Finalist: MRW National Recycling Award – Best Business Partnership

Good Values, in partnership with Wyevale Garden Centres and Biffa, has been shortlisted as a finalist for the MRW National Recycling Award – Best Business Partnership Project.

The National Recycling Awards recognise and highlight excellence and innovation for recycling across UK businesses. Finalists in the Best Business Partnership category are chosen for their innovative way of working, having gone above and beyond standard contractual requirements to achieve more effective and efficient performance, demonstrating a beacon of excellence for others to follow.

Working with Wyevale Garden Centres (WGC) and Biffa, the partnership has achieved a sea change in colleague engagement in sustainability across the 140+ centes. WGC now has a recycling rate of almost 70% – a massive improvement on the 39% before the start of this project.

The partnership worked to identify a number of methods to drive recycling across 140+ garden centres and reduce waste, including a “Recycle it Right” education campaign, creating e-learning modules and appointing and training a network of WGC colleagues to act as ‘Environment Champions’ to drive the programme forward and share knowledge across the centres. The effort has engaged and empowered WGC’s 5,600-strong workforce and resulted in excellent improvements to operational sustainability and waste management efficiency.

WGC’s Chairman Stephen Murphy says, “We believe that playing a leading role in addressing social and environmental challenges will gain us competitive advantage, as well as provide a clear benefit for colleagues, customers, suppliers and other people our business touches. This partnership has delivered tangible achievements in pursuit of these goals.”

Good Values was recruited by WGC to help develop their CR Strategy- the ‘Growing Together’ Plan and help implement and embed CR practices across the business. As part of our role, we have developed and trained a strong network of Environment and Charity Champions, who are now helping to change behaviours and motivate their colleagues to deliver tangible results on the four CR pillars.

As a business, we are now focused on continuing to replicate this success with our wider client portfolio.