| 39 T T Richard Loader Ensuring no uniform goes to waste Westpeak’s Enviropeak sustainability programme includes the recycling of end-of-life uniforms into dog beds, and the support of a treeplanting initiative. West Coast: Westpeak New Zealand “Our larger clients typically have a minimum of 100 staff, sometimes thousands, and that generates a lot end-oflife uniforms for recycling.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Westpeak New Zealand’s innovative sustainability initiatives have been duly rewarded at the 2024 Development West Coast Leading Lights Business Excellence awards. Westpeak, a leading supplier of workwear for a diverse range of industries, entered and won the coveted Sustainability Award for its Enviropeak sustainability programme, which includes the recycling of end-of-life uniforms into dog beds, and the support of a tree-planting initiative. The Sustainability category recognises a business or organisation that has introduced products, services, strategies or initiatives that are helping to reduce the organisation’s impacts on the environment and improve its long-term sustainability. Westpeak’s general manager of sales, Sam Hill, says the Enviropeak sustainability programme and the recycling of uniforms came about in 2021 when the company was looking for external recycling alternatives. “With such a high turnover of uniforms there is a lot of waste. New Zealand’s textile industry has over 100,000 tonnes of waste go to landfill each year, and as a leading supplier of uniforms we looked at what we could do about that. “At the time we were unable to find anyone offering suitable recycling services, so we took it upon ourselves to create our own solution,” says Sam. For a fee, Westpeak’s clients sign up to the programme and send their end-of-life uniforms to Westpeak to be sorted and shredded into particles to become the soft filling for a dog-bed liner, which is then placed in a washable canvas cover. While stain, rips, and zips are acceptable, a key requirement is that the old uniform must be washed and odourless. Each dog bed can hold up to 10kgs of shredded clothing, and over the last three years in excess of 100 dog beds have been manufactured, making substantial landfill savings. “Our larger clients typically have a minimum of 100 staff, sometimes thousands, and that generates a lot end-of-life uniforms for recycling. The programme is currently only available to our clients, but we get many enquiries from businesses who are not customers wanting to use the service and maybe one day we may be able to extend it.” Because the programme is being funded by the client, they have the option to receive the finished dog beds as gifts for their staff who have pets, but Courtney says 90% of the beds are donated to animal charities, including the Greymouth, Christchurch and Nelson SPCAs, and Christchurch Bull Breed Rescue. “We do in-house embroidery and the client has the option to have their business logo embroidered on the bed, so the charity can see who has sponsored it,” Sam says. Courtney says winning the award was rewarding in that Westpeak had taken the initiative to do something different, which is having a positive impact for the whole of the country. “Our clients have been part of the journey and they really love it too. “We’re also proud to support the Trees that Count programme. “Every time a client purchases a Westpeak branded product a percentage of the product price is donated into our environmental fund, and every few months we do a donation to Trees that Count, who plant native trees throughout New Zealand on our behalf and our clients.” Committed To Sustainable Growth, Together. For all your uniform solutions visit www.fashionbiz.co.nz WESTPEAK STOCKS GRISPORT SAFETY FOOTWEAR Providing tradies with quality Italian made footwear @grisportnz fb.com/Grisportnz www.grisport.co.nz
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