SMEs & Sustainability – 27 Nov (20 min)
Word count: 2010
Introduction
The
Scottish
Executive
is
committed
to
sustainable
development.
We made this clear in our Programme for Government.
We said we would integrate sustainable development into all
Government policies.
But what does sustainable development mean?
Would you call sustainability your top priority?
One of our biggest challenges is how to communicate
sustainability to businesses.
Sustainability doesn’t always sound like it’s relevant to day to
day business.
The
classic
definition
of
sustainable
development
is
“development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs”.
It’s a good definition but does it mean anything to business?
Does it, in particular, mean anything to the small and medium
sized enterprises here today?
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We know that small businesses are interested in survival – on a
good day you might even be interested in profit!
I believe that much of the time sustainability can help.
Our approach to sustainable development emphasises efficient
resource use.
How many businesses don’t want to be more efficient?
Every business here knows what efficiency means.
Every business here strives for efficiency.
The Scottish Executive has identified three sustainable
development priorities
Three priorities that mean something to every business here
Three areas where you can be more efficient
Three priorities that you can make your own
Waste
Energy
Travel
These affect every business.
They are costs to every business.
Cutting these costs makes you more profitable and more
sustainable.
2
We are committed to working together to build a sustainable
Scotland.
Think about Waste, Energy, Travel.
How could you be more efficient?
That’s how we can build a more sustainable Scotland.
First, Waste
We have to change the way we are dealing with waste.
Every year over 90% of the 14m tonnes of waste in Scotland
goes to landfill.
That is a real waste of precious resources.
It’s also a waste of money.
That’s why one of our first actions on the environment was to
develop the National Waste strategy.
The core of the National Waste Strategy is very simple, things
we can all do. Just:
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Reduce – don’t generate it in the first place
Reuse – don’t throw it away
Recycle – if you can’t use it for its original purpose
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You pay for the resources you waste
Wasting supplies, wasting inputs is wasting money
You pay the price for excess packaging from suppliers
You pay to dispose of the waste you create
The Landfill tax is designed to deter you from dumping waste in
landfill sites
It is increasing to £15 per tonne by 2004
It’s a significant and increasing business cost
It’s a cost you’d rather not pay
A cost we don’t want you to pay
A cost you don’t have to pay
Instead: reduce, reuse and recycle to save yourself money
Look at Rolls Royce
An international company with lessons for us all
Recycling reduces costs and generates income from recycled
materials.
They have saved over £175,000 from recycling.
How did they do that?
There are bags underneath machines to collect waste metal
When machinists change metals, they also change bags
Valuable metal is saved and can be reused and recycled
because it is kept separated.
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It’s a simple example but one implemented with such
thoroughness, attention to detail and crucially with the support
of a highly trained workforce that it won the company
Scotland’s leading business and the environment award last
year.
And Rolls Royce are by no means the only company to save
money through better waste management.
Kingsmead Carpets reduced operating costs by £119,000 a
year by improving processes to reduce yarn and latex
consumption.
Another business becoming more efficient, becoming more
sustainable.
You have a choice:
Reduce, reuse, recycle –saves you money
Dumping - costs you money
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Energy
Think about your other business costs
Think about how much you spend on energy
We want you to think long and hard about your energy use.
It’s amazing that we have to ask people to do this
Energy costs are some of the easiest to reduce
The benefits go straight to the bottom line
There is no advantage in using more energy than is absolutely
necessary
Reducing energy use is not difficult:
Insulate and double glaze to reduce heating bills
Use energy saving lightbulbs
Switch off the office at night – lights, monitors, printers
Make these actions routine for your business to save energy
and money
An offshore oil supply services company here in Grampian
increased their energy efficiency and saved themselves nearly
£24,000 a year.
Every year you buy new machines, new tools, new equipment.
How do you decide what to buy?
Consider energy efficiency.
It’s thinking long-term instead of short term.
6
You can save money and save energy by considering new
technology.
Glasgow Royal Infirmary saved over £8,000 a year by fitting
variable speed drives to boiler fans.
The Scottish Executive helps you to reduce the energy you
use.
We spent £1.8m this year to promote energy efficiency best
practice to SMEs.
You can get advice, loans and practical help from the Scottish
Energy Efficiency Office.
You can find them at www energy hyphen efficiency dot org
(www.energy-efficiency.org)
What does the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office offer you?
Free and confidential energy, waste and water site audits
A Helpline, software, case studies, reports, seminars and
workshops.
Enhanced
Capital
allowances
for
approved
specialist
technologies
Loan Action Scotland offers interest free loans for energy
efficient projects
7
We need to think about how much energy we use
We need to think about where that energy comes from
Scotland has enormous potential capacity for renewable energy
Business can harness that capacity
Sainsbury’s have done just that.
They built their own wind turbine at their depot in East Kilbride.
Rhona Brankin opened it two months ago.
The turbine provides a third of their energy needs.
Now wind powers their cold store, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.
The Scottish Executive aims to increase the share of energy
from renewable sources to 18% by 2010.
Local projects are just as vital as large scale projects in
achieving this target.
Energy is becoming more expensive
The Climate Change Levy began in April this year
Another cost you’d rather not pay
Another cost we don’t want you to pay
Another cost you don’t have to pay
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If you buy energy procured from new renewable sources you
don’t have to pay the levy.
So if you contract for electricity supply from a certified
renewable source you’ll save 15%.
And there aren’t many areas where you can reduce your costs
by 15% at a stroke.
You can reduce your energy use by being more efficient
You can reduce the cost of your energy - buy green and clean
Travel
The third big priority to think about is travel.
It’s probably one of your business priorities already.
Up here in the North East transport is a factor we cannot ignore
Businesses have an important role to play
Location decisions are very important
Your location affects many journeys
Supplies
Staff
Products
Customers
Everything has to travel to and from your premises.
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Thinking about logistics can make a big difference to your
business.
Tesco improved their logistics management.
Their distribution fleet made annual savings of £720,000 in fuel
costs alone.
And there’s savings in staff time and vehicle costs on top of
that.
It makes it worth thinking about transport and logistics.
There are a lot of questions to ask about travel.
Is the journey necessary?
How is that journey made?
Do your staff have a choice about undertaking the morning rush
hour?
Could staff work from home?
Do you have a car-pooling scheme?
Are you close to a bus route or cycle lane?
Could you use the internet rather than travel?
Do your vans return empty from customers?
Do your suppliers’ vans go away empty?
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Safeways asked these questions.
They now use the railhead at their Bellshill distribution centre
Thanks to Freight Facilities Grants goods going to Inverness,
Wick, Thurso and Orkney now go by rail
That means over a million lorry miles a year have been
removed from Scotland’s roads.
BP also took advantage of a Freight Facilities Grant
Soon, fuel will travel from Grangemouth to Dyce Airport by rail
rather than road.
That’s 60,000 tonnes of fuel each year removed from our
roads.
Start to ask yourselves questions about travel.
Is the journey necessary?
How is the journey made?
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Biodiversity
Supply chains stretch across the world
The planet is too small for us to remain ignorant of what we are
doing.
Biodiversity faces us every day – television programmes about
wildlife are ever popular.
Increasingly those programmes record dwindling numbers and
disappearing species.
These are not just a sad event – they are important
The variety of species has provided endless business
opportunities in the most unexpected of places.
The leading drug for breast cancer comes from an endangered
yew tree.
Biodiversity isn’t just an issue for Amazonian rainforests.
It faces us here in Scotland.
The number of capercaillie has dropped from 20000 in the
1970s to an estimated 1073 in 1998-99
We banned hunting of capercaillie earlier this month.
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Businesses also have a part to play.
The International Paper Mill at Inverurie is working hard to
promote biodiversity.
They have a conservation plan in place and have begun a
native tree planting programme.
Royal Lochnagar Distillery is another example of a responsible
business setting up a nature reserve wildlife area.
It protects local habitats, encourages visitors and is a valuable
opportunity for education.
What the Scottish Executive is doing
Many examples today have been from manufacturing
But sustainability is just as big an issue for the service sector
The Scottish Executive is like a huge service sector company
And we practise what we preach.
We want to set a good example for Scotland.
Our flagship building, Victoria Quay, has retained ISO 14001
certification since it was originally awarded in April 1998.
It is the model for the development of environmental
management systems throughout the Scottish Executive.
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What do we do about waste?
We use mainly recycled paper.
We have far more paper recycling bins than waste bins
What do we do about energy?
Lights are automatically switched off at lunch and every
evening
We use 100% renewable energy.
What do we do about travel?
We try to use buses to get around Edinburgh and Glasgow
We have an electric car for when that isn’t practical
50% of the Executive's fleet of motor vehicles, and 100% of
Government Car Service cars are now adapted to use
alternative fuels.
Not only do we take these steps ourselves, but we purchase
from suppliers who are putting similar practises into place.
Any business in Scotland can take these steps.
Any business can benefit from taking these steps.
Sustainable development is not just about the environment.
It’s about economic and social development too.
It’s about using resources more efficiently.
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The Scottish Executive is working to help you.
The Scottish Energy Efficiency Office gives advice, loans and
practical help.
We offer grants like the Sustainable Action Grant to support
other bodies that offer advice - SISTECH will be running the
workshop today
We also support Friends of the Earth in publishing a Green
Office Action Plan and running a Green Office Fair – it’s at the
Trades Hall in Glasgow on 29 November.
Through the Freight Facilities Grant we have committed £36
million over the next 3 years to moving freight off our roads and
onto rail and inland waterways.
We are working to help you increase sustainability by being
more efficient.
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Conclusion
Sustainable development is relevant to every business here.
Waste, Energy, Travel
They’re not issues that can be ignored.
Increase
efficiency,
increase
productivity,
increase
sustainability
I’m glad that this conference is taking place here today.
We’ll hear what sustainability means to companies large and
small.
We’ll hear about ways to become more efficient, more
productive.
Think about Waste
Think about Energy
Think about Transport
It can help your business
It can help Scotland
Let’s work together to build a Sustainable Scotland.
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