New Standard showcasing businesses that follow waste management best practices to be launch by the Carbon Trust in autumn.
According to plans which have been revealed by the Carbon Trust, a new waste standard designed to help businesses demonstrate that they are measuring and managing down their waste levels in a responsible manner will be launched.
The new international standard was announced to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Standard, which has seen more than 650 organisations independently verify that they are measuring and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions yearly.
This proposed waste standard will be based on the Carbon Standard as well as the Carbon Trust water management standard which has only recently been released.
A spokesman for the company has said that organisations obtaining the new standard will have to demonstrate they are managing waste effectively and not simply reducing waste levels.
He explained:
“Waste management is about more than just reducing waste tonnage, it is about moving up the waste hierarchy so that you are reducing or reusing waste where possible. Gaining the waste standard will not be as simple as reducing waste tonnage, organisations will have to be able to show they are managing the waste stream.”
The company is planning to pilot the standard with a number of organisations over the summer before getting the final methodology signed off by its standards board. The standard should then be officially launched alongside the announcement of the first wave of organisations to obtain the label during the autumn.
Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, said the new standard would help companies demonstrate that they are managing their waste in a responsible manner, while also promoting waste management processes that help to cut costs and improve environmental performance.
“For the past five years we’ve worked with companies across the world to cut carbon emissions and it is now time for us to apply this expertise to the global problem of waste,” he said in a statement. “The new Waste Standard, combined with Carbon Standard and Water Standard, will help organisations take a more stringent approach to resources so they can operate in a more efficient, cost-effective way, as well as preserving global resources.”
The company added there was a direct connection between its new efforts to promote effective waste management and its core goal of tackling greenhouse gas emissions, noting that organic waste accounts for five per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The business community is responsible for significant waste levels, with government figures suggesting commercial and industrial waste is responsible for 2.3 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions in the UK each year.
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