LRS CONSULTANCY and Burges Salmon have launched a new guide that gives businesses practical guidance on how to become more resource efficient.
The guide, ‘A Practical Path to Resource Efficiency’, is aimed at manufacturers, retailers and brand managers, as well as their supply chain partners, to give them a better understanding of how resource efficiency can benefit them and it provides new ideas about how to make better use of materials and energy.
The guide provides case studies showing how other companies have looked at their supply chains and their own businesses and implemented resource efficiencies. It also helps companies to understand what they should consider in terms of materials and energy security to make their supply chains more resilient.
Dee Moloney, Managing Director, LRS Consultancy, said: “Being efficient with material resources and energy makes good business sense. It’s not actually that complicated. Businesses planning for their future should collaborate with their supply chain partners now to understand their collective commercial risks and opportunities and take actions to ensure they remain economically, environmentally and socially sustainable in tough economic times.
“Fully circular or closed loop supply chains are often seen as the desired business model in terms of resource efficiency. However, in many cases, less complex and lower cost approaches to improving resource efficiency can deliver huge benefits across the supply chain within a relatively short time.
“The ‘circular economy’ can be a bit theoretical and daunting for many businesses, so we wanted to produce a guide that can help them understand the practical steps they can take to improve resource efficiency within moving to a whole systems thinking and fully circular business model.
“We recognise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution and hope our guide demonstrates the importance of a range of approaches, such as systems thinking, collaboration, corporate leadership and good business practice.”
The guide follows new research from WRAP that estimates the foodservice and hospitality industry is creating an estimated 2.87 million tonnes of waste including food, packaging and other materials. The cost to the sector of waste food alone is around £2.5 billion.
The report from WRAP suggested that there are “significant opportunities across the whole hospitality and food service sector to reduce costs by tackling food waste.”
