Procurement and Supply Chain - Oakdene Hollins

WR1403: Business Waste Prevention Evidence Review
L2m4-3: Procurement & Supply Chain
3.5 Mixed Approaches
Some evidence is available of procurement driving mixed approaches to waste prevention in the supply
chain. In all cases, external business support was present.
In 2002, Envirowise established a Supply Chain Partnership Forum hosted by leading UK brands such
as Boots, CenterParcs, Halfords and Manchester United with the aim of promoting resource
efficiency among suppliers. Envirowise claims that by 2007, savings from reduced raw materials
usage (i.e. waste prevention) within participant supply chains exceeded £3.5m with a payback of
1-2 months. Various approaches were evidenced (16 p. 18).
Scotland-based Allied Distillers Ltd, with Envirowise support, worked with its supply chain on
resource efficiency reducing overall materials use by 945 t/yr. Strategies taken by key suppliers
included: reducing the weight of labels (£11,000/yr saving) (Green Products) and reducing paper and
foil use (£85,000/yr saving) (Waste Minimisation). In addition, bottle supplier United Glass switched
to re-usable plastic layer pads instead of cardboard layer pads (£21,600/yr saving) which is an
example of clean operations approach (41).
The WRAP-supported 2006-8 GlassRite: Wine project included a study of the environmental
advantages of bulk importing of foreign wine for bottling in the UK. Typically, bulk importing
enables 24,000 litres of foreign wine to be carried to the UK in each shipping container as against
only 14,400 litres when the wine is bottled in the country of origin. This approach not only improves
transport efficiencies but, importantly, permits the use of lighter bottles since they do not have to
endure the rigours of shipping; thus, material savings can be won. In addition, lead times can be
reduced further preventing wastage due to incorrect forecasting; when bottling in the country of
origin the decision on what blend of wine to produce requires the use of long-term demand
forecasting because of the time incurred shipping the wine. In effect, this technique combines a
Clean Operations approach (bulk supply) with a Green Product (lightweighted glass bottles). A report
for Defra estimates cost savings per bottle ranging from 2-13 pence depending on the country of
origin (23). Bulk importation of wine has yet to be widely adopted by the industry, although the
retailer Tesco has now adopted this practice for all its own-label wine. a
Table 6 summarises evidence for mixed approaches driven by procurement.
Table 6: Summary of mixed approaches evidence
Category Supported Description Outcomes Ref ID
Bulk supply (clean
operations) &
Lightweighting (green
products)
WRAP
2006-8 GlassRite: Wine project:
Investigation into the benefits of
importing wine to the UK in bulk
containers rather than in bottles.
Various Envirowise Envirowise’s Supply Chain Partnership
Forum with various leading UK brands
(Boots, CenterParcs, Halfords,
Manchester United FC)
Lightweighting labels
(green products),
Reducing packaging
(waste minimisation)
& RTP (clean
operations)
Envirowise
Source: Collated by Oakdene Hollins/Brook Lyndhurst
Allied Distillers Ltd worked with its
supply chain to reduce packaging waste
in various ways
Cost savings per bottle of 2 to
13 pence (projected)
(23)
Total savings of £3.5m (16)
945 t/yr packaging saved;
£11,000/yr saved from
lightweighting labels;
£85,000/yr from reducing
packaging;
£21,600/yr from RTP
(41)
a Dr Peter Lee, Oakdene Hollins, Personal Communication
24 For Defra