Cooney Lees Morgan leaps to highest sustainability certification in one year
CrestClean customers Cooney Lees Morgan (CLM) have recently achieved Green status in the council-led Resource Wise programme.
The company-wide effort has led to a 583% increase in waste diverted from landfill.
Resource Wise is an initiative by the Tauranga City Council designed to support and guide businesses, schools, and other organisations in reducing waste and improving their sustainability practices.
Project Manager Lee-Anne Roycroft and Marketing Manager Kay George led a team of five in CLM’s sustainability and recycling team. They say they owe a lot of what they’ve accomplished to the support of Tauranga Regional Master Franchisee Jan Lichtwark and Bay of Plenty & Taupo Operations Manager Pinakin Patel.
“We can’t thank them enough for their help in getting us here,” says Kay.
CLM made the impressive leap from the lowest to the highest grade in the Resource Wise programme in only one year.
“We were expecting silver or gold this time. To miss silver, gold, and platinum and go straight to Green – we were very surprised,” says Lee-Anne.
“And very proud of it,” Kay adds.
From the outset, Jan and Pinakin provided helpful suggestions and connected Kay and Lee-Anne with other organisations on similar sustainability paths.
“It really gave us a kickstart because we hadn’t started at all,” Kay recalls.
“Pinakin has been pivotal with helping us because we always want to try and make things work the best for his crew too.”
CLM’s journey began with a comprehensive waste audit conducted by Resource Wise. Pinakin was present throughout, offering expertise and addressing waste management issues directly at the source. Pinakin’s on-site observations allowed CLM to refine their waste sorting habits even further, ensuring their strategies benefitted both the cleaning team and their staff.
“Pinakin’s team deal with our rubbish, so having him at the audit meant he could fill in the gaps in terms of our habits and how they affect the cleaning team,” says Lee-Anne.
Pinakin also offered suggestions based on other companies in the shared building who were also making strides in waste management.
“That was really helpful for us to try and move the whole building forward,” says Kay.
CLM’s shift to Green status required the commitment of all 100 staff in the law firm. They started by removing individual bins from desks and creating a centralised bin system.
“People had to start to become mindful about their rubbish,” says Kay.
The centralised bin system separates waste and minimises recycling contamination.
“We talk about contamination a lot here because being a law firm, confidentiality is important, so making sure our document destruction doesn’t get contaminated is a high priority,” Lee-Anne says.
The timing of CLM’s waste management overhaul coincided with the introduction of new nationwide recycling standards, which required quick adjustments. While awaiting the council’s official guidelines on food scrap disposal, CLM proactively implemented its own organics collection to get staff into the habit of separating organic waste.
“We’ve made some really good changes over the last year. We’re feeling really positive about what we’ve done as a firm,” says Kay.
Although CLM are celebrating their Green status, Lee-Anne and Kay remain committed to continuous improvement. Their next goal is not just waste diversion but waste reduction.
“I believe we can still do better in terms of reducing waste,” says Lee-Anne.
“Rather than just diverting waste, we want that divertible volume to come down,”
Kay and Lee-Anne agree that the support from Pinakin and Jan has shown them what’s possible when it comes to achieving sustainability goals.
“We can’t sing the praises of Pinakin and Jan enough. They’ve been absolutely instrumental in helping us get where we are today.”
