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Turning Textile Waste into Opportunity in West Yorkshire

Do you have ambitions to make to make your business more sustainable but don’t know where to start or, simply, do not have the time? If so, Green Gain can help! Our Green Gain Accelerator support package can help bring your Net Zero aspirations to life! Through our Green Gain Accelerator service, we will embed one of our experienced and highly specialised advisors in your company to: · Scope out your sustainability objectives · Improve profit margins by introducing resource, waste, and energy efficiency measures · Assess your renewable / low carbon energy requirements · Plot out a pathway to Net Zero · Develop new, income generating, sustainable business models. The support can range from 1 day to 5 days per week, avoiding the need for recruitment fees and ongoing staffing costs. Our ‘Green Gain Accelerator’ service can be adapted to your own personal sustainability needs without the need for employing someone. If located in West Yorkshire, then you may be eligible for some grant support from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA). Having one of our team embedded with your business, ensures that this change comes from within!

More than a dozen cafes in the city will offer customers the option of a reusable cup for takeaway drinks, in return for a £1 deposit. The deposit can be reclaimed at any café participating in the Ditching Disposables Stirling scheme. The initiative will last for six months, with other cafes able to sign up throughout that period. The project, managed by Green Gain with support from Transition Stirling and funded through Zero Waste Scotland, is enabling Stirling cafes to choose to reuse in a bid to slash single-use waste and change attitudes towards throwaway items. A total of 14 businesses across the city will now offer customers a reusable cup for a £1 refundable deposit, which they can get back by returning it to any participating café. It’s part of the Ditching Disposables initiative from Zero Waste Scotland, an earlier trial of which saw six businesses in Edinburgh cut their use of single-use items by up to 99%. So far 14 cafes are taking part in the scheme in Stirling, including Darnley Coffee House, Kings Park Pavilion, Piece Out and Village Café at The Peak Leisure Centre. Ditching single-use items is one of the most effective actions businesses can take to reduce their contribution to climate change. Around 80% of Scotland’s carbon footprint is down to the products we make, use, and throwaway – and single-use items are a completely avoidable contributor to that figure. There are also reputational benefits for businesses in switching to reusable alternatives, from responding to customer demand for more sustainable options to a reduction in branded single-use litter. What’s more, ditching disposable items can help businesses close the gap on their own net zero goals and save money by negating the need to re-order items that are thrown away after one use. Cafes taking part in Ditching Disposables Stirling (accurate as of April 3) 1. Darnley Coffee House 2. Kings Park Pavilion 3. Luna CBD 4. Nooch Café 5. Piece Out 6. Stirling Coffee 7. Toasted Stirling (formerly Voseba) 8. The Burgh 9. The Pend 10. The Smith Café 11. The Station Coffee House (from May) 12. The Tolbooth 13. Unorthadox Roasters 14. Victoria’s Coffee Shop 15. Village Café – The Peak Leisure Centre Further information on the project, including an interactive map of the participants, can be found here .

There’s no doubt we are in the middle of a perfect storm for small businesses: rocketing interest rates, sky high inflation and the very real prospect of a recession. Much of this has been driven by mind-blowing increases in energy prices. Many households are paying double what they were 12 months ago. And for many businesses it’s significantly more. So, we thought we’d offer a few simple pointers that will help businesses plan effective ways to reduce energy bills, reduce costs and reduce their carbon emissions. At home No doubt we are all going to become ‘good housekeepers’ this winter. It’s in our interests. We’ve all read the top tips: switching off lights, fill the dishwasher, reduce the number of showers we have, turn off radiators in rooms we don’t use. I live in a big and badly insulated Victorian terraced house. I’ve done my best to insulate it and I’ve got a modern boiler with a SMART thermostat. I’m washing less clothes (much to my partner’s dismay) and washing on a 30-degree wash. However, the big elephant in the room is now rearing its trunk…how to keep warm! I switched the timer on the heating as a trial this week and my daily energy cost trebled! I’ve stacked the house with logs as I’m loathed to hit the green button on the boiler again until I see perspiration on my breath. The kids are just going to have to wrap up warm. The point I’m making here is that, as householders, its in our best interests to become more resource efficient as it benefits our personal bottom line as well as those who ‘want to make a difference’. But for businesses, the same premise does not always apply… At work At Green Gain, we have performed resource efficiency audits on over 250 SMEs over the past 5 years, but nothing has prepared us for the alarming energy bill hikes we have witnessed recently. No doubt the Government’s intervention will help businesses. But for how long? Can you as a business become a lot leaner in 6 months? Well, yes, you can. Simply adopting the good housekeeping we have introduced at home can lead to significant annual savings, to the tune of 5% to 10%. But to do this you need to understand your baseload. An experiment after hours (on a Friday afternoon after your site closes), is to go around and switch off all electrical equipment (except servers and refrigerators, of course), which will reveal your baseload, considering the various operational functions that exist. This is the lowest amount of energy that will be used when your site is not operational. This will be above zero, as items such as servers will still be operating. This ‘Baseload’ should be fixed as the lowest common denominator that staff should achieve at lock up. Significant savings can be found by reducing and ensuring this baseload target is met every evening prior to lock up. If the baseload rises, then something has been left on. For example, a reduction of 200W in the baseload overnight would lead to a £150/yr saving. By looking at a weekly energy use graph on your web platform, anomalies in energy use can be picked up immediately due to faulty equipment or overuse. The unusual spike in electricity consumption should be highlighted and investigated. Changing workforce behaviour So how can you, as a business, influence behaviour change? Use the ‘Nudge’ effect – make it personal. Use the right language for the target audience. Unless you are addressing a technical audience, do not use technical language: · Keep it simple and appropriate. Be aware of the language that you already use to communicate. Does it work? What gets noticed? · Your first communications are very important. An attention-grabbing, thought-provoking message will interest people in energy-saving and lessen their initial resistance. By having a visual display of live energy consumption, engagement with all the staff can be more readily achieved. It makes saving energy everybody’s responsibility, as they can see what they are using and know how much they could reduce this by. Appoint a member of your staff to review the energy use and check bills regularly. Does someone check everything is switched off (except refrigerators and servers) when the premises are closed on a Friday evening?) Lighting up the workplace Once you have started to embark upon a behaviour change campaign, what else can you do? Well, first and foremost look at your lighting. Moving to LEDs will reduce electricity consumption by up to 90% when compared to traditional incandescent and halogen lighting. Further savings can be made by the installation of PIR motion / photo-sensors (which turn off some or all lights when there is sufficient daylight) and movement sensors (which turns the lights on in a zone only while people are in that zone) which would lead to further savings for the new lights. To avoid all lights being turned off suddenly when daylight levels increase, photo-sensors can be configured to turn off only some lights or to dim the lights in response to daylight levels, if the new lights are dimmable. A low-cost option is to consider installing sensors in low occupancy areas. Occupancy sensors detect the presence or absence of people and turn lights on and off accordingly. They may reduce lighting energy consumption by 35-45% and can go up to as high as 75%. They are small, inexpensive, low-power, easy to use and do not wear out. They can be purchased for as little as £10 per unit. Motor management For manufacturing companies, the use of motors represents the ‘beating heart’ of the company. Without them operations crumble. But many companies still rely on fixed speed drives for air extraction and air compressors. Make a wholesale move to the use of Variable Speed Drives (VSDs) The major benefit of using a VSD in compressor applications, for example, is that it automatically adjusts its motor speed to the air demand. Estimates vary, but in terms of energy savings, using a VSD compressor in comparison to a fixed speed, idling or load/unload compressor, could comfortably produce energy savings of 35-50%. The energy efficiency best practise programme estimates that electricity use, due to compressed air, for an average manufacturing plant, uses around 10% of total electricity consumption. Heating empty space And here comes that elephant again. Heating. So much energy is wasted by businesses through heating air that simply disappears through the roof and the back door. We regularly visit companies that have large 100kw floor and ceiling mounted gas-powered air heaters. In many cases, this heat disappears straight through a badly insulated roof or permanently open roller shutter. To help combat this wasteful practice insulate as best you can, install destratification fans to push hot air downwards and adjust timer and temperature settings. These devices can save between 20% and 50% on heating requirements. For staff wellbeing, health and safety regulations state that employers must ensure that the temperature in the workplace is ‘reasonable’ at all times. In accompanying codes of practice, it suggests that the temperature should be a minimum of 16°C unless the work involves a lot of physical activity where this can drop to 13°C. Heating costs rise by about 8% for each 1°C of overheating. It is also worth regularly checking settings. Many systems are set incorrectly because someone has made a short-term adjustment and then forgotten about it. And many heating systems are simply oversized for the workplace. For dramatic changes that do require investment, look to install insulated and automated roller shutters, and, if your operatives are static and placed at workstations, then consider the adoption of electric radiant heating and possibly the installation of Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs). These work well with solar PV, if you are hoping to ‘wean’ yourself off the grid. If you generate large amounts of wood waste, consider the installation of waste wood heaters. Turn waste into energy. Longer term investments If you’re a freeholder, a long leaseholder of a building or a landlord, renewable energy options are usually a cost-effective investment over the mid to long term. They cut energy costs and emissions and can even generate income over the longer term. There has been a marked increased appetite for solar PV since the start of this energy crisis. Despite the absence of the Feed In Tariff (FIT), the cost of the panels have reduced as have the payback periods. Two years ago we were seeing average payback periods of 10 to 12 years. Now that payback has halved. The typical cost of small-scale installations (4-10 kWs) is approximately £1,500 per kw installed. For any energy you don’t use, you can benefit from the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) which launched on the 1st January 2020. The new scheme applies to businesses and homeowners who are installing new renewable energy systems allowing them to be compensated for any excess electricity exported back to the grid. Under the scheme, each energy supplier sets the price they are prepared to pay for excess electricity. This is set at approximately 5p/kWh. Act today and plan for the future These are just a few of the things you can do to make your business leaner and greener over the next few months. · Translate your behaviour changes from your home to your business · Assess your consumption spikes and base loads · Understand where the ‘leakages’ lie · Adopt low-cost resource efficiency improvements · And develop a longer-term strategy for ‘weaning’ yourself off the grid through the adoption of renewable energy technologies. It all makes good business sense and helps reduce our collective carbon impacts. We all have a part to play in this. And there really is no time like the present.

Co-Directors Ashley Robb and Steven Ogden set up environmental consultancy Green Gain with the vision of empowering public and private sector bodies to become more sustainable, inspiring and aiding businesses and organisations across the world to use resources in a more responsible and greener fashion. Central to this, is making the transition from a linear to a circular economy, with the focus on sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. This extends the life cycle of a product and reduces waste. Today, Green Gain is made up of a team of professionals who are innovation-driven and committed to finding new ways of working and developing products which not only sound good but work on a practical day-to-day level. Going above and beyond our clients’ expectations and delivering our services loyally, confidentially and with exceptional professional integrity, has not only led to a high number of returning clients but an array of achievements over the years, including becoming proud finalists in the Circular Economy Award at the resource and waste management event, RWM 2018. The last decade has seen us involved in a wide range of cutting-edge projects. These have included: · Delivering a funded programme of resource efficiency support on behalf of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to SMEs in West and North Yorkshire. To date, more than 200 audits have been conducted, supporting businesses with low-cost efficiency savings plus linking them to up to £40,000 in capital grant funding. · In partnership with Strategic Innovation Ltd we have supported the Omani Government’s Industrial Innovation Centre in Oman in helping their fisheries sector convert waste into added value products. · Our ‘Green Gain Accelerator’ Programme which, through a staged approach, enables organisations to accelerate improvement to their environmental performance and generate profit. The ‘Green Gain Accelerator’ led to us developing an environmental strategy for Freshpak , the UK’s leading manufacturer of high-quality deli fillings for retail and industrial suppliers, which made its primary operations more sustainable in line with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme(ESOS) and delivered cost savings of more than £300,000. · Our business planning support for Revive not only secured more than £235,000 in funding from Zero Waste Scotland but attracted the attention of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Working to replace palm oil with used coffee grounds, Revive's circular solution reduces waste, cuts carbon emissions, and delivers a sustainable, local alternative. The funding allowed them to start to commercialise their process with Ms Sturgeon praising Revive for “embracing our circular economy and getting maximum value from resources.” She added that the funding would help “businesses re-use and repurpose products which will benefit communities by creating jobs and reducing emissions.” · We have been working very closely with the Waste Resources and Action Programme (WRAP) to engage businesses on the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap which was developed in conjunction with IGD and which all of the UK’s largest retailers and many of the food producers and manufacturers, wholesalers and hospitality & food service companies have committed to and whose current members are include the likes of Costco, Coca-Cola, Aldi, ASDA and Waitrose. The ambition of the programme is to reduce the amount food wasted across the supply chain by 50% by 2030, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3. With a loyal base of returning clients, we have successfully collaborated with a number of like-minded businesses and worked tirelessly with the likes of WRAP, Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) and WYCA to encourage businesses to rethink their current business models and embrace the circular economy. During the course of the next 10 years, we will continue doing much the same with a bigger ambition of engaging larger businesses and their supply chains. With more than 50 years’ combined experience in the waste and resources management industry under our belt, our team at Green Gain is well placed to give you competitive edge in the green economy. Want to know more? Contact us here today. Keep up to date by following us on Twitter here.

3DPW is a new and highly innovative organisation that enables businesses that use 3D printing technology to effectively, and sustainably, recycle surplus wasted Polylactic (PLA) plastic from 3D printing processes. 3DPW offers viable end-of-life solutions for 3D-printed waste that is not currently recycled or reused, thus preventing further plastic pollution of land and marine environments. 3D printing is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allows the production of single items without the need for mass production, which leads to waste, in its own right. On the other hand, the use of plastic printing filaments as a feedstock can exacerbate the plastic problem without efficient resource recovery. 3DPW seeks to offer an alternative waste management solution by curating a scalable Circular Economy business model - designing-out waste and utilising previously non-recycled resources into high-value input material, giving plastic waste a new lease of life! 3DPW Waste Boxes have been made to enable PLA waste to be collected and recycled in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. 3DPW offers two collection options: 1. PLA Only 2. Mixed 3D printing waste materials The 45-litre 3DPW Waste Box itself is made her in the UK from 95% recycled plastic and can be reused multiple times before being recycled. How it Works 1. Register: register with 3DPW: 3dprintingwaste.co.uk/register-interest/ 2. Order: select which size labelled recycled content box / pallet you want and place your order. One (or more) reusable boxes will be sent out to you. 3. Fill it and return : fill up the chosen box with waste PLA, alert 3DPW to your full box and send it back with the provided shipping label. You can the re-order another box and continue recycling. Once received, the PLA material is reprocessed into several different products including plant pots, paint trays and window spacers. It helps prevent this material from being disposed of and ultimately provides a truly sustainable and circular solution to single -use 3D printed plastics. Eligible items: Waste printing material made only from PLA (reel ends, failed prints, used items etc.) Do not send: · Other waste plastics. · Hazardous waste (sharp, flammable, reactive, corrosive, ignitable, toxic, infectious or pathogenic) which presents a danger to the environment, or to people. · Electronic waste. · Clothing or fabric items. · Food and liquid waste. · Batteries, pressurised canisters or aerosols, glass or medical waste. Do not send in any liquids or wet items. It interferes with shipping and the recycling process.

Full Circle develop natural & sustainable ingredients for cosmetics that are made entirely from nutrient-rich plant-based by-products that would otherwise go to waste. Their portfolio offers forward-thinking brands and formulators a unique opportunity to create innovative beauty products that make excellent use of the precious resources around us - without compromising on quality or efficacy. Full Circle gain access to fresh plant-based by-products and upcycle these valuable leftovers into unique and innovative cosmetic ingredients.

Another business leading the way in circular economy innovation and sustainability is a company called MUD jeans, based in the Netherlands. In addition to purchasing the jeans in the conventional way, users can choose to lease MUD Jeans for €7.50 / month. After one year, the user has three options. They can: 1. swap their jeans for a new pair, and continue leasing for another year; 2. keep the jeans and wear them as long as they like; or 3. end the relationship by returning the jeans to MUD and receiving a voucher for a new purchase. Free repairs are included in the offering. For those who have decided to keep the jeans, the company offers financial incentives to return items, to encourage recovery. Recovery rates in the textiles industry tend to be low, with around 25% of textiles recovered per year in the EU. This approach also provided a solution for addressing rapid increases in cotton prices.