SUSTAINABILITY
Most state agencies involved in recycling here in
Australia also provide support to SMEs and other
businesses. The Waste Less, Recycle More program
provides $35 million to help NSW businesses reduce
waste and boost recycling, and $15 million for new
solutions to address targeted types of waste (http://
www.epa.nsw.gov.au/wastegrants/index.htm). Zero
Waste SA’s Industry Program supports SMEs and notfor-profit organisations with less than 200 employees
to improve their resource use (http://www.zerowaste.
sa.gov.au/industry/working-with-your-business)
and the business incubator Innovyz at Tonsley is
currently seeking applications for an intensive 9 month
commercialisation program for waste and recycling
businesses (http://www.innovyz.com/). Innovation and
export grants can also be leveraged to help “circular”
businesses develop across Australia.
But not all disruption needs government support. We’ll
go into some areas that REALLY do below, but the single
most convincing example I saw in my decade working in
Europe was a stocky Flemish businessman with the very
French name Didier Pierre.
Pierre founded a company called Nearly New Office
Facilities (NNOF), that reuses and upgrades existing
office furniture in Belgium. It’s a fantastic model
environmentally speaking, and they take their
corporate responsibility very seriously, but what struck
me was his business edge. He ran an office removals
company and was shocked by the volume of otherwise
good office furniture going to low value resales- or
thrown away. As standard desk sizes shrunk from
80cm to 60cm, or corporate colours changed, Pierre’s
team was responsible for picking up fully functional
furniture and moving (or dumping) it. Pierre pulled
together his logistics expertise and business flair
with designers and carpenters to develop a service
where the customers’ own office furniture serves as
the raw material for NNOF projects. Projects range
from straight reuse to the complete transformation
of existing objects. Drawer units can be made into
lockers, desk tops are sawn and reused to make sitting
blocks, and so on. Reusing these materials comes with
a significant financial gain and customers are provided
with certificates attesting to their reduced ecological
footprint. The NNOF model was profitable very quickly,
and the holding company that covers their design,
logistics and production activities now employs some
180 people with an annual turnover around 18 million
Euros. Now, NNOF received business support – and so
it should have – but Pierre would have made it work in
any case. It makes sense. Even better, we met because
he wanted to share his story with other businesses.
Rather than trying to protect his business model, he
wanted more competition out there so that he could
expand his market.
Great examples like NNOF can make it without
major injections of government money, and all
the ingredients – clever business folk, and existing
industry like logistics, cabinet making and design –
are all here and ready to innovate.
GOVLINK » ISSUE 3 2016
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