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The TrEE Project - Teaching recycling and Environmental Education

The TrEE Project - ’Teaching recycling and Environmental Education’

Last week saw the second conference of 21 delegates from 8 European countries to share in UK best practices on resource efficiency and waste minimisation. Hosted by The Environmental at St. James’ Park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, this was attended by teachers and educators from multiple EU countries. Speakers included Tamma Carel, an Environmental Consultant at the Environmental Academy; Andy Griffiths, Safety Health and Environmental (SHE) Sustainability Manager from Nestlé UK as well as Hannah Munro, Sustainability Officer from the University of Newcastle.

About The TrEE Project

As expected from the European Union’s growth strategy for the next decade, “Europe 2020”, the environmental issue is one of the global challenges that the EU is facing. In fact, environmental protection is a priority for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in order to promote a sustainable economy, which would limit the negative effects on the environment.

The TrEE project aims to help the fulfilment of this strategy through the development of a European network of trainers, teachers and practitioners of environmental education and recycling.

The Environmental Academy, in co-operation with seven European Partners, will be developing a series of tools to enable the dissemination of recycling and waste best practices, and will be co-ordinating a series of local events over the course of 2014 to engage stakeholders.

Resource Efficiency and Waste Minimisation

The session kicked off with an intro by Tamma Carel from the Environmental Academy. As an Environmental Consultant, Tamma explained the processes within the UK that she advices clients on daily to lower their environmental impact; with the added benefit of saving money along the way. In todays economy, this is a high priority for business to ensure there is a little waste as possible when it comes down to it, especially within areas such as construction and manufacturing.

Topics covered included resource depletion, sustainable development, resource efficiency and EMS (environmental management systems). As a consultant Tamma is constantly advising clients on the best environmental practises; this is translate into business cases, this is tangible advice for companies on how to lower their environmental impact whilst saving money along the way. In short, minimise waste (i.e. production materials) and costs are reduced.

Nestlé on Creating Shared Value

Andy Griffiths from Nestlé’s Fawdon site based right here in Newcastle then took the floor to share what changes have been occurring at the Fawdon site over the last few years since they devoted themselves to becoming Nestlé’s flagship plant for environmental sustainability. He outlined how Nestlé have been making the move from traditional Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)to their own programme known as Creating Shared Value (CSV) a format which overs 3 main areas of change and impact: nutrition, water and rural development. This starts right here at home and extend all across the globe in thousands of projects.

Nestlé’s take on things “The Nestlé Environmental Management System (NEMS), used to implement the Nestlé Policy on Environmental Sustainability, is based on a continual improvement management cycle. The effectiveness of NEMS rests on the use of practices provided by our Nestlé Continuous Excellence (NCE) initiative. By applying these practices, we improve our efficiency, quality and productivity, which translates into doing more with fewer resources and less waste. Our challenge is that, in many countries, public waste recovery and recycling infrastructure are insufficiently developed.” Their aim is to have 10% of their factories at a zero waste level (where no waste is sent to landfill sites) by 2015; whilst simultaneously reducing their energy consumption by 25% from recorded levels in 2005.

Newcastle University on waste management

Lastly the delegates of the TrEE Project heard from Hannah Munro, sustainability officer from Newcastle University. Hannah began by explaining the waste hierarchy as set forward by the The EU Waste Framework Directive 2008. Which coined the phrase reduce, reuse, recycle that spread across the UK. This is a really poignant part of environmental sustainability and what steps should be put in place for organisations to begin their waste management journey.

One of the biggest challenges for the University was the amount of disposable coffee cups that were being sent to landfill sites. This was highlighted by their team of students who go around the university examining the waste produce to see what changes can be made. This saw the launch of their “Lug-a-Mug” scheme which saw the sales of travel mugs at student cafeterias around the campus; to further entice the students there was a 10p discount on purchased coffee by using your Lug-a-Mug. Additions of seemingly small changes done on a large scale will further benefit the University on becoming a zero waste to landfill operation. Another area of improvement for the University has been the addition of a food composter on site which turns waste food from the canteens and catered accommodation into compost for the gardens and surrounding areas. This has greatly reduced the transport of such waste to alternate sites thus saving in money for the University.

Written by Élann Carel

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Elann Carel .