The Carbon Trust has launched the ‘world’s first international waste standard’.

First announced earlier this year, the Carbon Trust Waste Standard was officially launched on Tuesday (5 November) and awards organisations that can demonstrate their solid and hazardous waste streams are being reduced every year, or disposed of more effectively, through increased reuse, recycling or energy recovery.

The standard also includes a qualitative assessment to show that waste is being managed ‘responsibly’. This includes considerations outside of an organisation’s direct control, such as having a ‘diligent procurement policy’ for goods and waste management services, and looking at downstream impacts through products and packaging.

The trust said it believes the standard will help to ‘fundamentally change business’s sustainability benchmarks and influence their investors, stakeholders and customers’. Together with the recent launch of the Carbon Trust Water Standard, the company said it hopes the waste standard will help businesses and public sector organisations take a more ‘robust’ approach to resource management.

Calling on businesses to take action to become more sustainable, Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, said: “We are living beyond our means, drawing on natural resources at a rate that cannot continue without leading to an ecological and economic crunch. Organisations that fail to bring sustainability inside their operations will face the consequences of increasingly scarce or expensive commodities, water and energy.

“Reducing waste and resource use, along with carbon emissions and water, is a crucial part of the transformation that all businesses will need to make in the next decade. By taking early action and opening themselves up to independent certification showing real reductions, the businesses that hold our Standards are showing themselves to be genuine leaders and are putting themselves in a much stronger competitive position.”

Dr Richard Swannell, Director of Sustainable Food Systems at WRAP, welcomed the new standard, adding:“We wish the Carbon Trust and participating organisations well in tackling this difficult task.”

Companies awarded with Carbon Trust Waste Standard

After a ‘successful pilot stage’ five businesses have now been awarded the Carbon Trust Waste Standard. These are:

• hospitality company Whitbread PLC;
• professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC);
• paints and coatings business AkzoNobel Decorative Paints UK;
• machine manufacturer Renishaw; and
• the Football Association.

Whitbread, PwC, and AkzoNobel Decorative Paints UK have now become the first organisations to achieve Carbon Trust certifications for reducing their environmental impacts in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water, and waste.

Speaking of the award, Jon Barnes, Head of Buildings & Facilities, PwC said: “We’re delighted to be recognised, against such high standards, across three critical areas of impact for our business. We firmly believe that setting an example and helping others understand what we’ve learned along the way will help business as a whole make similar reductions and achievements.”

Susan Kendall, Sustainability Director for the UK & Ireland at AkzoNobel Decorative Paints UK, added:“We are delighted to be awarded the Carbon Trust Waste Standard for our achievements in operational waste reduction. This is a reward for the excellent effort we have been putting into reducing waste… being one of the first companies to achieve the three Carbon Standards for carbon, water and waste reduction demonstrates to our customers our commitment to working towards increasing sustainability standards across the business.”

The Carbon Trust will be holding a webinar on the new standard on Thursday 19 November (between 11am-12noon) and there will be a breakfast briefing on Tuesday 26 November (between 8.30am-11am).

Read more about the Carbon Trust Waste Standard.