Reducing your impact on the environment could be as simple as allowing your employees to make changes to how they work and travel.

Support your employees to cycle to work through a salary sacrifice scheme. This is better for your employees’ health and well-being and better for the planet. The Cycle to Work Scheme is a tax-efficient, salary-sacrifice employee benefit. You can also save on reduced National Insurance Contributions on the cost of cycle hire.

Non-domestic buildings are responsible for 9% of UK greenhouse gas emissions every year.

Properly insulating your windows, walls, doors, roof, chimneys and pipes will reduce your energy use, cutting emissions and saving you money on bills.

According to CDP data, you may be able to make the money you spend back in as little as a year, and on average most companies see payback in 4 years.

(source: Final UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics: 1990 to 2018)

Waste isn’t only bad for your bottom line, it’s bad for the environment. Most production processes contribute to carbon emissions, and if products cannot be reused or recycled, then incinerating or landfilling discarded plastics and other rubbish releases more carbon and potentially other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere.

WRAP have resources and tips that can help you tackle this waste, including:

• reducing the amount of packaging you use
• using recyclable materials
• minimising the use of unnecessary single-use plastics
• reducing the environmental impact of textiles and clothing by designing for durability, with greater use of more sustainable fibres and recycled
• smarter storage for perishable goods to avoid food waste
• clear labelling on appropriate disposal methods, so your customer can do their bit too

According to CDP data, you may be able to make any money you spend on reducing waste back in less than a year.

Upgrading from conventional lighting to LED bulbs could deliver cost savings of up to 80% for your business.

LED bulbs use less energy, last much longer and reduce maintenance costs compared to regular bulbs, meaning you’ll make back the cost and more. You can save more money by installing lighting controls that automatically switch or dim lighting.

The Energy Technology List is an easy-to-use source of information on energy efficient products for buildings and provides a list of verified efficient products, including lighting.

According to CDP data, you could make your money back in as little as a year, and on average most companies see payback in under 3 years.

You could significantly lower your energy consumption and emissions by turning your heating down by just one degree.

Other changes you can make right now include:

• setting your thermostat correctly
• making sure systems are turned off when the building is unoccupied
• turning air conditioning off if you have a window or door open
• keeping radiators free from obstructions

For larger premises, you could consider installing a Building Management System to control heating, ventilation and air conditioning. According to CDP data, businesses who installed these systems report on average it took between 1-3 years to recover their costs.

Smart meters enable you to take control of your business’ energy use and costs – and put an end to estimated billing and manual meter reads.

Speak to your energy supplier directly to find out about having a smart meter installed at no additional cost and check Smart Energy GB for more information.

We will only make progress towards net zero emissions if everyone gets involved.

Ask your suppliers how they are reducing their emissions. This could prompt them to take action and may give you new ideas. Try having a conversation about reducing environmental impact with each of your suppliers at least once in the next 3 months.

How about factoring in environmental impact next time you are looking for a new supplier?

Electric vehicles can save you money and offer a superior driving experience, as well as reducing your environmental impact.

There are currently two schemes which might support your business to switch to electric vehicles:

• The Workplace Charging scheme provides eligible applicants with support towards the upfront costs of the purchase and installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargepointspotential savings on fuel, tax and road charges
• The Plug-In Grant scheme offers discounts on certain vehicles

According to CDP data, businesses who have replaced their vehicles report that on average it took between 4 and 10 years to recover their costs.

Switch from a gas boiler to a low carbon alternative, like a heat pump or solar thermal, and you will immediately reduce your impact on the environment.

Or generate your own renewable energy, for example by installing solar panels, and you could even make money by selling excess electricity you produce back to the grid.

These projects have higher upfront costs and you may need planning permission before starting work, so will work best if you are planning on remaining in your current premises for the next few years allowing you to recoup the costs.

According to CDP data, businesses who installed their own renewable electricity or heating on average made their costs back in 1-10 years. Solar PV is the most common type of installation, which on average took businesses between 4 and 10 years to recover costs.

You should focus on making changes to cut your own emissions as far as possible. However, some emissions may be very hard to tackle in the short term.

In this case, you could consider paying another organisation to help avoid, reduce or capture carbon elsewhere through methods like tree planting or renewable energy projects. As well as reducing net emissions, these projects can have other benefits, like increasing biodiversity.

If you do choose to offset some of your emissions, the UK Government has set out guidance (page 115) to help ensure the initiative(s) you choose are good quality.

Organic materials from farms such as livestock manures, anaerobic digestates and crop waste materials when applied to land are a valuable source of nutrients for plants and as a supply of organic matter into soils.

When efficiently managed and applied, organic materials can reduce farm business reliance on use of artificial fertilisers, ultimately reducing nitrous oxide emissions.

Steps to consider:

• Invest in a cover for your slurry store where practical, or upgrade to a new slurry storage system, find out more here. Equally, when building new housing and slurry stores, or making significant changes to existing stores planning permission can be needed so contact the Environment Agency to find out more about your options.
• Manure sampling and analysis prior to application will ensure that nitrogen applied to crops and grassland matches the crop requirements.
• Improve livestock housing and manure storage solutions to reduce both methane and ammonia emissions. This can include retrofitting or adopting new buildings improvements around flooring, ventilation, temperature, cleaning and manure collection.

Improving animal health and introducing different management practices can lead to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and better animal performance and farm productivity.

Targeting recurring health issues and endemic diseases, such as BVD and parasites, helps reduce methane emissions from livestock and manures.

Steps to consider:

• Work with your vet to develop a proactive herd/flock health plan, setting out disease prevention, detection and management procedures.
• Make an effective plan for use of vaccinations and medicine, as advised by your vet.
• Increase the use of precision feeding techniques to closely match feed rations with the animal’s nutritional requirements.
• Introduce shading into pasture, for example through planting trees in silvo-pastural agroforestry systems or shelterbelts to improve the welfare and health of pasture-grazing livestock, whilst also sequestering carbon. Find out more information about agroforestry systems here.

Soil is a valuable natural resource and taking steps to improve and protect it will ensure that your land continues to be productive.

Improved soil structure and health results in fewer nitrous oxide emissions being released as less synthetic nitrogen fertiliser is needed.

Healthy, well maintained soils can also help reduce flooding, increase drought resilience, and decrease rates of nutrient run-off and eutrophication.

Steps to consider:

• Introduce nitrogen-fixing crops such as clover and other legume mixes into grass-only areas to reduce fertiliser usage and improve soil structure.
• Introduce perennial plants, including grass and herbal leys, into arable crop rotations.
• Carry out soil analysis to keep soil pH at an optimum level for plant growth, and consider spreading lime to neutralise the effects of nitrogen fertiliser.
• Minimise soil compaction by controlling traffic (particularly on wet fields), reducing tillage and targeting subsoiling and ploughing. Avoid excessive poaching by livestock by reducing stocking density and moving feed points regularly.
• Read the Code of Good Agriculture Practice to find out what else you can do to protect and enhance the quality of your soil.

Using fertilisers more efficiently – using less, timing use carefully and keeping records of your farm’s nutrient inputs – can significantly reduce nitrous oxide emissions.

Avoiding excessive nitrogen input from manures and fertilisers doesn’t just reduce your GHGs – it has many wider benefits too, including:

• saving costs by reducing the need for inorganic fertilisers
• increasing farm productivity
• improving soil health
• reduced rates of nutrient run-off and leaching
• better local air and water quality

Steps to consider:

• Use precision farming equipment and techniques to monitor nutrient variations in the soil and crops. This can allow you to match fertiliser applications with in-field conditions and crop requirements.
• Choose alternative crop varieties with increased nutrient-use efficiency, where the same yield can be achieved with reduced nitrogen fertiliser inputs.
• Develop a nutrient management plan to help manage your nutrients efficiently –  using a tool like MANNER NPK can help you do this. FACTS and/or BASIS qualified advisers or agronomists can also help you develop a nutrient management plan for your business.
  You can contact the Farming Advice Service for advice on how to plan and manage nutrients to ensure compliance with existing regulations. Further info on nutrient management and creating a nutrient management plan can be found here.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture currently make up around 10% of the UK’s total GHG emissions. Most GHG emissions from agriculture arise from natural processes. Methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) are the primary greenhouse gases emitted from agricultural activities, with carbon dioxide (CO₂) making up a small proportion of GHG emissions from agriculture.

Start to build a picture of where GHG emissions on your farm come from using a specialised emissions audit tool.

Most carbon audit tools are free and available to farmers and land managers to use. Audit tools vary and while there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ option it’s better to try and use a tool that complies with the PAS50 standards and works best for you and your business. Find some of the available tools on the Championing the Farmed Environment website.

Generating your own energy reduces your energy costs so you can save money over time. Consider installing renewables on site to generate electricity, combined electricity and power (CHP), and battery storage. Find out more from MakeUK.

Process improvements can be done before or at the same time as manufacturing equipment improvements.

Steps to consider:

Use data to analyse your processes and identify where efficiency-boosting improvements can be made, for example:

• Changing your factory or site layout
• Industrial insulation of pipes and tanks 
• Engineering and chemical reaction improvements. For example, it is possible to improve cement manufacture to reduce the emissions of CO₂ by 80% whilst still using the classical Portland cement process.
• Replacing hot forging with cold forging.

Find out more from MakeUK.

Updating your equipment can lead to greater savings for your business in the long run as well as reducing emissions. For example, new heating/cooling systems can achieve 20-50% energy savings compared to traditional blade/paddle fans, wall/ceiling-mounted box fans or overhead ducted fans.

Steps to consider:

• Computerised Numerical Control (CNC) to make your equipment fully automated and programmable, improving efficiency. For example, a fully automated and programmable multi-axis milling machine can contribute to over 40% of energy savings.
• Ceramic bearings (instead of metal) can reduce friction by 20% and thereby decrease the frequency of maintenance schedules.
• A new pump system can achieve 75% energy savings.
• Modern forges can lead to 20% to 60% energy efficiency.
• The purchase cost of an electric motor is only 1-2% of the overall cost over 20 years, the rest being the operational cost.
• Most engines are oversized, and right-sizing motors can save 20-30% energy. 50% of motors have no engine control, so are running at full speed 24/7 – speed drive control systems to turn them down or switch them off can result in significant energy savings.

When replacing equipment, seek out ways to ensure old equipment is recycled and resources kept in use where possible. Find more from MakeUK.

A 3mm leak in a compressed air system running for 24 hours could cost around £2000 a year, and 16 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. Leak detection and repair increases equipment efficiency and reduces raw material waste.

Steps to consider:

• One of the best ways to find and stop leaks is to use a digital monitoring system. You might be able to get this through a subscription with no capital cost. Find out more from MakeUK.
• Gases from refrigerants, air conditioning and extinguishers are mainly hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – greenhouse gases with a warming potential several thousand times greater than that of CO₂, so these kinds of leakages are particularly important to check for.
• Avoiding overheating could also significantly increase your uptime by reducing the cool-down time needed for components. If it can’t be avoided, excess waste heat can sometimes be fed into an industrial waste heat recovery system, either within your facility or as district heating.
• If you need steam that your neighbouring plant is producing, consider exchanging your heat with their steam through a private arrangement, i.e. ‘industrial symbiosis’.
• Improved hydraulics also saves on oil usage, as will Computerised Numerical Control (CNC). Replacing old equipment with one or two CNC can lead to a 40% increase in production efficiency and 70% material waste reduction.

If your business is involved in food and drink manufacturing: follow WRAP and IGD’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap guidance and toolkit which supports you to measure your waste and take targeted action to reduce it, and report on your progress.

In the UK alone we print over 11.2 billion receipts every year and 90% of them are lost, damaged, or thrown away by consumers.

Ask your till provider if you can email receipts to customers instead of printing. You can then ask your customers’ permission to send them helpful offers at the same time and build your customer database.

For more information visit Beat the Receipt, a commitment to make paper receipts optional in-store by 2023.

Visit https://greenstreet.org.uk/ for more tips on planet-friendly retail.

The UK’s Right to Repair law will come into effect in 2021. Manufacturers will be legally obliged to make spare parts for products available to consumers for the first time, aiming to extend the lifespan of products by up to 10 years.

Steps to consider:

• Offer or promote repair services to increase the lifespan of your products or give customers advice and instructions on how to repair items themselves.
• Share product care tips on how often an appliance, for example, should be serviced. Where relevant and possible, send customers reminders that their product is due for a service.
• Offer a returns scheme for unwanted items (in exchange for vouchers or discounts) that you can then refurbish, repurpose and resell. Alternatively, promote a local charity that you recommend your customers give their products to when they no longer have a use for them.
• Run customer swap shops or be a collection point for items that are no longer wanted.

What others are doing

Nudie Jeans Repair Shops are hubs for jeans to be repaired, resold as second-hand, or even donated to the Nudie Jeans recycling programme. In 2019, they repaired 63,000+ pairs of jeans and collected 11,500 pairs, saving 50,000 kilos of textile waste.

IKEA’s ‘Buy Back’ scheme will launch in 2021. It will offer customers cashback vouchers for old items, which it will then re-sell to customers second-hand.

Visit https://greenstreet.org.uk/ for more tips on planet-friendly retail.

Reducing the packaging you use, or switching to more eco-friendly packaging, will help cut both plastic pollution and emissions. And according to a recent study, almost three quarters of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging.

Steps to consider:

• Do an audit of all packaging in your operation (shop, postal and delivery service if you sell online). If it doesn’t protect the product or communicate essential information to customers, can you remove it?
• Ask your suppliers how non-essential packaging can be reduced when they ship your products. For essential packaging, work with them to understand what can be reused and collected in their next delivery. Can they swap materials used to deliver your products in e.g. using reusable strong plastic crates indefinitely, which is cheaper than cardboard boxes.
• Encourage your customers to reuse packaging and bring in their own.
• Sell reusable packaging in your shop and share clear and helpful information so your customers know their options.
• If you offer home delivery, explore packaging-free options, or offer to take back packaging from previous deliveries when new orders are delivered.
• Find ways to reuse packaging, e.g. reuse plastic hangers season on season rather than give them to customers), perhaps working with other local businesses. You can join groups like Freecycle or post on your local community group pages.

What others are doing

ASDA has eliminated plastic greeting card packaging from 92% of greeting cards. Envelopes are also distributed separately. This saves 50 million cellophane bags each year and there has been no rise in damage rates from eliminating the packaging.

Mindful Chef, the meal delivery service, provides shipping labels for customers to post back the insulation that is sent with their deliveries to keep their food fresh.

Visit https://greenstreet.org.uk/ for more tips on planet-friendly retail.

Stocking products made close to home enables you to support the local economy and community. Locally made products can be lower carbon as they do not need to travel as far to reach your shop.

Steps to consider:

• Search for small, local producers who you could stock and collaborate with. You can look online, including social media, visit local markets, or ask your Chambers of Commerce and business network groups.
• If you are a food retailer, choose seasonal produce when buying local.
• Think beyond your products and consider how you could source locally for anything else you need, e.g. shop or site fittings, furniture, packaging, repair services, marketing help.

Visit https://greenstreet.org.uk/ for more tips on planet-friendly retail.

Look at the existing products you sell and see if there are more sustainable options to make available to your customers, for example products that are: made from recycled/recyclable materials; packaged with minimal or no plastic packaging; certified sustainable; easily re-used or recycled. 

To find these products, start by asking your suppliers what they have available that fits these criteria, and researching to identify new suppliers. Other steps to consider:

• For products that are used infrequently, offer a rental or subscription service so that the same product can be used by more customers, increasing the profit you make from the product over time while maximising its usefulness over its lifespan.
• Think about charities and other partners who you could work with to use your shop as a collection point for materials that can be reused or resold.
• If you haven’t got the space to provide extra services yourselves then give customers information on how they can pass unwanted items on to other people or recycling services.

What others are doing

• Since 2007, Lush has sold over 38 million naked shampoo bars globally, saving over 90 million plastic shampoo bottles. When purchased online, they are placed ‘naked’ directly into shipping parcels. All in all, these steps have helped Lush reduce costs associated with transport, storage space, and packaging material.
• Patagonia’s Worn Wear initiative accepts used merchandise from customers, which is resold at a lower price point. In its first 6 months online, Patagonia sold $1 million worth of used clothes.
• Amazon Second Chance provides a forum for customers to recycle or use the Trade In service (to receive vouchers in return for unwanted items) for products that will then be refurbished and resold through Amazon Renewed.

Visit https://greenstreet.org.uk/ for more tips on planet-friendly retail.

Increasingly, buyers – including government buyers – will want to know the carbon and energy footprint of the services and products they buy.

Product Carbon Footprinting (PCF) is the most established method for determining the climate impact of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle. The best-known standards for calculating a carbon footprint are the British PAS 2050, the GHG and ISO 14067. It is important to do this properly, particularly if you are using it in tenders.

You can better understand the impact of cloud sustainability on your emissions by using specialised calculators, such as Microsoft’s Sustainability Calculator and the Machine Learning CO2 Impact Calculator.

techUK has written a guide on attributing carbon to the cloud, that may help, and you may want to consult with a specialist consultant to verify your figures.

Flexible working options can help you recruit and retain staff and cut carbon at the same time. Make the most of a remote working set up by: 

• Ensuring homeworkers have the tools they need to do the job properly away from the office, such as secure VPN and remote server access.
• Considering a cloud-based productivity and collaboration solution.

Large cloud providers are generally more energy efficient than traditional enterprise data centres. That’s thanks to IT operational and equipment efficiency, DC infrastructure efficiency and a higher utilisation of renewable energy.

Consultants IDC recently estimated that globally cloud computing could eliminate a billion tonnes of CO2 over the next four years.

Steps to consider:

• Moving from on-premises servers to the cloud.
• Delete data that is no longer needed – Redundant, Obsolete or Trivial – to minimise storage costs once migrated to the cloud.
• Scalable infrastructure enabled through the cloud.
• Load balancing virtual machines (VMs) or containerised servers use less energy and pay less while using less energy.

For more information visit the Tech for Net Zero Resource Hub from Global Tech Advocates.

There are many ways you can design your software to minimize energy use. Even small improvements, when amplified across millions of systems, can make a big difference.

Questions to consider:

• Are approximate outputs from models enough?
• Does data need to be calculated to hundreds of decimal places?
• Can blockchain applications limit validation perhaps to just a trusted set of authorities?
• Can proof of work move to proof of stake?
• Can you limit data movement? Can you improve idle efficiency?

For more information visit tech UK.

As a small business you have considerable buying power. Ask your suppliers about their own green credentials and how they source their products.

Purchases to consider:

• Energy-efficient printers and laptops
• Repurposed ICT equipment that has been processed through an accredited IT Asset Disposition Partner and has a warranty period.
• Alternative products based on your needs and security concerns. For example, Chromebooks are cheaper than laptops with onboard storage and virtualised networking technology like MPLS IPVPN and SD-WAN replace the need for traditional network devices.

For more information visit the Tech for Net Zero Resource Hub from Global Tech Advocates.

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) recently launched CO₂nstruct Zero: an industry-wide performance Framework on 20 July. The construction sector will be measured against this framework as it transitions to net zero.

Could you become a CO₂nstruct Zero Business Champion? Find out more here. The CLC would very much welcome applications from SMEs.

Companies can apply by answering a short set of interview questions. A commission is sent out on a monthly basis, primarily to Trade Associations through the CLC. However, if you are not a member of a Trade Association belonging to the collective CLC membership, or sit outside the CLC, and would like to be included on this monthly commission please forward your details to [email protected]

Support designers to develop designs that reduce the carbon used in projects

Steps to consider:

• Offer your clients alternative low-carbon solutions on design projects, even if not requested.
• Include carbon assessments in your design drawings.
• Look for innovative design and construction methods which reduce the volume of carbon intensive materials such as steel and concrete required.
• Challenge your clients to share energy efficiency savings where you provide them with a lower carbon and more energy efficient design in operations.

Look out for more information and updates on Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) CO₂nstructZero page.

Do your bit to scale up industry capability to deliver low carbon heat solutions in buildings, e.g. by supporting heat pump deployment, and participating in trials of hydrogen heating systems and heat networks.

Steps to consider:

• Assess whether your business can play a part in supplying, delivering and supporting the training which will facilitate the rollout of heat pumps.
• If you are involved in heating installation keep your staff trained on the latest developments in hydrogen and heat pump systems as well as traditional heating systems.

Look out for more information and updates on Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) CO₂nstructZero page.

Think about whether your business can deliver retrofitting to improve the energy-efficiency of existing building stock.

Steps to consider:

• Review the retrofit plans being proposed by the Construction Leadership Council and consider if this is something your business could support.

Look out for more information and updates on Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) CO₂nstructZero page.

Better onsite logistics, well-organised transport to sites and reduced waste can all lead to significant cost and emissions savings.

Steps to consider:

• Work towards using ‘Modern Methods of Construction’ on your projects such as offsite manufacturing – these are more efficient, less wasteful and therefore lower-carbon options.
• Monitor waste and maximise recycling on site.
• Invest in planning site logistics for people and deliveries.

Look out for more information and updates on Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) CO₂nstructZero page.

Swap standard materials with innovative low-carbon materials. Clients are increasingly keen to pay more for lower carbon products and materials, especially if they have also been produced locally.

Steps to consider:

• Prioritise replacement of steel and concrete, as their production releases large amounts of emissions into the atmosphere.
• Ask your material suppliers to start sharing and displaying emissions information for their products.
• Check where your products have been manufactured and how far they have travelled to site – buy locally-produced low-carbon materials where possible.

Look out for more information and updates on Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) CO₂nstructZero page.

Ask your energy provider to install a smart meter and track your energy use each week to see how much energy you’re using. Use this data to make changes to reduce any energy wastage. 

Steps to consider:

• Lighting: Switch to LED bulbs. Switching to LEDs can reduce your lighting energy use by 80%, which can translate to around £2,000 worth of electricity saved per outlet.
• Heating and cooling: Check your settings and timers to avoid unnecessary usage. 
• Catering:
  • Fridges and freezers: Reduce the number of fridges in your catering set-up if at all possible. Check the fins at the back are clear of dust.
  • Powering up and down: On opening don’t turn all equipment on in the kitchen, only what you need. On close ensure your teams turn all equipment off. A kitchen extractor left on overnight can cost up to £3,000 a year in extra energy use and 10t CO2.

Changing your catering could make a world of difference to your emissions. Review your existing offerings and consider what can be done to make them more sustainable.

Steps to consider:

• Green your menus
  • Offer plant-based options, and highlight plant-based options on the main menu rather than in a separate box or section. Using a separate menu box has been found to decrease sales of vegetarian dishes by 56%.
  • Simplify your recipes. This will help you focus on healthy, low allergen, and sustainable ingredients (be sure to provide customers with the necessary allergen information).  Customers are now asking for additional menu information including simple nutritional and environmental facts.

• Reduce wasted food
  • Offer half-size portion sizes:This helps cut food waste. Label the half portions, e.g. ‘smaller portions for lighter appetites’.
  • Look at the size of plates and take away containers.  Over-sized plates can increase the amount customers waste, sometimes without them even realising.  Getting portion sizes right will help reduce plate waste.

For more information take a look at the ‘Guardians of Grub’ campaign which includes a getting started pack, tracking tools and a 15 minute Cost Saving Skills course to protect your profits and the planet. . 

For more on creating greener menus, see WRAP’s TRiFOCAL project.

Engage your teams to identify the areas they think would benefit from changes to reduce emissions, then train them to take action.

Steps to consider:

• Develop an engagement plan that covers: why cutting emissions is important; what they can to do cut carbon and costs; who is responsible for doing it.
• Report back to staff regularly on progress

Plastics that are not recycled or disposed of correctly can end up as litter, posing significant threats to our environment and wildlife. Customers want to make the right choices and believe that everyone is responsible.

Steps to consider:

• Remove ‘problematic’ plastics (i.e. avoidable, non-recyclable, or common pollutants) by finding alternative solutions. WRAP’s UK Plastics Pact report focuses on eight to prioritise: disposable plastic cutlery, disposable plastic plates and bowls, plastic stirrers, plastic straws, all polystyrene packaging, oxo-degradables that break down to create microplastics, and PVC packaging.

• Reduce other key items in the hospitality sector, such as disposable coffee cups, takeaway containers and carrier bags.  Offer incentives to customers who bring in reusables cups. Be cautious about things that can seem to be a greener alternative – see WRAP’s compostable plastic packaging guidance.

• Design: select packaging that is designed for recyclability, and ask your supplier if the packaging includes recycled content or if there is an alternative that does.

• Refill: could you offer a free water refill point? There are several apps to list your refill point.

• Recycle: could you have a bin or collection point for recycling?  Make clear what you want in each bin using images of the packaging. 

The production of textiles is resource intensive, using a huge amount of water, virgin materials and energy. This contributes to climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and microplastic pollution.

Almost 90% of corporate workwear is sent to landfill or incineration. Only 9.2% is recovered for reuse, compared to 27% average for all clothing. Extending the lifetime of a garment by 9 months can lower its impacts by up to 10%. This is one of the most effective interventions we can make.

Steps to consider:

• Measure your impacts to see where focused action can be taken – Textiles 2030 offers a footprint calculator to measure textile impacts.
• Set Circular Procurement Guidelines for your organisation, using BITC’s practical guidelines.
• Procure products that have been designed to be recycled – Project Plan B is leading the way
• Procure products that include recycled content. This can give some of the biggest impact savings.
• Procure products through service models that take back, repair or recycle to extend the life of uniforms & linens. Can you collect uniforms back from colleagues when they leave & get them laundered for new staff instead of buying new?

Join Textiles 2030 to collaborate and work with the whole value chain