Public Sector Procurement Collaboration Auditing Effectiveness
As part of Zest Recycle’s commitment to delivering improved environmental performance and cost savings for the forces within the partnership, a comprehensive audit program was executed ready for roll out of the new contract.
Background
Zest Recycle was awarded the contract for recycling and waste management services across several police forces within the UK as part of a strategic procurement collaboration. The contract was awarded in March 2021 with a start date of less than two months from contract award.
As part of Zest Recycle’s commitment to delivering improved environmental performance and cost savings for the forces within the partnership, a comprehensive audit program was executed ready for roll out of the new contract.
Zest Recycle put together a plan which involved implementing a working group to ensure the audits could be conducted within the necessary timeframe ready for roll-out. This consisted of a team of auditors and a coordinator to liaise with the relevant contacts within the individual forces to book in the audits.
The Solution
Over 100 sites were audited across five counties during a six-week period. The aim of the audit program was to establish both effectiveness of the current systems in place and compliance with existing waste management legislation and best practice standards.
With a huge task at hand and the investment in time needed to audit the estate, it was important to ensure the audits were thorough and consistent in establishing the key information needed to address the partnership’s current and future waste management needs.
An audit brief and comprehensive audit form was created for the team undertaking the audits, to ensure all relevant information was captured including type of waste streams generated, containers and frequency of collections, condition of equipment, current procedures and practices and potential to
introduce new sustainable solutions.
As a result we were able to effectively and efficiently roll out the new contract across the five counties within two months of contract award.
The Results
The audits also allowed us to identify several opportunities for improvement, including the potential for the client to significantly increase recycling and reduce costs by rationalising their existing euro container set up. In some cases, sites are able to improve recycling and reduce general waste containers by 40%, allowing some Counties to make cost savings of up to 10%, just on this element of service alone.
The information captured and gathered during the audit program provided a basis of information for the Account Director to draw upon and work with the partnership to set Sustainable Development Goals and create a Customer Development Plan on how to achieve those goals moving forward.
“The audits have provided an excellent foundation and basis of information to allow me as Account Director to focus on the areas of priority, whilst identifying immediate improvements which will allow the client to reduce general waste containers by 40% and make significant cost
savings.”
Christopher Perry, Account Director, Zest Recycle