A pilot project run by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has revealed that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lack ‘good-quality’ data on materials, production, and waste.

As part of Defra’s Shared Resource Efficiency Manager (SREM) project, two clusters of manufacturing SMEs have been receiving support from a resource efficiency manager since September 2014 to help them ‘access quality staff cost effectively’ and enable them to ‘explore and develop new ways of improving the resource efficiency in the manufacturing system and supply-chain’.

Resource Management Minister, Dan Rogerson, praised the project, stating: “We are pleased to support this pilot project, which will help these SMEs save valuable time and money by giving access to the advice and support of a shared resource efficiency manager. This project is part of our wider approach to enable businesses to be more sustainable.”

Project details

Four businesses – CW Fletcher and Sons in Sheffield; McBraida plc in Bristol; Rotadata in Derby, and Stone Foundries Ltd in London – are being supported as part of the Rolls-Royce plc aerospace components supply chain, while another six businesses in South West England and South East Wales – Arada Ltd in Axminster; Hymid Multi Shot Ltd in Torquay; Seetru Ltd in Bristol; Shine Food Machinery Ltd in Newport, Stirling Dynamics Ltd in Bristol, and Universal Engineering in Weymouth and Llantrisant – are sharing a resource efficiency manager as part of the EEF (the manufacturers’ organisation) regionally-based company cohort.

Jointly, the 10 businesses employ 1,150 staff and have a combined turnover of £110 million.

Initial project findings

Each business has now had a baseline review carried out and has been assigned an action plan to improve resource efficiency.

For example, aerospace engineering firm McBraida plc is working with SREM to develop an effective employee engagement programme incorporating interactive workshops, role development, working instructions and the creation of measures and associated monitoring systems to boost resource efficiency. The business has also committed to having a waste management review that will help develop waste management procedures and facilities, and determine the efficacy of waste contracts.

However, the resource efficiency managers concluded that, across the SMEs, the key barriers to taking action on resource efficiency were mainly: capacity/staff time; cost/payback cycles/expected return on investment (RoI); and availability of specialist knowledge.

The initial findings also included the following:

• although there was clear data on electricity, gas and water use, the SMEs had ‘less comprehensive’ and ‘more variable’ data available for materials use, production and waste arisings (despite the cost of materials being significantly greater than that of energy). For example, the cost of energy in businesses located in the SW of England and SE Wales was just six per cent of the cost of material use;
• the majority of companies did not have a systematic way of recording and accessing information on environmental performance and resource efficiency;
• monitoring of process wastes, other than rejects, was not a priority at most companies as it was usually seen as ‘just a part of the process’;
• awareness of resource efficiency and environmental issues was high, but the businesses were only willing to invest in resource-efficiency measures where there was a ‘convincing’ business case to do so; and
• engagement in resource efficiency was most effective at businesses where there was strong senior management commitment to resource efficiency, and where there was the perception of actions being ‘achievable’.

The managers have siad that unlocking opportunities to improve material efficiencies upstream will be the priority challenge henceforth.

Collecting, interpreting and understanding relevant information 'key to unleashing potential'

Speaking to Resource, Ann Stevenson, Director of the Environment and Sustainability Partnership Ltd, said: "We think the findings to date are very encouraging. It’s been great to see that businesses are actively interested and want to do something to improve their use of materials and resources. But the issue of knowing where to start and how to make the case has meant many of the businesses have had little success in taking forward action previously and don’t know where to go to get help. So far, we believe it is clear that helping businesses understand the information they need, how to collect it and interpret what it means is one of the keys to unleashing the potential in SMEs to take action."

Find out more about the SREM project.