 received pre-natal care a 40% rise since 2000.

Impact | 55

The company has invested $12 million (6m) in social projects since its arrival. It has
also set up the Barro Alto Foundation chaired by the citys mayor to agree priorities.

AT&T: Blueprint for water efficiency

AT&T has identified water savings of up to 40% across its US operations by
collaborating with a not-for-profit consultancy, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
The two organisations have created a comprehensive water-saving toolkit to help
other companies realise similar savings.
Water is vital for the cooling towers that keep many of AT&Ts facilities running
smoothly. These towers account for a large proportion of the 3.3bn gallons of water
used by AT&T each year, so the telecoms company partnered with EDF in 2012 to
evaluate the best ways to improve its water efficiency.
The company ran a series of pilot programmes across its US sites to measure the
quantities of water, energy and chemicals that could be saved by making carefully
calculated changes.
AT&T and EDF found water-saving opportunities of 1440% at each pilot site,
particularly in relation to cooling towers. Every option they identified made good
business sense.
For example, upgrading a cooling tower filtration system costs less than 60,000 but
promises more than 60,000 in annual water and waste water savings. Similarly,
a simple equipment upgrade costing 2,400 promises nearly 24,000 in annual
savings by expanding free air cooling.
The jointly produced water-saving toolkit was introduced in 2013. It can be tailored to
suit organisations of different sizes and features water and cost-saving calculators and
a cooling system efficiency guide, as well as training videos, infographics and sample
water audit forms. EDF estimates that the toolkit could help US commercial buildings
to save up to 28 billion gallons of water annually.

Business Benchmark: The animal welfare

index
Every year nearly 70bn animals are farmed for meat, milk and eggs. As agriculture
has intensified, so too have the concerns about animal welfare. Since 2013 food
manufacturers and retailers have been able to compare their animal welfare practices
with an industry benchmark created by the Compassion in World Farming and the
World Society for the Protection of Animals.
Since introducing the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare a year ago, the
organisations have experienced an increase in interest in this issue from retailers and
investors. It appears the benchmark has encouraged companies to up their game.
For example, there has been a 10 percentage point rise in companies publishing
farm animal welfare policies. There has also been an 18 point rise in the provision
of customer information on farm animal welfare and a 15 point increase in the
communication of objectives and targets on this issue.
We use the benchmark as a means of providing further clarity on our animal welfare
requirements and activities for the benefit of our consumers and investors, says Mark
Impact | 56

Atherton-Ranson, agriculture sourcing and animal welfare manager for Marks &
Spencer.
The animal welfare organisations have published investor briefings to highlight the
business case for action and encouraged companies to talk about farm animal welfare
risks and opportunities. By publishing the annual benchmark ranking companies
performance and providing investors with individual reports to support their
investment research, they have also plugged a gap in reliable data and analysis.
The Benchmark is the go-to tool for investors on farm animal welfare. It offers a
rich stream of questions [that] allows investors to engage with food companies in a
structured, focused manner, says Abigail Herron, head of responsible investment
engagement at Aviva Investors.

ColaLife: Makeing an affordable antidiarrhoea kit

Globally, diarrhoea is the second biggest killer of children under five, second only to
pneumonia.
ColaLife, a small UK charity, has proved that sheer size is not an impediment to
finding solutions to big development challenges by partnering with organisations
including Janssen Pharmaceuticals, to develop, design and distribute an antidiarrhoea kit for children in Zambia.
The kit, known as Kit Yamoyo, involves oral rehydration salt sachets, paediatric
zinc to strengthen childrens immunity and soap to promote hand washing. The
packaging is designed to help mothers to measure the right amount of water to add.
ColaLifes founders visited Zambia three times and consulted with 20 organisations
to assess customer needs and market opportunities. With financial support from
corporate partners and the UKs Department for International Development (DfID),
the charity established a 1m, 24-month trial in 2011.
Janssen provided business-planning support for the trial, which was designed by
a doctoral candidate at John Hopkins University. An experienced steering group
oversaw the evaluation, together with Unicef Zambia and the Zambian health
ministry.
Learning from Coca-Cola and SABMiller, ColaLife devised the optimum route to
market for the new kit, ensuring that it would be easily accessible and affordable but
would also create employment.
Previously, mothers would often walk more than 7km to a clinic, only to find that antidiarrhoeal medicines were out of stock. Henceforth they will be able to buy the kit
from one of 85 trained micro-retailers, all to be found within a 2km distance of their
community. Additionally, 94% of mothers are using the kit for hand-washing and 92%
believe that ORS is the best option to treat diarrhoea, according to the trial results.
The manufacturing and distribution of Kit Yamoyo has now been transferred to a
small Zambian company, with a nationwide scale-up in the pipeline and plans afoot
to test the concept in at least three more countries.

Impact | 57

The Cool Farm Tool: A better way of

engaging with farmers
The United Nations has estimated that by 2050 the world will need to produce 70%
more food to support a global population estimated at 9 billion. Yet growing food is
a prime cause of global warming, with up to a third of all greenhouse gases coming
from the global food system.
Recognising the scale of this challenge, a number of leading international companies
have come together to develop a simple online tool for farmers so they can work out
the environmental impact of their practices.
The companies, including PepsiCo, Unilever, Heineken, Marks & Spencer and Tesco,
worked with academics and sustainability specialists to produce the Cool Farm Tool.
This is a simple but powerful online greenhouse gas calculator that helps farmers to
work out the impact of their various operations on the environment, as well as their
productivity.
One example of the tool being used successfully is with cotton farmers in India.
WWF-India wanted to assess the greenhouse gas emissions from farms using
traditional cultivation methods for cotton compared with those using better
management practices (BMP).
The tool worked out that traditional cultivation used almost twice as much fertiliser
as BMPs, and more than the recommended amounts. This results in almost double
the greenhouse gas emissions, but, critically, doesnt increase the yield. The NGO is
now working with farmers in Warangal district to promote BMPs in cotton production
in order to reduce its environmental impact.
PepsiCo is using the tool to support its public commitment to reduce its agricultural
greenhouse gases by 50% in five years. Mark Pettigrew of Pepsico says: I like the Cool
Farm Tool because its not a black box. With other tools you just pay for the study
and are delivered the results. This is a better way of engaging.
The web-based tool, from the Cool Farm Institute, provides immediate results for
farmers, as well as the ability to run what-if scenarios for both crops and livestock.
Importantly, given the need to reach farmers throughout the world, it works not only
on desktop computers but also on portable devices. It has already been used by tens
of thousands of farms in more than 30 countries, and now also covers other impacts,
such as biodiversity and water.
As more organisations got involved, the project grew and became more ambitious.
A couple of years ago, the not-for-profit Cool Farm Institute was born to help farmers
produce more efficiently and sustainably.
The tool was originally implemented as an Excel calculator by the University of
Aberdeen, working in partnership with Unilever and the Sustainable Food Lab. The
Institute commissioned Best Foot Forward (part of the Anthesis Consulting Group) to
develop the online version.
By working with producers, brands, retailers, technical specialists and other
stakeholders, the institute is able to take a holistic view across the supply chain. The
Cool Farm Tool shows what can happen when companies reach across competitive
boundaries and collaborate on not-for-profit ventures. The participants recognised the
need to work together to create a standard way to measure greenhouse gas on farms.

Impact | 58

Ecotricity: Ecotricity and Nissan install UK

electric-car-charging network
The electric highway is with us. If you are travelling in an electric car, you can get all
the way from Southampton to Scotland using a network of fast charging points and
thanks to the solar and wind energy provided by Ecotricity, it will cost you nothing.
The electric highway provides the infrastructure for a revolutionary change in
transport, which is the second biggest source of climate changing carbon emissions.
Ecotricity, in partnership with Nissan, has installed electric vehicle rapid-charging
infrastructure at over half the UKs motorway service stations. This addresses socalled range anxiety which has been seen as one of the barriers to electric vehicle
adoption.
After the initial installation of fast chargers in 2012, last year saw a rapid acceleration,
with chargers placed at over 100 locations and contracts secured with operators
including Welcome Break, Moto and Roadchef services, as well as Ikea stores. The
charging points allow drivers of electric cars to charge their vehicles from 0-80% in
around 20 minutes on motorways including the M4, M3 and M23.
The charge points use a membership card scheme to allow access to the network.
Charging and membership are currently free.
Ecotricity has run a national public relations campaign to spread the word about the
charging network, as well as having an active presence on online forums for electric
vehicle owners. Membership is growing from 25 new cards a week in July 2013, to 100
a week six months later.
The use of the electric chargers also went up by 2,000% from January to December of
2013.

Forum for the Future: Leading an energy

revolution
When Forum for the Future and the Cooperative Group set up the Community
Energy Coalition (CEC) in 2010, they believed an unusual collaboration of partners
from outside the energy sector would make people sit up and take notice. They were
right. Since then several of the policies suggested by the CEC have been or are being
enacted, and public support is on the rise.
The CEC was born out of a tour looking at the benefits of community energy in
Germany. Among those on the trip were leaders from the Cooperative, the National
Trust, the Womens Institute, the Church of England and the Campaign for the
Protection of Rural England.
These influential organisations joined forces with other trusted community leaders
to call for a dramatic increase in the generation and saving of energy at a community
level across Britain. Today, the CEC is made up of 33 civil society organisations and
community energy practitioners, with a combined reach of 17 million people.
The CEC works on the principle that community energy needs champions from
outside the sector to raise its profile, get the general public on board and influence
policy development. The network has been in dialogue with the climate change
minister from the outset and many of its proposals have been backed by government.
Impact | 59

These include amendments to the Community Feed-in Tariffs and Energy Bill
allowing larger projects to benefit.
At the same time, the CEC has been generating public support. It ran its first
community energy fortnight in 2013, in which projects from around the country
opened their doors to the public, and presented a petition of 60,000 signatures to
parliament in September.
With support like this and the introduction of a permanent energy community unit at
the Department of Energy & Climate Change, the CEC is proving indispensible in the
push for a clean, affordable and secure energy future.

Impactt: Working to improve garment

workers lot
Exploitation, poor fire safety and sweatshop conditions remain commonplace in the
Indian and Bangladeshi garment industries.
The issues came to roost in April 2013 when a blaze caused the Rana Plaza building in
Dhaka, Bangladesh to collapse, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring at least
2,500. The factory was supplying high street clothing brands around the world at a
time when the minimum wage in Bangladesh was 24 a month.
The countrys cheap labour, the lowest wages in Asia after Myanmar, has led
to a $20bn (11.8bn) garment industry the worlds second largest according to
Bloomberg.
Global clothing brands have long tried to audit, inspect and enforce compliance in
supplier factories but with limited success, says ethical trade consultancy Impactt.
Impactt works to improve worker livelihoods in a way that brings benefits to both
ends of the global supply chain. It delivers improvements that work ethically and
commercially, helping to future-proof its clients supply chains while putting more of
the gain into workers pockets.
The idea is to bridge the gap between a wide variety of stakeholders from large
retailers and government bodies to factory workers and local communities in
industries where the experiences and languages of the people involved make it hard
to interact.
Impactt looks for solutions that not only tackle the ethical issues, they bolster supply
chain performance and support clients sustainability ambitions too.
Given the deep-seated issues for the garment industry in India and Bangladesh,
a new model was needed, says the consultancy one that would incentivise a
transformation of the status quo.
Impactts solution was the Benefits for Business and Workers (BBW) programme.
Begun in 2013, the scheme brought together buyers from Arcadia, Marks & Spencer,
Mothercare, New Look, Ralph Lauren, Sainsburys, Tesco and Varner Group, 73
garment factories and the British government.
Joint funding was important. In BBWs first phase, a budget of 880,000 was shared
by the Department for International Development, participating brands and factories.
As a result, each had an interest in achieving real change.
Impactt also developed a training programme, designed to increase productivity

Impact | 60

while offering better wages to workers. Factories were trained in small local groups,
creating healthy competition and peer-to-peer learning.
The project reached 102,110 workers who received an extra 4m income over 12
months. Efficiency increased by up to 26% and each factory gained average cost
savings of more than 40,000.
Stage two of the project has begun, involving eight more retailers, including C&A,
Debenhams, Primark and Walmart.
The expanded project aims to reach 250,000 more workers with an additional budget
of nearly 1.3m. Oxfam will enhance the training content while Tau, which invests in
sustainable supply-chains, will consider funding for the best performing factories.
It is hoped this will transform 200 factories by 2015 and include wider collaboration
with established safe work and fair wage initiatives such as Accord and Better Work.

MITIE: Sky, MITIE and Bunzl work

together to reduce food packaging waste
Mitie provides food and refreshments to more than 24,000 Sky employees in the UK
and Ireland, and was typically using more than one million styrofoam catering items
a year.
While styrofoam can be recycled, waste contractors would not accept waste
contaminated with food. Consequently, the broadcasters catering packaging went to
landfill or energy from waste and Sky wanted to change this.
Mitie, Sky and catering products supplier Bunzl worked together on a greener
alternative, using bio-degradable, paper-based products. The companies worked with
Gather and Gather, Skys catering supplier, to undertake a supply chain analysis for 23
different packaging lines, including cups, plates and boxes, before the better products
were identified.
The wood pulp used in the new range is certified by the Forestry Stewardship
Council and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, consistent with
Skys commitment to tackling climate change through Sky Rainforest Rescue. This
partnership with WWF is helping to save a million trees in the Amazon rainforest.
The new range is set to be rebranded to make its green credentials clear to users and
colour codes are being placed on each food packaging product so that Staff know
which bin recycling, composting or re-use to put them in. New bins have been
introduced in all Sky buildings with matching colour coding, in readiness for this
change.
To get the benefits across to Sky employees and encourage involvement, the new
waste bins were introduced by an internal publicity campaign.
So far, almost 11 tonnes of styrofoam have been removed from the landfill waste
stream every year. Recycling levels have increased and are now running at over 65%.
This is just one of the initiatives Sky is doing to reach its commitment to achieve zero
waste to landfill at its main offices by 2020.

Impact | 61

Patagonia: Urging customers Dont buy

new, search eBay
Outdoor brand Patagonia is actively encouraging its customers to search eBay before
buying new clothes or gear.
A Patagonia store on eBay features every UK seller listing second-hand Patagonia
clothes or accessories. The company describes the initiative as reimagining
commerce.
eBay and Patagonia introduced online store Common Threads in the US in 2011 and
in the UK last year. Patagonia customers pledge to buy pre-owned gear whenever they
can and sell whatever they no longer want or need.
The collaboration marries Patagonias ironclad guarantee of durability with eBay,
one of the worlds largest marketplaces for clothing and apparel, both pre-owned and
new.
According to eBay, this is the first time a major retail brand has persuaded customers
to choose used products over new ones.
It argues the two companies have developed a new model for the apparel industry
cutting clothing in landfill and keeping high-quality clothing circulating, while
emphasising the strength and durability of Patagonias products.
This is eBays first multi-seller storefront and eBays technology allowed it to pull
listings from thousands of sellers into one store. The listings are also accessible on
Patagonia.com, which encourages customers to search for used items even if they are
looking for new.
Nearly 70,000 people have taken the Common Threads Pledge to reduce their
environmental impact and more than 57,000 Patagonia items have found a second
life in the US and UK.
The collaboration has inspired the apparel and equipment industry and other eBay
retail partners. The PGA Trade-In Network partnered with eBay to connect golfers
with PGA Pros, who encourage the trade-in and resale of golf equipment.
eBay believes it is possible to make people aware that consumption and
environmental responsibility can be at odds. With partners like Patagonia it wants
to influence the way people shop, what they shop for and make them conscious of
product life-cycles.

Recofloor: Making new floors and traffic

cones from vinyl off-cuts and waste
Old flooring and new offcuts can be recycled in a scheme begun by two competing
manufacturers that are using economies of scale to extract valuable materials from
waste.
Recofloor keeps waste materials out of landfill. Even small volumes of old flooring
and offcuts, regardless of manufacturer, can be collected for recycling. Offcuts are
made into new flooring and old flooring is turned into traffic cones and sign bases.

Impact | 62

Recofloor, based in Stockport, was created in 2009 by two leading but competing
flooring manufacturers, Altro and Polyflor. Specialist recovery company, Axion
Consulting manages the scheme and is responsible for operations, logistics and
communications.
The initiative has transformed attitudes to waste vinyl flooring in the supply chain.
Collectors win green credentials which, in turn, help them win more business.
Recofloor awards certificates of commitment to each collector and organises a fiercely
contested annual awards recognising collectors who consistently return good quality
material.
After less than five years, Recofloor has more than 550 collectors and 68 drop-off sites
at distributors across the UK. Volumes of material collected via distributors increased
by 52% (166 tonnes) in 2013. Since 2009, Recofloor has collected enough waste to
cover 73 football pitches. The scheme has produced nearly 1.3m kg of carbon savings
equivalent to taking 312 cars off the road for a year.
Altro and Polyflor were the only two companies prepared to operate the scheme after
a trial funded by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) ended. Two
competing manufacturers collaborating to improve the sustainability of their product
makes Recofloor unique.
Recofloor won a gold award for environmental best practice in the green
organisations international Green Apple environment awards in 2013.

World Business Council for Sustainable

Development: Vision 2050
The business opportunities in creating a sustainable world in which 9 billion people
can live could be worth $3-10 trillion a year by 2050.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) set out these
opportunities in Vision 2050, a far-reaching report describing what needs to happen
for everyone in the world to live sustainably by 2050.
The WBCSD, led by CEO Peter Bakker, started its quest for business solutions with a
simple question: how can 9 billion people live well within the resources of the planet?
This led to an 18-month collaboration between more than 200 companies across 14
industries, drawing in scientists and other experts, across the world.
But the 2050 timeline in that visionary report was considered too distant for
businesses to plan against, so in 2013 the WBCSD launched a stepping stone initiative,
Action 2020, identifying what targets had to be met by the end of this decade to stay
on track to meet the 2050 goals.
Targets in Action 2020 described as the largest concerted corporate sustainability
action plan to date include reversing the damage done to ecosystems, addressing
rising greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring societies move to sustainable
agriculture.
The report sets out business solutions based on nine priority areas for sustainable
development of the planet each backed by a must have target rooted in scientific
fact. These targets are now being developed by more than 40 leading global
companies backing the initiative.
Vision 2050 suggests governments and civil society must re-evaluate expectations
and create a view of the future where economic growth has been decoupled from

Impact | 63

ecosystem destruction and material consumption and re-coupled with sustainable

economic development and societal well-being.
Living well in 2050 will mean all people have access to, and the ability to afford,
education, healthcare, mobility, the basics of food, water, energy and shelter, and
consumer goods.

Impact | 64

Net positive

Innovation winner

It is no longer enough to
do less bad. Progressive
businesses are seeking
ways to be regenerative
in their activity, this
award was for those
businesses that are
taking tangible steps
towards making a net
positive contribution to
communities, society
and the environment.

Abundance Generation: Invents

democratic finance

bundance Generation spotted the potential of crowdsourcing for funding

environmental projects and simultaneously giving greater control to investors
over where they put their money. They call it democratic finance.
Although only introduced in 2012, Abundance has raised over 4m for seven UK
renewable energy projects. The company works with renewable energy developers
to offer investments in UK projects including community wind turbines and solar
panels on public buildings.
Thus it offers the opportunity to invest in and support local projects, while making a
contribution to cutting carbon.
Abundance operates entirely online which means it can contain costs and cope with
a range of investors even those with as little as 5 to spare.
It uses traditional financial structures in an innovative way via a Financial Conduct
Authority-regulated web platform. Authorised by the now-defunct Financial Services
Authority, it was the first crowdfunding platform to be regulated in the UK.
Abundance has over 4,500 members and can accept investments in British
renewable energy projects from the whole of Europe. Recent investment
opportunities have included the Engynious Schools project, which involves fitting
solar panels at 19 British schools. Participants pay nothing for the panels or their
operation and benefit from electricity at least 30% below standard rates. If electricity
prices continue to rise, the savings to the schools will be even greater.
The Engynious Schools project earns revenues from the governments Feed-in Tariff
scheme and selling electricity to the schools, even at well below market prices.
For us the teaching and learning that the solar PV system brings, is our first
consideration. But there are financial savings too which will come in very handy,
says Cheryl Chatburn, headteacher at Rice Lane infant and nursery school, Liverpool.
The system has cost the school nothing and we will only pay for the electricity
we use at a subsidised rate, which will always be lower than the energy companies
charge. So it is wonderful to be part of this particular programme, she adds.

Abundance Generation is an investment

vehicle that has supported seven UK
renewable energy projects worth 4m so far.

For the Guardian judges, Abundance was a clear winner in the Net Positive category
for innovation. They said that the business had real potential to change the energy
system and was a truly disruptive innovation that showed a genuine move towards
systemic change. They also liked that this was a viable financial model with visible
returns.
Investors buy debentures for the individual projects. A
debenture is a type of bond commonly used by large
companies to borrow money. In the case of Abundance,
the investment is linked to performance, rather than the
more traditional fixed-return bonds. Abundance is the first
financial service to use debentures to enable small investors
to fund renewable energy projects in the UK.
The Abundance website makes clear that these are longterm investments often 20 to 25 years and investors
should expect to hold them for the full term. But if
circumstances change, it is possible to use the websites

Impact | 65

bulletin board to offer debentures for other members to bid on and buy.
The company is working with a range of wind, solar, anaerobic digestion and
hydro projects at various stages of development, and aims to offer a new project for
investment every three to four months. It is a formula that seems to be working. The
company hopes to fund 30m of new projects in 2014.
By giving individuals the chance to invest in renewable energy, Abundance
has helped to change the debate from just focusing on the costs of renewable
technologies, to seeing what benefits they can bring to individuals, their communities
and the environment.
Bruce Davis, cofounder and joint managing director of Abundance, says: Our
business is focused on offering socially beneficial investments, giving individuals
greater transparency on where they put their money. In doing so, we can all start
putting our money into areas of the economy that add real value to the UK, he says.
Abundance initially focused on renewable energy but has plans to move into socially
beneficial infrastructure, including social housing or community buildings.

Impact | 66

Impact winner

Kingfisher: Pioneers environmental philosophy

new wave of businesses is changing the language

of sustainability by shifting the emphasis from
reduction and restraint to a focus on restoring the balance of
nature. The approach encourages companies to transform
themselves into restorative businesses.
At the frontline of this movement is the 10.6bn Kingfisher
group. Led by CEO Sir Ian Cheshire, the organisation
espouses the view that big business can make a big
difference. Sir Ian was knighted in the 2014 New Year
honours list for services to business, sustainability and the
environment, and is a leading proponent of protecting and
enhancing natural capital.
The Guardian judges
said that the influence
of the Kingfisher groups
philosophy will be
incredibly powerful.

For Kingfisher this means working toward reforestation; helping to create homes that go beyond
zero carbon to become net energy generators; creating products and services that, by design,
eliminate waste and can be re-used or recycled time and again; and working in communities to
equip people with the skills to make, mend, and share.
This, Kingfisher contends, will future-proof the business against risk particularly in securing
essential resources while fostering sustainable innovation.
Kingfishers plan has 50 targets as well as the long-term goal to be net positive by 2050 in its four
biggest areas of impact: timber, energy, innovation and communities.
Kingfishers ambitions are staggered. By 2020, the company has committed to using 100%
responsibly sourced timber and paper in all its operations; saving 38 terawatt hours of energy for
customers via its products; and cutting the energy intensity of its stores by 45%.
It also plans to have 4,000 community projects completed by employees and in line with the
circular economy approach will ensure 1,000 of its products have closed-loop credentials (pdf),
with a target of 300 by 2015.
A year on, and what has been achieved?
The plan has lent its name net positive to a working group of companies and non-profit
organisations, including Forum for the Future, Climate Group and WWF-UK; and Sir Ian has
helped spread the closed-loop message far and wide including at The Crowd.
Working with the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, Kingfisher has been instrumental in making the
business case for circular innovation. It has also collaborated with analysts McKinsey and the
World Economic Forum to publish some research. The latest report finds that a shift to a circular
economy could save $500m (296m) in materials, create 100,000 jobs and prevent 100m tonnes
of waste globally within five years.
Meanwhile, Kingfisher has made net positive thinking integral to its business strategy,
appointing Richard Gillies formerly of Marks and Spencers Plan A as sustainability director. It
has set up an advisory council and is advocating a wider restorative business movement.
Kingfishers first net positive report said that by January 2014 89% of its timber products were
sustainable; products and services saved customers five terawatt hours of energy and the group
achieved a 10% reduction in its own energy intensity. It identified 90 products with closed-loop
potential, including a new kitchen worktop made 100% from the companys own waste.
It is early days, but the Guardian judges praised the companys intention to shift the whole

Impact | 67

system. The retailers impact will be incredibly powerful they said.

Runners-up

Accor: Hotel guests help local farms plant

trees
When guests of Accors 3,500 hotels in 92 countries reuse towels rather than sending
them to the laundry, it helps local farmers plant trees.
The money saved is directed to the groups Plant for the Planet scheme which, since
2008, has seen three million new saplings planted worldwide around 1,500 a day.
Europes leading hotel group, whose brands include Sofitel, Novotel and Ibis, Accor
has identified a significant link between hotel stays and local farms and forests.
While researching the environmental impact of its business in 2011, it found that 86%
of hotel water consumption came from the effects of food consumed by guests.
Its response was to make an existing international tree planting scheme more local,
encouraging hotels to form partnerships with nearby farms and communities.
In 2013, the hotel group joined forces with Pur Projet an expert in developing
community forest projects. In the UK, for example, the money saved from reducing
towel washing goes straight to Pur Projet which, in association with the Woodland
Trust, identifies farms that can most benefit from agro-forestry advice.
The goal is to plant trees in the right places and help farmers enrich the soil, improve
water efficiency in crops, boost resilience against drought and reduce flood risk. At
the same time, smart planting nurtures pollinating insects and offers farmers an
additional source of income from fruit, nuts and timber.
In the UK alone, Accor aims to finance 50 farm projects and plant 200,000 trees by
the end of 2015. What is vital, it says, is quality rather than quantity.
Plant for the Planet is part of the groups Planet 21 sustainability strategy which
concentrates on reducing emissions, energy, water, pollution and waste. The scheme
is thought to be unique to the hospitality sector and is the biggest of its kind in the UK.

B&Q: Breathing new life into neglected

woodlands
Over 10,000 hectares of neglected woodland are being restored through sustainable
woodland management, thanks to a groundbreaking initiative between B&Q,
sustainability charity BioRegional and forestry charity The Sylva Foundation.
Set up in January 2013, Good Woods provides professional forestry advice and
woodland planning tools to more than 200 owners of undermanaged woods.
Almost half of the woodland in England is undermanaged and there is a common
misconception that Britains woodlands are wild places that thrive without human
interference. But our forests thrive from management and intervention. Managed
well they support important ecosystems, strengthen links between communities and
Impact | 68

woodlands, and provide markets for woodland products.

While the Forestry Commission helps manage larger woodlands, Good Woods targets
small-scale owners who often struggle to get similar support. Woods like Kiteye
Wood, owned by Senlasc district scouts, where the aim is to bring back rotational
coppicing, which will enhance biodiversity while maintaining open space for
scouting activities.
Like other woodlands in the programme, Kiteye Wood was allocated a professional
forestry adviser to provide advice and help with mapping woodland. A woodland
star rating helps owners identify species and how their activities support important
ecosystem services like carbon storage, wildlife habitats and flood protection. It also
suggests improvements.
Owners get additional support through workshops and access to resources, and
a stakeholder engagement kit with guidance on building community relations. A
producer pack gives advice on which products can be made from which species.
Restoring neglected woodlands is vital to providing more forestry jobs, improving
wildlife habitats and creating more recreational space. B&Q already sources 21% of its
timber from UK woodlands and is working with buyers and suppliers to increase that.
Good Woods will help the company achieve its commitment to establish pioneering
restoration initiatives, creating more forest than it uses.

Considerate Hoteliers: Bringing

sustainability to the hospitality sector
Considerate Hoteliers has helped hotels including the Savoy and the Park Plaza
Westminster Bridge to weave sustainability into their everyday activities by realising
the commercial opportunities of major energy, waste and water savings.
The association was formed in 1991 by a group of like-minded hoteliers, in a bid to
help busy hotel keepers adopt smart business practices that protect the environment
and enhance the experience of guests, staff and visitors. Despite the travel and
tourism sector accounting for 4-6% of global CO2 emissions, Considerate Hoteliers
believes it is the only hotelier network tackling this challenge.
Keen to expand its offering to hoteliers the association became a limited company
in 2012. Considerate Hoteliers seven-strong team provides members with practical
advice through newsletters, workshops and webinars. Topics span everything from
waste management and energy efficiency to responsible purchasing.
The team also promotes knowledge-sharing and highlights best practice via its online
knowledge hub and annual awards, helps members to promote their sustainability
credentials, and gives them access to a directory of approved suppliers.
By offering consistent, robust support, Considerate Hoteliers has helped Battlesteads
Hotel near Newcastle to reduce its energy costs by 85% by exchanging oil-fired
heating for a biomass heating system and solar panels. The move saves the hotel
around 18,500 a year, while any excess heat is piped into polytunnels to grow fruit
and vegetables.
Londons Park Plaza Westminster Bridge hotel has installed a waste to water
food digester that cuts its landfill waste by 11 tonnes a month and saves 75,000 in
water bills annually. Similarly, the Savoy is transforming its food waste into energy,
generating power for 20% of its rooms and saving 10,400 in annual landfill costs.

Impact | 69

Dell: Wants to give back ten times what it

takes, sustainability-wise
Dell has the ambitious goal of demonstrating that the social and environmental
benefits its customers give to the world by using its products outweigh the footprint
of making and using them tenfold.
Introduced in October 2013, the companys legacy of good strategy is a commitment
to ensure that sustainability is ingrained in the way it does business.
The plan has 21 goals and objectives for 2020, including waste-free packaging,
reducing Dells operational carbon footprint by 50% and cutting the energy intensity
of its product portfolio by 80%.
The company developed and refined the plan over three years of consulting its
stakeholders to ensure it addressed the concerns of the people it serves.
The result is a roadmap based on six guiding principles: customer focus, innovation,
using scale for good, transparency, collaboration and leadership. The company will
engage suppliers, employees and customers to demonstrate that its activities are net
positive.
Measuring progress is paramount. In order to prove its customers are doing ten times
more good than the footprint linked to making and using its products, Dell will
capture how its customers use its technology to benefit the environment and society.
And its plan is already yielding progress. Dell has introduced some initiatives
designed to help it reach its targets. The company has opened a large-scale e-waste
recycling facility in east Africa. It is also making more resource-efficient packaging by
blending wheat straw with recycled cardboard for Dell boxes in China.
Elsewhere, Dell is supporting youth learning and boosting information and
communication technology skills in underprivileged communities with nearly $2.4m
(1.4m) in grants made to 26 organisations in 11 US states. This educational push
will focus on science, technology, engineering and maths, and will benefit 27,000
children and 1,500 teachers.
Initiatives to cut CO2 emissions by its facilities and logistics operations are well
underway, including a 23% increase in renewable electricity purchases in 2013.

Digicel: Rebuilding Haitis schools

Haitis devastating 2010 earthquake destroyed nearly 90% of the countrys schools.
38,000 children died in school buildings and half a million children were no longer
able to attend a school, leaving just half of primary school-aged children enrolled in
education.
A mobile phone company, Digicel, has embarked on an ambitious school-building
programme to create a brighter future for Haitis children. The company has also
trained teachers, provided mobile libraries for remote communities and helped bring
financial support to families in need.
Following the disaster, Digicel moved swiftly to accelerate and scale up its existing
school-building project in Haiti, committing to a further 150 schools by 2014.

Impact | 70

While the earthquake-proof schools were being built, Digicel brought in 20ft
containers to act as temporary classrooms. To tackle the lack of trained teachers, it
partnered with academic institutions including the Universit du Qubec, offering
teacher training over two years to 20 teachers, who then trained more teachers in the
field.
Through a collaboration with the charity Libraries without Borders, it introduced
mobile libraries to bring a choice of 400 books to 30,000 pupils every week. Working
with the Haitian government, it helped families to access much-needed welfare
support via its TchoTcho service, which enables people to make financial transactions
via their mobile phones.
Digicel has so far invested $35m in the programme, built 115 schools, trained 700
teachers, and helped 10,000 mothers to send their children to school. Around 50,000
children are receiving education in Digicel-built schools, with the remaining 35
schools on schedule to be built by September.
Boosting Haitis economic prospects is also allowing Digicel to build a relationship
with an emerging market.

Levis Strauss: Pilot line of low-energy,

sustainably made clothing
A new clothing line by Levis is being made in 100% recyclable cotton, as part of
a broad project that seeks to promote conservation and protect the wellbeing of
workers in the garment industry.
Dockers Wellthread is a test collection produced in factories taking part in a pilot
initiative that works to improve conditions for the people producing its range of
trousers, jackets, sweatshirts and t-shirts.
This holistic approach developed out of a First Movers Fellowship at the Aspen
Institute, won by designer Paul Dillinger, in which he explored how to work within
creative constraints and still come up with profitable and sustainable design
solutions.
He challenged designers to use fewer fabrics and 100% cotton to create more
durable clothes that could be recycled. And he demanded that the clothes be made
by workers in wellbeing pilot factories. The idea became a reality at Levis Eureka
innovation lab.
The Dockers Wellthread collection uses an innovative garment-dyeing process of
cold-water pigment dyes for tops and salt-free reactive dyes for trousers and jackets,
which means less water, less energy and fewer chemicals. The fabric is dyed on
site when it is needed, which saves energy and is more cost-efficient. Reinforced
buttonholes, pockets and points of strain make the garments stronger and longer
lasting.
The Improving Workers Wellbeing pilot is being run in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt,
Haiti and Pakistan. There are more than 3.5 million apparel workers in Bangladesh
and 2 million in Pakistan. The pilot project focuses on economic empowerment,
health, education, equality and safety.
According to Levis, the collection is the opposite of disposable, fast fashion and
has reinvented the design process to incorporate sustainability. The collection was
launched early in 2014.

Impact | 71

Levi Strauss founded the company 160 years ago on the principle that trousers should
be more durable. The company set up a labour and environmental code of conduct for
suppliers in the 1990s that is now an industry standard.

Nike: Releases app for designers

containing index of materials
For more than seven years Nike has been selecting its materials from an in-house
sustainability index that scores each products environmental impact. In July 2013
the company put that information into the hands of designers everywhere when it
introduced its free Making app.
Each decision made by a designer has an impact on the environment but making an
informed choice can be difficult.
That is where designer-friendly Making comes in. Drawing on data from the Nike
Materials Sustainability Index (NSMI), the app ranks the environmental impact of the
materials most commonly used in clothing and footwear in four areas chemistry,
energy, water and waste. The higher the score, the better the environmental footprint
of the material.
Nikes aim is to boost the creation of sustainable products throughout the industry.
That is why the company made Making publicly available, easy to use and free. Nike
believes that sharing its knowledge through the app will also increase the demand for
sustainable products.
Since its launch, the app has been downloaded around 15,000 times and counting.
Design colleges in the UK and US have incorporated Making into their curriculums
and the app has been favourably covered by, among others, Wired, Fast Company,
WWD, Glamour and Contagious.
Making was tested with students from the London College of Fashion. In January
2014 Nike released an app update, containing additional data and comparison
features. But the company believes this is just the beginning.
Nike would like Making to inspire platforms for open data sharing, giving designers
across the industry better and smarter choices for sustainable products.
Nikes strategy is to create the conditions for sustainable consumption to thrive
through sharing expertise and mobilising consumers.
In 2011 Nike joined other leading companies, manufacturers, NGOs and academics to
use NSMI as the basis for an industry-wide index for evaluating product sustainability.
Making takes that one step further by allowing designers globally to draw on the
collective wisdom of the industry and speed the adoption of sustainable materials.

Straw Works: Helps clients build their own

low-cost straw bale house
A UK company has been finding a cost effective way of building homes from straw
bales, and has broadened its range of buildings to include bird hides, home offices and

Impact | 72

an extension to a church.
Straw Works has been working with straw buildings for many years, and its latest
project called affordable houses for ordinary people is all about empowering
clients, with no prior experience, to build straw structures at lower cost than
conventional construction methods.
Straw Works has developed simple, effective and affordable designs based on its straw
bale council house model. To support its design work, it has created a suite of training
courses, an online module, a DIY book and a Skype-based support service. It offers
clients considering building their own home the chance to train on other builds.
Straw Work designs always exceed UK standards of thermal efficiency. The company
can also achieve PassivHaus standards.
The Straw Works ethos is to use natural materials that are low in embodied energy
and meet the governments sustainable homes standard. A straw bale house can last
up to 200 years, remaining zero carbon-rated throughout its life.

Impact | 73

3
Resources
Waste

Innovation winner

From circular principles

applied to design, to
re-manufacturing
initiatives - rethinking
waste is vital. This
award was for projects
or products that are at
the leading-edge of this
sector.

Wyke Farms: Cheddar goes green in a

good way

here are some very special cows in Somerset not only are they producing milk
to make award-winning cheese, but their poo is helping to power the dairy where
that cheese is made.
This is no small artisan operation. Wyke Farms is the largest independent cheese
maker in the country. And with a range of innovative energy-saving technologies,
including a biogas plant fired by dung and other farm waste, the company is making
huge savings on its annual power bill 1m, which will be trebled to 3 m in the next
12 months.
Thanks to the investment, Wyke Farms is the first national cheddar brand to be 100%
self-sufficient in green electrical energy. By installing a biogas plant, the company
has not only saved on energy, but is also reducing its haulage costs, as pig and cow
manure is no longer treated as waste, but as a precious fuel to be used on site. In
addition, the spent material from the plant will be used as fertiliser, saving on the cost
of artificial nitrogen for Wyke and neighbouring farms.
Before commissioning the biogas plant, the company met a range of stakeholders
including local people and financiers, to explain why it was committed to renewable
energy.
It took five years to plan and build the plant, which consists of three digester vessels,
each measuring 4,600 cubic metres. The facility can convert up to 75,000 tonnes
of biodegradable waste materials from the farm and dairy, including pig and cow
manure, into energy every year.
The first phase of the biogas plant is now complete and the energy generated is
running a combined heat and power plant to power the cheese dairy. In the second
phase of the project, to be completed by September this year, the company expects to
save up to a further 2m, as it will no longer need to buy gas from the grid.
The company argues that the biogas project goes above and beyond standard
environmental practice, as many manufacturers are yet to take steps to move to 100%
sustainable waste management practices.
Wyke Farms has also installed a number of solar arrays to help to manage peak
daytime electrical loads that are not covered by the biogas plant. The result is that the
firm will be able to get its entire electricity and gas supply from both solar and biogas,
and will export power back to the grid. Altogether, there will be a saving more than 5
Resources | 74

million kilos of CO2 a year.

The cheese and butter are made by milk produced by cows
grazing the lush pastures of the Mendip Hills in Somerset.
The Wyke Farms dairy has been sited here for well over
a century and there is a deep commitment within the
family-run business to minimise its impact on this beautiful
environment, and to operate in a more sustainable way.

Richard Clothier (second

left) and some of Wyke
Farms staff in front of the
plant, which can convert
up to 75,000 tonnes of
biodegradable waste
materials into energy every
year.

Richard Clothier, managing director and third-generation

family member at Wyke Farms, says: We aim to operate our
business in a way that has minimal impact on the Somerset
environment and to create a truly symbiotic relationship
with the countryside. Were committed to energy efficiency
and were proud to be one of the first national food brands to be self-sufficient.
He adds: Sustainability and environmental issues are increasing in importance to each and every
consumer in the UK and green energy makes both emotional and practical sense. It simply closes
a cycle. We can now take the cow waste, which has inherently been a problem, and turn it into
pure, clean energy to drive all our own needs and more. This in turn leaves a natural fertiliser that
we can plough back into the land to invest in the future health and wellbeing of our cattle and so
that cycle starts again.
The biogas plant is part of a comprehensive sustainability strategy that permeates throughout the
organisation.
This includes minimising waste not only by reducing packaging, but also by reusing 85% of the
farms water. The company has also encouraged wildlife within the Brue Valley in Somerset, by
leaving conservation areas on riverbanks for nesting birds, deer and other animals. The company
has three electric vehicles, which it charges from its own solar energy and uses for local cheese
deliveries. As part of this commitment to spreading the sustainability message, the company has
also opened an on-site green energy visitor centre.
Tenacity, enthusiasm and passion for the environment have been the key drivers in keeping Wyke
ahead of the game when it comes to sustainability.
The Guardian judges felt this passion in the family-owned businesss submission, naming the
company waste innovation winner because its 100% green strategy is commercial, replicable,
incorporates principles of the circular economy and resonates locally. They also said the
sustainability initiatives were financially prudent and integrated throughout the business.

Resources | 75

Impact winner

Kingfisher: Takes commercial make do and mend into the

mainstream

founding member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

(EMF), for the past four years Kingfisher has been
rethinking its business model to make it more circular.
The company has integrated the solo yachtswomans
vision for a circular economy into core business strategy. Its
2050 Net Positive strategy includes a target for 1,000 of its
products to exhibit circular, no-waste credentials by 2020,
and 300 by 2015.
Also known as closed-loop, such products are made from
recycled or renewable materials and use only renewable
energy in their manufacture and use. If they become
obsolete, materials and components can be harvested to
make new ones.
Kingfisher Group has
partnered with the Dame
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
to embed circular economy
ideas into its business
strategy.

Kingfisher is closing the loop because, it says, todays system is broken: the use of resources
worldwide is outstripping supply and it already takes three planets worth of materials to maintain
patterns of consumption in the western world.
The company is pursuing two goals: making innovative products with closed-loop credentials,
accelerating the transition to a circular economy by establishing the business case for MacArthurs
vision and in that way, inspiring others to follow.
In 2013, Kingfisher published a paper on what it has learned so far, explaining the economic and
sustainable business opportunities to its peers, government and NGOs. It also asked experts to
develop metrics that can help others towards cradle to cradle certification.
As the name suggests, cradle to cradle is different to the cradle to grave business approach,
which pays scant regard to the use of finite resources. It was on her round-the-world voyage that
MacArthur says she first came to truly understand the implications of the word finite.
Kingfisher has appointed a manager who, with the companys head of innovation, has introduced
B&Qs closed-loop policy. Products made in this way can be reused, remade or repaired repeatedly.
The average power drill is used for less than 30 minutes in its lifetime and 35m paint brushes are
discarded each year in the UK.
For Kingfisher, closed-loop means products people can pay to use rather than own; using store
waste to create new products; enabling the return of waste products and linking their re-use to the
supply chain; and designing products for easy disassembly so that more parts can be recycled.
In 2013, the company appointed a board of 16 to 18-year-olds which meets annually and holds the
company to account. One of its first recommendations was that the EMF partnership should have
a greater role in guiding the companys strategy.
The third in a series of reports from the EMF and business analysts McKinsey proved the rationale
for the World Economic Forums Project Breakthrough, begun in 2014, which aims to stimulate
cross-sector collaboration for a global circular economy.
At its introduction in Davos, Kingfishers CEO, Sir Ian Cheshire, said: Its an opportunity industry
cannot afford to miss. It can drive the next generation of innovation and growth, cushion us from
price volatility, provide competitive advantage and help us build relationships with customers and
suppliers.

Resources | 76

Meanwhile, Kingfisher wants to create the conditions for a wider restorative business
movement. It has developed a closed loop calculator providing a simple way to
measure the 10 important credentials of circular products: can they be rented or
repaired, and are they capable of disassembly into component parts, for example?
In addition, the company has helped establish the CE100 a group of likeminded
businesses committed to turning MacArthurs vision into reality.
Within its own business, Kingfisher is making steady progress. It has developed:
I nfinite kitchen work tops from 100% waste sourced from stores and end-of-life DIY
products
Carryapac, a reusable packaging system for kitchen products that is reducing
damage five-fold, saving 1m and 2,500 tonnes of packaging
Metisse Insulation a take back scheme for customers textile waste that turns it
into insulation products.

Kingfisher is also harvesting components from damaged power tools to provide new
revenue streams, while working in local communities to encourage a mindset of
make, mend and share.
Meanwhile, the company is heading towards its zero waste-to-landfill target and has
increased the waste it recycles by 30% in five years.
The Guardian judges said Kingfisher was making closed-loop thinking mainstream.

Runners-up

ACE: Bringing carton recycling to the UK

The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) is helping to boost UK
carton recycling and grow the countrys domestic recycling infrastructure by opening
the countrys first carton recycling facility near Halifax, Yorkshire.
The association, which helps Europes major food and drink carton manufacturers to
take collective action on reducing the sectors impact on the environment, partnered
with coreboard and packaging producer Sonoco Alcore to create the new plant.
Its aim was to provide local authorities with a greener, more cost-effective route to
recycle cartons and improve UK carton recycling rates.
Opened in September 2013, the new recycling facility receives used cartons from local
authorities and transforms them into industrial-strength coreboard on site, for use
in construction and other industries. The facility is capable of recycling up to 40% of
the cartons manufactured annually for the UK food and drink market that is 25,000
tonnes or 1.25bn cartons.
Sonoco Alcore stands to create 15,500 tonnes of new coreboard annually, which is
enough to make 17.7m recyclable standard-sized cores.
Five months after the recycling facility opened, 12 more local authorities had
introduced kerbside collections, bringing the proportion of UK councils making
kerbside carton collections to 56%. Including the authorities collecting cartons via
recycling banks, 40% of all authorities are now sending them to the recycling facility.
The advent of a carton recycling facility in the UK cuts road and rail miles to recycling
plants in Europe, and gives councils with no-export policies the ability to recycle
cartons rather than sending them to energy-from-waste plants or landfill. It also
means authorities receive a stable price per tonne of cartons.
Expanding the UKs recycling infrastructure will boost the national economy and, as

Resources | 77

demand for sustainable packaging grows, give councils, manufacturers, retailers and
consumers a clearer view of where and how their waste is being recycled.

B&Q: Selling bedding plants in

compostable containers
B&Q, the UKs biggest garden retailer, has revolutionised the way it packages bedding
plants. Its easyGrow technology banishes polystyrene trays, and uses a coir pithbased growing medium wrapped in a teabag of fully compostable corn starch. It will
be available in its 360 stores from April 2014.
Customers who tested the product loved that fragile plants can be removed easily,
without the root damage that usually goes with polystyrene trays.
Planting is easier because the self-contained bags can be planted straight into the soil.
And translucent trays are designed so they can be re-used to grow more plants, put
together to form a propagator or recycled with normal household recycling.
B&Q estimates that replacing the polystyrene pack will lead to 50% less packaging
and customers will neither diminish finite resources nor produce any waste. The coir
pith and teabag netting compost safely in the garden.
B&Q sells over 14m packs a year, so improving the sustainability credentials of its
bedding plants matters.
The company developed easygrow working closely with Coletta & Tyson, its UKbased bedding plant grower, and sustainability partner BioRegional. Between them
they took into account every aspect of the product lifecycle, from the extraction of
raw materials to manufacturing and impacts from transport, re-use and end-of-life
disposal.
The result is innovative packaging that is fully recyclable and provides customers
with good quality, easy-to-use plants.

Brother Industries: Recycling toner

cartridges efficiently
By re-using old toner cartridges more efficiently, Brother Industries UK has cut the
carbon emissions produced in the re-manufacturing process by nearly half since
2007.
And customers have sent back 8m used cartridges since 2005, keeping 7,300 tonnes
of waste out of landfill. The groups recycling technology centre, based in Wrexham,
develops environmental solutions for Brothers toner manufacturing and recycling
programme globally.
It has managed to reduce the scrap rate of returned cartridges to just 5.5%, saving the
company more than 5m (4.1m). It has also cut the cost of the returns scheme by a
quarter and saved more than 4m by recovering components.
Each year, customers return 1.6m used toner cartridges through the companys free
scheme and there is a bulk return scheme for dealers and high volume users. The
company remanufactures 95% of these returns (compared to 83% in 2010), while the

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remaining 5% are recycled.

It does this by recovering between 71% and 76% of components to re-use, compared
to only 30% in 2009. All this means that remanufacturing produces between 41% and
43.2% less CO2 compared to 2007.
These innovations happened when the UK team worked with the groups Japanese
design team to come up with a design for life ensuring that future toner cartridges
could be recycled. The centre led a global working group, sharing best practices and
standardising procedures and processes, made the returns scheme more efficient and
enhanced staffs technical knowledge.
The initiative forms part of a wider environmental awareness and community
programme within the group. Internally, staff can earn points by answering
environmental quizzes and participating in environmental activities. A 2013 Brother
Global Charter survey revealed 83% of staff in the UK team take environmental
considerations into account in their actions.

CeDo: Making bin bags from plastics film

A rubbish bag has created a sustainable supply chain from the 700,000 tonnes of
domestic plastics film waste that ends up in UK landfill each year.
The new bin liner aptly named Saved From Landfill is the result of research and
investment by CeDo, Europes leader in second-life disposable household products.
It is a world first, designed and made in Britain, says the company.
CeDo is a leader in plastics recycling. It was the first company in Europe to achieve
a traceable system for recycling farm-film silage wrap into household products,
including bin liners, putting 20,000 tonnes a year of recycled product onto UK
supermarket and retail shelves.
Saved From Landfill bags open an entirely new materials source for UK waste
management.
This, claims CeDo, offers the lowest carbon refuse bag on the market.
The companys idea for a closed-loop system that involves consumer waste began
when CeDo explored the idea of a cost-effective recycled bin liner.
By using mixed plastics waste from landfill, CeDO offers retailers, local authorities and
waste contractors a supply chain derived from UK households so plastics film is no
longer non-recyclable waste.
The bags are made in the UK to ensure minimum carbon emissions in the supply
chain. CeDo believes the process also creates local jobs and adds value to the UKs
recycling infrastructure as well as its reputation.
The bags are sold to leading supermarkets, the waste management and local
authority sectors and cleaning and janitorial markets.

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GENeco: Food waste and sewage does

GENeco a power of good
Every year millions of tonnes of food from factories, restaurants, shops and homes
ends up in landfills across the country. Here the discarded waste produces a
greenhouse gas, which is 30 times more damaging to the environment than CO2.
But if one UK company gets its way, we will be turning this rubbish into a valuable
resource.
GENeco runs a modern food recycling plant in Bristol. More than 40,000 tonnes of
food waste from across the southwest is diverted from landfill and delivered to its
plant in Avonmouth every year.
Here the food waste is macerated, then liquefied. The liquefied food waste is
pasteurised, and then digested for 20 days to release biomethane, which is burnt in a
combined heat and power plant to generate renewable electricity.
Another product of this process is a liquid rich in nutrients that is ideal as an organic
fertiliser.
GENeco also produces fertiliser in the form of a solid cake that farmers can store
on site and apply to the land when it is best able to take in various nutrients,
including nitrogen, sulphur and magnesium. When used as part of an integrated
soil-conditioning plan, biofertiliser stimulates microbial activity and improves the
condition of the soil and crops.
In addition to providing energy for the recycling plant, any spare biogas can either be
injected into the national gas grid or used to run the companys famous Bio-Bug.
The Bio-Bug is the UKs first VW Beetle to be powered by human waste. The waste
flushed down the toilets of just 70 homes produces enough biogas to power the BioBug for a year with, GENeco says, no loss of performance compared with a petrol car.
Though it is early days for the UK in the use of this technology, in Sweden more than
11,000 vehicles already run on biomethane produced from its sewage plants.
GENecos trial of the Bio-Bug has so far proved successful, for biogas supplied both
from sewage sludge and from food waste. If the results of the trial continue to look
promising, the company hopes, in future, to convert some of its fleet of vehicles to
run on biogas. The company sees this green fuel as key to achieving its long-term
ambition of being able to transport biofertiliser to farms in trucks powered by fuel
generated from the food waste itself.
GENeco was created five years ago to help Wessex Water to become a zero-waste and
carbon-neutral company by 2020.
Within two years, in treating half of Wessex Waters sewage sludge, the company was
putting no waste in landfill and was carbon-neutral in terms of its energy usage. The
company has also worked with the Princes Trust to create six positions for young,
long-term unemployed people to work in the field of renewables. A number of years
later, five of these young people are still with the company.

Heineken: Beer dispenser saves landlords

90% of their energy bill
It cuts a pubs average energy use by 90%, saves landlords around 12,000 pints of
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water a year and delivers the perfect pint at the perfect temperature every time.
SmartDispense, the first green draught cooling system, is helping publicans save
money, pour their customers a better pint and become more sustainable at the same
time.
Heineken developed SmartDispense in response to two issues.
Most pubs and bars use draught cooling systems to deliver chilled beer from the
publicans cellar to the customers glass. But they are notoriously wasteful. Research
suggests that over 90% of the energy used to maintain the temperature in a pubs
cellar is wasted.
On top of that, landlords need to maintain the cooling systems by cleaning their beer
lines every week. The weekly clean and a lack of expertise among publicans means
that, on average, 75% of the water, cleaning chemicals and beer used during the
cleaning process is wasted.
SmartDispense reduces or removes the need for cellar cooling by chilling the beer as
it leaves the keg, rather than chilling the surrounding environment.
The system has two main benefits. First, it reduces the need to clean beer lines from
once a week to once every four weeks. Given that Heineken includes professional
line cleaning as part of the service offered with the system, it takes the responsibility
away from the landlord altogether. That saves the average pub around 12,000 pints of
water, 90 pints of cleaning chemical and 2,300 of product waste every year. It also
gives landlords more time to do other useful work around their pubs.
Secondly, SmartDispense reduces a pubs average energy use by 90%. This saving
comes from reducing or removing the need for cellar cooling along with the use of
R290 coolers, which average out as 20% more energy efficient than the industry
standard. The cooler units also have a lower greenhouse warming potential: 3GWP
compared with the industry standard cooler, which has a GWP (global warming
potential) of 1300.
Years of engineering innovation and investment went into tackling the problems
associated with cellar cooling. To develop the system Heineken brought together
a number of UK experts in draught cooling and insulation, tasking them to come
up with a product that would resolve the waste issue while giving consumers a
consistent and high quality pint.
Following a successful trial in 2012, the brewer recruited a team of six specialists in
draught dispensing to support its sales team in getting SmartDispense to customers
nationwide. Since its introduction in 2013, over 700 publicans have introduced the
system into pubs, hotels and restaurants across the UK.
It is all part of Heinekens ambition to be the worlds greenest brewer. Part of the
companys commitment is to make as little environmental impact as possible
through its supply chain, from grain to glass. This includes reducing waste wherever
possible. SmartDispense is helping Heineken achieve this goal by reducing waste
while giving its customers incentives to grow their businesses in a sustainable way.

Magnum Opus: Opuss Magnum reduces

legal paperwork by using the cloud
The law uses more paper than nearly any other business or institution, retaining an
almost Dickensian obsession with documentation.
Clerks and messengers stagger daily under the weight of paper packages and the
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requirement to put a bundle of agreed content before the courts means there are
multiple sets of paperwork for counsel, solicitors, the judge and jury.
A worldwide solution has been found.
Opus 2 International has invented a cloud-based technology which, it says, is simple
to use, speeds up justice and answers the wasteful use of thousands of tonnes of
paper and the deforestation it inevitably causes.
The system, called Magnum, was first implemented at the Berezovsky v Abramovich
trial in London in 2013. Its introduction during the hearing at Londons Rolls Building
saved an estimated 5m sheets of A4 paper.
Without Magnum there would have been at least 30 sets of documents, each with
over 200,000 pages, for the 120 lawyers involved churned out by energy-sapping
printers and regularly updated and transported, often by taxi, from offices to the
court. The software won praise from the trial judge Mrs Justice Gloster who noted the
efficiencies of the paperless trial in her written judgement.
Magnum works by storing court documents relevant to the litigation electronically. It
then gives all parties solicitors, barristers, claimants, defendants, judges and juries
secure access to the content via a laptop or iPad with litigation-specific functionality.
It is available anywhere in the world because documents are stored in the cloud rather
than on a computers hard drive.
Magnum is used on nearly every major UK case and for litigation, arbitration and
public inquiries worldwide saving trees, reducing pollution and lowering energy
consumption.

MBA plastics: MBA Polymers turns plastic

waste into a raw material
MBA Polymers is accelerating the transition to a circular economy by transforming
plastic waste into raw materials through the use of ground-breaking polymer
technology.
The resulting plastic pellets take 80% less energy to produce than virgin plastics and
are used by manufacturers including HP, Nespresso and Electrolux to cut their carbon
footprint.
280m tonnes of plastic is manufactured globally every year and less then 10% is
recycled, so there is scope to divert plastic waste from landfill and prevent pollution.
MBAs founder, Dr Mike Biddle, a distinguished chemical engineer, founded MBA
Polymers in 1992 and has spent more than 20 years learning how to separate plastic
from other waste. What began as an experiment in his garage is a multinational
operation these days, with three hi-tech processing plants in the UK and China.
With its partners EMR, Mller-Guttenbrunn and Guangzhou Iron & Steel Enterprises
MBA processes 110,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually from goods including cars,
electronics and old street furniture.
Metal recycler EMR supplies MBAs Worksop plant with automotive shredder residue
(which would otherwise be sent to land fill). MBA and Mller-Guttenbrunn unveiled
Austrias largest e-waste shredder in 2013.

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MBA has processed 60,000 tonnes of waste and produced 23,000 tonnes of plastic
pellets since opening its 13-acre Worksop site in February 2011. And the volume is
rising. The plant dealt with 54% more waste in 2013 than it did in 2012. Nearly 70%
of the materials processed go back into the economy and 48% is transformed into
plastic.
Manufacturers use the companys plastic pellets to make everything from flower
pots to lighting, coffee machines and vacuum cleaners. MBAs products use 80% less
energy than virgin plastics.
After a recent cash injection from investors, MBA is expanding. Its partner EMR has
opened the UKs largest recycling facility, and the Worksop plant is likely to process
40% more material in 2014 than it did the previous year.
MBA is committed to boosting Europes recycling industry, particularly as the EU
introduces new laws on plastics recycling. And it aims to support the development of
advanced recycling techniques in China.
In the UK, MBA is discussing how to attract investment for the countrys domestic
recycling infrastructure with Vince Cable, the business minister. It has recommended,
for example, a 0% VAT rate for customers buying recycled materials.

Plastic Surgeons: Doing cosmetic repairs

on any surface in the built environment
Plastic Surgeon is a company that makes cosmetic repairs to surfaces including
worktops, baths, shower trays, doors and window frames. It aids sustainability by
repairing damaged items for some of the biggest names in UK construction and
house building, as well as thousands of householders a year.
The construction industry is responsible for 120m tonnes of waste every year
around a third of all UK waste. Plastic Surgeon helps redress this by using innovative
products and techniques that repair damaged surfaces in situ, rather than ripping
them out and replacing them.
High quality repair makes sense from a sustainability viewpoint. For refurbishment
or new build, repairing is far more environmentally friendly and costs less. Repairing
saves waste from going to landfill. Replacement items have to be made, using energy
as well as scarce resources and increasing carbon emissions during manufacture and
transportation.
Plastic Surgeons products and techniques are the result of extensive research and
development. The companys highly skilled technicians, called finishers, use a vast
array of proprietary fillers, hardeners, polishes and colours to mend surfaces that have
suffered damage including scratches, dents, chips, burns or staining.
They can repair almost any surface in the built environment from plastic, glass
wood and laminate to ceramic, metal, brick and marble. Beyond repairing damaged
surfaces, the finishers are trained to match colours and recreate intricate surface
patterns such as marble, wood-grain and granite by hand.
The company has contracts to provide repairs to companies including Aviva, Argos,
Homebase, Hilton, Ramada and major cruise lines. Lorna Thorpe is part of the
wordworks network

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Unilever: Compressed aerosols cut carbon

footprint by 25% per can
Unilever, the UKs largest deodorant manufacturer, is rolling out a new product design
that has cut the carbon footprint of an aerosol spray by 25% per can.
The company achieved this by compressing the cans for a range of female
deodorants, using 50% less propellant gas.
Compressed aerosols are a British innovation. Unilever has invested more than 20m
in a new production line at its Leeds factory, the largest deodorant factory in Europe
and Unilevers global deodorant R&D facility, where the format and the product
innovation a re-engineered spray system were developed.
The new products, in the Sure, Dove and Vaseline ranges, last the same time and are
as effective as the ones they replace, but are half the size. Across the three brands,
the new-look cans use on average 25% less aluminium, and 53% more cans fit onto a
pallet so fewer lorries are required, meaning a cut in transport emissions.
Unilever has invested heavily in advertising, in store and online, to demonstrate to
consumers how the technology works and the multiple benefits of the product.
After the first year of using the new compressed technology, Unilever sold
approximately 12 million cans of compressed deodorant, resulting in a saving of 77
tons of aluminium enough to make 38,000 bicycles.
The technology is being rolled out in 2014 to include all of Unilevers male deodorant
brands and the remaining female brands, meaning that more than 40% of Unilever
UK & Irelands aerosol deodorants will be compressed by the end of the year.
This is the first significant packaging reduction initiative for aerosol deodorants
since they were launched in the late 1960s. Research shows 80% of UK and Ireland
consumers prefer aerosols to roll on or stick deodorants, and 19 million cans of female
aerosol deodorant are used each year in the UK.
But it is not the first time Unilever has transformed a product to make it more
sustainable. In 2007 the company introduced Persil Small & Mighty, which
concentrated the same number of washes into a bottle a third of the size.
Unilever has ambitious targets for increasing its positive social impact and reducing
its environmental impact by 2020, which are set out in the Unilever Sustainable
Living Plan. Two specific targets are to halve the greenhouse gas and waste
associated with the making and use of its products across their lifecycle.
By 2020 the company aims to reduce the weight of packaging by one third through
lighter materials, optimising structural and material design, developing more
concentrated products and eliminating unnecessary packaging. To date it has cut the
weight of packaging per consumer by 11% by compression, design and lightweighting.
Unilever is also committed to improving the recyclability of its products. It has been
working in partnership with BAMA (British Aerosol Manufacturing Association),
ALUPRO and other organisations since 2008 to increase the number of local
authorities collecting aerosols from 67% to 83%. As a result of this work, an additional
six million households now have access to aerosol recycling facilities.

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Veolia: South-East London facility runs

homes on energy from household waste
A London housing estate is the first in the capital to enjoy heating and hot water
generated from residents own household waste.
The 7m scheme supplies low-carbon heat and hot water to more than 10,000
residents via the SELCHP (south-east London combined heat and power) energy
recovery facility in Deptford. Non-recyclable household waste is converted to
sustainable energy providing a long-term alternative to gas.
Instead of going to landfill, the waste is used to create energy. As a result, the
combined heat and power network generates energy and protects the environment,
reducing CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions by 8,000 tonnes a year.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, says of the scheme: It is fantastic that SELCHP
will be providing low carbon, low cost heating to homes through a new heat network
providing London with a more secure, sustainable, cost-effective energy supply.
Local resident Adrian Moody has direct experience of his waste being converted to
heating and hot water for his home. The waste gets collected on Fridays and comes
back as heat through the community heating system I think diverting waste from
landfill is a good thing, he says.
Planning obligations placed on the Southwark integrated waste facility, which
is managed by Veolia and handles all the boroughs waste, required that carbon
emissions were managed effectively in line with the renewables obligation.
In eight months, over three miles of underground pipes were laid and linked to heat
exchangers to carry the energy to four boiler houses on local estates.
Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolias environment director for the UK and Northern Europe,
says there is scope to expand the scheme, including to nearby Canada Water, which is
being redeveloped. The great news is there is capacity for more buildings to join the
Southwark network, she says.

Wasteless: Levis makes range of clothes

incorporating recycled plastic
Brown beer bottles, green soda bottles, clear water bottles and even black food trays
are being used in a fashion collection by Levi Strauss. The company launched its
WasteLess range in 2013 as part of a commitment to find ways to leave a net positive
legacy.
Levi Strauss is re-using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) materials, collected via
municipal recycling programmes, in the clothing. The bottles and food trays are
sorted by colour and chipped into flakes that generate a polyester fibre. This is then
stretched into material that can be blended with traditional cotton yarn to make the
denim used for Levis WasteLess jeans and trucker jackets.
Each garment uses fabric made from at least 20% waste, equating to on average
eight recycled bottles.
The collection hit retail stores in spring 2013 using approximately 3.5m recycled

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bottles and is available, around the world, for men and women. Use of PET waste
creates an undertone of colour that the company claims adds a unique finish to the
garments, proving that products that are kinder to the environment do not have to
compromise on quality, comfort or style.
The WasteLess collection follows introduction in 2009 of a care tag for our
planet, which was designed to instruct people on how to clean clothes with less
environmental impact.
Levi Strauss has developed a WaterLess collection, using treatments in the denim
finishing process that reduce by up to 96% the water needed for finishing in some
styles.
To date the company has produced more than 50m WaterLess garments, saving
around 699m litres of water. In addition, it encourages consumers to donate used
jeans to Goodwill Industries.

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Built
Environment
- sponsored
by Aecom
An award for
redevelopments or newbuild projects that are
playing a leading role
in reducing the built
environments negative
environmental impacts
and raising its positive
social impact.

Innovation winner

Citu: Green homes on brownfield sites

he housing shortage is a daily topic of conversation in the UK, where high

demand for housing and lack of available land often leaves developers wringing
their hands and would-be homeowners scratching their heads in despair. Added to
this, the growing problem of fuel poverty where a household spends more than 10%
of its income on energy and energy security mean the realities of life in cities can be
tough. Citu, the housing development company, set out to tackle these issues head on.
Formed in 2005, the company is disrupting the UKs regional housing market by
regenerating urban brownfield sites and laying the foundations for collaborative,
sustainable living. In its latest project, the company is developing 153 energy-efficient
homes in Little Kelham, Sheffield, combining the latest in ecological building
techniques with smart technology that allows residents to work together to manage
their energy use.
The Little Kelham homes, which vary from one to four-bedroom properties, are being
built to the Passivhaus standard, a global benchmark for low energy, well-ventilated
buildings. Citu has established a temporary timber workshop on site, with a timetable
that allows residents to watch local apprentices erect their timber-framed homes in
weeks.
Passivhaus homes provide a comfortable indoor climate at any time of year without
relying on conventional heating. They are so well insulated that they only need 10%
of the energy used by a standard new building, offering substantial energy savings.
At Little Kelham, every home will undergo air testing and thermal modelling to
ensure the builds perform exactly as intended, before residents collect their keys.
Citu is also working with English Heritage to preserve the spirit of the historical
industrial site, where workers at the Green Lane Works, built in 1795, once fashioned
stove grates and fenders in bronze. The original entrance gate is particularly ornate
and has been described as the most spectacular survival of factory architecture in
the city.
Once complete, the development will have workshops and creative spaces, electric car
charging points, on-site renewable energy technologies and bike friendly landscaping.

At Citus Little Kelham site residents will

be able to buy their energy collectively at
wholesale prices.

But Citu is going beyond creating pleasant, eco-friendly spaces, by empowering

residents to take charge of their energy consumption. The residents cooperative will
manage their energy use by buying utilities at wholesale prices, and investing the
profits in energy efficiency measures.
Residents will sign up to a charter to ensure that everyone
knows exactly where their money is going. Meanwhile, Citu
will give residents access to clear figures on energy use,
advantageous energy tariffs and allow them to learn about
best practice in managing energy efficient properties all at
the touch of a button. Living in a digitally enabled home
will allow residents to control and monitor their impact
on the environment, pay energy bills online, and control
their energy remotely via their desktop, laptop, tablet or
smartphone.
As a joint winner of this award, with Keepmoat homes, the
judges thought that Little Kelham was a great example
of affordable and sustainable homes, adding that it
challenges pre-existing ideas of whats achievable and
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clearly demonstrates socio-economic value.

Citus overall aim for the Kelham Hall development is to create a flourishing,
sustainable community, where residents are encouraged to adopt collaborative, low
carbon lifestyles and improve their quality of life.
This cultural change is already taking place at its Greenhouse development in
Beeston, Leeds, where Citu transformed a redundant art-deco hostel (previously
known as the dustbin of Leeds) into 172 apartments and creative workspaces.
Residents tend allotments and sell their produce via an on-site deli, enjoy buildings
powered by renewable energy and measure their water and energy savings via a
smart tracking system.
The reaction to the Greenhouse and Little Kelham developments has been so positive
that Citu has acquired two more brownfield sites and plans to build another 1,000
homes.

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Winner

Keepmoat: Defies government theory

about cost of low-energy homes

esidents on the St Marys Passivhaus development

in Oldham are reaping the benefits of having a super
low-energy homes, in their pockets and with their health.
There are no draughts, low noise and average energy bills of
20 a year. The Passivhaus (which literally means passive
houses in German) is one of a range of energy efficient
options in a groundbreaking scheme from sustainable
development and regeneration experts, Keepmoat.
It is the first large-scale housing development in the UK to
build homes to levels 3, 4 and 6 of the Code for Sustainable
Homes (CfSH) and to certified Passivhaus standard.
This allows for a comparison of the energy, health and
lifestyle benefits of each that will inform future building
developments. The cost of building the homes turned out to
be lower than government figures had suggested.

It is the first large-scale

housing development in the
UK to build homes to levels
3, 4 and 6 of the Code for
Sustainable Homes.

Cost was part of the rationale behind the governments recent watering down of building
standards, meaning that house-builders do not need to make all homes Code 6 from 2016. Code
6 is the highest environmental standard in the Code for Sustainable Homes, based on water
consumption, waste management and the use of environmentally friendly materials.
According to government analysis, building a three-bed 6CfSH house would cost an additional
396 per square metre.
But at St Marys, Keepmoat proved it could build zero carbon homes for a third of that amount,
with a cost uplift of 131 per square metre for Code 6 houses, and 275 per square metre for the
Passivhaus units.
Developed in Germany in the 1990s, Passivhaus is the fastest growing energy performance
standard in the world, although at present there are very few in Britain. The Passivhaus standard
is based on a set of principles that mean homes should be able to remain at a comfortable ambient
temperature of around 20C with a minimal amount of heating or cooling.
Instead of relying on renewable energy devices like solar panels, the fabric of the building does all
the work. Keepmoat adopted this fabric-first approach to energy efficiency for all 93 houses in the
14.8m scheme, installing super-high insulation and ensuring that the buildings were completely
air-tight.
Managing costs on the project was crucial as Keepmoat wanted to demonstrate that you could
build cost-effective zero carbon homes.
Careful design and attention to detail in sourcing cost-effective materials meant that the scheme
stayed within budget and met the challenging requirements of Passivhaus Certification and the
Code for Sustainable Homes. Keepmoats experience and understanding of building to these
standards was central to the schemes success and the developer has built 109 Code 6 homes, and
32 Passivhauses.
In making Keepmoat joint winner of this category, with Citu UK, the Guardian judges said they
had found it impossible to separate the two winners. Both are great examples of affordable and
sustainable homes that challenge pre-existing government ideas of what is achievable. Both
entries clearly demonstrated socio-economic value.
Their admiration of the scheme was echoed in national media coverage of St Marys in the
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Guardian, on the BBC and on Sky News. But it is the residents who are the real
winners, with Passivhaus residents spending just 20 a year to heat their homes.
Passivhaus occupant Justine Hutton told the Guardian: Its great. There are no
draughts. I was in a freezing council house which I used to pay 35 a week to heat, and
it was still cold. It was horrendous what we were paying and it was a breeding ground
for illness. They should definitely build more like this.
On top of that, the development has transformed a community that once had a
reputation for crime and anti-social behaviour.
While the results at St Marys are impressive, it is the legacy of the development that is
more important for Keepmoats overall sustainability strategy.
Through trialling cost-effective methods of zero carbon construction the developer
has gone on to build Code 6 homes on several sites through its private development
arm, Keepmoat Homes. The company hopes that St Marys proves the case for the
need for sustainability standards to rise, rather than fall.

Runners-up

ARUP: The White Collar Factory is an

office where you can actually open a
window
Fancy working in an office where you can open a window on a hot summers
day, rather than being forced to pull on a jumper because you cannot turn the air
conditioning down?
For many working in modern, hermetically sealed offices, the idea of opening a
window may sound implausible. But the design of the White Collar Factory a project
led by Arup started with what users want from an office and combined this with
sustainability principles. Interestingly, the two are highly compatible.
The idea of White Collar Factory is that it should be a sustainable, healthy and flexible
office space that also costs less to run. It is inspired by industrial architecture and
brought up to date with iPad-friendly controls that give users the power to customise
ones working environment.
Arup, together with AHMM Architects, were instructed by landlord, Derwent London,
and Arups mechanical and electrical engineers to put themselves in the position
of potential occupants, which led them to maximise the use of passive systems for
heating, cooling and lighting. The design has high levels of daylight and natural
ventilation.
The White Collar Factorys design works with the thermal mass of the buildings
concrete structure to absorb the heat generated in the office. The heat is transferred by
a network of chilled water pipes embedded in the concrete, which radiantly cool the
building.
It uses up to a quarter less energy than conventional offices. The White Collar Factory
will be a 16-storey office building on the south-west side of the Old Street roundabout.
The construction, which began in January 2014, will include basement-level secure
parking for more than 250 cycles, showers, lockers and a roof-top running track.

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Hastoe Housing Association: Building

homes from straw bales
Essex is the home of the first UK housing association to build a small housing
development out of straw bales.
The four homes in High Ongar have exceptional insulating properties and the
residents will benefit from fuel costs that are nearly 90% less than for a similar home
made from traditional construction materials.
Michelle Austin, who lives in one of the family homes, says: We couldnt ask for a
better house. It was cool in summer, and now its really warm and we dont even have
the heating on.
The two and three-bedroom homes were developed by Hastoe Housing Association,
working in partnership with Epping Forest council. The homes were let at affordable
rents to families on the councils housing register.
The straw bales, a sustainable by-product of farming, were sourced from a local farm.
Straw absorbs carbon dioxide and so has a low carbon footprint when used as a
building material. Hastoe further reduced the carbon footprint of the development by
using local builders.
Tests on straw bale structures by the University of Bath suggest they are strong
enough to withstand hurricane force winds up to 120mph. The High Ongar homes
also have a fire rating at least double that required by national building regulations
and the walls have been covered externally with a lime render. Although the
homes have used many natural materials in their construction, they still have the
appearance of a conventional home.
Recognising that housing accounts for nearly a third of the UKs total annual energy
consumption Hastoe, in addition to High Ongar, is working to develop an expanding
portfolio of homes that meet at least level four in the Code for Sustainable Housing.
They also have two award-winning Passivhaus developments, with a further four to
be completed by 2014.

John Robertson Architects: The most

sustainable building is an existing one
One Southampton Street in Covent Garden, London, has an unassuming faade but
this renovated office building achieved the highest post-completion BREEAM score
ever recorded for an office refurbishment.
Charming but outdated, the 1930s building had fallen behind the needs of its tenants.
John Robertson Architects (JRA) set about refurbishing it on a standard budget,
carefully selecting materials and technologies that are commonly available. As a
result the environmental performance of this refurbished office building is the sixth
highest in the country, proof of the architects philosophy that with care ordinary
buildings can become extraordinary.
The company works on a principle of marginal gains that making lots of small
savings wherever you can adds up to large cumulative savings in energy use.
By comparing the energy efficiency of widely available products during procurement,

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JRA was able to make a huge dent in the embodied carbon that which is emitted
during construction of the building. This is a significant portion of the whole-life
emissions of a building.
One Southampton Street achieved an EPC rating of B-39, and exceeded part L of the
building regulations by 46% on emissions and 30% on airtightness. On top of that,
over 90% (by weight) of non-hazardous construction waste and 95% of demolition
waste was diverted from landfill.
Now that the building is back in action, a Building Management system that identifies
energy use across a range of activities, such as cooling plant and space heating, allows
tenants to monitor and manage their energy use. And although the historic structure
cannot support a green roof, JRA found a way to encourage local biodiversity by using
pocket habitats and bird boxes.
It is a perfect example of JRAs approach to upgrading our town centres in
manageable, affordable ways that allows them to become energy efficient while
retaining their historic character.

Octavia Housing: Making eco-homes

desirable and affordable
Octavia Housing is proving that sustainable living is open to all, regardless of budget,
even in the heart of London. The association has built the UK capitals largest mixeduse Passivhaus development, including 30 new affordable homes.
Residents living in the brick-fronted Sulgrave Gardens development in Shepherds
Bush can pay up to 90% less than most people for fuel, while benefiting from good
internal air quality.
Octavia designed each of the four blocks to meet the energy use and heat loss
targets of Passivhaus, the widely respected standard for well-ventilated, low-energy
buildings. Each design took account of the buildings exact position on the irregular
inner city site and its proximity to the two adjacent conservation areas.
The homes were fitted with a continuous air leakage barrier, with special tapes
keeping it in place. To ensure residents would have sufficient levels of daylight and
sunlight despite the dense urban environment, Octavia fitted sliding panels to
provide shade from the sun, reducing heat in summer.
Of the 30 homes, eight houses were sold at a small premium to the market, meaning
Octavia could let the rental properties at well below market rates for the area, making
the scheme financially and environmentally sustainable.
The development forms part of Octavia Housings diverse portfolio of 4,000 homes in
London. Making homes of all ages and sizes energy efficient is challenging but critical
to the associations vision of creating affordable, sustainable housing.
Over the past three years, Octavia has experimented with different ways of
retrofitting buildings to bring them up to standard from cavity walls to floor
insulation and boiler upgrades. It aims for all its homes to achieve a good energy
rating within eight years.

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PwC: Creates the most sustainable

building in the world
The UKs first air rights building constructed on top of an existing structure 1
Embankment Place was built over Charing Cross Station in the early 1990s.
This 40,000 sq ft (3,716 sq m) floor space has since been occupied by PwC, whose
office is on the ground floor below the busy station and floors one to nine above.
After receiving the UKs first BREEAM Outstanding award for its new-build riverside
offices near Tower Bridge, the company had a decision to make: with just four years to
run on the lease, should it replace its leaky old building further upstream with a more
sustainable new-build?
In fact the company opted to refurbish the structure into a world-first for energy
efficiency and low carbon technology. In 2013, 1 Embankment Place achieved the
highest BREEAM Outstanding rating recorded worldwide. The company believes
the experience proves the business case for re-use of an old building as well as the
associated benefits for employees and the local community.
Tackling the impact of old building stock is one of the major challenges in a transition
to a low carbon economy. PwC engaged an energy-modelling specialist to develop
options that would achieve a minimum BREEAM rating of Excellent, while aspiring
to Outstanding status.
Workshops were held with staff, locals and businesses to ensure the plan worked for
everyone, including issues of noise and timely delivery.
First, the building was stripped back while part-occupied by 2,000 staff. With floors
five to nine completed, staff shifted to enable refitting of the remainder.
New technologies include a tri-generation combined cooling, heat and power system.
This is fuelled by recycled waste vegetable oil that is collected and refined locally to a
new efficiency standard by Uptown Oil and South Bank University.
Chiller beams replace air conditioning and low-power lift braking has been installed,
along with eco-friendly carpet tiles and electrical charging points. Open plan spaces
and airy atria provide natural light; roof gardens and green walls contribute to the
buildings ecology; and waterless urinals and low flush toilets reduce water use.
During the work, 95% of materials were sourced responsibly and 96% of construction
waste was diverted from landfill.
The result is a building with Environmental Performance Certificate A and a BREEAM
score of 96.31% surpassing all others internationally. Today the building emits 40%
less carbon than one typical of its size; and 20% of heat and 60% of its energy needs
are produced on-site.
Estimates suggest a utility bill saving of 250,000 a year, but PwC forecasts more:
electricity (-221%); gas (-11%); and water (-33%).
The refurbishment is expected to pay for itself in less than four years and the
company says the transformation will help it achieve PwCs 2017 targets to reduce
carbon emissions by 50% and energy use by 25%.
The result? A leaky old building has become the most sustainable in the world.

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Skanska: Improves UK HQ to demonstrate

benefits of sustainability
Skanska has improved the working environment for 450 staff at its UK head office in
Herfordshire with a range of measures including better lighting and extending the
staff bus service.
Since the 1.3m retrofit to make the building more sustainable, 90% of staff feel that
Maple Cross near Rickmansworth is more efficient and a better place to work. Twothirds have reported improved lighting and ventilation.
The retrofit will cut energy consumption by 38% and carbon emissions by 48%.
Skanska believes Maple Cross highlights the savings a tenant can achieve within a
lease: it is sole tenant of the building with a 10-year lease and all initiatives will recoup
their investment before the lease ends.
Its approach involved upgrading lighting throughout the building, installing a
prefabricated biomass boiler, fitting 340 solar panels on the roof, making the building
management system more efficient and creating a green communications area in the
central atrium.
The company set up a waste plan and asked its catering supplier for healthier menus,
snacks and drinks. It is saving water, has incentivised car sharing, extended the staff
bus service and installed electric car charging points.
Skanska is one of the worlds leading project development and construction
companies, with 57,000 employees. It began working in the UK in 2000 and has
been involved in the National Grids gas mains replacement, redevelopment of St
Bartholomews and The Royal London hospitals, the 2012 Olympic Games, widening
the M25 and Crossrail.
Its is working with the UK Green Building Council to stimulate the market by
providing proof that a green building is also a more productive one.

The Emerald: Zero-carbon holiday

accommodation in Cornwall
Retiring from oil broking four years ago with no building experience, Tim Kemp
moved to Cornwall with his wife in search of the good life.
Their plan was to build the UKs first zero carbon holiday destination to the
governments code 6 standard the highest sustainable homes rating.
Today they have four holiday homes built to this standard and, with eight children
between them two of whom have special needs have made the properties fully
accessible to all.
The couple say the vision was to prove that homes that are kind to the environment
could still provide luxury accommodation. They gained planning permission for The
Emerald complex at Emerald Melody Farm in Truro and hired both an architect and
project manager to work on the build.
We moved an agricultural barn and gave it to our farming neighbours. Then we
crushed its concrete base for re-use on the new drive and started the build, says Tim.

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Today the project produces all its own electricity, 35Kw, from an on-site photovoltaic
farm, water comes from the farms own bore hole, solar panels provide hot water,
there is natural insulation from features such as a sedum roof, air source pumps are
installed, and less than 1% of waste has been sent to landfill along the way.
The addition of triple glazed windows, grey water recycling and rainwater harvesting
combine to make the holiday homes truly zero carbon.
The homes are A+ energy-rated and highly cost-effective to run. The couple now
intend to start running sustainable living courses to spread the word that everyone
could be building and living in this way.
Letting the accommodation shows visitors first hand that going green is comfortable,
says Tim, who is now growing vegetables and keeping pigs and chickens to share
with guests.

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Natural capital

Combined winner

This award was for an

organisation that came
up with an innovative
strategy to appropriately
account for the value it
derives from nature.

Boots: Quietly getting on with improving

impact of Botanics range

oots UK has proved that valuing the products and services we get from nature is
the future of commercially viable beauty products. The health and beauty store
has cut the sustainability impact of the Botanics skincare range by 32% in less than 18
months and created a blueprint for weaving natural capital into the heart of product
development.
Boots, which is a 160-year-old business, prides itself on listening to its customers and
taking a responsible approach to product development.
The company has moved beyond calculating the carbon footprint of its products to
adopt a holistic approach. This entails also measuring impact on biodiversity and the
provenance of raw materials.
The Botanics range has 180 products and combines plant extracts with the latest
skincare technology. In order to improve its sustainability, Boots analysed the journey
of every Botanics product from design to end-of-life, creating more sustainable,
ethical sourcing practices as it went along. To make this possible Boots developed a
sophisticated evaluation tool. Peer-reviewed by Forum for the Future, the web-based
product sustainability assessment (PSA) tool was introduced in 2011.
Taking into account 24 criteria, product developers at Boots can build a product
profile that allows them to evaluate the performance of individual ingredients,
products and entire product ranges.
This analysis allows Boots to ireduce Botanics environmental impact.
Two partnerships were central to the success of Bootss PSA. The company
collaborated with the UKs central science laboratory to assess its raw materials
portfolio for beauty products. In particular, this helped to identify the impact of
chemical ingredients on water and land-based ecosystems and eliminate risky
ingredients.

The Botanics range is 180 products and

combines plant extracts with the latest
skincare technology.

Second, Boots worked with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to understand how best
to source vital plant extracts while also conserving biodiversity. This collaboration
unique in the skincare sector was fundamental to Bootss work in successfully
reformulating its Botanics range with sustainable plant extracts.
Bootss relentless focus on ethical, sustainable sourcing
helped the company to achieve 100% traceability for all
Botanics natural raw materials, more than doubling its
previous score.
For example, through its work with Kew, the company has
begun sourcing an organic, Fairtrade hibiscus extract from
a cooperative in Burkina Faso. It has also begun using 100%
sustainable palm oil derivatives.
The Guardian judges felt that the Boots Product
Sustainability Tool gave a comprehensive overview of the
supply chain and had huge potential to improve the natural
capital accountability of a huge array of consumer products.
They also noted that Boots is not making a fanfare of its
good efforts. Rather, the company is just quietly getting on
with it.

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Boots efforts to cut the impact of the Botanics range by 32% has helped to build a
compelling boardroom narrative on the importance of conserving plant ingredients
and eco-systems. Similarly, it has helped to improve the companys overall approach
to sourcing natural raw materials.
Importantly, improving the sustainability performance of the Botanics range will
boost the integrity of the brand and has created a commercially viable blueprint to
enhance the environmental and ethical credentials of all Boots beauty products.
Leading the development of sustainable products is one of the four major elements of
Boots mission to be the UKs most socially responsible health and beauty retailer.

Runners-up

Conservation Grade: Paying farmers for

wildlife friendly planting
In many ways the bumblebee is the 21st century canary in the coalmine and it is
giving out warning signs. As wildflowers have disappeared, so have bumblebees
two UK species are already extinct and others are under threat.
Conservation Grade is working with farmers and food manufacturers to return
wildflowers, bees and other creatures that depend on them. It is an accreditation
scheme that encourages farmers to sign up to wildlife-friendly food production. It is
also a way that food producers and brand owners can demonstrate their commitment
to sustainable farming. Leading brands like Jordans and Allinson, support farmers
who adopt this way of farming and as a result can place the fair to nature logo
featuring a bumblebee on their packaging.
Consumers can see clearly which foods are produced on accredited farms. To gain
Conservation Grade status, farmers must plant a range of wildlife habitats in return
for a contracted premium price for their crop. At least 10% of their farmed area must
be devoted to habitats for wildlife and they must follow sustainability criteria.
The criteria include setting aside at least 4% of land for pollen and nectar by planting
wildflowers and clover, for example on the margins of field. Another is to encourage
birds by planting quinoa and fodder radish for them. Tussocky and fine grasses
provide shelter for spiders, beetles and small mammals which, in turn, become food
for predators including barn owls.
Farmers are encouraged to devote 2% of their land to developing their own ideas for
promoting wildlife. For example, hedges, ditches, ponds or woodland.
The Conservation Grade criteria are based on applied science designed to arrest and
reverse the decline in farmland biodiversity. In trials where Conservation Grade farms
have turned 10% of land over to specific wildlife habitats, results include up to 40%
more birds, 18 times more butterflies, 30 times more small mammals such as water
voles and 40 times more bumblebees.
Approximately 100,000 acres is farmed under Conservation Grade protocols, by
over 80 farmers. The scheme provides economic stability by offering contractual
premiums for participants produce, complementing the governments subsidy-linked
payments for environmental farm management. The scheme has the potential to
plug the funding gap that has arisen from the recent Common Agricultural Policy
reforms which will see a shrinkage in environmental subsidies from the European
Union.

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The scheme adds to the beauty of the countryside through the planting of wildflower
meadows and gives consumers the chance to make a choice to support nature by
choosing brands bearing the Conservation Grade logo.

Miko coffee: Funding rainforest protection

Around 1m (824,000) has been raised by consumers of Puro coffee, funding the
protection of more than 15,000 acres of rainforest across six countries and leading to
the discovery of several new species.
Puro was created by Miko in 2004 and is a business-to-business brand that sources
Fairtrade coffee.
Recognising that protecting the rainforest and limiting climate change were as
important to the future of coffee farming as farmers livelihoods, the company joined
forces with World Land Trust (WLT), a UK-based land conservation charity.
They set up a programme that pays farmers a fair price for coffee grown in tune with
the environment. The Saving the Rainforest project was born, with 2% of every bag of
Puro coffee sold directed to creating and protecting rainforest, vital to biodiversity in
coffee-producing countries.
Some of those funds have gone to reserves in Guatemala and Honduras, which
are safeguarding rainforest and the water sources used by local villages and coffee
farmers. The Peruvian reserve producing the organic Fairtrade coffee used in Puro,
which contains both Andean and Amazonian rainforest and is protecting South
Americas most threatened ecosystem.
New species of trees, frogs and orchids have been discovered in the projects
Ecuadorian reserve and Puro employs a ranger there to protect against loggers and
poachers. The Colombian reserve is the only protected location in the world for the
critically endangered golden poison arrow frog.
These results, and initiatives like a webcam transmitting footage from a
hummingbird feeder to people drinking Puro coffee in London cafs, are helping
to raise awareness and further Puros aim to offer a fair deal to coffee farmers, while
protecting the rainforests that their futures depend upon.

Nestl: Plants 65 acres of UK butterfly

meadows
Nearly 65 acres of land around Nestls UK factories have been planted to attract
butterflies including the large white, red admiral, small copper, wall brown and
meadow brown.
The company has also persuaded seven dairy farmers to follow its lead and create
wildflower meadows on another 10 acres.
It aims to develop biodiversity programmes at each of its 14 factories by 2015,
to encourage indigenous wildlife and up to 10 species of butterfly to these new
ecological sanctuaries.
Nestl is working closely with the Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conversation groups
to help create the meadows and lessen the decline of butterflies in the UK. A survey is
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done at each factory to identify the right local plants and grasses for butterflies in the
area.
Each meadow is planted with the help of staff and people from the local community,
since education is at the heart of the project. As the meadow grows and develops,
they also monitor butterfly populations noting down the varieties and numbers for
conservation databases. The company believes butterfly meadows will also educate
employees about what natural capital means since butterflies are a key indicator of
the general environmental health of an area.
The butterfly meadow programme has shown that any site, no matter where it is or
how big the space, can improve local biodiversity. So far Nestl has planted meadows
at factories on the west coast of Scotland, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Buxton, south
Derbyshire, and Cumbria.
Now the company wants more businesses in its supply chain to follow the lead of
farmers already involved so it can scale-up the project and begin piecing together a
jigsaw of butterfly meadows nationally. The seven farmers already involved are part
of the companys First Milk Sustainability Partnership and supply the Scottish factory.

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4
Special Awards
Consultancy
of the year
Judges rewarded
a consultancy that
has delivered multiple
outstanding projects
that have enabled clients
to drive innovation
and impact in their
sustainability initiatives.

Innovation winner

Impactt: Consultancy demonstrates that

ethics and profit go together

mpactt has helped to improve the livelihoods of more than one million workers
since 1997 through its unique brand of collaborative, socially focused consultancy,
proving that ethics and profit can go hand in hand.
The company helps organisations of all shapes and sizes from global brands and
retailers to NGOs and social enterprises to address issues such as human rights,
child labour and ethical trade in the supply chain. This could mean helping a high
street giant to design a responsible sourcing strategy or supporting a Bangladeshi
trade union in expanding its work.
Impactt has, for example, helped to convene the supplier ethical data exchange
(Sedex), an online database detailing suppliers responsible trading activities, which
has become a flourishing not-for-profit organisation with 27,000 members.
It has also developed the exploitation index to benchmark global labour standards,
and is helping to transform the garment industry in India and Bangladesh through its
benefits for business and workers programme.
It determines the best way to deliver maximum benefit to workers, identifying
practical, effective solutions. It helps companies to navigate social risk by improving
their procurement practices and adopting practices that yield social and commercial
returns.
Central to its approach is the idea of bringing together investors, brands, governments
and NGOs to tackle complex challenges in a structured, holistic way.
Impactts headquarters are in London and it has a UK team of 15, with a further ten
staff in China, eight in Bangladesh, one in India and a global network of associates
in countries including Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Its team
includes people with a wide range of professional backgrounds, from ethical trade
consultants, social researchers and academics to social compliance auditors and
former factory workers.
Much of Impactts work focuses on helping clients to embed ethical approaches in
their commercial teams. For example, it trains buyers, designers and technologists
how best to use their day job to create a positive impact on people and communities
at the other end of the supply chain. It also works with local factories, showing them
that investing in social improvements is good for business. Throughout, Impactt
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seeks to empower workers and local communities, making

their voices heard in boardrooms around the world.
And its working.
Impactt has reached more than one million workers since
1997, including 402,220 in the past year. Its benefits for
business & workers programme, a collaboration between
eight brands, investors, NGOs and government ministers,
has delivered 4m in additional wages for 85,000 workers
in Bangladesh and India. Meanwhile, its remediation
programme has helped 138 child labourers to leave work
and return to school.
Impactts work mainly
involves embedding
ethical approaches into
commercial situations.

The company has trained more than 2,000 buyers, technologists and suppliers on responsible
sourcing and addressed 4,000 investors on labour markets. It plans to train 20,000 workers on
health, finance and leadership by 2015.
Impactts conferences and industry events encourage businesses, investors and governments to
factor social and environmental risk into decision-making. Importantly, investors are using its
labour risk insights to inform investment decisions.
The companys supporters include Louise Nicholls, head of responsible sourcing at M&S, and
Rachel Wilshaw, ethical trade manager at Oxfam. Impactts approach to improving lives helps to
resolve complex issues while maintaining a balanced commercial view, according to Nicholls.
Similarly, Wilshaw highlights Impactts ability to help factory managers understand that better
labour standards lead to improved productivity.

Special Awards | 101

Impact winner

Arup: Consulting wins for scale and attention to detail

ristotle, often acclaimed as one of the earliest

environmentalists, believed the best way to improve
lives was through sharing ideas. Arup, a global firm of
consulting engineers, has put that idea at the heart of
three projects to tackle climate change, working with cities
worldwide, the United Nations and the UK building sector.
The three projects have a theme Arups belief that you can
create change by finding radical ways to bring people and
ideas together.
That is certainly true of the C40 project, a network of 67 the
worlds megacities that collectively are home to one in 12
people in the world.
A rup has won the best
consultancy category by
submitting evidence about
three projects that all
mitigate global warming.

Arup helped measure and analyse the action taken by mayors to tackle climate change in cities on
every continent.
It designed a survey, analysed one the largest data sets ever collected and quantified what is being
done globally to reduce emissions, identifying what works and what does not.
For example, Seoul, a city of 10 million people, convinced 36% of the population to go without a
car one day a week, which brought emissions down by 10%. Meanwhile, Johannesburg has piloted
solar water heating and insulated roofs in one of its poorest areas.
The survey revealed that encouraging cycling remains one of the most cost-effective ways
to increase mobility and cut emissions. The report found that, through sharing best practice,
participating cities had increased cycling by 500%: 36 of the cities having cycle sharing
programmes and 80% have cycle lanes.
Another major trend the study reveals is that more than half participating cities have or are
developing bus rapid transit systems the northern hemisphere following the lead of South
American cities including Bogota.
The report also reveals differences in approach. Cities in Africa, south and west Asia, for
example, are doing more about waste, while in Europe the focus is on using technology and
communications to bring about change.
In the second project, Arup worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
to work out the carbon footprint for Global Fund health grants to identify where emissions could
be cut. Global health aid is a $30bn (17.8bn) market, but this is the first systematic analysis of
greenhouse gas emissions by major health initiatives.
Arups study pointed to changes in business travel, vehicle fleet management and building
operations. It has also opened dialogue with supply chains over procurement.
The project assessed the greenhouse gas emissions of all goods procured and services
commissioned to deliver HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis grant programmes in Montenegro and
Tajikistan. It also reviewed the impact of UNDP facilities and buildings, and the organisations
travel and logistical needs.
Arup developed a tool for measurement and reporting on emissions, setting a standard for
carbon mitigation efforts in health aid. The methodology will be used for studies in regions with
epidemics.

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The third study was based in the UK. Arup delivered the Low Carbon Routemap
(pdf) (LCR) for the Governments Green Construction Board, setting out the actions,
decision points and milestones the building sector must meet to reach its target to cut
greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.
Arup believes the target is achievable but getting there will be extremely
challenging. In drawing up the Routemap, it found, for example, that 7.7m solid wall
homes in the UK would need to be better insulated. So far just 140,000 have had that
work done. Nevertheless, Arup argues that a government-funded project to retrofit the
homes of the poorest 20% in the UK would more than pay for itself through improved
health and education, lower unemployment and increased tax revenue.
The LCR project has played a revolutionary role in informing the UK government of
the magnitude of carbon liability and where responsibility lies across the sector.
The Guardian judges said that Arup won this category because of the scale of its
transformative work, commending it for its data collection skills, great partnering,
collaboration and the longevity of its projects.

Special Awards | 103

Sustainable
Business leader
of the year
An award voted for by
Guardian Sustainable
Business readers to
reward a business
leader who has shown
dedication and bravery
in progressing the
sustainable business
agenda, both within
their own organisation
and in the sector as
a whole.

Paul Polman: Embedding sustainability

drives greater profitability, says Unilever
CEO Polman

aul Polman, CEO of consumer goods multinational Unilever, believes a return to

core values is essential in order to address key sustainability challenges such as
climate change and food security.
Polman, voted Sustainable Business Leader of the Year by Guardian Sustainable
Business readers, says it is vital for executives to put the common good ahead of
their own narrow needs, but that they also need to demonstrate that embedding
sustainability drives greater profitability.
Speaking in the companys global headquarters, Polman says: I dont personally
believe in these books of ten tips of being a great leader.
I always say first and foremost that leadership is about being a human being. The
future world will be much more purpose and values driven, so we want leaders that
clearly understand this.
Its important to make people feel more comfortable working in situations where
the win-win is not driven just by your shareholder but by all stakeholders, and that
requires a different skill set.

Clear heads
All the normal skills of leadership will always be there but you now need that higher
level of integrity and need to understand what we call systemic thinking: being able
to deal with complexity and simply boiling it down and getting to concrete actions. A
little bit more humility would also be very good in my opinion.
In a bid to develop this level of integrity, Polman says the companys leadership
training programme focuses on helping employees to understand their inner
compass.
With individual companies recognising that they cannot create transformational
change on their own, Polman says senior managers need to be able to create and
develop coalitions with other key players in society such as NGOs, as well as being
comfortable with greater transparency in order to rebuild trust in the business sector.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman: I would like to

be remembered for leaving the place a little
bit better than I found it.

Given the increasing globalisation of society, Polman believes Western corporations

need to alter their macho cultures to attract the best talent in developing markets,
as traditions vary across countries and the best candidates are often not those who
shout the loudest.
Polman does not like to talk about the genesis of his own
leadership style but when pushed, credits his parents, who
struggled to make ends meet after the second world war.
From the 1980s onwards, people have been growing up
in a world that has given us all the wealth, but which has
become a me society, he says. I was fortunate in that
I grew up in an environment where it wasnt only about
ourselves.

Short-term profits
Referring to the pressures from investors to concentrate on
maximising short-term profits, Polman says any activist
investor could come into Unilever, close down all its
sustainability initiatives, take out up to 200m in costs and

Special Awards | 104

succeed in pushing up the share price by up to a fifth for a year or two.

Polman shows no sign of leaving Unilever any time soon but how would he like to be
remembered? Nobody will remember that I was the CEO of Unilever when profits
went up by 20%, or when the turnover went up by 40%, he says. I would like to be
remembered for leaving the place a little bit better than I found it.

Special Awards | 105

Judges
The projects featured in this collection are the winners and runnersup from the
2014 Guardian Sustainable Business Awards. All projects demonstrate elements
of genuine innovation and impact, sit within a comprehensive sustainability
strategy and go above and beyond standard sustainability practice.
Guardian Sustainable Business would like to thank the sponsors and partners
for their support and the wordworks network for producing the case studies.
Entries to the 2015 Guardian Sustainable Business Awards will open in
November 2015 www.theguardian.com/gsbawards

John Alker, Director of Policy and Communications,

UK Green Building Council

Tony Juniper, independent sustainability

and environment adviser

Will Andrews Tipper, head of sustainable business,

Green Alliance

Mark Kenber, CEO, The Climate Group

Jo Confino, executive editor, Guardian News and Media

Polly Courtice, director, University of Cambridge
Programme for Sustainability Leadership

Jennifer Kho, US editor, Guardian News and Media

David Nussbaum, chief executive, WWF-UK
Matthew Pencharz, senior advisor, energy,
Greater London Authority

Nadine Exter, head of business development, Doughty

Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield University

John Sauven, executive director, Greenpeace UK

Professor Nicolas Forsans, director, One Planet MBA

programmes, and associate professor, University of Exeter
Business School

Sue Riddlestone, chief executive, BioRegional

Richard Spencer, head of sustainability, ICAEW

Dexter Galvin, head of supply chain, CDP

Camilla Toulmin, director, International Institute

for Environment and Development

Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO, WRAP

Solitaire Townsend, co-founder, Futerra

Oliver Greenfield, convenor, Green Economy Coalition

Sally Uren, chief executive, Forum for the Future

Sue Holden, executive director, Earthwatch

Judges | 106

Sponsors
Category sponsors

Charity partner

Sponsors | 107