The accolade recognises ‘No Single Wets’, a joint initiative to remove single-use cups from Navy Command Headquarters at HMS Excellent. The awards ceremony celebrates the positive impact of effective collaboration in action.
The Chairman’s Award honours a project or partnership that demonstrates exceptional collaborative working, often under challenging circumstances or delivering significant impact. It was presented during a special event held at the House of Lords.
ESS provides a busy café within the Royal Navy Headquarters at HMS Excellent, which serves thousands of hot drinks monthly. 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.
Previously, fewer than 5% of these drinks were in reusable cups, with the remainder in single-use cups going to waste. Minimising the impact of this significant waste stream was identified as a great opportunity, with the Navy challenging ESS to be bold in tackling it.
To date, the initiative has saved 52,649 single-use cups, equating to 0.94 tonnes of waste. As well as preventing waste, the project has delivered well over £13,000 savings for customers through the customer discount. The programme will subsequently be replicated across the Royal Navy estate.
Bob Gray, managing director – ESS Defence, Marine & Aerospace, said: “This important sustainability initiative is the result of a positive, committed approach to collaborative working between the ESS and Royal Navy teams. The results speak for themselves and we’re looking forward to supporting the Navy with the roll out across the rest of the estate.”