In conversation with One Stop

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Recently, we were proud to

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announce a collaborative project with retail convenience business One Stop

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that will see us recycle milk bottles from One Stop stores,

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with the aim of recycling over 380,000 milk bottles per year.

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This project is helping

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to optimise resource and contribute to our ecological transformation purpose,

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as well as supporting One Stops ambition to achieve net zero

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by 2050.

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Welcome to the Veolia Podcast.

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Here at Veolia, we provide solutions for ecological transformation

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by delivering innovative services across water, waste and energy.

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We work with a range of businesses and organisations

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from a variety of different sectors on projects that are helping to optimise

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resources, decrease pollution and fight climate change.

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Hear about what these partnerships are achieving in our industry

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leading podcast series, which features our customers,

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industry professionals and our very own Veolia experts.

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Stay tuned.

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Hi, I'm Sophie

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Edwards, National Account Manager at Veolia, and I'm joined by Jenna Chambers.

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We're going to be discussing

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our new collaborative recycling project in more detail.

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But first, Jenna, would you like to introduce yourself?

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Great to chat to you today, Sophie.

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In my role as customer and sustainability manager,

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I'm really excited to work with you at Veolia on this project.

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Brilliant Jenna.

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Thank you for the introduction.

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Let's get stuck into some questions regarding the milk bottles

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and obviously the project that One Stop has started.

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One stop is aiming to recycle 380,000 milk bottles per year from One Stop stores.

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Could you tell us a bit more about how this is going to work at store?

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So within stores, we use a lot of milk bottles for either

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staff refreshments or from the milk we put into our

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vending machines in stores.

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So recycling these is really important for us.

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What we, we take them and we flatten them and bag them up

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separately to return to our distribution centers

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along with the other recyclables,

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including plastics and cardboard that we spring back.

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These are then collected by Veolia and the recycling journey kind of starts there,

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so they're washed, shredded and turned into pellets,

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which can then be blown straight back into new milk bottles.

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Amazing.

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So we've got closed loop.

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Absolutely. Brilliant.

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So I understand that One Stop in the beginning was putting the milk bottles

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into the general waste. Yes, that's correct.

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So it's brilliant that you've now diverted that into mixed recycling

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and then obviously the milk bottle could then be used again at the end process

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and sold back to your stores, which is great to see.

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What would be

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the impact of this move in terms of carbon emissions.

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So how will it contribute towards One Stops net zero strategy?

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So our ambition is to have carbon neutral operations by 2035 across

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scopes one and two and net zero for our full value chain by 2050 across scope three.

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By focusing on reducing waste sent to energy from waste and increasing recycling,

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this helps to reduce our scope three carbon emissions,

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while also replacing the need for raw materials, saving

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67% of carbon emissions at the same time.

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Thanks for expanding on One Stop's carbon reduction plans

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and the targets you've set for 2035 and 2050.

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How does this fit into One Stop's wider sustainability plans?

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So minimising waste is a real key pillar in our sustainability strategy.

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We're committed to increasing recycling across all of our operations

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and diverting as much waste from landfill as we possibly can,

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as well as reducing the amount of packaging

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we put onto the market and working to ensure that packaging

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is easily recyclable for our customers

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because we appreciate the challenges that that does bring for them.

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So far, we've recycled over 20,000 plastic flower buckets

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and some of this plastic has been turned into items such as benches

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which we’ve then been able to give back to our local communities.

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It's been a really fabulous project to work on.

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Food waste continues to be a key for One Stop

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and across the retail sector, and it is front and centre

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of our customers minds in terms of sustainability.

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And we are working closely with Too Good To Go and Olio

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to reduce food waste across the communities that we do serve.

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What are the main challenges for becoming more sustainable

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in the retail convenience sector and how are the partnerships

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like the one between One Stop and Veolia helping to overcome these?

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So the current fluidity of legislation is of course a challenge that we're working

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closely with industry experts, such as yourselves to align to. Legislation

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often doesn't consider the size of store and the back of house capacities,

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and with our stores being below 3000 square foot

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, accommodating some of the requirements can be quite an operational challenge.

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For our customers

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the cost of living crisis has made it increasingly difficult for themselves

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to purchase sustainable products which are often more expensive.

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It's really essential that retailers do support customers with these affordable

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products and help support reduction in costly food waste,

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which, as I've said, is we know the most sustainable issues to our customers.

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Partnerships such as the one between One Stop and

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Veolia help to raise awareness of the circular economy

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and give confidence back to communities that we are doing

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as much as we possibly can in their best interest.

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Looking back on 2023 so far,

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what has been some of One Stops other key highlights?

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So working with yourselves, we've powered 192 houses per year from electricity

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from our waste, we’ve recycled 27,000 tonnes of scrap metal

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and in addition we've donated 800,000 meals via Olio and local food banks.

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What's

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next for One Stops sustainability journey?

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So across our transport and property strategies, we've got some exciting plans

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in place, including electrified electricity reduction projects,

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to help us support a move to low carbon emissions, with some asset

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replacement plans and fuel saving across the entire fleet.

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Also, how do you engage with your sustainability journey

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with your customers?

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So this is a really important one to us because often customers

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version of sustainability is not the same as ours.

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So what we've been doing recently is increasing communications, point of sale

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across our digital media to customers to let them know what

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we're doing, why we're doing it, and how it helps them.

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It's been great working with One Stop over the last

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18 months producing benches from flower buckets for your 1,000th store

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and donating another bench to a care home for the King's coronation.

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We look forward to seeing what the next part of the partnership will bring.

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Thank for your time today, Jenna. I really appreciate it.

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That's great.

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It's been lovely chatting to you. Thank you.