Amey
Amey has announced that it has reduced plastic and CO2 waste by 97 per cent across its local and national government cleaning operations.
During 2020, Amey’s Secure Infrastructure business began to transform the way it cleans schools in Bradford, Barnsley, Northampton and offices on behalf of National Highways.
Working with its supply chain partner Zenith Hygiene and 2Pure, the provider’s new Cleaning Excellence model focuses on environmentally friendly practices and cleaning products using renewable resources offering sanitisation and Covid-19 mitigation.
As a result, Amey said, it has reduced plastic bottles by 44,319 and CO2 waste by 11,505 kilograms. The model is being phased into Amey’s Edinburgh, Renfrewshire, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Clackmannanshire school FM operations.
The Cleaning Excellence model reduces:
- single-use plastic waste and CO2 emissions by shifting from small ready-to-use products in favour of larger concentrates that are diluted on-site and reusing and refilling existing containers and cleaning cloths.
- the use of harmful chemicals – protecting employees and building users while alleviating water pollution.
- water use by investing in innovative cleaning equipment.
Closed-loop recycling of the larger concentrate containers is furthering reduction of plastic waste and CO2 emissions.
Amey said it has prioritised “behaviour change and empowering employees to act by equipping them with knowledge and the ability to make a positive change to protect the planet”.
Training has focused on activities ranging from the human and environmental safety of chemicals and products to eco-efficiency, corporate social responsibility, health and safety, and better resource and dosing use. The company stated that 80 per cent of employees surveyed at the end of training saw the move to a less harmful environmentally cleaning model “as a positive step”.
Stephanie Quinnin, director of soft services at Amey Secure Infrastructure, said: “As an industry, we need to adapt and be innovative to find ways to be more sustainable and reduce waste both from carbon emissions and plastic waste. Changing the way we clean buildings is one of the many steps we are making to transform the soft services we deliver. We aim to be a leader in providing sustainable solutions to our customers, where we work together with our people and supply chain partners to embed practical, safe and environmentally friendly ways of working across all our operations.”
