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At Knights Brown, we’re always looking for solutions to difficult challenges. #RecycleWeek gave us an opportunity think about what we can do to improve our approach to waste and recycling. As a business we have a responsibility and as individuals at work we are all keen to make a difference. Increased awareness about the climate emergency and how we manage waste have brought these issues into sharp focus for many of us.
We try to look beyond the traditional to find new ways to reduce our impact, as well as taking logical steps to reduce, reuse and recycle.
While on site at Portsea, we reused chalk recovered from demolition of the quay to create flood bunds. After the chalk was extracted, it was spread out across the site to allow it to dry enough to then be compacted to create the bunds. Taking a more considered approach can create some really big differences in our work in construction. For our people at Knights Brown, thinking differently, challenging and questioning the traditional approaches and solving problems comes as part of the package. It’s in our DNA to solve problems, reusing the chalk at Portsea is a typical example of how we do things differently.
It’s not just on site where we find new solutions. Liam, who works in our IT team, was considering how to manage the refurbishment and replacement of our old stock of laptops that were coming to the end of their life. 100 laptops were refurbished and are back in use, while 45 were at the end of life stage. Liam found Jamie’s Computers, a Hampshire based charity that recovers old computers and laptops. It was the perfect solution. Jamie’s Computers is a social enterprise, that strips, reprograms or salvages the parts for sale from old computers. The money they raise goes to the charity, Society of St James a homeless charity in Hampshire.
In our bid to always look for new ideas our ‘plastic party’ employee working group, who originally got together to tackle single-use plastics, are now looking for solutions to the wider challenges of waste in our work. Right now, the challenge is how we can work best with our supply chain to find ways to reduce waste on site and in our projects.
There are always things that can be done and thinking differently to solve problems together with our partners is essential. We’re firm believers in team work and getting the best result, and that runs through every aspect of our work. From the coffee we drink on a break to the way we manage our projects, we are looking at ways to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.
