The BBP Managing Agents Partnership, a collaboration of leading property agents responsible for managing over 29,000 assets in the UK, has launched a new suite of guidance notes to improve waste management practices in the UK.

The outputs are fully endorsed and will be used by all members of the Managing Agents Partnership when procuring waste management services to support client reporting and their on-going waste management practices.

Waste has historically failed to receive the same level of attention as other environmental factors. It has often been a challenge for the real estate sector to accurately understand the environmental impacts of waste and drive improvements, as the industry suffers from a lack of standardisation and sophistication in reporting frameworks, and contracts often fail to incentivise environmental best-practice.

To address these challenges, the Managing Agents Partnership, together with the support of leading waste management service providers, has created the following guidance notes to bring greater clarity and consistency to the industry:

• Standardised Reporting Framework: providing a reporting template and volume to weight conversion factors to encourage consistency in how waste data is collected and reported.
• Procurement Specifications: provides guidance on how to incorporate best-practice when procuring new waste management services.

Carl Brooks, Chairman of the Managing Agents Partnership and Head of Sustainability at M J Mapp said: "With so much focus on carbon, the evolution of waste reporting has slowed, and the understanding of waste management provision reduced, impacting on the quality and consistency of the data used to assess performance and opportunities to improve. These new guides are intended to provide a renewed focus on the importance of accurate reporting of waste management data, raise standards throughout the supply chain, and engender a greater spirit of collaboration between service providers and customers."

“The property and facilities management sector has a critical role to play in delivering and promoting best practice in sustainability, when it comes to waste management, and CIWM welcomes this partnership initiative. Accurate data benefits both client and contractor, helping to identify areas where improvements can be delivered and ensuring that progress and performance can be tracked effectively. Procurement is another important driver for change and these specifications will help to mainstream good practice and ensure waste is firmly on the agenda,” said Chris Murphy, deputy chief executive of CIWM, the professional body for the resource and waste management sector.
 
Sarah Ratcliffe, Programme Director of the Better Buildings Partnership said: "It is absolutely essential that sustainability reporting is both accurate and meaningful as a means to driving improvements in performance. These guidance notes include the essential building blocks for this - a standardised reporting framework and clear and specific procurement requirements for waste contracts. Clients must drive the industry to provide better data and these two pragmatic documents provide the industry with the tools to do exactly this.".
 
The Standardised Reporting Framework can be download here.

Improving Waste Management Practices - Procurement Specifications can be downloaded here.

NOTES TO EDITORS

For further information please contact Lucy Elderfield. 

The Managing Agents Partnership is a collaboration of the UK’s leading property managers who are committed to improving the sustainable management of commercial real estate. It has 11 Members who together have over 29,000 assets under management in the UK. Its members include Broadgate Estates, Capita, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Bilfinger GVA, JLL, Knight Frank, Lambert Smith Hampton, M J Mapp, Savills and Workman LLP. It is an initiative of the Better Buildings Partnership.

The Better Buildings Partnership is a not for profit business collaboration of the UK’s leading commercial property owners who are working together to improve the sustainability performance of existing buildings. It has 29 members who together have £180bn of assets under management. Its members include Aberdeen Asset management, Aviva Investors, Blackstone, British Land, Bruntwood, Cadogan, Canary Wharf Group, Capital & Regional, CLS Holdings, Cording Real Estate Group, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, Great Portland Estates, Grosvenor, Hammerson, Hermes Investment Management, intu Properties, Landsec, LaSalle Investment Management, Legal & General Investment Management, Low Carbon Workplace, M&G Real Estate, Norges Bank, SEGRO, Shaftesbury, Schroders, TH Real Estate, The Crown Estate, Transport for London and Workspace. 

CIWM (Chartered Institution of Wastes Management) is the leading professional body for the resource and waste management sector representing around 6,000 individuals in the UK, Ireland and overseas. Established in 1898, CIWM is a non-profit making organisation, dedicated to the promotion of professional competence amongst waste managers. CIWM seeks to raise standards for those working in and with the sector by producing best practice guidance, developing educational and training initiatives, and providing information on key waste-related issues. More information can be found at www.ciwm.co.uk