The next step

To a consultant register

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To the RAMP tool

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Identify where to save resources

Missing out

The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA), which is the body for environmental professionals, has completed a number of studies into resource management. It has been identified that savings of at least £5,000 are available to those who learn how to turn their waste into useful resources. In addition, it has reported that 70% of those who use the services of sustainability professionals are making savings in excess of £10,000 per annum.

Options

Tip 1. If you could benefit from external advice, there are many consultants who are able to help you to make savings (see The next step ). Obviously, they will charge for their time, however, as the IEMA research has identified, their fees should be more than offset by the resultant savings. Costs vary, but you should expect to pay between £30 and £60 per hour for support. Prices will vary across the country.

Tip 2. There’s certainly no obligation to use external contractors. In fact, keeping it in house may work out better - it’s a fact that your own staff will not need to spend as much time getting up to speed on the running of the business or the organisation of company resources.

Guidance

To help you to identify where to focus your attention, the IEMA has developed a free tool called the Resource Action Maturity Planner (see The next step ). It consists of nine multiple-choice questions to determine how seriously your business is taking resource efficiency and what further action you could take. The questions cover everything from whether your workforce is engaged on the issues to how you measure any progress. You’ll then be given a score.

Note. Though it will be interesting to see how you perform in each of the areas, we think the scores are less important than the exercise. The questions will allow you to see which boxes you’ve already ticked and where the gaps are.

For example…

Take question three. It asks “which of the following best describes your resource recycling?”

• “we have segregated bins and encouraged staff to recycle materials like plastic, metals, etc.
• we have reviewed our systems to understand our existing waste and resource data
• we have resource specific procurement criteria and keep an inventory to redistribute unused materials internally
• we are actively exploring new business models to transform material use in our business.”

Tip 1. Use the questions to identify what you could be doing. For example, segregating waste or re-using it rather than using clean raw materials.

Tip 2. Don’t try to do everything at once. It’s much better to plan the introduction of new ideas gradually and to test the effectiveness of them regularly.

For a link to a consultant register and to the IEMA tool, visit http://tipsandadvice-environment.co.uk/download (EN 09.03.02).