Waste to Wealth: it's time to stop throwing our future away
By David Wood, Senior Policy Director
1 May 2019
David Wood looks at the Business in the Community’s ‘Waste to Wealth’ initiative and highlights a follow up event in Scotland on 15 May.
Time is running out to prevent catastrophic climate change. We must make the most out of precious resources, waste as little as possible and find ways of turning the waste we do create into new wealth. Business in the Community’s ‘Waste to Wealth’ initiative brings together business, government, academia and civil society to unlock opportunities to double the nation’s resource productivity and eliminate avoidable waste by 2030.
We can only tackle climate change with the support of leaders of innovative businesses.
The Waste to Wealth Summit 2018
In November 2018, over 200 leaders from business, government, academia and civil society gathered at the Waste to Wealth Summit hosted by event partner Veolia, at Veolia Southwark’s integrated waste management facility in London to tackle this challenge head-on. HRH The Prince of Wales delivered a keynote address at the Summit in which he addressed the urgent need to tackle the resource issue in the UK and explain why business is best placed to meet this challenge.
The Waste to Wealth Summit was the start of an ambitious programme of research, learning and practical action. Waste to Wealth will support businesses to define individual and collaborative action plans and start to identify innovative solutions to shared challenges.
You can download ‘It's Time to Stop Throwing Our Future Away’ which explains the Waste to Wealth Commitment which is necessary to tackle the challenge of catastrophic climate change and reverse the destruction of natural habitats. We need to commit to actions that will collectively double resource productivity and eliminate avoidable waste by 2030 through creativity, collaboration and practical action.
The London November Summit was followed by a highly successful Scotland’s Waste to Wealth event in Glasgow on 19 February, where I spoke on some of the broader business and reporting perspectives relating to the circular economy, and how a redesign and re-engineering of most product lifecycles can result in significant benefit to businesses, consumers and the environment.
Key aspects of the commitment are to:
- Set targets to improve the productivity of resources that are key for our business.
- Work collectively towards doubling the nation’s resource productivity and eliminate avoidable waste by 2030, contributing in the way that is most relevant to our business.
- Redesign how resources are used in our products, services and operations.
- Collaborate across our organisations, value chains and sectors.
- Reconvene and report on progress annually to share learning and demonstrate results.
Waste to Wealth Commitment Event on 15 May
A follow-up event is taking place in Edinburgh from 3pm to 5pm on 15 May which will help businesses to implement the Waste to Wealth Commitment. This will take place at the offices of CMS, Saltire Court, 20 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh.
At this practical session, you will:
- Be inspired by and learn from the stories of organisations leading in resource productivity and circularity
- Understand how to get off the starting block or build on existing initiatives - mapping out your resource use, waste and stakeholders, identifying where you can have the greatest impact, and developing an action plan for your organisation
- Consider what kinds of resource productivity and waste targets you might set and how they will help you to achieve financial, environmental and social benefits
- Consider how you might work with your value chain (suppliers and customers) to achieve greater resource productivity and circularity
- Look for opportunities to collaborate and learn how to do that successfully
Places are limited to no more than 25 and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Light refreshments will be provided. Please email Tracey Little by Thursday 4 May to reserve your place.
