In conversation: Bill Carrejo

IN CONVERSATION / 67

we've removed over a million pounds of plastics from the air

After seven years at Linstol, Bill Carrejo has become the company's first director of sustainable operations – and here he shows just why...

For the last four years, we have been working with our airline partners around the world to try to find sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics and other things familiar in our industrythat are now deemed as harmful to the planet.

It’s not only about making moves to something that seems more ‘sustainable’, but also researching and double checking that through implementing changes we're not doing more harm than good. If you switch from one thing to another but that new product actually turns out in the long run to be worse, then you really haven't done anything at all – you’ve just swapped your problems.

Our first significant eco-alternative product on the market was a bamboo stir stick, to replace plastic stir sticks. Since 2018 we've delivered over 600 million bamboo stir sticks just within the airline industry. In fact, since 2018 we've removed over a million pounds of single-use plastics onboard.

Worldwide impact

In my new role I'm looking at our company itself – checking our systems are sustainable, that we offsetting our own carbon footprint, and so on. One of our biggest goals is to become plastic positive, which would mean we take more plastic out of the world than we put back into it.

We've partnered with several companies to help us on our journey. For example, we have sponsored Plastic Bank to collect a million bottles on our behalf. Its team goes into vulnerable countries and stop plastic from entering the ocean. I hold a Masters of Science degree in organisational leadership and change development, with over 1500 hours of research into types of sustainable programmes and alternatives. That really helps - back research is essential.

I also work with factories around the world to make sure they're treating their employees fairly. We do this through partnerships with BSCI, EcoVardis and SEDEX. We make sure there's no child labour, there's no prison labour, that employees are safe, wages are paid on time and paid fairly – it takes a lot of work but we do all this to prepare every product for launch. There are a lot of challenges but I am trying to spread the message – trying to ensure we really make a difference. linstol.com •