By its first anniversary in April, the initiative had saved 43,000 single-use cups equating to 0.77 tonnes of waste and will subsequently be replicated across the Royal Navy estate. It was decided that single-use cups would be eliminated from the building and a 100% reusable cups policy introduced.
ESS provides a busy café within the Headquarters at HMS Excellent, which serves thousands of hot drinks monthly. Previously, fewer than 5% of these drinks were in reusable cups, with the remainder in single-use cups going to waste. With drinks known as ‘wets’ to Royal Navy personnel, the ‘No Single Wets’ initiative was born.
From April 2024, the café would no longer stock single-use cups, customers must bring reusable cups for takeaway drinks and customers with reusable cups would enjoy a 25p discount. As well as preventing waste, the project has delivered around £10,800 savings for customers through the 25p discount.
Lisa Hammock, head of Royal Navy climate change and sustainability, commented: “The ‘No Single Wets’ campaign at Navy Command Headquarters, in collaboration with ESS, has been an important project for the Royal Navy climate change and sustainability team.
“The ESS team were instrumental in planning and executing the campaign: from ensuring contingency measures were in place, through to helping educate customers about the initiative, all whilst maintaining their usual high customer standards.
“Despite initial concerns, the transition to reusable cups has been smooth and welcomed across the Command. Not only has this project reduced waste, it has also been a pathfinder in cultural change, process change and communicating sustainability to the wider Navy Command community.”