Phil Oram Operations Director and Ann Beavis Business Development Manager of Premier Sustain were approached by the school to share their knowledge and experience of running a successful business, covering topics such as organisational structure, recruitment, training and business objectives.  This was a real opportunity for the students to take their learning over the last year and see how it can be applied to a real life business situation.

Commenting on their visit Ann Beavis said “We were more than happy to support this initiative, the development of business students is now more important than ever in an increasingly competitive job market.  The students were incredibly enthusiastic and keen to make the most of this learning opportunity in preparation of their exams, which was inspiring to see.”

The Knights Templar School is a community comprehensive school serving the people of Baldock and the surrounding villages.  The Business Studies and Economics department aims to develop pupils to be entrepreneurial, independent learners, confident presenters and strong team players.

“The students found the contribution from Premier Moves extremely interesting and of great use as it brought the subject to life and enabled them to understand the application of much of the theory they have been studying.  It was extremely kind and generous of Premier to give up their time in this way in order to help their local school and it says a lot about them as an organisation. It is evident that they take corporate social responsibility seriously as they contribute their time and effort sincerely and with enthusiasm. Thank you – you really did make a difference!”

Ms Brando Business Studies Teacher, Knights Templar School

As an organisation Premier Moves are committed to developing relationships with local stakeholders to help improve local communities and the prospects of local people and this visit strengthens an already successful relationship with the school.  Through Premier Sustain’s Giving Back Project, Premier Moves has donated numerous items of furniture to the school including new chairs for teachers and furniture to help fit out their sixth form area.

Premier Sustain won the award for its range of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable workplace solutions to manage redundant furniture and equipment in line with the waste hierarchy. Since inception Premier has remodelled and refurbished over 1,200 items of furniture and equipment, resold over 14,600, donated over 3,120 and recycled over 2,400 tonnes through zero to landfill solutions. This has resulted in carbon equivalent savings in excess of 3,000 tonnes.

The award scheme, run by leading recycling information portal, Let’s Recycle, recognises best practice in dealing with waste in line with the hierarchy and rewards those who have achieved zero waste.

Phil Oram, Operations Director, Premier Sustain says: “Having developed an innovative and truly sustainable way for businesses to manage their redundant office furniture and equipment, we are delighted to be recognised with this Award. Sustainability is a challenge that all businesses now face and we are pleased to have been acknowledged for taking a leading role with our zero waste approach”.

Phil collected the award on our behalf at the Zero Waste Awards Recognition Luncheon held last Thursday, 11th April. The event, which took place at the prestigious Coombe Abbey Hotel in Warwickshire, was attended by organisations from across the UK who are championing innovative ways of achieving zero waste.

The team were delivering a relocation of over 160 servers in a single shift and it was critical that the project deadlines were achieved, despite treacherous driving conditions.

“We fitted all the vehicles with snow chains and our team had live tracking of the vehicles to make sure that we remained on target. We had to carefully plan the logistics to account for changing transport conditions and the client was delighted when their servers and IT equipment was reinstalled on time” comments Phil Oram, Operations Director.

Details of this case study and the other IT relocation projects can be found here.

The Premier Group has taken a number of steps to improve its sustainability credentials. In 2011, the company set up a specialised division, Premier Sustain, to offer clients a comprehensive range of services to extend the lifecycle of existing furniture and ensure redundant furniture is cleared with minimum environmental impact. All of Premier’s fleet have Euro V compliant engines and a new logistics management system enables the company to capture vital management information to use in its carbon footprint reporting.

Ecodesk is a transparent open-data sustainability platform. The system enables Premier to record and share its sustainability data with suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.

Jerry Marks, Managing Director, states: “Our Sustainability and Environmental Policy were extensively revised a few years ago to reflect our commitment to enabling clients to minimise their environmental impact whilst delivering wider social value. Our objective is to deliver a low carbon solution to our clients so we are taking these steps and using Ecodesk to transparently measure and report on our performance.”

Premier’s sustainability information will be updated regularly and can be seen at http://www.ecodesk.com/sustainability/premier-moves-ltd.

The company has launched a dedicated library relocation division to meet the specific requirements of libraries and to preserve this specialist market. The service covers all aspects of Premier Moves’ relocation services including project management, space planning, collection and journal relocation, storage, collection and shelf cleaning, removal and installation of shelving, recycling of books, journals and shelving. Through the specialist library service, Premier has moved everything from general books and serials, special and rare collections, microforms and non-print media, museum libraries, art collections and file rooms.

Alex Rushbrooke, Library & Records Division Manager, Premier Moves says: “Our dedicated library service was 18 months in the making and was driven by the services and features that are required specifically by these clients. We are delighted to have developed a solution that so evidently meets the needs of today’s libraries.”

Full details of our library services can be seen here.

The team became involved after hearing an advert on the radio appealing for support for this worthy cause.
Karen Ellinas the Storage Manager from Premier Moves explains “We had the idea of a ‘work relay’ team of fundraisers and put this to the board of Directors, who supported this. “We are frequently being asked to donate to various causes, so for a change we asked everyone to donate an hour of their time instead”.

The team members from Premier surprised morning shoppers at the Lea Valley Tesco Store when they turned up dressed as a big green dinosaur and a giraffe. Later in the day, the Premier dinosaur, along with a funky lion, danced to the Harlem Shuffle, much to the delight of shoppers.

From then on, all the teams took their turn each hour, throughout the course of the day until 6pm. The team wore the official tabards and big yellow hats, and people readily recognised the charity. Quite a few shoppers were keen to relate their experiences of cancer or were familiar with the work of Marie Curie. It was also very touching to see how readily the pensioners gave their money. In total the team raised £807.65

When asked to sum up her thoughts on the day Karen said “We all had great fun, and there was a buzz around the building. I’d recommend other companies try it”.

The move, on behalf of Mid Essex Hospital Services (MEHS), was part of a rationalisation project that also required the relocation of 200 linear metres of archive material, office medical staff, IT equipment and furniture as well as personal and bulk filing crates.

Following on from the move, Premier Sustain removed all of the former metal shelving providing a 100% diversion from landfill solution and sharing the rebate on the recycled material with the Hospital.

As part of the overall rationalisation, Premier Sustain have furnished specific refurbished areas with almost new, recycled furniture to meet the environmental and carbon footprint programme of the Hospital.

Kathryn Freake, PFI Contract Manager of Broomfield Hospital, stated: “Please pass on my sincere thanks to the crews who worked tirelessly to move the health records library over the last five days. It was a mammoth task to undertake in such a short timeframe and one that was well executed.”

To read more about this project in our case study, click here.

According to the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) Furniture Reuse study in 2011, only 14% of office chairs are reused each year. This means that around 1.8 million office chairs are sent for recycling or landfill each year which is a significant waste of natural resources.

“As part of the sustainable office furniture services provided, Premier Sustain Premier already offers furniture resale, donation, remodelling, refurbishing and recycling solutions. By investing in the equipment and resources to provide the chair refurbishment services directly we are able to improve the efficiency and breadth of the services we offer, enabling us to better meet our client’s requirements” explains Phil Oram Operations Director.

To compliment the sustainable principles of the service, Premier Sustain utilises an environmentally responsible and innovative fabric company, Camira, who provides bold and vibrant fabrics of the highest quality. Camira offers an environmental range call ‘Second Nature”, comprising of fabrics which are made from recycled raw materials, renewable and compostable fibre types, or with high content wool fabrics which are climate neutral through CO2 offsets.

Transport for London has been an early client of this new service. Gary Evans, Facilitiies says: “We have been impressed with the quality of the reupholstered office chairs provided by Premier Sustain. They always have a professional finish and are a cost effective sustainable solution to support Transport for London’s business objectives”

More information on this service can be found on www.officechairrefurbishment.co.uk. To obtain prices, please contact info@premiersustain.co.uk or call 020 8976 2100.

Enfield Grammar School has been the most recent beneficiary of Premier Sustain’s Giving Back Project, receiving a second delivery of office desks, chairs, storage units and soft furnishings in January. The items were no longer required by Premier’s corporate clients and were donated through our ‘Giving Back Project’.

John Kerr, Head Master of Enfield Grammar School, said: “The school desperately needed new furniture, we have a very limited budget and whilst the need for new furniture is great, this tends to get pushed down our list of priorities. This donation of much needed furniture has enabled our budget to be more focused on providing educational resources for pupils to help meet our changing educational needs.”

Premier Moves set up our sustainable services division, Premier Sustain, in 2011 and as part of this, the Giving Back Project enables redistribution of wasted office resources to support the most vulnerable in society and education projects in schools. The Project is delivered as part of a sustainable office clearance solution for organisations that need to clear redundant items of furniture and equipment typically as part of business change or relocation. Items that are not viable for resale but can still be reused are donated rather than treated as waste.

“The furniture has transformed the sixth form common room, making it a more purposeful space for the students to study and relax”, said Eileen Carberry, Business Manager, Enfield Grammar School. “Our staff are also very appreciative as the new furniture supports their well being at work and replaces a very old stock that was not always fit for purpose.”

Sharon Stephens, Charities Co-ordinator for Premier Sustain, visited the school last week and received a round of applause from the sixth formers to show their appreciation of the changes made to their common room. Sharon commented: “It was great to meet the staff and pupils of the school and to witness the difference that has been achieved. I talked to Head Boy, Jordan Frimpong, who wanted to express real thanks from him and the boys at the school, they were very excited about the positive difference this was going to make to their school environment. “

Set up in April 2011, the Giving Back Project enables redistribution of wasted office resources to support the most vulnerable in society and education projects in schools.  The Project is delivered as part of Premier Sustain’s sustainable office clearance solution for organisations that need to clear redundant items of furniture and equipment typically as part of business change or relocation.  Items that are not viable for resale but can still be reused are donated rather than treated as waste.  

Phil Oram Operations Director, Premier Sustain says: “We set up The Giving Back Project to enable us to simplify the donation process, customers were keen to donate furniture but had found some of the logistics and timings challenging.  Our approach makes it easier for our clients and charity partners alike, we knew there was a demand for this service but we have been overwhelmed by the response to date.”

Recent beneficiary of the Project, William Wilberforce Trust, repairs and refurbishes furniture, offering training and employment opportunities whilst diverting quality furniture at minimum cost to those on low or no income.  Max Manners, Senior Project Manager says: “As a new and developing project, our partnership with Premier Sustain ensures that we will be continually supplied with quality furniture.  Their high level of service and commitment to supporting charities like ours makes for a great working relationship, benefiting us, the community we serve and the environment.”

The Project has assisted over 50 charities, schools and social enterprises during the 18 months, diverting over 1,200 office and static chairs, 250 office desks and 300 armchairs as well as other furniture items and electrical equipment.