Reduce           Reuse             Recycle!

I remember as a young boy growing up we used to go round the back of the pub where the empty glass bottles and barrels were stored awaiting collection, grab a handful of bottles and take them to the serving hatch at the front of the pub. There we used to hand them back to the landlord and ask for the 2p deposit that each bottle was worth.

Sometimes we used to get given a Mars bar and told to “just stick them back in the crates in the yard lads” by the landlord ! We had been rumbled, but we had chocolate so we were happy!

However what we did know, even as kids, was that empty bottle had a value when it had been used and the deposit being charged was a way to get that bottle back again. The bottle was then reused and everyone was happy.

Then it all changed – bottles of beer and fizzy pop were put into cans and then into plastic bottles. Retailers didn’t have time (or inclination) to administer deposit schemes any more so they stopped them and the cash incentive was gone.

Packaging got sophisticated and we all got time poor. Glass plastic and metal started being seen in places it shouldn’t be in the sea, the food chain and in landfill sites and we all realised that we needed to start taking care of our planet and we needed to do it quickly. Thanks Blue Planet!

Packaging manufacturers started to send the message that all this packaging was recyclable and that this material should not just be discarded but should be collected and reused. It had a value (again)!

Deposit schemes have started to become more wide spread with initiatives such as reverse vending in easy accessible locations offering incentives to return PET bottles cans and other recyclables.

The manufacturers started to look at how they manufacture packaging, with reduced weight of raw materials through clever design and ideas such as direct printing of brands onto the bottles at point of fill. Not having a label makes recycling a whole lot easier and cheaper – but even if there is a label it can still be recycled and reused, it just needs more sorting.

“Bottle to Bottle” is now possible with some manufacturers producing bottles that have a very high percentage of PET . They are food safe and do the task that they were designed to do.

Governments started to set up and support recycling initiatives across the globe. In California “Container Deposit Laws” are enshrined in local legislation and are legally enforceable. They have lifted recycling rates on PET bottles by around 80% in a relatively short time.

Sweden’s deposit scheme has been in place since 1984 for metal cans and it was extended to include plastic bottles in 1994. They currently realise a return rate of 86% for cans and 77% for plastic bottles. 

Norway sees return rates of up to 90% and schemes in other parts of Europe have shown similar growth.

So the message is clear – don’t just throw away this packaging into the wrong place when you have finished using it! Remember the 3 R’s!

Earth Trust is an environmental learning charity in Oxfordshire.  They protect and manage green spaces for the benefit of people and wildlife and provide high quality learning opportunities for schools, special needs groups and the general public.

The green spaces include a 500 hectare farm in South Oxfordshire and five community reserves that are sustainably managed in nearby towns. The farm includes arable, grassland, forestry and a research woodland.

Bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators are a vital part of our ecosystems. They are hard at work ensuring that 75% of the food crops we plant, produce the fruit we want and that the many animal-pollinated plants, vital to healthy ecosystems and the landscape we all love, can survive.

Recently populations of wild pollinators have crashed. The causes of this decline are varied and inter-related but not fully understood; however, there is no doubt that we all need to act now to halt and reverse this potential disaster for our world for now and generations to come.

We need to provide food and habitat for pollinators, reduce pesticides which threaten their survival and get the message out to everyone ( all of us !) who can make a difference and undertake research to learn how and why the pollinators are disappearing and act upon it.

On the land that Earth Trust cares for, their management techniques ensure that bees, birds, butterflies and other wild pollinators can find plenty of food, nesting and overwintering sites, and good shelter enabling them to travel safely to forage.

They achieve this on the farmland by: planting a variety of crops, maintaining wide wildflower field margins, using grazing cattle and sheep to manage the meadows, and minimising the use of pesticides on their crops.

Hedgerows and margins are created and maintained on the land for the pollinators making sure there are wildflowers to provide the pollen and nectar they need for food, The trees, shrubs and hedgerows of the Earth Trust’s arboretum are a haven for wildlife with rare birds and the pollinators in residence, clearly evidencing the area is in good natural health and thriving as a result of the careful nurturing of the eco-system.

Earth Trust spend around £4,000+ every year on maintaining and extending hedgerows.”

This is vital to sustain the local wildlife, including bees, wild pollinators and farmland birds that help to sustain the delicate eco-system of planet earth.

Contraload Cares has been able to contribute this year to supporting Earth Trust’s work on hedgerows.

As a person who spends a lot of time outdoors in the country I had never really considered or understood just how fragile the eco-system of the planet really is and just how much it matters, or should matter to every single person. What really made me think was the quote below:

‘If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse.’     Sir David Attenborough

As of 2021 Canada is banning 1-way plastics to stop the worldwide plague of pollution.  Great move Justin!  The exact list of products is not known, scientists are still drawing up the most polluting elements, but you can only support this positive intention and hope all other countries follow quickly.  Bottles, straws, bags, foams, etc.  The primary target is to avoid birds, fish and other animals mistaking plastic for food.

Here is a challenge … as my company is a pooling company … Why not go one better? 

The valuable list of 1-way consumer plastics is a good starting point, but what about 1-way products in industrial environments?  Wooden pallets, Plastic pallets, shrink foil, plastic wrapping, cardboard boxes and a lot more… The 1-way varieties of these secondary and tertiary packaging are maybe not directly endangering species, but they are killing our raw material resources that are best used with moderation.  Trees, oil, gas, water, etc.… Can we also get a ban on these 1-ways, please?

Every company and every person should ensure that re-use is at the top of their personal priority list.  Switch to reusables!  But don’t just switch… stay in control as well.  Don’t just produce reusables and just use these multiway products …  Multiway products are usually less environmentally friendly to produce and only by reusing them over and over again, do you get to the real added value.  Take accountability for your reusables!  You produce or buy them… you make sure they reused for the longest possible period and then … reuse the raw materials back into the same product.  It’s called re-manufacturing and it beats recycling.  Go circular!

Multinationals need to put marketing departments behind their green initiatives to report facts instead of putting advertisers in front of their greenwashing efforts.  Governments need to have the balls to put clear and undisputable bans in their countries and urge others to follow.  Hey… don’t just leave it to politicians and companies… people need to step up and do their share in their day2day life!  When these 3 levels come together, we will create a positive turn-around effect…  

Reuse reusables!

I cannot believe it has been 15 years since the day we signed the official Contraload business plan and started our quest for the first customers, arranging the first transports, creating our tracing system and even spending weekends washing our first pallets, drums and containers.

People regularly ask me whether or not I expected, 15 years down the road, to be running a profitable Pan-European pooling company, 150 FTE strong, 45 Million Euro revenue, 20% growth, with great service and high customer satisfaction levels…  I can only say: “That was the plan”…

But… achieving almost exactly what we wrote and targeted 15 years ago has not been a simple and straight forward exercise.  We arrived at this point thanks to a cocktail of determination, luck, positive partnerships with suppliers, banks and shareholders as well as being naïve enough as persons to keep our heads down, doing the work and not seeing the potential risks that were certainly on our path from time to time.  In the end it is about making more good choices than bad ones and creating a great team around you.  Everyday it’s all about one core promise that we have on our wall at Contraload: “Get it done”

It has been a humbling and rewarding experience to work with a range of customers and great people in many different countries across Europe and beyond, all contacts that have been brave enough to put their trust in our good intentions, believing that pooling is the way forward in a sharing economy where sustainability and re-use of packaging and raw materials becomes ever more important.

I want to genuinely thank all the people that have contributed to our success story as well as the ones that have attempted to make our journey more difficult.  I respect competition and people with a different vision, we have learned from all of you.

It almost sounds like a goodbye speech … but I can assure you it is not.  It took 15 years to get to this point and it feels like we have created a new and shiny platform from which we can launch ourselves even higher and further than before.

So… what’s next I hear you thinking?

We have a plan …

I can promise we will keep up our excellent service levels, bring more change and even disruptions in our markets, sometimes with trial and error, and with a bit of luck and determination, we will achieve our next set of ambitious targets.

Stay connected to us and find out more about our plans over the next weeks and months!

Thank you all from the heart,

Jesse

A part of any ambitious CEO job description is going from business plan to business plan.  It is the first thing a PE, bank or shareholder asks for and wants to analyze and question.  Often this request is more a need for financial figures, required investment, revenue growth, Ebitda, ROCE and other KPI-goodies.

My advice is, however, is to hold back on these numbers and start with a clearer understanding of where you want to end up.  A vision of what and where your ideas will bring you in 5 to 10 years from now in terms of customer added value, the needed and ever more important environmental benefits, the part technology will play and what unique and distinctive position your company will take up in the target markets.  Where will we move the needle towards?

By painting this ideal, yet in your mind realistic, picture, you can hopefully inspire your stakeholders to BELIEVE.  Once there is belief in the achievable end-station of the trip, the business plan will almost write itself.  Meanwhile, it is also crucial you understand that you will never reach this projected end-station…  This sounds strange, but reality will push your plans towards a new and improved business plan before you get to the end station.  It is like shifting gear before the car reaches the high RPM.

An accepted target destination makes the drawing of the map towards it easier and when all hearts and minds are aligned, the business plan becomes a truly joint effort.  Once all parties have underwritten your business plan, you can finally divert from it.  Straying of the planned route is necessary to keep on challenging your path and avoiding obstacles and roadblocks which you will certainly encounter.  Creating sideroads makes you agile and with some trial and error you might even find useful shortcuts.  This is how you move the needle.

To conclude with my short advice on business plans.  Spend more time with different stakeholders such as customers, team members, shareholders, wife and kids, banks and outside advisors on the detailed destination postcard.  It will help you find your way, write your plan and enjoy the trip and beauty along the roads.  The fun lies in the journey, not the end-point, this will move forward anyway before you get there…  Enjoy!

So, when will you write your next business plan?  Don’t wait…

Is there a connection between happiness and the environment?

A Belgian newspaper had a nice article last week about the fact that environmentally friendly countries have a happy population.

According to the comparison of the World Happiness Survey (WHS) of the United Nations and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a ranking that the Yale University prepares every two years, countries with a high happiness score have also a better environmental performance.

The WHS measures how happy residents of a country are on a scale of 0 to 10.  The EPI ranks countries based on different environmental parameters, such as air pollution, water quality, biodiversity and afforestation.

But does a healthy living environment make people happy or do happy people make sure that their living environment is healthy?  If you take a closer look at this graph you can see that there is clearly a link between happiness (Geluksscore) and care for the environment (Milieuscore), but that does not mean that one “causes” the other to move up.  Maybe it is the level of prosperity that makes people happier in countries that can afford to make efforts for the environment?  That is possibly the reason that Burundi is dangling at the bottom and Finland is at the top of this graph.

Two weeks ago, from 18 to 24 March, the Netherlands was dominated by the national campaign “Nederland Schoon”.  During this “Clean the Netherlands” week, the municipalities, companies, schools, volunteers and neighborhoods went out into the streets, armed with waste grabbers, garbage bags and trash cans to clean up their neighborhoods.

The Netherlands Clean Foundation is committed to preventing and controlling litter on the Dutch streets and in Dutch nature reserves.  The foundation asks municipalities, institutions and residents to help clean up the Netherlands.

I Live in a small village in the south of the Netherlands.  My village supports their residents during this campaign, but also during the whole year.  Every morning when I bring my son to school, people are busy with their waste grabbers and garbage bags (provided by our township).  That makes me happy!  But also, sad…

I’m happy because luckily there are still people who really care and are willing to help make our planet a better place to live in.  But at the same time, I’m sad because their help is needed and that there are still too many ignorant individuals who think it is necessary to throw their packaging waste on the ground…

So, if you are one of these “bad persons” inconsiderately throwing your waste out the car window or have difficulty in aiming into the garbage can… I can assume that you are not a very happy person and you are taking your anger out on mother nature.  This littering behavior is clearly not helping you get rid of your negative feelings, so try something new… if you want to be happier… do something positive for nature and the world around you!  It has been officially proven that there is a real connection between happiness and the environment… so start today and experience for yourself that it works!!

And thank you for making me happy as well

Another showpiece program?

As a supplier to multinationals, you are often subjected to CSR questionnaires.  They are very time consuming and to be honest, you can answer whatever you like as long as it is sociable.  I have never really fully understood the usefulness of these questionnaires and frankly, the completion of these elaborate lists gets on my nerves as they always seem to arrive in peak moments and colleagues question my questions

It is not that I think that it is not important.   As a person and as a company, we are responsible and accountable for the society we live in.  We at Contraload take this task very serious.  We take good care of our employees; we provide our customers with a green packaging solution that helps them lower their CO2 output and our own employees choose a number of charities to support each year.  (www.contraloadcares.com)

But I was talking about CSR questionnaires and the fact that they are very time consuming.  Luckily there are tools available that can make our lives a lot more enjoyable.  Two weeks ago, I’ve joined the Ecovadis Assessment Forum in Paris.  EcoVadis is one of the providers of such tools.  I learned a lot and, unexpectedly, have become a big fan.  So, I will share my thoughts with you on how my mindset was turned around.

EcoVadis has an online platform where suppliers and services providers can fill in a CSR questionnaire.  Customers can access the CSR data and verify if their suppliers are in line with all the European laws and standards.

The questionnaire contains the following pillars:

• Environment
• Labor and Human Rights
• Ethics
• Sustainable Procurement

Every question needs to be provided with evidence, such as written policies or reports. After completing the forms, you will see your scorecard in the dashboard.  So, in a glance, you will be able to look at your CSR performance. Based on your scorecard you will also get an overview of the improvement areas, which enables you to find improvements and how to achieve them. All this, with the option of in-depth guidance.

Ok, I admit, the first time you do this, it takes a lot of time.  But as soon as you have filled it out once, you can then refer all your customers to EcoVadis.  They just have to log in and connect with your company and you are done.  No more extra questionnaires!!

An additional advantage is that your “evidence” provided, will need approval by an external party.  So, it is not possible to give “socially desirable” answers.  That is the best possible confirmation that CSR is not another showpiece program!

For Contraload and most of the companies around us, CSR is so obvious and part of our DNA, that we do not stop to think about this type of policies.  When looking at the global picture however, we need to set the standard and now I have learned what I need to do and I will get it done with a super score!

For those who are not convinced yet why you should take your responsibility… we are responsible for the future of our children.  And now you know that with a little bit of effort you can make a difference!  Be part of it!

Disrupt the game!

So 2019 was going to be a year to strengthen our base and not be too adventurous…  I must have been suffering from post-acquisition stress syndrome after a year of over 40% growth.  Every year feels like a crucial year when you are in a market that offers a range of tempting opportunities.  We are lucky to be in such a market.  Despite the plan to have a transition year, achieving budget and keeping the ship heading in the right direction, something interesting always pops up and usually more than one thing….

I recently read somewhere that it is the ability and mind-set to imagine a bold outcome and set audacious goals that separates the strong from the weak.  There is no lack of ambition on our side and by talking to our customers and suppliers we are finding real achievable possibilities and if we dare to win and dare to set these high targets, then why not try to become a strong player ?

This all sounds easy and of course there are many pitfalls, which I can write another blog or two about… trust me :-), but the reason we are able to jump and target what others might find unachievable or risky is the fact that our core business is going strong and we have a fantastic, growing team of people that are connecting with each other in a revived corporate culture and they make the magic happen day after day.  A fantastic thing to experience and support as a CEO.

So, being ambitious, what are we aiming for?  I am not going to give away all our secret weapons just yet, but what I can tell you is that we are on a mission to create the next generation pooling company through a new set of improved products, the best possible personal service and the next level tracking solutions.  Our shareholders, employees, suppliers and hopefully soon our customers will understand that we are a small company, making a big impact… heading for an even bigger impact.

Our aim is to jump ahead of the market with a great team of people, solving the market problems, bringing a range of innovations and creating added value throughout the supply chain for players in several parts of the world…  and… we are almost ready to move the needle… keep your eyes open for our announcements later this year.

Too ambitious for a small player ?  We are not afraid of trial and error, we just need to make sure we have more positive trials than failed ones.  My old basketball coach told me (and I was also a small player) many years ago : “you miss 100% of the shots you did not take”.  It’s that simple.

Let’s get in the game and claim the ball!

Vegetal plastics are so sweet!

We at Contraload think sustainability is very important. We not only optimize our services and products to save CO2, but also do this with our giveaways. Take our pens for example, 100 % Vegetal plastics.  But what are vegetal plastics and how do they contribute to save CO2? 

How is it made?

Vegetal PE is made out of sugar (mainly from sugar canes).  Through 3 steps it becomes 100 % vegetal PE.

1. By fermenting and distilling the sugar Ethanol is gained.
2. Ethanol is dehydrated to create ethylene.
3. Finally the Ethylene is polymerised to 100 % vegetal plastics.

What are the benefits of vegetal plastics?

1. The sugar canes are absorbing enough CO2 when growing to compensate the CO2 that comes free during the production process.
2. Sugar canes don’t need a lot of irrigation and almost don’t take away agricultural lands.  Brazil the main producer uses 1 % of its agricultural surface to produce sugar canes.  This happens 2500 km South of the green lung of our planet without any consequences for it (no deforestation at all).
3. No need for pesticides or gmo.
4. Real renewable resource.
5. The waste of the sugarcanes is reused to produce electricity

Can I just throw away an object in vegetal plastics in nature without any consequence for it?

NO, DON’T

Vegetal plastics will not disappear just like that, it’s not an apple.  It still needs an industrial process to compost or be recycled.  But be sure it’s total life cycle will have a much sweeter taste for our nature than petrol based plastics.  It is not perfect but it is a positive step forward!

Curious about how you can save CO2 with our services and products? Please contact us so we can calculate your CO2 savings for you.