LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (LSE), UK

LSE first published its Environmental Policy in 2005, gaining ISO 14001 certification in 2012. Having the right management and governance structure has strongly influenced how well their environment and sustainability targets have been received and delivered. The School has a zero waste to landfill policy which was achieved last year and continued this year.

LSE participates in an environmental awareness scheme called Green Impact which includes waste training for office staff provided by a dedicated Sustainability Officer dealing with waste and procurement. The training includes 15 minutes covering how to avoid producing waste and a question and answer session on what goes in each bin. The training sessions are carried out during lunch time or as part of other regular meetings. It offers the opportunity for the Sustainability Officer to visit staff in their working environment and get a feel for how they use their space and what sort of waste they have. The Sustainability Officer, found that she gets a lot of questions about what to do with odd items and especially about what happens once the items are collected.

Most office spaces have access to teapoints / kitchenettes which use tableware (i.e. non-disposable cups / cutlery). The catering team sells LSE branded durable drinks holders and are planning to introduce reusable water bottles too.

LSE prioritises reuse - in 2013/14, 52% of internal requests for furniture items were met through reuse of internal furniture. LES also runs a small scheme for reuse of office stationary, and recently installed a textile recycling bin on campus for staff and students. In 2014, LSE also sent 3,000 books to be reused by libraries.

LSE has invested heavily in internal infrastructure. They implemented a four bin model:

  • paper and cardboard
  • mixed recyclables
  • compostable waste
  • residual waste

There are also special recycling points in office reception areas for batteries, phones, CDs and toner cartridges.

The branding and signage are really important, as they prompt staff to act as well as by clarifying which is the correct bin for which type of waste – see Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 1: Bins in kitchen area, including facilities for CDs, mobiles, batteries etc (Rivilla Lutterkort, 2014 (b)).

Figure 2: Bins in general office area – specific paper recycling bin is available. Recycling bins are being slowly substituted for larger bins / bins with larger apertures (Rivilla Lutterkort, 2014b).

Staff know that for anything else they can contact the helpdesk which will then direct all enquiries appropriately. 

As part of the environmental management system (ISO 14001), monitoring is considered key. This is particularly the case for waste, where duty of care also comes into play. The Sustainability Officer works with contractors and cleaners to produce comprehensive annual waste data and ensure targets are being met. There are two main aims:

  • Zero waste sent to landfill
  • Push materials up the waste hierarchy, i.e. preferring reuse to recycling, and recycling to energy from waste.

In terms of data collection, LSE obtains monthly information for “normal” waste (paper, card, general waste, glass, composting, mixed recyclables). The contractor carried out sample weighing and then when they collect they note containers fullness (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%). This is used to derive a calculated weight:

% fullness    x   average weight of material in that container size     x   collections made in month

For other wastes (wood, metal, batteries, WEEE, furniture, construction & maintenance waste), data is collected in a more ad hoc manner. For furniture they keep track of item numbers and type and associate them with an average weight at the end of the year.

LSE are developing data collection processes and have just started an exercise to weigh waste and draw information out about types of waste by floors/departments.

Reporting is carried out annually with roughly a 6 month lag from the year end (Rivilla Lutterkort, 2014 (b).

Figure 3 shows percentage of total waste that has been going to landfill since 2009.

Figure 3: LSE Percentage of waste sent to landfill (LSE, 2013, p6)

Figure 4 shows the end destination of waste produced by LSE in 2012/13. A total of 55% was reused or recycled.

0.37%

 

Figure 4: End destination of waste produced by LSE in 2012 / 13 (LSE, 2013, p6).