35 Anatomy of the Waste Bin During Interclean Amsterdam, RAI Amsterdam organised the workshop Anatomy of the Waste Bin. What ends up in the waste bin? And what items can be recycled? The workshop offered participants a chance to discover how they can practically reduce their ecological footprint. RAI Amsterdam has a zero-waste ambition that views waste not as waste but as material that requires a new destination. All the RAI waste is fully recycled and is used as raw materials for new products. In September 2018 RAI Amsterdam reached The Gold level of the EPCAS Food Waste Initiative for activities taken to reduce food waste. Less plastic waste Simple, small measures can sometimes save a lot of plastic waste. Market 33 exchanged all plastic straws for cardboard versions. Houthoff has also banned plastic straws and aims to be a completely plastic-free work office environment. Loyens & Loeff made a simple change in 2018 to save much plastic on a yearly basis: their canteen no longer offers cheese and meat products wrapped in plastic. Hotel Crowne Plaza Amsterdam South has its own sustainability programme, the Green Engage System, and the hotel has achieved the highest level in the programme. One of the initiatives in 2018 was to swap plastic water bottles for glass bottles. A total of 57 000 bottles a year. Digibon Digibon is a new digital cashier receipt that was introduced at Circl in 2018. It replaces the paper version. This small piece of paper adds up, in The Netherlands alone 13 million litres of oil and 55 million litres of water are used to produce all the paper receipts each year. Digibon aims to make Amsterdam the first city where digital receipts are the norm. Waste reductions at Stibbe Stibbe undertook a number of steps to recycle waste and recycle in 2018. Food waste and coffee grains are composted and glass and plastic waste are separated. Paper is processed and reused too. Desk lamps from the old offices have been given a second life. Drinks in plastic bottles are no longer on sale in the office but water fountains are available on each floor. Less paper consumption due to energy competition Social psychology masters student Ivar Maas researched how behavioural changes can increase sustainability during his research internship at Green Business Club Zuidas. He initiated an Energy Competition at seven organisations in Zuidas that aimed to reduce printing and copying. Participants companies and organisations Accenture, Arcadis, CBRE, the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Faculty of Law, Loyens & Loeff and the Zuidas Amsterdam Development Office saved 522941 pages of print paper in only two months during the competition. Recycling telephones and clothes Two teams of young professionals that took part in Green Business Club Zuidas Green Business Challenge placed attractive displays with special bins to collect mobile phones, shirts, suits and jeans at six participating companies: Circl, CBRE, VU Amsterdam, Accenture, Loyens & Loeff and RAI Amsterdam. They collaborated with sustainable companies such as MUD Jeans, Dutch Spirit, Van Hulley, Fairphone, Sims Recycling, Closing the Loop, Hemd and E-waste Arcade. The project allowed 167 clothing items and 143 telephones to find a new home. They presented their findings at the Sustainability report 2017 presentation together with a fashion show featuring sustainable clothes. Working together, circular To make their services completely circular Circl formed a coalition called FM coalitie Circl. This collaboration connects parties with representatives from ABN AMRO, Avex, CSU, Donkergroen, Engie, Securitas, Spirit and Vermaat. Coffee cups that are delivered by one party, are collected by another one and a third coalition partner recycles them as raw materials for the paper towels that Circl offers customers in their toilets. The coalition is also working on a dashboard that maps all the material streams, so problems as well as opportunities for more collaboration can be found. Buurtbuik Buurtbuik fights food waste by collecting left-overs at caterers, supermarkets and shops and shares them with locals. Accenture started donating all leftover food on Fridays to Stichting Buurtbuik from May 2018 to support local residents and avoid food waste. Closing the Loop Mobile phones are a large waste problem in developing countries. Unused phones end up in landfills in developing countries causing pollution and health issues for the local population. Accenture signed a contract with Closing the Loop in 2018. Closing the Loop is an organisation that collects old unused phones from developing countries to recycle them sustainably in Belgium. For every telephone Accenture has in use a mobile phone from developing countries is recycled sustainably. Photo: Ivar Maas Sustainability report Zuidas 2018
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