WRAP is to work more closely with small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) when it becomes the new single Government ‘superbody’ on resource efficiency for England next month.
WRAP (Waste and Resource Action Programme) will officially become the ‘one-stop-shop’ on
resource efficiency in England on April 1, after absorbing six other state-funded agencies that also deliver advice and support services on issues such as waste and recycling, water efficiency and green procurement.
Up until now, WRAP has focused much of its attention on big
business initiatives such as the Construction Commitment of ‘Halving Waste to Landfill’ and the
Courtauld Commitment in the retail supply chain. It says it will now “increase engagement” with
SMEs, which make up the bulk of England’s business sector, as well as help businesses more generally to move from awareness around
resource efficiency to action.
“WRAP has always been very focused on outcomes, so going forward we are going to work on recruitment [of SMEs], but we will be less focused on raising awareness [about our services] and more on action,” said Steve Creed, who from April 1 will be WRAP’s director of Business Resource Efficiency (BRE).
The six organisations being folded into WRAP are NISP (National Industrial Symbiosis Programme), Envirowise, The Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse, Construction Resources and Waste Platform, Action Sustainability and the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) centre for local authorities.
Business Resource Efficiency DirectorateBRE, which will take over most of the functions of NISP and Envirowise, is one of four directorates that will make up the new superbody. The other three are Design and Resource Minimisation, Market Development and Diverting (household and commercial waste from landfill).
Creed said it would be the job of his department to “manage the transition” of those SME clients that Envirowise has already engaged with without it affecting the service they receive. However, he also said BRE would initially focus on just two existing Envirowise programmes – ‘Rethink Waste’, which is mainly aimed at the manufacturing sector, and ‘The Rippleffect’, a water efficiency programme mainly targeting South East businesses.
The other main focus for BRE over the next six months, said Creed, will be on recruiting SMEs, although he admitted that this was a “tough” area to deliver results.
“We’ll be working with the regional development agencies and possibly other support bodies such as the Chambers of Commerce to do this,” he said.
The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) first announced it was to create
a single support agency on resource efficiency for businesses, organisations and households, a year ago. It followed a review by Defra looking at ways to deliver a more coherent, simplified service.
The changes will reduce Defra costs across resource efficiency services by more than £5 million this year alone, but it is not yet clear how they will affect the level of service being provided to businesses and other organisations.
Related news:Green business & operations newsGreen SME newsResource efficiency newsRelated links:www.envirowise.gov.uk/rethinkwastewww.envirowise.gov.uk/Rippleffect