SUMMARY
Overall Sustainability Strategy
Everflow’s mission is to make sustainable business services simple for SMEs while creating jobs people love. We are committed to improving environmental and social sustainability, both in the markets we operate and globally.
We were the first water company to sign the Climate Pledge to meet Net Zero by 2040 and we have clear science-based targets to achieve this. We publish our performance annually against our plan to meet them.
We already offset emissions associated with our supply chain and our customers’ use of our water, waste and telecoms services.However, our greatest emissions come from purchased goods and services from third parties. We therefore have a responsibility to support and encourage suppliers to follow plans to reach Net Zero too.
Everflow is also committed to helping our SME customers reduce their environmental impact by reducing their consumption of utilities (energy, water and materials which end up as waste). Ideally, we can do this in a way that is financially attractive.We are a Living Wage employer and require modern slavery policies, environmental policies and Health & Safety certificates from all our suppliers, which we keep on file.
Background To Our Waste Business
When we started a new waste collections business from scratch in 2022, we needed to quickly build up our supply chain to serve the whole of the UK, because our customers were nationwide.
Not all waste providers were willing to work with us at this early stage. This meant that, at first, we were unable to be selective beyond the basic legal requirements.
In 2024 the waste part of the business became profitable, and we launched our 2030 company vision and our sustainability (ESG) strategy. This highlighted the importance of ensuring that our waste suppliers are as sustainable as possible.
In addition, government law and regulation on waste (while slow) are increasing. So, to future proof our waste business, and lead the way in the sector, we ensure our suppliers are actively planning to provide all relevant future services on time and encourage them to go beyond the legal requirements.
Environmental impact of waste
In 2023, waste (excluding incineration) was estimated to be responsible for 5% of UK carbon emissions.
These are down to emissions from:
- Transporting the waste using vehicle fleets that have not yet decarbonised
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- Decomposing organic waste such as food, cardboard and paper at landfill sites This emits methane, which has much greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide
- The energy and materials used to process recyclable waste
- Waste to energy incineration plants
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Additional emissions are avoided when recycled materials are used to make new products, replacing the need to mine and abstract virgin resources.
If waste is not stored correctly, it can cause environmental and health hazards. In addition, transporting waste abroad can have many environmental and social impacts, including chemical and plastic pollution, and health risks from mismanaged waste.
Therefore, waste carriers and processors must by law provide valid waste transfer certificates which we can share with customers.
Working with our supply chain
As we grow our market share, we will increase our requirements for our suppliers to become more sustainable. This will provide certainty that they need to change.
We will develop a green tick mark to help inform customers of the suppliers who exceed our sustainability standards at the point when they select their preferred supplier.
When we achieve 10% market share[1], we will only onboard new suppliers and renew supplier contracts who meet or exceed our minimum sustainability standards.
In particular, the tick mark will require, on top of our usual requirements:
- Diversity, equality and inclusion policy
- Calculating and reporting at least Scope 1 and 2 of their carbon footprints at least annually
- Having a plan to reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest (preferably 2040 or sooner), including electrification of fleet and optimising collection routes
- Having a plan to reach zero waste by 2050 at the latest, including improving recycling capacity so that at least 75% of waste can be recycled
- Annual reporting of performance against their zero-waste plan.
As we work with many SMEs and micro suppliers, we will provide sustainability education and support (calculators, training, templates) to those that need it, to enable them to achieve our tick mark.
We will do this by researching the market regularly and passing on best practice tips to smaller suppliers.
Working with SME customers to reduce waste
We already advise businesses to reduce their waste in ways that reduce their waste charges, such as diverting waste from landfill by separating recyclables and food waste from general waste. This makes doing the right thing more attractive and maximises customer action.
We will:
- Transporting the waste using vehicle fleets that have not yet decarbonised
- Help businesses reduce their consumption of virgin materials
- Promote reuse and repurposing of used materials and products, including those integral to our broadband and telephone business and batteries
- This emits methane, which has much greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide.
- Provide services that support separation of waste at business premises, and maintain separation in transit, where it cannot be separated at waste processing plants
- Avoid services which take waste to energy plants, where there is a local sustainable alternative
- Lobby government and regulators to improve environmental requirements for waste
- Longer term, provide transparent visibility of how our customers’ waste is processed, and associated carbon emissions from our waste service, through our customer portal.
- Longer term, develop a simple zero-waste checkmark for customers to display to demonstrate their sustainability credentials.
Decreasing our own operational waste
We aim to achieve less than 5% of our own office waste to landfill and less than 20% to incineration by 2030, and at least a 75% recycling rate in 2025. We are already largely paperless offices, where our printers rarely get used. We will work towards buying no single use products by 2030.
In 2024, we will record the baseline audit of our office waste, so that we can monitor progress against this strategy.
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Reduce and reuse
Our procurement policy will ensure that choosing reused, refurbished, repurposed or recycled products and materials with minimal packaging is prioritised over buying new products made from virgin materials. This particularly applies to bulky items with the most longevity, such as furniture and laptops which can contain Persistent Organic Pollutants. When we dispose of materials, we will apply the same hierarchy of preferences to ensure they are not wasted.
Refills
Where possible, we will refill hygiene and food products rather than buy new packaging each time. We will remove handtowels from washrooms where there are electric hand dryers by 2025 and investigate sustainable alternatives to plastic pens.
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Recycling
At our offices, we will separate waste into all streams that can be (and need to be) collected that way, because they can’t be separated at processing centres. We will ensure contamination is avoided and waste separation is maintained on route to depots. Where possible, we will partner with neighbouring businesses to share collections to make this more affordable for all.
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Food and packaging waste
We will plan catering and waste disposal for events carefully to avoid food and packaging waste, i.e. preferring glassware, crockery and cutlery to be washed up rather than using disposable versions. We will book food reuse providers (e.g. food bank, Refuse, Company Shop) ready to collect any leftovers while they are still edible. Where this isn’t possible, we will separate food waste and ensure it is used for composting or in Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants.
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Hot drinks and breakfasts
We will monitor and compost all tea bags, coffee grounds and food waste from our offices, and encourage and enable employees to do this at home.
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Home working
Most of our employees work partially from home, and not all local authorities collect all waste streams separately. Therefore, we will educate and encourage our employees on how to reduce home waste and provide collection points at our offices for materials that local authorities do not collect from household doorsteps, e.g. batteries.
2030 Targets
- 1Increase our customers’ recycling rate from their assumed 50% UK average to 75%.
- 2Most of our waste customers to take up separate dry recycling and food waste collections from us, when they produce these waste streams.
- 3Decrease customers’ waste per SPID going to incineration by 20%.
- 4Increase our customers’ recycling rate from their assumed 50% UK average to 75%.
2025 Targets
- 5Employee bins, comms and signage for separate waste streams in Q1.
- 6Office waste supplier to start monitoring weights collected by stream in Q1.
- 7At least 50% waste from offices recycled by end of 2025 and < 25% sent to incinerators or landfill.
- 8All tea, coffee and food waste to be composted or anaerobically digested by 2026.
- 9No single use products purchased for catering, events or office supplies by 2026.
Managing This Strategy
We will:
- Share this strategy with our customers via our website, inviting their views and input
- Inform our employees about this strategy, and secure their participation in achieving our goals through action plans by department.
- Report against and update this strategy annually, publishing this on our website.
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Government Resources And Waste Strategy
Waste disposal providers have had a Duty of Care since 1990 regarding how waste is treated and documented via waste transfer notices. The UK Resources and Waste Strategy (2018) has five strategic ambitions:
The UK Resources and Waste Strategy (2018) has five strategic ambitions:
- All plastic packaging on the market to be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025
- Eliminating food waste to landfill by 2030
- Eliminate avoidable plastic waste over the lifetime of the 25 Year Environment Plan
- To double resource productivity by 2050
- To eliminate avoidable waste of all kinds by 2050.
The Simpler Recycling legislation (October 2023) introduces the following new requirement dates which waste collection authorities, non-domestic premises that produce household waste, and producers of relevant waste must comply with below:
- Collections of dry recyclable materials (except plastic film) from businesses and relevant non-domestic premises by 31 March 2025, and micro-firms by 31 March 2027.
- Collections of food waste from businesses and non-domestic premises by 31 March 2025, and micro-firms by 31 March 2027.
- Collections of plastic film from businesses and non-domestic premises, and micro-firms by 31 March 2027.
UK organisations that supply or import packaging should comply with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging. Businesses which supply or import large amounts of packaging will be required to (depending on whether they are classed as a ‘small’ or ‘large’ organisation, based on their annual turnover and how much packaging they supply or import each year):
- Collect and report data on the packaging they supply or import
- Pay a waste management fee, scheme administrator costs, and/or pay a charge to the environmental regulator
- Get packaging waste recycling notes (PRNs) or packaging waste export recycling notes (PERNs) to meet their recycling obligations
- Report which nation in the UK that packaging is supplied in and which it’s discarded in (nation data).
Customers in the food processing industry may be taking part in WRAP initiatives such as the UK Plastics Pact to increase recycling and Courtauld Agreement to reduce water use by 2030, so could have increased reporting requirements.