Electric Vehicle collections in 2023
About the client
Derwent London is one of London’s leading property investment and development firms. Derwent London owns a portfolio of 5.3 million sq ft (494,300 sq m) of commercial real estate, predominantly in central London. We have worked in partnership with Derwent London since 2014 starting by managing the waste and recycling at 25 of their buildings within their portfolio. Over the years, due to our shared aspiration of developing excellent buildings and achieving Net Zero, Recorra have become a trusted supplier to Derwent London and were selected to service additional buildings.
Services provided
1,257
1 tonne
Coffee cups
8000 tonnes
Food waste
60 tonnes
IT & Electrical waste
Achievements
– Average recycling rates have increased from 56% to 76%
– Derwent London won the Westminster’s Business Council Award, in ‘Best Achievements in Sustainability’
– Zero Waste Award
– Green Apple Award in Environmental Excellence
Our Client’s Challenge
Derwent needed a service provider to help unlock their potential.
Derwent wanted to perform better in our approach to waste management and increase our levels of recycling for commercial, environmental and cost efficiency gains.
at Derwent London
Our Solution
- We identified areas in Derwent London buildings where tenants were not segregating their waste correctly and targeted these areas for engagement work.
- To capture soft or flexible plastics, we have implemented the Recorra Circular Box. We recycle these items in the UK to and turn them into a building materials called stormboard.
- We created recycling guides for catering and cleaning teams to be distributed internally and launched a colour coded waste management scheme with new bins and signage. This strong visual signage was particularly useful for staff who are non-native English speakers.
- We have worked to improve engagement amongst Derwent London building managers, tenants, and cleaners. We have organised several activities including waste audits, tenant floor walks, awareness days, attendance of green meetings, review meetings with building managers and tenants, and cleaner training.
- In 2024, Derwent and Recorra selected 7 key buildings who required a focused approach to engagement, to help boost recycling and reduce contamination. This focused approach consisted in bespoke occupier engagement on site such as Lunch & Leans, Waste Composition Analysis, Recycling Improvement Strategies and Awareness Stands. We saw a 10-15% improvement in recycling rates following this project.
- A bespoke A-Z Guide was created, expressing the aims of Derwent London, waste legislation that affects them and a ‘blueprint’ for best practice recycling.
- Derwent London consulted with our sustainable procurement team and decided to purchase reusable coffee cups to reduce single-use plastics.
- We helped Derwent London move away from co-mingled mixed recycling to source separating materials including food waste, coffee beans, cardboard, glass, paper, and coffee cups, as well as bulky wastes such as fluorescent tubes, batteries, and waste electrical items.
- Derwent London is now closing the loop by buying back high-quality Image paper, made from their own wastepaper, reducing carbon emissions, saving trees, and reducing water usage.
What's next
- We have also identified paper towels in the general waste stream. We plan to introduce separate paper towel recycling to divert this from general waste. This will also allow Derwent to re-purchase recycled paper towels, integrating circular principles into their day to day operations.
- To support Derwent on their Net Zero Journey, we have been collecting waste using electric vehicles. In 2023, we undertook 1,257 collections using EVs, with this number set to continue to increase as we electrify more of our vehicle fleet.
