Renishaw Awarded New International Standard For Waste Reduction

The world’s first international standard for organisational waste reduction, it is awarded to businesses able to demonstrate that they are measuring, managing and reducing waste year on year. Following the successful completion of a pilot stage, Renishaw has achieved the award together with Whitbread, PwC, AkzoNobel Decorative Paints UK, and the Football Association.

Calling on businesses to take urgent action to become more sustainable, Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, said:

“We are living beyond our means, drawing on natural resources at a rate that cannot continue without leading to an ecological and economic crunch. Organisations that fail to bring sustainability inside their operations will face the consequences of increasingly scarce or expensive commodities, water and energy.

“Reducing waste and resource use, along with carbon emissions and water, is a crucial part of the transformation that all businesses will need to make in the next decade. By taking early action and opening themselves up to independent certification showing real reductions, the businesses that hold our Standards are showing themselves to be genuine leaders and are putting themselves in a much stronger competitive position.”

To achieve the Carbon Trust Waste Standard, Renishaw has demonstrated an overall movement up the waste hierarchy, increasing rates of reuse and recycling. The company was also certified earlier this year to the Carbon Trust Standard for carbon emissions.

Ben Taylor, Renishaw’s Assistant Chief Executive, said, “As an advanced manufacturing business, increasing efficiency and reducing waste in our operations and processes is fundamental to what we do. We are delighted to be recognised by the Carbon Trust for our ongoing work to improve how we deal with our waste, through prevention, reuse and recycling wherever possible.”

Renishaw has also turned waste into a valuable resource. The company invested £196,000 to install systems that turn waste aluminium swarf from production processes into briquettes that can be sold on to other manufacturers, creating a new revenue stream. It is also assessing the viability of further equipment that will enable the company to recover waste oils from metal cutting operations.

Going through the Carbon Trust Waste Standard assessment process has catalysed improvements in the business’ waste management systems that should help it continue making reductions in future years.

Renishaw is also at the forefront of research into systems that will in the future help to limit industrial waste. It is the UK’s only manufacturer of a metal-based additive manufacturing (‘3D printing’) machine which allows items to be produced by building them up using the exact amount of resources required, rather than having to create components out of larger pieces of material using subtractive manufacturing processes.