Innovation and partnership steal the show at the CIWM Environmental Excellence Awards

Press Release
14 November 2011

A wide range of companies, public sector organisations and individuals have scooped top honours at the 2011 CIWM Awards for Environmental Excellence. The winners were announced at the Marriott London Grosvenor Square hotel yesterday, at an awards ceremony hosted by Alistair McGowan, who praised the waste sector for the work it does in reducing society's environmental impact and raising awareness.

"Developing a more sustainable approach to waste and resources has never made more sense - both in environmental and economic terms," says CIWM chief executive Steve Lee. "CIWM is delighted to recognise the achievements of our award winners, who have demonstrated how innovation, commitment and partnership working, and active community engagement can deliver real improvements and behaviour change."

2011 WINNERS:

Sustainable Product Development: Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services for its Ecolootion unit, a portable 'site welfare unit' (washroom) which is environmentally friendly in design and operation, and can be powered by on-board batteries

Sustainable Construction & Demolition Project: John Sisk & Son Ltd for its €120m design and build Mater Campus Hospital Development in Dublin, where a strategic approach was taken from the outset to designing out waste and delivering high levels of recycling

Community Recycling Champion: Shropshire Council's Oak Farm for its Community Composting Scheme, which is run by people with learning disabilities who champion local recycling by encouraging residents to participate in the scheme, as well as in other recycling activities in the village.

Sustainable Facilities Management Performance: NIDO Spitalfields for the commitment of the NIDO Student Living team to increasing re-use and recycling by getting staff and students on board, and involving local charities and waste contractor Viridor.

Vehicle, Plant and Equipment: BAE Systems for its Hybridrive technology, specially adapted for waste vehicles to reduce emissions and deliver fuel savings.

Innovative Practice in Waste Management and Resource Recovery (SME): Brilliant Bins for its disposable feminine hygiene waste bin that is low cost, eliminates the vehicle miles necessary for conventional exchange-bin schemes, and reduces the chemicals, water and energy used for cleaning the bins.

Innovative Practice in Waste Management and Resource Recovery: UCL with MITIE for their partnership working to develop a new approach to dealing with the 250 tonnes/year of healthcare and clinical waste from UCL's 23 teaching and research laboratories, delivering significant environmental and cost benefits.

Recycling Performance of the Year (SME): Land Network International Ltd for its work on a 'closed loop' approach that recycles urban waste to farm land to produce a crop that is processed into biodiesel and pure plant oil.

Recycling Performance of the Year: J & G Environmental Ltd for its ethical approach to industrial waste disposal which has resulted in a 95% recycling rate for the waste it collects including challenging waste streams such as toner powder from the digital print sector.

Health and Safety Best Practice: Grundon Waste Management Ltd for a two-year Health & Safety improvement programme to change the culture at every level within the organisation.

Communications Campaign: metalmatters for its use of research and consumer testing to develop an effective metals campaign that was successfully piloted with over 60,000 households in two local authority areas.

The judging panel for the awards comprised Dr Liz Goodwin, chief executive of the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Owen Jenkins, director of CIRIA, John Ingham, environment editor of the Daily Express, Steve Agg, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Gemma Clinton, vice chair of LARAC, Wayne Williams of the Health & Safety Executive, CIWM President Derek Greedy and Stephen Didsbury, chair of CIWM's Education & Training Committee.

ENDS

Further information on all the winners and high resolution photographs are available by emailing harvey.sugden@ciwm.co.uk

Details of the award winners and quotes

Sustainable Product Development: Serving the entire Balfour Beatty Group, Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services provides vehicles, plant and engineering services from depots strategically located throughout the UK, with a focus on offering flexible and environmentally sustainable solutions to its customers. It was made a finalist for its Ecolootion unit, a portable 'site welfare unit' (washroom) which is environmentally friendly in design and operation, and can be powered by on-board batteries. Features include waterless urinals and rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing, as well as an incineration unit that burns all the effluent so the units don't have to be emptied by a waste carrier.

Sustainable Construction & Demolition Project: John Sisk & Son Ltd, the construction division of the Sisk Group of companies, won the award for its €120m design and build of the New Mater Adult Hospital in Dublin, where a strategic approach was taken from the outset to designing out waste and delivering high levels of recycling. The comprehensive site waste management plan included sharing the responsibility for waste with all the subcontractors to encourage good practice throughout, high levels of segregation which have to date ensured that 93% of waste has been diverted from landfill, and a strong focus on design features that prevent waste.

Overall, the project is on course to create less than half the volume of waste estimated at the outset and the skip hire costs to the main contractor have been reduced by over €200,000.

"As a design and build contract, Sisk were able to maximise the potential for construction efficiencies and waste prevention at the design stage", says Donall Dowd, waste champion for the Mater project. "This combined with waste minimisation strategies implemented on site with our subcontractors has provided financial benefits to all parties, while reducing the developments' impact on the environment."

Community Recycling Champion: Shropshire Council's Oak Farm in Ditton Priors is a busy farm run by people with learning disabilities. The farm champions local recycling by enthusiastically encouraging villagers to compost at home or via the community composting scheme and looks after the village's recycling banks.

Most residents bring their garden waste or dry recycling in by car or wheelbarrow and Oak Farm workers have a chance to talk with villagers as they assist with the offloading. They also help by offering wheelbarrow and trolley collections direct from villager's homes. In this way, the scheme delivers not just a sustainable recycling solution for the village but also an opportunity to build community cohesion. As the workers socialise and interact with others, they also enhance their skills, increase their confidence and learn about environmental responsibility.

Local member Councillor John Hurst-Knight said: "Having been associated with Oak Farm for many years, I am delighted that they have received the recognition of the work they have done for many years. Good practice enthusiasm and good management has encouraged local residents to recycle. This is a lesson we all can use."

Stuart Toulson, Manager of Oak Farm said: "There are over 50 people with learning disabilities who work at Oak Farm and every single person is involved in our recycling initiatives. Some people are physically able to move various recyclable materials whereas others who are not quite so able are competent at sorting and processing various materials. Therefore winning this award reflects on everyone's contribution, it is a great achievement for Oak Farm and a real recognition of the interaction between the local community and the people who work there."

Sustainable Facilities Management Performance: NIDO Spitalfields in London is the world's tallest private student residence with accommodation for 1,204 international students from over 50 countries over 33 floors. The residence has been open since August 2010, and the Student Living team is committed to re-using and recycling as much waste as possible by getting both staff and students on board, and involving local charities and waste contractor Viridor. There are recycling points and signage on every floor, a central batteries recycling unit, and a recycling facility for unwanted items discarded when students depart, such as bedding and electrical items. These are collected on a monthly basis and sent to relevant charities. To date, the team has achieved a recycling rate of 21% and continue to strive to increase figure.

"We are delighted to win this award and we feel it shows what can be achieved when all the partners work together," says David Cocker, Building Manager for NIDO. "We are always looking for new initiatives which can also benefit our other buildings at Kings Cross and Notting Hill and help to drive up our environmental performance."

Vehicle, Plant and Equipment: BAE Systems' HybriDrive® family of heavy-duty hybrid electric propulsion systems have been developed to reduce emissions and deliver fuel and energy savings in the vocational truck market. The technology is scalable to meet a wide range of heavy-duty truck platforms and operational parameters, including refuse, construction and transport.

An average fuel economy improvement of 30% on trucks powered by the parallel system was experienced across a range of standard driving cycles. However, the system performed best on stop-and-go cycles where average velocity is between five and 20 miles per hour (mph), making it an optimal choice for refuse collection truck operators looking for increased productivity, lower fleet life cycle costs, and cleaner, more environmentally friendly operation.

Innovative Practice in Waste Management and Resource Recovery (SME): In 2009, Brilliant Bins launched its disposable feminine hygiene waste bin, developed by the company's owner Susan Hofgartner. The bins are despatched flat-packed direct to the customer to be set up by the site cleaners, and can remain in place for up to 3 months. As required, the whole bin can then be disposed of in a black plastic bin bag in the customer's own commercial waste.

Fully compliant with the requirements of the Department of Health, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency, the system reduces vehicle miles necessary for conventional exchange-bin schemes and the chemicals, water and energy used for cleaning the bins. It also offers significant cost reductions, often as much as 50%, to many businesses.

"When designing the Brilliant Bins disposable sanitary bin system, environmental considerations strongly influenced the choice of materials, manufacture and distribution," explains Susan Hofgartner. "We are delighted to have won the CIWM Environmental Excellence Award which will help assure our customers that they are making a sound decision for 'green' as well as cost reasons."

Innovative Practice in Waste Management and Resource Recovery: University College London (UCL) is London's leading multi-disciplinary university with 8,000 staff and 22,000 students. It produces 250 tonnes a year of healthcare and clinical waste from its 23 teaching and research laboratories and in 2008 initiated a joint project with its waste outsourcing partner MITIE. The aim was to develop and implement a new approach to dealing with this waste stream that offered significant environmental and cost benefits.

Previously, although not all of the waste fell into the 'clinical' category, it was all sent for high temperature incineration. Following a waste audit that identified the different waste streams, 18% of the waste was diverted from incineration, generating a cost saving of over 5% a year. Additionally, MITIE introduced a laboratory recycling scheme to encourage the segregation of non-contaminated packaging, which has deliver further diversion and cost savings. These have been reinvested in additional recycling equipment.

Recycling Performance of the Year (SME): In the early 1990s, Land Network International (LNI) created a UK consortium of farms committed to recycling waste back to land and eliminating the need for mineral fertilisers. Land Network farms now recycle a wide range of materials and carry crop production right through to the production of biofuels - biodiesel and Pure Plant Oil (PPO).

Two Land Network farms have now been producing biodiesel and PPO for several years. Land Network (Gainsborough) Ltd worked with global tractor and farm machinery supplier CNH on its warranty programme to allow the engines to run on 100% biodiesel and has also worked with a Volvo truck company on biofuels. Land Network (Melton) Ltd led the network on PPO. The result of LNI's work is a farmer-owned recycle-to-land organisation which delivers carbon, energy, resource and economic benefits.

"We are delighted to have been credited with this award," says LNI's chief executive Bill Butterworth. "It is testament to the hard work our pioneering Land Network members have accomplished, both in terms of producing biofuels and through their efficient composting operations, which significantly reduce the use of mineral fertilisers on their farms."

Recycling Performance of the Year: J & G Environmental offers an industry-specific waste management service for the printing sector designed to encourage maximum recovery and recycling. With significant investment to change the focus of its activities from the core business of waste collection and disposal to reuse and recycling, the firm now handles a range of some 200 by-products, many of which are now effectively recycled, including aluminium litho plates, plastic containers, CD cases and silver. As a result, it currently recycles 95% of the waste it collects.

The company has also responded to the challenging economic climate by continuing to persuade its customers to take a positive attitude to environmental concerns, both by providing a comprehensive range of operational facilities (such as free waste audits, tailor-made storage facilities and partnership working with customers seeking environmental accreditations) and helping to guide customers through the complexities of waste legislation.

J & G managing director Neil Richards said: "Winning this prestigious award is a testament to the dedication of all the company's employees who continually strive to provide the best possible ecologically sound waste management service to the print industry."

Health and Safety Best Practice: In 2008, Grundon Waste Management Ltd launched a two-year Health & Safety improvement programme to change the culture at every level within the organisation. The initiative saw the reintroduction of a 'near miss' reporting system with support to ensure that it was easy to use and provided feedback to staff, manual handling training for all personnel, and certification of three sites to BS OHSAS18001:2007.

As a result, Grundon has seen a 48% reduction in accidents in the two years, and a 62% reduction in manual handling accidents. It is committed to maintaining the focus on H&S and making further improvements in the future.

"Grundon are delighted to win the award for Health and Safety Best Practice," says Grundon's Technical Director, Stephen Roscoe. "Improving our health and safety culture has required commitment and a huge effort by the Compliance Team, who were present at the awards ceremony. However, the commitment from our managers and staff at operational level has been instrumental in the reduction in the number of accidents and injuries. We continue to pursue higher standards across the business and many challenges remain, but the award is a very welcome recognition of our achievements to date."

Communications Campaign: Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME), Novelis, Tata Steel and WRAP teamed up to create' metalmatters', a set of impactful communications materials to increase kerbside metal recycling and provide local authorities with a proven resource to support behavioural change. They used extensive consumer research and testing to develop and refine messages and communications collateral and ran six-week pilot schemes across 60,000 households in two local authorities - East Hampshire and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council (NBBC).

The pilot campaign reached an audience of over 1.7million and as a result, recovery of metal packaging increased in NBBC by 12.9% and East Hampshire saw an increase in metal packaging recovery of up to 40% in aluminium and up to 24% in steel. There was also a notable increase in all other dry recyclables such as paper, cardboard, glass and plastic bottles.

"We are absolutely delighted to win this year's CIWM award for Communications Campaign of the Year," says Norman Lett, project leader for metalmatters. "Recognition by such a prestigious organisation endorses the vision of the funding partners in their support of this innovative and creative research lead programme. Helping people to understand the merits and benefits of recycling metal, more things more often, remains a continuing challenge. We are extremely pleased to have created such a progressive example of best practice for others to use and universally benefit from."

Notes to Editors:

1. The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) is the leading professional body for the waste management sector representing over 7000 individuals in the UK and overseas. Established in 1898, CIWM is a non profit-making organisation, dedicated to the promotion of professional competence amongst waste managers. CIWM seeks to raise standards for those working in and with the sector by producing best practice guidance, developing educational and training initiatives, and providing information on key waste-related issues. Comprehensive information about CIWM can be found at www.ciwm.co.uk

2. Now in their fifth year, the CIWM Awards for Environmental Excellence recognise and reward best practice in the sustainable management of waste and resources and reduction of environmental impact, both within the resources and wastes industry and across a range of other commercial sectors including retail, construction and facilities management.

Contacts:

Pat Jennings
CIWM Communications Manager

Tel: 01604 620426
Mob: 07912 228260
E-mail: pat.jennings@ciwm.co.uk