Groundwork business briefing

All businesses produce waste. Whether it is paper, metal, acids or packaging, those that produce, import, store, transport, treat, or dispose of waste, have the duty to handle and dispose of controlled waste (a collective term for commercial, industrial and household waste, including special/hazardous waste), within the confines of the law. This is known as the Duty of Care.

Part of the Duty of Care is ensuring that your waste collector (Local Authority, waste contractors, scrap metal merchants, recycling companies or skip hire companies) is authorised to do so, because if an unauthorised company illegally dumps your waste, you can be held responsible. You are responsible for requesting to see evidence that the collector is registered, and that they are disposing of your waste properly.

Benefits of training

Appropriate training of staff is a recognised way of improving a company’s culture and business practices. Not only can it lead to safer practices (Health amp; Safety, tool box talks, and the ability to carry out risk assessments for example), but also it can increase staff morale by preparing employees fully for their role within your organisation.

However in today’s business world with companies operating with fewer employees, the drain on resources when allowing staff to undertake training, is greater than ever before. This however should not mean less training is offered, but merely that managers and directors need to be smarter and better planned at providing the training. Some simple tools that are available to help reduce the cost of training an individual include:

• Making more use of local or on-site training courses, rather than long distance resources requiring over night stays.
• Increased use of “tool-box” talks as part of training.
• Increased amounts of on the job training.
• Using interactive computer based training, when appropriate.
• Working with training providers who are willing to tailor training to individual companies and circumstances.

Do Site Waste Management Plans

In April 2008 Site Waste Management Plans come into force for all construction industry contracts worth over £250k.

Companies will have the opportunity to make significant savings by reducing the amount of waste generated on site.

You can go to a 2-hour Groundwork Trust seminar and see what is involved and what the benefits are, of implementing a site waste management plan.

• Time: 9.00am – 11.00am (Refreshments included)
  Date: Wednesday 27th February 2008
  Venue: The Environment Centre, Shaw Road, Oldham
  Cost: £30 (exc. VAT) for BEA members and £50 (exc. VAT) for non-members.

92% of SMEs are socially and environmentally aware

The Federation of Small Business (FSB) have published their findings from a recent survey. The report, Social and Environmental Responsibility and the Small Business Owner, establishes that 92% of small businesses are socially and environmentally responsible, with 83% of SMEs already having waste minimisation and recycling schemes in place.

The main observation identified in the report is that corporate labelling of social and environmental practices often leads to confusion of how aware SMEs are. Smaller businesses often see initiatives such as recycling and energy efficiency as sensible and good business practice.