WHAT More UK, the Lancashire housewares manufacturer, and owner of the well-known brand Wham, has joined the Green Growth Programme from Made in Britain. Director Tony Grimshaw OBE (left) has shared his Green Growth experience and what he really thinks of Greta Thunberg.
What did the Green Growth assessment tell you about your business?
What More UK are a relatively new manufacturing company, established in November 1999, so phrases like “we never did that before” aren’t in our company vocabulary. Being a company of the new millennium, we are well aware of our social and environmental responsibilities. We have been a zero to landfill company for quite a few years now. In fact, through initiative storage range extensions, we use other plastic manufacturers production waste. We also have a storage range that uses 95 per cent single-use plastic in its make-up. Both these ranges have been recognised by the European and the UK recycling Industry with the 2021 recycled product of the year awards. The Green Growth Assessment highlighted what we have already achieved and what we need to focus on, to complete the journey.
Has the Green Growth assessment changed the way you work?
No, I don’t think it’s changed the way we work overall. It’s changed the way we look at the work we are doing. To focus on the green areas we need to, but at the same time keeping an eye on the green areas we have already sorted.
How easy was it to gather the data? How long did it take to fill it in?
We have invested heavily in the most up to date IT in our industry. The problem for me was how to extract the information that was held within that system. We have a very strong IT department within the company, what seemed a problem to me, didn’t faze them at all. It took no time at all, 15 to 20 minutes to complete the assessment.
Did the Green Growth Programme tell you anything you didn’t know?
It reinforced what we already knew, which is very important. It underlined the fact that this needs to be a combined effort of all UK manufacturers and service providers, of course, the rest of the world need to join in with us. That petulant Greta Thunberg’s rants and the carbon creating attendees of COP26, won’t make a jot of difference. UK manufacturers and service providers, will.
What has been the biggest benefit, having completed the assessment?
It helps to create a company route map to the carbon-neutral destination. It highlights the fact that time is running out. Companies that haven’t already begun this journey need to start NOW! All sorts of punishments await companies who continue to push this into the pending file. Crippling fines from the government, major customers refusing to deal with non-compliant companies to mention only two.
If you would like your business to join the Green Growth Programme, the journey starts here: https://green.madeinbritain.org/
For more information about What More UK, see the company’s member profile page here.
Greta Thunberg photo: CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2020 – Source: EP
By Made in Britain 2 years ago | By Made in Britain