WASTE & RECYCLING
GRAPPLING WITH
SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT
Shoulders eased, scalps relaxed.
The afternoon was suffocating. Outside
summer blazed and beckoned with
thoughts of a sail on the river, or a
barbeque. Inside we were in the final
workshop to create the beginnings of
Ginsters’ sustainable management system.
We could start to see the long term action
plan emerging through the swelter. The
top priority, energy, had dropped into our
table complete with actions and
measurable indicator. We could get
a result.
Go back four months. Ginsters are
famously manufacturers of Cornish pasties
and also of baked slices under their own
brand and for main supermarket chains.
Ginsters products are distributed the
length of the UK. The company is part of on the Horizon South West Website consider. After data collection, we
the Samworth Brothers Group. This www.horizonsw.org.uk prioritised, grouped and reduced these to
project was restricted to the Callington site a manageable five, and established key
in Cornwall comprising Ginsters bakery, PROCESS performance indicators:
Tamar Foods bakery and Samworth We were fortunate in Ginsters having
Distribution. The site was accredited to an enthusiastic team which had just 1. Energy & Transport: the company
ISO14001 Environmental Management successfully taken the company to uses a great deal of gas fossil fuel
Systems earlier in 2005. It employs 1000 ISO14001. HSW appointed me (Michael) energy in baking products, and in
people who produce 250,000,000 as one of its practitioner members to assist transporting them by road.
product units per year weighing Ginsters in using the Sustain tools. A proposal to make the company
40,000 tonnes. A series of three half-day interactive energy independent within five years went
In 2003 Horizon South West (HSW) training workshops enabled the team to to management.
developed a methodology ‘by business for progress through simple steps: The sensitivity of just-in-time road
business’ for organisations wishing to go delivery to a future fuel crisis was
beyond ISO14001. A toolkit called 1. Getting commitment and identified and risk reduction measures are
‘Sustain’ was hammered out by a group of resources being considered.
eight organisations working with eight 2. A stake in the ground - KPIs: Energy - KWh/tonne product,
HSW mentors to produce management establishing where we are, what is % renewable.
systems that worked for them in the life cycle of the product, what Transport - food miles, % renewable
addressing social and economic impacts, are the key issues fuel per food mile.
as well as environmental ones, and which 3. Prioritising
looked as far ahead as possible - 20 4. Making it happen - action 2. Marketing Profile: this is and will
years plus. And we wanted it on four planning and setting key remain a high priority and where
sides of A4. In 2005 a second iteration of performance indicators appropriate will raise awareness
the programme recruited five companies, of and respond to
including THE RESULT - HOW GINSTERS WILL sustainable issues.
Ginsters, to work BE MORE SUSTAINABLE KPIs: Press coverage, Awards and
with the toolkit There was already good commitment customer feedback.
previously from the top of the company, although it 3. Utilities & Raw Materials: a mass
developed, and was recognised this may need to be of issues sit behind this heading,
to assist in renewed and reinforced as the sustainable from suppliers using gang labour,
refining it further. management system starts to input to long to the potential for epidemics,
The revised term strategy. disease and climate change to
toolkit is now The initial process flow analysis alter the availability of food, other
freely available identified over a hundred issues to raw materials and water.
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SUSTAINABLE FM | NOVEMBER 2007
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