Swansea-based Gavin Griffiths Recycling has scooped a prestigious Growing Business Award 2021 – B2B Business of The Year – at a glittering ceremony at The Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
Part of the Gavin Griffiths Group, the firm, which has its headquarters in Llangyfelach and expanded this year into a site in Carmarthen, was praised by judges for its “innovative approach to waste management, recycling and aiming for zero landfill,” as well as its “fantastic community engagement.”
One of the region’s leading recycling, waste management, haulage and aggregate suppliers, the firm was up against 1,400 competitors in the category, featuring some of the UK’s most entrepreneurial and high growth business.
During the last 18 months, the group has opened its second site, a 40-acre inert recycling facility in Carmarthenshire, complementing its existing mixed recycling facility in Llangyfelach, Swansea, whilst delivering one of its largest ever contracts, working on the Llangennech freight railway crash land remediation, a year after the derailment, fire and diesel spill that shook the Carmarthenshire community. The firm has also welcomed new staff, machinery, plant and 10 new trucks to support its expansion.
Gavin Griffiths, Group Managing Director said: “I was honoured to see us make the final of such a prestigious national award, but when our name was read out as the winner I was even prouder of what we have achieved as a team. I would like to thank the whole team, our customers, suppliers and stakeholders for supporting us on our journey so far. We are humbled to have been chosen from so many other amazing businesses throughout the UK. We have some exciting developments on the horizon that will see us pioneer and lead the way in the recycling market. It has always been very important to us to maintain our community ethos as a family business and we have continued our community and social values programme, supporting grassroots sports, individuals, schools, and charities across south and west Wales.”
The accolade comes hot on the heels of a win for Gavin Griffiths for Family Business of the Year 2021 at the Swansea Bay Business Awards.
Gavin adds: “To win two awards in one year, really shows how we have kept our family ethos and worked hard to serve our customers across the whole business.”
Seven new, electric commercial vehicles are now in service at the Port of Milford Haven as part of the organisation’s commitment to reducing its carbon emissions. Supplied by Sinclair Van Centre Swansea, the Volkswagen Transporter vans are being used across the Port’s estate in Milford Haven and Pembroke Dock.
The Port has invested in electric vehicles as part of its commitment to reducing its carbon emissions
Procurement Manager at the Port, Caroline Thomas, said “These electric vehicles offer a greener solution to our transport needs which reduces our environmental impact both in terms of air quality and noise pollution. We have a number of temporary charging points across the Port and will soon be installing permanent 22 kW chargers and a rapid 53 kW charger at Milford Waterfront in collaboration with Pembrokeshire County Council.”
The investment in a fleet of electric commercial vehicles is one of multiple initiatives taking place across the Port in a strive to reach Net Zero by 2050.
Tam Bardell, Energy Development Manager, added “In 2019 we switched our energy to a renewable energy tariff which means all of our electricity usage comes from renewable sources. As a Port we are continuously looking for ways to improve our energy efficiency and have invested heavily over the years in solar panels, LED lighting, heat pumps, insulation, and many other smart energy innovations to minimise our carbon emissions.”
With sustainability identified as one of its core values, the Port has committed to make substantial investments over the next five years to support and grow the clean energy cluster around the Haven.
The Port’s vision for the Milford Haven Waterway is that it will play a vital national role in driving new green growth in hydrogen, floating offshore wind (FLOW), wave, and tidal energy generation. This is already being realised through the £60m Pembroke Dock Marine project, which is part of the Swansea Bay City Deal, the Milford Haven: Energy Kingdom project and through the South Wales Industrial Cluster which are all supporting Wales’ transition to Net Zero.
Pembroke Dock Marine is funded by the Swansea Bay City Deal, the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government, and through private investment.
Works to redevelop areas within Pembroke Port and create new opportunities for Pembrokeshire communities have begun. Part of the £60 million Pembroke Dock Marine project, the redevelopment will create a world-class energy and engineering centre of excellence and act as a focal point for capturing the economic value from wind, wave and tidal renewable energy projects.
(Left to right) Steve Edwards, Commercial Director at the Port, meets with David Challenger, Senior Project Manager at R&M Williams Ltd, and Councillor Joshua Beynon at Pembroke Port where work has begun on the Pembroke Dock Marine project
The first phase of works is the renovation of the four Grade II listed Hangar Annexes attached to the historic Sunderland Hangars at Pembroke Port to create flexible modern workspaces and a workshop. The contractor R&M Williams is now on site and expected to complete the project by November 2022.
Additional works to extend the Port’s laydown and fabrication spaces, enlarge a slipway to provide more flexibility in transferring large structures from land to sea, and install a new workboat pontoon are expected to start next year.
The Pembroke Dock Marine project, which is part of the £1.3bn Swansea Bay City Deal, is a once in a generation opportunity to regenerate the town of Pembroke Dock and the wider community by creating the facilities and infrastructure needed to support the growing marine renewables industry. Around 1,800 high skill, year round jobs are expected to be created as a result of the entire Pembroke Dock Marine project benefitting not only the workforce of today, but also future generations who will have access to high quality career opportunities on their doorstep.
Steve Edwards, Commercial Director at the Port of Milford Haven, commented “It’s wonderful to see the project underway at Pembroke Port. We’re creating a modern facility here that will allow developers of cutting-edge marine energy technology to reach commercialisation. Crucially, Pembroke Dock Marine is a significant first step to unlocking further interest and investment in Pembrokeshire aligned to the Floating Offshore Wind opportunity in the Celtic Sea. With further investment and growth, the region’s supply chain could benefit substantially from the £682m opportunities and 3,000 jobs associated with Floating Offshore Wind identified by Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.”
Pembroke Dock Town Councillor and Deputy Mayor, Joshua Beynon, said “This huge piece of development in our town is a fantastic opportunity to provide green jobs and employment for residents across Pembroke Dock and Pembrokeshire. Our town needs this investment to make it a 21st century area that is ready to tackle the issues of today and tomorrow and reach our climate change commitments.”
Pembroke Dock Marine is funded by the Swansea Bay City Deal, the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government, and through private investment.
Swansea Council is seeking to be the first Welsh council to receive accreditation for the work it’s doing to reduce its overall ecological footprint.
As well as decarbonisation, this covers buildings, travel, land use and waste as well as biodiversity and the impact on natural resources.
Alongside other councils, the race is on to be assessed for the new Welsh Government-endorsed One Planet Standard.
This helps organisations create a road map towards net zero carbon with necessary targets and metrics to keep them on their journey.
Andrea Lewis, Swansea Council’s joint deputy leader and cabinet member for climate change and service transformation, is due to speak at COP26 today.
She will be on an expert panel alongside: Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner; Jaco Marais from the Good Governance Institute; Paul Bridle, CEO of Assessment Services; Seb Wood, managing director of Whitby Wood; plus David Thorpe and Virginia Isaac, from the One Planet Centre.
The session is being live streamed from Glasgow and can be viewed on the COP26 You Tube channel.
Cllr Lewis said: “It’s important to have measurable standards and an independent set of eyes making sure that we don’t have gaps in things that we should be focusing on.
“We’ve made a commitment to reach net zero as a council by 2030. We hope that across Swansea we reach net zero by 2050. But this is about changing behaviours, winning hearts and minds, bringing businesses, bringing the public along with us and of course engaging our staff.”
The Standard’s developer, and One Planet Centre CIC founder-director, David Thorpe, will say: “The One Planet Standard helps organisations of all types combat climate change and improve biodiversity by adjusting the complete impacts of their activities.
“The One Planet Standard will assist organisations to use integrated reporting to account for the progress they are making towards achieving the 17 UN sustainability goals.”
The One Planet Standard is supported by many of the top environmentalists in Wales, a nation recognised as a world leader in this field, and by the Welsh Future Generations Commissioner, Sophie Howe, who said: “The Standard aligns and builds on my existing advice in the area of decarbonisation and enhancing nature resilience, and it can help not only the public sector but all organisations in Wales with practical actions towards meeting carbon emission and biodiversity targets.
“The Standard centres around the five ways of working and promotes long-term thinking; it is an easy-to-understand and useful tool that can help address the climate and nature emergencies, prevent the disaster we are currently heading towards and help ensure the well-being of our future generations and the planet.”
Deep in the former coal valleys of South Wales, forged by the finest young minds in the country, a powerful new creature is emerging: Dipsy, the Eco-Cat! She is now on her way to COP26, furious with the lack of progress in the first week to tackling climate change. Dipsy is carrying a sackful of messages from Welsh school children.
How did this happen? Emily Hinshelwood, co-founder of Awel Aman Tawe, explains “I was on a zoom call with 300 children in Pembrokeshire, talking about how we managed to build our community wind farm after nearly a 20-year struggle. Dipsy, climbed on my shoulders during the zoom call and the children loved her. They asked questions about wind turbines and climate change – so I started to draw cartoons showing how Dipsy is finding out the answers.
Jen James, Education Officer for Awel Aman Tawe, said “The children in the Pembrokeshire Schools – Y Frenni, Saundersfoot, Bro Ingli and Gelli Aur really like the cartoons, and have also been drawing Dipsy themselves as part of our Energy Warriors project – this is a music, science and art project being delivered in partnership with EnergySparks, Ynni Da, Sion Tomos Owen. Mr Phormula and TTS Practical Science. We’ve also been working with Caerleon Comprehensive in Newport who’ve been similarly inspired by Dipsy.
Emily added “Wales has a long tradition of powerful cats dating from Cath Palug on Ynys Môn first mentioned in the 13th century. Palug challenged leaders – I loved that story and illustrated Jackie Morris’ beautiful words. Luckily, the messages that Dipsy is taking to COP are already being picked by our climate change policy leaders – Julie James, Welsh Government’s Minister for Climate Change and Poppy Stowell-Evans, Chair of the Youth Climate Ambassadors for Wales have both retweeted Dipsy. But other leaders at COP should bear in mind the legend of Cath Palug if they don’t act responsibly!”
The pressure is on for the politicians to deliver real commitments. Energy Warriors in Welsh schools have already worked with Egni Co-op to install solar panels and are now making further cuts to emissions in schools. Dipsy, with messages from Welsh Energy Warriors, will be on the shoulders of the leaders at COP this week…..
About Egni Co-op
Egni has installed 4.3 MWp of rooftop solar on 88 schools, community buildings and businesses across Wales. It’s now the largest rooftop solar co-op in the UK. www.egni.coop
All the sites are backed by the Feed in Tariff. Egni is refinancing our loan from the Development Bank of Wales with co-op shares as this is at 6% interest whereas co-op members invest at 4% interest. This means that there is more surplus going into climate change education projects in Welsh schools.
Here are recent films made by double BAFTA Cymru winner, Mike Harrison about the largest rooftop solar project in Wales on the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome in Newport and at Merthyr Town Football Club:
The team behind Egni Co-op have also delivered the award-winning Awel Co-op, a 4.7MW community wind farm which was commissioned in Jan 2017. It was funded by a £5.25m loan from Triodos Bank and a £3m community share offer www.awel.coop.
People and organisations who want to help Swansea tackle the climate emergency can now publicly express their aims on a new web page.
Swansea’s new online Climate Pledge Wall
Swansea Council’s online Climate Pledge Wall allows individuals and groups take a swift and simple step to tell others how they’re helping the planet.
Each online pledge from citizens of all ages, businesses, schools and community or voluntary groups will explain how the signatory is playing their part in helping Swansea become greener and carbon net zero.
The council aims to become net zero by 2030 and to make the city net zero by 2050.
Andrea Lewis, the council’s joint deputy leader and cabinet member for climate change and service transformation, said: “To really make a difference and to deliver the Swansea we want for future generations, action is needed from everyone now.
“People right around the area share our ambitions to help the planet and our pledge wall allows them all to tell others how they’re helping.
“I urge local people and groups to make their pledges online and inspire others to take positive action.
“It’s easy to do and will help the whole city become greener and more environmentally friendly at this time of climate crisis.”
Great ideas for individual pledges include changing to a 100% renewable energy supplier, reducing your amount of driving by walking or riding a bike – and shopping locally to cut emissions.
Others include cutting back on flying, reducing energy use at home and work, reusing and repairing goods rather than replacing them – and creating a space for nature in your garden if you have one.
Local businesses and community groups are also being urged to make their pledge setting how they will contribute to a net zero Swansea.
The council is already going greener and has signed a charter on climate action which makes a commitment to take action on climate change, biodiversity and nature.
It has been signed by over 50 councillors. Partners are also signing up to the Swansea Charter – they include the Swansea Council for Voluntary Services, Natural Resources Wales and the Swansea Environmental Forum.
If you’d like to publicly state your wish to help make Swansea net zero carbon, sign the city’s climate pledge now – www.swansea.gov.uk/climatepledge
Gavin Griffiths, Group Managing Director said: “I was honoured to see us make the final of such a prestigious national award, but when our name was read out as the winner I was even prouder of what we have achieved as a team. I would like to thank the whole team, our customers, suppliers and stakeholders for supporting us on our journey so far. We are humbled to have been chosen from so many other amazing businesses throughout the UK. We have some exciting developments on the horizon that will see us pioneer and lead the way in the recycling market. It has always been very important to us to maintain our community ethos as a family business and we have continued our community and social values programme, supporting grassroots sports, individuals, schools, and charities across south and west Wales.”
