OPINION: Dan Cooke, Head of Sustainability, Viridor looks at some 3Rs which he sees as important to helping deliver a much-needed greener recovery.
Here’s a simple social experiment to try out with family, friends or colleagues: Ask them what the 3Rs stand for.
They may need a little prompting, but you’ll probably find (as I did) a broadly even split between the old-school Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmetic and the more recent Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. There’s much to be proud of that we, as a still rapidly evolving sector, have ensured that arguably the most important chunk of the waste hierarchy is firmly embedded in a good chunk of the younger national (and international) psyche.
AUTHOR: Dan Cooke, head of sustainability, Viridor
As we emerge – recycling and waste sector businesses, those we serve, and individually – apprehensively into a post-Covid pandemic world, there are another 3 Rs that will also be crucially important for our collective wellbeing: Responsibility, Resilience and Regeneration.
The UK Government is showing commitment to responsibility and regeneration, both of which are intended to build resilience into our recovery, and its vital that we too play our part.
Kick-start
As well as the real and long-term challenges to get the economy and communities back on their feet, there are now clear opportunities for our sector to work with Government to kick-start and ensure an enduring and greener recovery. We should make sure they are maximised. We have to equally welcome the direction and also keep the pressure on, to ensure that the forthcoming key components of the Environment Bill provide a real framework of opportunity for our sector to continue to make viable and sustained progress towards greater resource efficiency and a more circular economy across the UK and beyond.
Strategy
These components include crucial aspects of the Resources and Waste Strategy – consistent collections, Extended Producer Responsibility and the separate but important plastics tax, as well as the recently announced proposed new 15-year targets, including one for resource efficiency and waste reduction. All backed up with the new Office for Environmental Protection to hold our joint environmental and sustainability performance to account.
There are now clear opportunities for our sector to work with Government
So, in that context, let’s have a look at those 3Rs and what they could mean to specific businesses. Under the new ownership of KKR our company, Viridor, faces clear opportunities to further build on its heritage and pedigree, while working with our customers to continue the progress made towards more recycling, recovery and resource productivity across the UK.
Responsibility – having a clear strategy centred around our ESG framework, we can keep a clear focus on the drive towards a more circular economy. We all know we are responsible for our financial performance, which is vital for any businesses’ present and future, but we’ll also be held to account for our performance around good governance, social value and environmental leadership. Having clear targets to report against these is essential.
Using carbon reduction as an example, given that climate change mitigation will be the ultimate test of our joint responsibility at global, national, corporate and local levels, responsibility entails setting out a clear and credible pathway to net zero. This will often entail acceptance that there will be knowledge gaps and real challenges to current business models and behaviours. But we must take these challenges head-on, because it is the right and only thing to do (plus carbon pricing will ultimately make it the only viable option).
Our sector responded brilliantly to the demands of the pandemic, from office and site staff to crews
Resilience – it is hard to think of a single example of a business or community unscathed by Covid-19. Our sector, like others, delivered a brilliant response to ensure continuous delivery of essential recycling and waste services through extremely demanding circumstances.
There will, of course, be impacts on individual businesses resulting from the effects of Covid-19 on the markets we serve. Tough decisions will be taken to reshape businesses and sectors to ensure long-term viability in the post-pandemic economy. Lessons learned will lead to fuller risk management practices, including measures to mitigate the effects of potential further/future pandemics, climate change, disrupted work patterns, and to ensure well-being and productivity in the workplace. Support will be needed for people as sectors and businesses adjust and restructure, with the ultimate goals of finding smarter ways of working. Resilience has become an accelerated business absolute.
High standards of service delivery played a big part across the sector during the pandemic
Regeneration – as businesses and organisations with responsibilities for recycling, waste and resource efficiency, our own regeneration is unsurprisingly top of many agendas as we assess the impacts of Covd-19. But, as a service sector, we also have a real opportunity to contribute to the ‘greener recovery’ that many, including the top echelons of Governments, are determined to deliver. We must keep our focus and shape our services towards ensuring progress to a more circular, low-carbon economy.
This pandemic has built a genuine spirit of us all being ‘in this together.
Our role at the heart of the circular economy, with deployment of new sharper targets, effective new regulation, and smarter ways of working, will help our customers and sectors across the economy to build their own resilience as they too regenerate.
In the coming two decades, we’ll see a real shift of wealth from baby boomers to millennials. These are our customers and investors of tomorrow and, having had the importance of the (more recent) 3Rs drilled into them at school, they also rate highly the importance of ESG performance in the businesses and organisations they want to work for and with.
‘In this together’
This pandemic has built a genuine spirit of us all being ‘in this together’. Taking opportunities on offer to drive towards a more circular economy will also benefit all of us. Whether Government, business, or other organisation, keeping the 3Rs of responsibility, resilience and regeneration in focus can ensure we all play our part in the much-needed greener recovery.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
