Model Action Plan – Manufacturers and Suppliers
This action plan shows how you and your organisation can make and deliver a commitment to reducing waste to landfill.
Manufacturers and suppliers have an important role to play. Project teams need your help to be able to tackle issues such as
packaging wastes, reduced damage through better logistics, and greater use of recovered material in manufactured products.
1
Securing
corporate
commitment
Further information
Assemble the business case
Secure buy-in
Set out your delivery plan
- Corporate reporting – manufacturers
and suppliers
- Data reporting – guidance for project
teams (for information only)
2
Delivering
on your
commitment
2.1 - Set a target for reducing waste and/or using more recycled materials in
your processes, products and packaging
2.2 - Set a target for reducing packaging and packaging waste
2.3 - Work with your customers and suppliers to help them reduce their waste
and reuse and recycle more materials
2.4 - Measure performance against these targets relative to a corporate
baseline
2.5 - Report annually on corporate performance
Action plans are also available for other levels of the supply chain (client, contractor, designer and waste management contractor) at
http://www.wrap.org.uk/construction/tools_and_guidance/index.html
Stage 1: Securing corporate commitment
Where are you
now?
Assemble a Board-level case for commitment:

Identify which members of your peer group have waste targets and have signed up.

Assess what contribution a successful commitment could make to your reputation, market
profile and positioning on corporate responsibility.

Discuss the issue of increased recycled content and reduced packaging with your customers to
gauge demand.

If required at this stage, evaluate what corporate target(s) to adopt.
Present the business case to senior management to secure buy-in. This may include proposing your
corporate target, KPIs and specific solutions that will help your organisation deliver improvements.
Set out your action plan for making it happen (using Stage 2 below) – define key tasks and who you
need to involve within your own organisation and key supply chain members, including:

setting target(s) (if not already approved as part of your initial commitment);

working more closely with customers;

measuring your baseline and subsequent performance; and

reporting.
Obtain buy-in from colleagues who are necessary for effective implementation.
Your next steps?
Stage 2: Making it happen
2.1 Set a target for reducing waste and/or using more recycled materials in your processes, products and packaging
Where are you now? Your next steps?
Define the time period for your baseline (e.g. FY2008/09) and your target year (e.g. FY2012/13).
Identify which areas your organisation should focus upon, and for which areas improvement targets
should be set (each organisation should choose where to focus their efforts):

reduction in process waste;

increase in reuse or recycling of process waste;

increase in recycled content in new products;

increase in take back of site materials and packaging; and/or

increase in recycled content in packaging materials.
Assess your potential to improve performance:

If you already have data across your portfolio for your baseline year, check that the data
conforms to industry data standards and adjust if necessary (see WRAP guidance on Rules of
Thumb for declaring recycled content in construction products).
Assess your market position and ambition:

identify targets being adopted by your peers; and

consider what fits with your policy on corporate responsibility (e.g. do you aim to be seen as a
sector leader, or sector average?)
Set your own target(s) for waste reduction / increase in recycled content, based on annual
improvements above your baseline.
Enter your target(s) at WRAP’s web-based ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’:

target area;

baseline performance; and

target performance.
2.2 Set a target for reducing packaging and packaging waste
Where are you now?
Define the time period for your baseline (e.g. FY2008/09) and your target year (e.g. FY2012/13).
Identify which areas your organisation should focus upon, and for which areas improvement targets
should be set (each organisation should choose where to focus their efforts) :

absolute reduction in packaging (tonnes);

provision of a packaging take-back scheme;

increase in recyclability of packaging; and/or

increase in packaging reuse.
Assess your potential to improve performance:

If you already have data across your portfolio for your baseline year, check that the data
conforms to industry data standards and adjust if necessary.
Assess your market position and ambition:

identify targets being adopted by your peers; and

consider what fits with your policy on corporate responsibility (e.g. do you aim to be seen as a
sector leader, or sector average?)
Set your own target(s) for packaging, based on annual improvements above your baseline.
Enter your target(s) at WRAP’s web-based ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’:

target area;

baseline performance; and

target performance.
Your next steps?
2.3 Work with your customers and suppliers to help them reduce their waste and reuse and recycle more materials
Where are you now?
Your next steps?
Where are you now?
Your next steps?
Where are you now?
Your next steps?
Speak to your customers to understand what they think you can do for them.
Promote resource efficiency in dealings with customers.
Provide advice and support to customers to help them reduce product and packaging wastes:

information on standard wastage rates (for SWMP);

information on materials storage, manual handling; and

information on site cutting and installation.
Provide information on effective waste disposal of product and packaging wastes.
2.4 Measure performance against these targets relative to a corporate baseline
Establish a monitoring and data capture regime to assess performance against targets.
Establish point of responsibility for delivery of improvements.
Ensure data are used to drive improvements.
2.5 Report annually on overall corporate performance
Collate data annually into simple summary table (e.g. at end financial year)
Enter your corporate totals at WRAP’s web-based ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’:

start with the data for the baseline year; and

upload data annually (see below).
Corporate reporting – Manufacturers and Suppliers
Manufacturers and suppliers can take action in many different areas. However, every action should focus on one of two objectives – a reduction
in waste, and/or a reduction in the total tonnage of waste sent to landfill.
Below is a simple table which shows how data can be captured for each target. Here the target is to increase the recycling of process waste.
This target is best reported as a percentage, quantifying the tonnage recycled versus the tonnage generated.
But in addition, the impact of these improvements should be quantified and reported. So in this example, if increased recycling is achieved by
sending waste materials to energy recovery, there will be no reduction in the total waste generated, and a reduction in tonnes of waste sent to
landfill.
Corporate objective:
Increase in recycling of process waste
Method of improvement:
1 – Establish agreement with energy recovery facility to transfer waste materials
2 – Incorporate waste materials back into manufacturing process
Measure of performance
Metrics
Baseline
performance
2008/2009
Measure of performance
Tonnes of waste recycled divided by
total waste produced
Impacts
Reduction in tonnes of waste
tonnes
Impacts
Reduction in tonnes of waste to
landfill
tonnes
Target
2009/10
2010
2011
%
A similar table should be developed for each target set, and in each case, the impacts calculated. These data should be reported at WRAP’s
Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal, where simple input screens will reflect the table above.
2012
Data reporting protocol – guidance for project teams (included for information only)
The UK Contractors Group (UKCG) has formulated guidelines on waste data provision which will bring much-needed consistency
to the industry. The reporting requirements for “Halving waste to landfill” align with the UKCG reporting approach. The
intention is that the following metrics and definitions become standard practice across the industry.
Clients should ask all their design teams and contractors to apply the UKCG approach for reporting up the supply chain. Major
contractors are likely to be reporting against the guidelines as a matter of routine.
Reporting level
Data content
Periodicity of reporting
Supply chain to
project team
Apply the UKCG approach. This includes reporting construction, demolition and
excavation (C, D & E) waste streams separately.

Data may be collected monthly or as it arises,
for recording in the SWMP
Project team to
contractor
Apply the UKCG approach:

Project team should review waste data in the
SWMP regularly (e.g. monthly or quarterly)

UKCG members collate data from projects and
report quarterly to their sector body – providing
separate C, D & E totals by project type.

WRAP’s ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’ will
support reporting by contractors at different
levels of detail.
The client can ask for aggregated data (e.g. contractor total for combined C, D & E
waste across all of the client’s projects), or for separate C, D & E totals for each
project.

Annual (or on project completion if earlier)

WRAP’s ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’
enables contractors to submit information on
behalf of their clients. On acceptance, these
data automatically form part of the client’s
waste dataset.
The client can simply report the totals for waste, waste to landfill and construction
value for the whole portfolio (with total waste to landfill as the fundamental
metric).

Annual

report C, D & E waste streams separately;

optionally, classify the sector type (infrastructure, housing and other
construction); and

optionally, classify the type of waste (hazardous, non-hazardous, inert, noninert, EWC No.) and the building type (education, commercial offices etc).
This breakdown of data supports more accurate benchmarking of performance.
Contractor to client
Client reporting to
stakeholders and
WRAP
WRAP’s ‘Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal’ will provide the option to split data
between C, D & E waste streams and by project type (allowing benchmarking).
When reporting to WRAP, clients can provide data on their own performance (aggregated across their portfolio) at the same
level of detail as contractors (i.e. separating the totals for construction, demolition and excavation and by project type), or
simply provide the total outcome for construction, demolition and excavation combined. While contractor bodies and other
reporting mechanisms (e.g. SMARTWaste) may collate data quarterly, corporate reporting by clients would be annual.
The following approach has been formulated by UKCG members:
Metrics
Wastage is to be measured separately for:
Normalising data

Construction1 – offcuts, packaging, damaged materials
All data are to be normalised by construction value, which
includes:

Demolition – brick, concrete, windows, asbestos etc

plant;

Excavation – earth, soils, etc.

labour; and

materials costs.
Only those materials actually taken off site are measured as waste.
Where materials are reused onsite, the contractor has the option to
record the quantities of material reused. However, this is not
included within metrics for waste arisings or waste to landfill
(although greater onsite reuse will reduce the waste generated per
unit of construction output).
Progress is to be measured using the following metrics:

tonnes of waste; and

tonnes of waste to landfill.
1
Clients should decide what constitutes ‘construction’ for their own organisation.
WRAP recommends that construction includes repairs and maintenance operations,
but excludes day-to-day facilities management.
The value should exclude:

land costs, professional fees and preliminaries; and

specialist fit-out items (e.g. for healthcare or retail applications).
Collecting data from projects
Collating and reporting data
Each project should supply the following data as a minimum:
Each contractor should collate separate totals for C, D & E waste.
Optionally, data may be split by infrastructure, housing and
commercial (non-residential) projects. Alternatively contractors may
report in more detail by assigning wastes to the following types of
project:
Project name
Construction
value

civil engineering;

commercial retail;

commercial offices;

Excavation
commercial other;

educational;
Construction

healthcare;
Demolition

industrial buildings;
Excavation

leisure;

public buildings;

residential; and

mixed-use developments.
Construction spend for period
Total tonnes2 of
waste
Total tonnes to
landfill
Construction
Demolition
These data can be collated on completion of a project, or for larger
projects and programmes of work, can be collated on a monthly /
quarterly basis. If data are collected during the project, then the
‘Construction spend for period’ line should be used. This allows data
to be normalised to the spend within that period.
2
Agreed factors will be used to convert waste volumes to tonnage.
Measuring and reporting the use of recovered material
Construction clients are increasingly setting minimum requirements
for reused and recycled content (e.g. 10% RC as a proportion of
materials value on the project). Reusing and procuring higher levels
of recovered material creates a demand for materials that project
teams want to recycle, and makes an important contribution to the
Halving Waste to Landfill objective.
Reused and recycled content (RC) is readily measured using WRAP’s
Net Waste Tool. This quantifies the expected baseline performance
for the project, and the most significant opportunities to move
towards cost-competitive good practice (e.g. the top 10 Quick Wins
specific to this project). The project team can then focus effort on
just a few product substitutions to deliver this improvement.
Where data are available, reused and recycled content should be
reported to/by the client. The Table below shows what data should
be collected for each project:
RC by value (%)
A
Construction value (£)
B
RC by value (£) – to allow
summation across a portfolio
Amount of material reused on site
(t), if known
AxB
Reporting periods
Key Performance Indicators
The reporting portal allows flexibility in the way that data are
gathered. The options are:
The reporting portal will generate a series of KPIs, allowing your
organisation to assess its performance over time. The KPIs that will
be calculated are:

data are gathered on completion of a project and normalised to
total construction value; or

data are gathered either monthly, quarterly, or annually, and
normalised by construction spend within the period.
Whichever approach is used by a contractor, this should be
consistent across all projects. UKCG members will collate and report
data quarterly to their sector body. WRAP recommends that all
contractors adopt reporting by period, rather than on completion, as
this will enable clients to collect consistent data from across their
contractors.
Quarterly collation of data will facilitate reporting to clients who have
different annual review periods for corporate responsibility and
sustainability. WRAP recommends that clients fix their review
periods to fit with the quarterly timetable.
Waste to
landfill KPI
This is the primary KPI to include in your annual
report on Corporate Responsibility when
demonstrating your commitment to the sector goal of
halving waste to landfill.
Waste
reduction KPI
‘Tonnes of waste per £ of construction output’,
reported relative to performance in your baseline year
Waste recovery
KPI
% of waste diverted from landfill during the last year.
Your annual report should illustrate year-on-year
improvements. This is also a useful indicator when
evaluating contractor performance against
procurement requirements for minimum and target
waste recovery rates on individual projects.
Benchmarking
Data can be uploaded into the ‘Waste to landfill reporting portal’ by
project/sector type. This will be used to generate benchmarks,
against which you will be able to assess your own performance.
These benchmarks will be used to show two trends for each sector
or project type:

a reduction in total waste generated; and

an increase in the proportion of waste that is diverted away
from landfill.
‘Tonnes of waste to landfill per £ of construction
output’, reported relative to performance in your
baseline year.
Reused and
recycled
content KPI
% RC by value (averaged across all construction
output) during the last year.
Your annual report should show how performance
has changed year-on-year and compare the outcome
with your procurement requirements for reused and
recycled content.