Jewson parent smashes waste to landfill targets

Saint-Gobain Building Distribution UK, parent company of builders merchant Jewson and plumbers merchant Graham has beaten its waste-reduction target for 2009.

In 2008 SGBD set itself the long term aim of halving waste to landfill from a baseline of 21,310 tonnes down to 10,655 tonnes by the end of 2012. Annual targets were set for each intervening year to benchmark the company’s achievements.

Figures out this week show that the group sent 13,449 tonnes to landfill in 2009, 37% less than the target amount of 19,4000.

On a like for like basis this means a 25.8% reduction from 9.3 tonnes per £m of turnover to 6.9 tonnes per £m of turnover.

Waste management group Biffa now manages the disposal of waste from all Jewson and sister brand sites throughout the UK; previously each site was responsible for its own waste collection and disposal requirements. This means many of the traditional on-site skips have been replaced by a series of containers to enable separate disposal of recyclable items such as timber, concrete rubble and cardboard significantly reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.

Steve Millward, sustainability director for SGBD says: “We have invested heavily in training and education for all our branch staff to ensure they understand the role of our waste initiative, while our ISO 14001 accreditation means that all our sustainability policies and activities are now being rigorously audited. This has an uncanny effect on driving performance in the branches.

“Finally, we have been working closely with all of our suppliers to help them reduce the packaging of the products they deliver to our branches.

“Everyone is aware of the importance of addressing the environmental impact of our commercial activities but changing a company culture is notoriously difficult. We have not only changed it, but transformed it on a national scale and now we are seeing the results. Every single member of staff should be proud of that.”