The University of Bath recently hosted the Sustainability Exchange, a forum that brings together industry leaders to share "real-world" sustainability stories. Organised in partnership with ISTEP, the series aims to bridge the gap between academic theory and corporate practice.

The first talk welcomed Lee Sheppard, Director of Corporate Affairs, Policy & Sustainability at Apetito, who shared an inside look at the company's sustainability strategy.

Apetito is a leading global provider of frozen meals and catering solutions, specifically serving the healthcare, education, and social care sectors. As the parent company of the well-known Wiltshire Farm Foods, its model focuses on delivering high-quality, nutritious meals to the most vulnerable populations while leading the industry in environmental and social responsibility.

Under the UK’s ELV regulations, a vehicle manufacturer’s job doesn’t end when the car leaves the showroom. The responsibility follows the vehicle until it is eventually scrapped. It follows the "polluter pays" principle, where the companies putting cars on the road are responsible for making sure they can be recycled safely and for free.

The transition from the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive to the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) marks a major shift in EU law. Since February 2025, the rules are no longer just 'guidelines' for member states to interpret, but rather a single, mandatory set of requirements applied uniformly across all member states of the EU.

The PPWR aims to:

- Minimise the total quantity of packaging placed on the market

- Lower the reliance on primary raw materials through mandatory recycled content

- Foster a circular economy where every piece of packaging is designed to be recycled or reused.

The EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive follows the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle. This shifts the legal and financial burden for the proper disposal of electronics away from the public and onto the producers and distributors who put the gear on the market in the first place.

The directive aims to promote the 3 R's of electronic equipment, keep hazardous waste out of the landfills and encourage companies to design products that are easier to repair and recycle from the very start.

Under the UK's battery regulations, your responsibility as a producer, retailer, or distributor doesn’t end the moment a battery is sold. Instead, it covers the entire product’s life, from the initial design phase right through to the final recycling process.

This scheme isn't just about managing waste; it’s about Design Duty. It forces companies to ensure that batteries can be easily removed for recycling and that they all clearly carry the 'crossed-out wheeled bin' symbol. In 2026, this is becoming even more critical as new rules focus on "user-removability," making sure that the tech we put into the market is actually built to be recycled, not just thrown away.

The UK’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations follow the "polluter pays" principle. This means the cost of recycling old tech no longer falls on the local council or the taxpayer, but rather is covered by the companies that put those products on the market in the first place.

Under the UK's packaging EPR laws, the responsibility for treating packaging waste no longer lies with the municipality, but rather with the company that sells the product. It follows the "polluter pays" principle: if your business is the one putting packaging into the market, you are responsible for the cost of it at every stage of its life.

With the regulation already in effect, it is crucial to understand what this means for your organisation, especially as we move into 2026, when the fees you pay will start to depend on how easy your packaging is to recycle.

The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) are the UK-endorsed versions of the global ISSB standard. While the UK SRS S1 provides a rulebook for all sustainability risks, UK SRS S2 focuses on the specific requirements for climate-related reporting. This harmonised approach reduces the reporting burden for global companies while giving lenders and investors the comparable data they need to assess long-term financial prospects.

With the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) currently consulting on making these disclosures mandatory for listed companies by 2027, transitioning to the UK SRS is no longer just a voluntary option. It is a critical step in future-proofing your business.

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a landmark policy that transforms how businesses account for their impact on the world. It requires the largest companies and public-interest entities to report on their ESG performance with the same rigour as their financial accounts.

In today's world, chemicals are used in nearly every stage of apparel production.

Raw Materials: Pesticides used in crop cultivation.

Production: Bleaches, dyes, and printing pastes.

Finishing: Chemical treatments used to achieve specific fabric qualities.

While it is virtually impossible to eliminate chemicals entirely, it is essential to phase out hazardous substances to protect both environmental and human health.

When these substances enter water bodies, they cause severe pollution and threaten aquatic life. For humans, exposure, whether during the manufacturing stage or as consumers wearing the finished product, can lead to skin irritation, cancer, neurotoxicity, and other long-term health issues.

Textile dyeing is one of the most water-intensive industrial processes in the global supply chain. Beyond high consumption, the discharge of non-soluble chemicals, heavy metals, and the alteration of pH levels in local water bodies pose a severe threat to aquatic ecosystems and long-term water quality. With the UN declaring that the world has moved from a state of 'water crisis' to 'water bankruptcy', it is now more than ever for the textile industry to act to preserve the most fundamental element of life and business.

For years, "sustainability" in fashion has often been reduced to a marketing buzzword, a selling point frequently built on overstatements and vague promises. Today, that "greenwashing" era is coming to a close. As misinformation becomes more prevalent, both consumers and global legislators are demanding a new standard of accountability.

With landmark regulations like the UK’s Green Claims Code and the EU’s Green Claims Directive now in full effect, the risks of using sustainability as a mere ploy have shifted from reputational damage to significant legal and financial liability. For fashion brands, it is no longer enough to merely "sound green" but track supply chains, demonstrate transparency and communicate actual, real progress.

The conversation around sustainability in fashion is shifting. While the EU's landmark Right to Repair Directive currently targets consumer electronics, its ripple effects could be felt across every sector.

As one of the world's most GHG-intensive industries, fashion must look beyond 'what' is produced and focus on how long it remains in circulation. Transitioning from a linear model to a circular repair model is not just an ethical choice; it is a strategic necessity to extend product life cycles and drastically reduce environmental impact.

As one of the world's top 10 most carbon-intensive sectors, the fashion industry faces a critical challenge at the cutting table. Inefficient pattern layouts result in 15%-25% of fabric waste, even before a garment is produced. Globally, this translates to millions of yards of virgin fabric being wasted as scrap, since the cut-offs are often too small to be effectively recycled or reused.

Low-waste pattern making offers a practical solution to this problem. Fashion brands and manufacturing companies can drastically reduce their pre-consumer fabric waste, optimise material costs and lower overall carbon intensity by adopting this model.

In the fashion industry, the most significant plastic crisis is often invisible to the consumer. While shopping bags and sales tags receive the most public attention, the vast majority of plastic waste is generated in the B2B journey. From the factory floor to the distribution centre, garments are packed in layers of single-use polybags and secured with plastic hangers and shrink wrap, most of which are discarded immediately upon reaching their destination.

While plastics are believed to be the most convenient packaging for protecting garments from moisture and dust, the sheer volume of 'single-use' transit packaging is not sustainable.

In many organisations, sustainability training is reduced to passive content, i.e., reading materials, watching videos and answering quizzes. They are designed to tick a box rather than drive behaviour change.

This guide moves beyond generic awareness. It provides a tactical roadmap to audit your current training, identify engagement gaps, and pivot toward a model that turns passive learners into active contributors.

Deciding on the best way to manage waste or selecting materials with the lowest environmental impact can feel like a shot in the dark. As a sustainability professional, are you unsure of where to even begin or how to calculate the potential savings?

The Waste Reduction Model (WARM), developed by the EPA, was created to solve exactly this problem. It transforms complex variables into clear, comparative estimates for GHG emissions, energy savings, and economic impacts. Whether you are weighing the benefits of composting versus anaerobic digestion or recycling versus source reduction, WARM provides the data you need to back up your strategy and build a business case for your initiative.

Multiple terms are used to describe sustainable electricity, but are "Green Power", "Clean Energy" and "Renewable Power" actually the same?

While these terms are often used interchangeably in casual conversation, they represent distinct categories with different environmental implications. For sustainability leads, understanding these nuances is crucial for informed decision-making.

RNG is a purified source of methane derived from organic waste streams such as livestock farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants. Unlike fossil natural gas, which introduces 'new' carbon into the atmosphere from geological reserves, RNG utilises biogenic carbon that is already part of the short-term carbon cycle. By capturing methane that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere and repurposing it as a 'drop-in' fuel, RNG allows organisations to transition away from fossil fuels using their existing infrastructure, effectively lowering their reportable greenhouse gas inventory.

With the global rise of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations, businesses are now financially accountable for the entire lifecycle of their packaging. These policies create a direct financial incentive to move away from one of the least recycled forms of packaging - flexible plastics.

Flexible plastics are often used for their low weight, reduced cost and versatility. However, they are one of the most difficult categories of plastic to recycle. As noted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, "eliminating and innovating away from single-use flexible packaging must be the first and foremost part of any flexible packaging strategy." Because managing this material at the end-of-life stage is notoriously difficult, the most tactical move is to stop it at the design phase. Use the resources below to start eliminating flexible plastics from your operations today.

Cold food storage through refrigeration and freezing is a critical part of global infrastructure. It enables food security, ensuring the food's nutritional value is preserved from farm to fork. While it provides a lifeline for food stability in developing regions, it also offers convenience for the busy urban populations.

However, as the demand for frozen food and cold-chain infrastructure rises, so do the associated GHG emissions. These emissions are primarily from the high energy consumption and the use of refrigerants.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has emerged as a key policy tool for regulating plastic pollution. Moving beyond simple waste management, EPR shifts the total financial and operational burden of a product’s lifecycle, from collection to final recycling, directly onto the producers. It simultaneously rewards businesses that design for recyclability while penalising those that continue to rely on hard-to-process materials.

EPR is happening now, and it is essential to establish a data foundation, to navigate regulatory risks, reduce operational costs and future-proof the supply chain.

Brewing is an immensely energy-intensive process that requires high volumes of freshwater. Beyond the brewery walls, the industry’s carbon footprint expands through industrial farming, complex logistics, and long-distance transport.

We are already witnessing the real-time impact of climate change on the brewing industry. Shifting weather patterns are affecting barley harvests, impacting the quality, taste, and cost of the beer that is produced. Explore the resources below to discover how you can transition towards a more sustainable brewing operation.

The terms CSR and community engagement are sometimes used interchangeably. However, they are not the same.

CSR refers to a company’s efforts to improve the social, environmental, and economic impacts of its operations, often through internally designed initiatives. Community engagement, on the other hand, is about fostering a dialogue with communities connected to the business. It involves actively listening to their needs, concerns, and aspirations, and making decisions collaboratively rather than on their behalf.

When organisations move from “doing for” communities to “working with” them, initiatives are more relevant, create long-term impact and stronger relationships, and benefit both the community and the organisation.

An organisation’s sustainability goals cannot be met working in isolation. Every department of the organisation must be empowered to understand how its specific skills contribute to turning high-level goals into tangible results. When sustainability is integrated into every role, it ceases to be a 'compliance checkbox' and becomes a driver of innovation and economic value. It also creates a shared sense of purpose, future-proofing the business. Below are tactical methods for incorporating sustainability into key departments to ensure your organisation’s impact is as expansive as its strategy.

Measuring emissions due to Employee Commuting (Category 7) is often overlooked due to the sheer difficulty of data collection. Commuting data is highly decentralised and variable.

While it could be tempting to simply measure the distance between an employee's home and office, accurate calculations require a more comprehensive approach. From varying transport modes to the growing impact of working from home, this category requires a strategic lens to turn high variability into reliable data. This page provides a checklist of the data that needs to be collected for accurate scope 3 calculation.

While Waste Generated in Operations (Category 5) is often seen as one of the simplest Scope 3 categories to report, the challenge lies in moving beyond high-level estimates toward a truly accurate inventory.

If you are just beginning your reporting journey, you don't need to guess; the data is likely already hidden within your facility contracts and invoices! This resource provides a tactical roadmap to help you map your facility's waste streams and establish a baseline for calculating emissions from waste generated in your operations.

If your organisation relies heavily on business travel, your Scope 3 emissions are likely significant. While we all know the standard advice of prioritising virtual meetings and switching to eco-friendly transport, the real challenge is ensuring those changes stick throughout the year.

One of the most effective ways to drive consistent behavioural change is by developing a Carbon Budget. Much like a traditional financial budget that sets a spending limit on cash, a carbon budget sets a cap on the 'carbon'. By treating carbon as a finite resource, you move from vague suggestions to a measurable, accountable framework for travel.

While designing an effective community engagement program is crucial, securing internal buy-in from leadership is the real hurdle. Management teams (finance in particular) often view social initiatives purely as 'costs' that don't add direct value to the business.

An effective way to bridge this gap is to provide evidence of the impact the initiatives could create in the form of Social Return on Investment (SROI). By translating social outcomes into a clear financial narrative, you can demonstrate exactly how community engagement could lead to long-term impact. This approach helps you secure the investment you need by proving that your program isn't just a cost, it's a strategic asset.

If your organisation is planning to reduce water consumption and manage your resources more effectively, your journey begins with a clear assessment of current practices.

To make a real impact, you need a robust understanding of exactly how water moves through your facility, not just how much it costs. Mapping this usage is critical; it enables you to set achievable goals, identify hidden inefficiencies, and prioritise the projects that will yield the highest return. Use the following tactical steps and resources to start building your water baseline today.