Go Green has made a name for itself, providing effective waste management services, nationwide. Commercial Director Jon Mimms and Head of Sustainability Sabrina Barnett discussed the company’s latest achievements with Inside Sustainability. Report by Imogen Ward.
Over the past five years, waste management expert Go Green has achieved an average growth of 15%. To continue this success, the company has implemented a forwardthinking, flexible strategy.
“We operate with a very wide portfolio, through our various divisions,” explained Commercial Director Jon Mimms.
“Recessions come and go, but we have come out stronger every time by diversifying and expanding our focus across various market sectors.”
Go Green was established in 2000, following founders Steve Bolland and Carlos Ferrinho’s decision to offer local waste services on a national scale. More
businesses steadily turned to waste management companies over local waste facilities – especially following the development of Go Green’s online management portal. This software enabled clients to access their waste data remotely using a convenient, easy-to-use reporting tool.
“With the portal, clients could access their waste data 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Mr Mimms. “It was a game changer for us and our customers.”
Go Green continued to grow, all the while providing its customers with effective and inspiring waste management solutions.
As a result, the company achieved an impressive annual revenue of £48 million over the 2023 period.
Infrastructure development
With success in abundance, in 2020, Go Green made the strategic decision to establish several new divisions.
First established in 2019, WasteOnline is a domestic skip hire service. When Covid struck in early 2020 and significant demand for home renovations increased, this accelerated the early growth of the service.
“WasteOnline appealed to the domestic market and local businesses – markets we hadn’t targeted previously,” explained Mr Mimms. “During Covid, WasteOnline exceeded our expectations. Due to the lockdown measures, people took the opportunity to renovate their homes. Where many businesses had halted operations, the waste industry was fortunate to inherit a new market-base. ”
This service was a huge success bringing in £3 million in just nine months of business, a figure that it still achieves annually. This success allowed Go Green to both retain their employees’ jobs during the pandemic, and create new jobs during the difficult economic climate.
GB Waste was established the same year for ‘business only’ customers – providing assurance on legal waste compliance in a simplified format.
The Green Scheme, Go Green’s newest division, went live last year – and it was developed to answer the call of a previously underserved area of the market.
“There are some businesses out there that really like the set-up of our management portal but don’t need the entire Go Green service,” continued Mr Mimms. “In the past, we would have shaken their hands and parted ways. However, that was before we developed The Green Scheme, which is effectively a SaaS platform that companies can subscribe to and utilise themselves.
“We don’t think there is a competitor out there that can offer this variation. Of course, it’s still early days, but the results it has brought, so far, are very promising.”
Go Green currently has six companies subscribed to the Green Scheme, including two major high street retailers.
“Some of these companies have locations within shopping centres, where capturing waste data can be difficult because everyone’s waste is mixed together,” explained Mr Mimms. “The Green Scheme has solved that dilemma, enabling these businesses to record their own waste separately from the rest of the centre.”
Customer VALUES
For Go Green, customer satisfaction is everything. According to Head of Sustainability Sabrina Barnett, the company has several methods for
ensuring customer retention. “We carry out customer feedback surveys twice a year, which help us decipher whether we are meeting their needs and how we can improve.
“Last year, we achieved a score of 4.7 out of five for helpful account management teams. We have worked to ensure that our account management teams are the perfect size for each and every client, and this score shows that our hard work has paid off.”
Every customer is assigned three account managers who are charged with delivering Go Green’s services effectively.
As part of this service, Go Green has a target to ensure 97% of phone calls received will be answered within 11 seconds.
This is just one of the KPIs the company has implemented in order to provide the very best customer service
Recently, the company was contracted by a national logistics business to improve its recycling rates. Go Green successfully improved the company’s diversion from landfill rates to 99% by implementing improvements to production, container selection and education on best practices. These changes were replicated across the company’s 30 locations and resulted in a month-on-month saving of £10,000.
According to Miss Barnett, training plays an important role in achievements such as this: “On-site training is a great way for us to interact with our client base. Our in-house training is also equally important, as it ensures that everyone at Go Green has a strong understanding of the industry they work in, to better deliver the quality of service our customers expect.”
“We also conduct supplier surveys as well, to ensure they are happy,” said Mr Mimms. “They are a hugely important ele -
ment of our business, and we don’t want them to feel ignored or underappreciated.
“We also maintain consistent communication with the entire chain and carry out extremely stringent audits to ensure these suppliers align with our environmental commitments.”
“This is very important for us,” explained Miss Barnett, “as we want to encourage our chain to deliver more than just the legal requirement.”
Framing a new perspective
Go Green’s services are inherently sustainable, but the company has gone the extra mile to ensure this is reflected internally as well. In 2021, the company launched its GROWW Framework, designed to drive forward its core values of supporting its staff, customers and communities within the UK.
“We implemented GROWW to find new ways of challenging ourselves,” explained
Miss Barnett. “We always had great environmental credentials, but we weren’t necessarily setting ourselves ambitious targets.
“We wanted this to be at the forefront of our business, not pushed to the sidelines.”
GROWW is divided into five key pillars: GreenEthos highlights the company’s commitment to a 50% reduction in scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2048. ReEducate is dedicated to delivering Go Green programmes to 10,000 young people by 2026. OurCommunity revolves around fundraising, donating and volunteering within the community. WasteSchool provides at least 3,000 hours of training throughout the team and value chain, and through Wellness&Health Go Green hopes to achieve 90% response rate on employee engagement surveys.
As the company continues to achieve 15% year-on-year growth, it anticipates a future jam-packed with development.
Go Green has just achieved an Eco Vadis Silver Medal, ranking it within the top 15% of businesses who have submitted an Ecovadis assessment. It plans to implement ISO 14064 by 2025 and will continue to make improvements to its operations.
“No two days are the same at Go Green,” said Miss Barnett, in conclusion. “We are constantly looking for new ways to push ourselves and become a market leading business in sustainability. Best of all, Go Green is willing to go the extra mile and invest to achieve that.”
Go Green has already made strides towards its carbon reduction goals. So far, the company has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 43%, transitioned to a fully electric fleet, installed a 35KWp solar array powering its facility, and adapted its headquarters to make the building more energy efficient. n
