The BREW Centre, formally launched at an event in the House of Commons yesterday, is being hosted by Oxfordshire county council as a pilot project funded with 500,000 from Landfill Tax revenues.
– Dr Alan Whitehead MP
Mainly website-based, the centre will have two full-time members of staff based at Oxfordshire county council to help develop a network of expert local authority officers to support council-business projects.
The staff will also gather information and case studies on best practice related to council-business working on waste.
The project is backed by Defra through the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) initiative, and is also being supported by the Local Government Association and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme.
Government waste minimisation organisation Envirowise, the Environment Agency, compliance scheme Valpak and regional development agencies will also contribute to the project.
Launching the BREW Centre in Parliament, Dr Alan Whitehead MP, chair of the Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group, said the project was a “giant step in the right direction” in supporting councils working with their local businesses.
Support
The Southampton MP said: “For a new venture to be successful there needs to be a strong emphasis on bringing together and promoting collaborative action. The new centre is all set to do this and will provide excellent support to local authorities as they continue to work with their local business community.”
The LGA's environment board chairman Cllr Paul Bettison said the project was about helping local businesses to cut their costs as well as improving the environment.
Cllr Bettison said: “Councils are doing much more than collecting household bins. They are on the frontline in the fight against climate change working with local businesses to help them recycle more, reduce the waste they produce in the first place, and to help them reduce energy and waster use.”
As well as allowing local authorities to share information about best practice through the centre, NISP local government liaison Dr Susan Juned told letsrecycle.com that the bulk of its funding would be put towards developing trailblazer projects.
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Dr Juned explained: “The centre will be helping to fund some pilot projects to build up our best practice into more diverse areas.
“Local authorities are in quite a unique role in terms of being able to make resource management work in partnership with local businesses – particularly the smaller businesses – not only with waste services and planning expertise but also in stimulating local markets through procurement activities,” she added.
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