I love data. Because I love turning that data into valuable information that drives business improvement. Take waste management on a construction site for example. There is so much information that comes from just one skip of waste going off site. But imagine when you combine the information from all skips throughout the life of that construction project!

Our construction customers want to know how much waste they are producing, say per 100m2 of the footprint of the building or every £100k value of that project. They want to know what type of waste they are producing, when they produce it, and why. They want to know how to eliminate waste from their processes on that project, or how they can plan to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover waste. And ultimately, they want to know how much these actions will benefit the bottom line of that project. And how they can improve upon them to benefit future projects.

But that is all at project level. Our customers also want to look at company level performance to see how that project is fairing when benchmarked against other projects, both on-going and previously completed. How much is it costing the business? Is that cost related to the project type, the conditions on that particular site and are they getting value for money from their waste contractors. And they want to see how they are performing externally against their sector peers using external benchmarks.

So, based on the above you can imagine I have had a few (heated!) conversations with construction teams over the years. However, once many of them see the financial and environmental benefits through the implementation of site waste management plans, they are soon convinced and take a similar approach on future projects.

The above outlines some of the reasons why we had to build SustainIQ. A simple software solution providing answers in real time to the questions outlined above. Because only when they have the complete picture, can our customers truly assess their waste management performance, at project, company and at national level.

But why is it so important to capture this information and answer these questions? Companies now consider this information as critical ensuring they remain competitive, by getting a handle on their waste volumes and associated costs, especially when pricing new projects at tender stage. Project teams need access to their performance in real time so they can report back to their clients ensuring all legal and contract requirements are being met, such as BREEAM and LEED assessments. And as businesses develop their corporate waste and resource management strategies, they need access to all of their waste management performance data. Only then can they develop a plan specific to their operations to ensure they are working towards achieving the ultimate goal of zero waste to landfill.