10 October 2016 | FM World team
BIFM Awards 2016 - Impact on Sustainability
The Impact on Sustainability Award seeks to identify and reward innovative sustainable and environmental initiatives that can objectively demonstrate the positive impact that they have had on the organisation and society at large.
BaxterStorey started its crusade on catering business food waste in the form of food spoilage, plate waste and preparation waste.
Its reasons to use fresh, locally sourced produce stems from a belief that it would not only deliver the highest-quality catering offer, but also help to sustain the local supply chain, reduce energy use and reduce environmental impact.
A proprietary online operational accounting package called 'Evolution' captures the results of the 'Food Waste, Costing the Earth' project. Collecting all waste for recycling or macerating, from food production, unsold leftover food, customer leftovers, and out-of-date stock, weighing each sector, and recording weight data became the strategy.
The initiative went live in July 2014 - now 600 locations report data weekly. The results are:
· 35 per cent reduction in food waste since the project started;
· Significant savings in food and drink purchases;
· Reduced environmental impact equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of CO2e - the equivalent of taking more than 4,000 cars off the road for a year (based on average of 25,000km driven per annum at average of 140g/km CO2).
Judges said that the concept was "simple, scalable and can be replicated across not only the UK, but also the globe".
The highly commended entry was the Supply Chain Sustainability School; a collaboration initiative to enable a sustainable built environment.