Tag: progress report

Scottish libraries play key role in success of UK-wide circular economy project

Winners of the John Lewis Partnership’s Circular Future Fund – one year on

  • Four projects reveal their 12-month progress: creating ‘lend and mend’ hubs in libraries, helping to make menstrual cups mainstream, redesign children’s shoes to make them last longer and technology to enable polyester to be recycled again and again
  • The £1 million fund was launched in November 2021, calling for new ideas and innovations to transition towards a more circular economy
  • The Circular Future Fund was raised from the sales of 10p plastic bags
  • The Circular Future Fund impact report can be viewed at: hubbub.org.uk

An innovative ‘lend and mend’ initiative in nine Scottish libraries has played a significant role in the success of a new UK-wide circular economy project.

The John Lewis Partnership and environmental charity Hubbub, has this week published an impact report, detailing the progress of four trailblazing projects that were awarded funding as part of the Circular Future Fund, created to find pioneering circular economy ideas.

In 2022, four projects were each awarded grants of between £150,000 – £300,000, from 245 applications, to develop their innovative solutions that challenged the ‘make…use…throw-away’ culture of modern society. The £1 million fund was made possible by the sales of 10p plastic bags through the John Lewis Partnership.

Helping menstrual cups go mainstream, redesigning children’s shoes to make them last longer, creating ‘lend and mend’ hubs in libraries and enabling polyester to be recycled again and again were the winning projects chosen by an independent Grant Fund panel of industry experts. Each winner was then supported by Hubbub to develop and achieve their ambitions.

The successful projects have each reported significant progress with proven results that leave a strong legacy for their respective industries. By sharing their learnings and challenges in the report, they hope to inspire others to follow in their footsteps towards creating a more circular economy.

Key outcomes from each project are detailed below:

SCOTTISH LIBRARY AND INFORMATION COUNCIL (SLIC) – Establishing ‘lend and mend hubs’ in Scottish libraries  

SLIC’s project aimed to create a network of lend and mend hubs across Scotland to support communities to repair, reuse, rent and upcycle everyday items.

The difference made:

  • Nine hubs have been created, with early indications suggest hubs have the potential to reach around 2,000 people per year through sewing and mending classes alone.
  • All libraries are offering equipment, workshops, and tools free of charge to overcome cost barriers for the public, making everyday circular economy actions more accessible.
  • The hubs are fitted out with circularity in mind, using repurposed office furniture saving 5 tCO2 compared to buying new and upcycled peg boards that were part of Kenya’s display at COP26 in Glasgow.

SLIC plan to create a toolkit, disseminated through workshops, to share their learnings and help other library services across the UK replicate their approach.

Marion Kunderan, head of programme on the SLIC ‘Lend and Mend’ project team: “With the ongoing cost of living crisis, the Lend and Mend Hubs have the potential to support families to make more sustainable choices. 

“Libraries are trusted community spaces without agenda and have an opportunity to provide a space where communities can take action through practical everyday solutions locally.”

DAME – Helping menstrual cups go mainstream 

The perfect circular sustainable period product, the menstrual cup, has existed for decades, yet it remains a niche product that only 5% of people with periods use.  DAME aimed to break down the barriers to using menstrual cups. They gained insight of the barriers to cup use, through surveys and a small user group trial, identifying the main concerns as comfort, leaking, and inserting a menstrual cup, plus cleaning it.

The difference made:

  • To help combat these barriers, the project created a myth-busting cup user guide, featuring Hayley Morris which is viewed 4,500 times per day.
  • DAME also designed a groundbreaking self-sanitising menstrual cup, removing the need to boil or sterilise cups. Launched in June, the self-sanitising period cup has achieved several ISO standards to prove its safety and effectiveness.
  • Each cup is predicted to contribute 99 times less carbon over its lifetime[4] (compared to boiling a traditional cup) and avoids the need for 2,860 disposable period products per person over a lifetime of periods.
  • Next DAME are exploring charity partnerships to see if the cup could be available to those experiencing period poverty, and sharing the user guide content with educators to help more teenagers to try and stick with menstrual cups.

PIP & HENRY – Redesigning children’s shoes to make them last longer 

Pip & Henry’s research and development project explored extending the life of children’s shoes. Young children replace shoes every 4 months, while 85% of shoes currently end up in landfill. Pip & Henry’s project aimed to explore two solutions to disrupt the children’s footwear industry.

The difference made:

  • Over the year period, Pip & Henry actually developed three concepts to work towards their vision of an expandable shoe and shoe that can be more cleanly separated into their component materials and therefore more easily recycled.
  • They hope to launch a capsule collection in 2024 and are exploring licensing concepts to help scale their circular shoe innovations.
  • The project has provided in-depth knowledge about the environmental impacts of footwear manufacturing methods and material innovations, plus how to design for better end of life recycling.
  • Pip & Henry plan to share their learnings and insights with the footwear manufacturing and recycling industries, to help create an industry step change to more circular shoe designs.

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS – Innovating technology to enable polyester to be recycled again and again   

Polyester is the world’s most common textile fibre and yet only 15% of polyester produced is made from recycled polyester (mostly from plastic bottles) [7]. Currently there is no true circularity in the polyester industry because the dyes in polyester mean it cannot be easily removed which prevents it being recycled back into new virgin polyester fibre. The University of Leeds’s innovation created new novel ‘switchable-solubility’ dyes that enables them to be switched from water-soluble to water-insoluble to colour and de-colour polyester.

The difference made

  • The research proves the dyes can be both added to, and removed from polyester, enabling the dye, water and fabric to be recycled with huge potential environmental benefits, needing less energy and water use, and removing the need for auxiliary chemicals in the dyeing process.
  • The introduction of the new CO₂ technology delivers a truly circular process that has the potential to recycle directly and mechanically some of the 57 million tonnes of polyester fibre produced globally each year[8].
  • The University of Leeds also made a bonus discovery, in that their technology also works on other fabrics such as denim and existing dyes in polyester.
  • Next the project plans to scale the technology to test at industrial scale, plus complete a full environmental lifecycle analysis.
  • The University of Leeds will share their discoveries with the textile and recycling sectors, plus exploring commercialising the technology to maximise its reach and impact.

Marija Rompani, Director of Ethics and Sustainability at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “The Circular Future Fund allowed us to connect and support leading innovators to enhance their circular business models and drive the shift in circularity within the industry and society.

“I’m so excited to share their findings, and hopefully this is just the beginning of the impact that each of the winning projects will have.”

Saskia Restorick, Director at Hubbub, said: “The four projects, while very different in nature, shared an ambition to bring innovative, creative and entrepreneurial approaches to designing out waste in their respective sectors.

“This forward-thinking fund, along with the winners’ hard work and dedication has enabled them to find tangible solutions and gain huge amounts of insight and knowledge. It has been a pleasure working with them and seeing their ideas come to life.

“We look forward to seeing how they develop and to sharing their successes to inspire even more innovation to speed up the transition to a more circular economy.”

The Circular Future Fund aimed to identify innovation and challenge the status quo, to boost the circular economy. The four projects have delivered on their ambitions, leave a strong legacy and offer tangible examples of the circular economy in action.

To find out more about the four projects, their impact and legacy, the Circular Future Fund impact report can be viewed at  hubbub.org.uk

Scottish Government: Delivering on child poverty commitments

Record investment of almost £8.5 billion was committed to support low income households between 2018-22, with almost £3.3 billion benefitting children.

The fourth annual progress report on child poverty, published yesterday, shows that all of the actions committed as part of the first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, Every Child, Every Chance, have been delivered.

The plan focused on three drivers of child poverty reduction – work and earnings, social security and household costs – and on the six priority family types at greatest risk of poverty, including lone parent families and families with a disabled adult or child.

Key achievements over the life of the plan (2018-22) include:

  • introduction of the Scottish Child Payment, with more than 1.2 million payments between February 2021 and March 2022 – a £58.6 million investment
  • increase in the number of real Living Wage accredited employers, with the proportion of people earning the real Living Wage or more rising from 80.6% in 2018 to 85.6% in 2021
  • increase in the funded hours for Early Learning and Childcare from 600 hours in 2018 to 1,140 hours in August 2021, saving families up to £4,900 per eligible child in 2021
  • delivery of 35,095 affordable homes, 25,562 of which were for social rent – supporting an estimated 11,585 households with children into affordable housing between 2018-22
  • extension of concessionary travel to all under 22s, with approximately 930,000 young people eligible for support – saving families up to £3,000 by the time their child turns 18
  • expansion of universal free school meals to children in primaries 4 and 5, saving families around £400 per child and increasing School Clothing Grant to at least £120 for eligible primary school children and £150 for those in secondary school in 2021

Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison said: “Over the last four years, we have strengthened the foundations of support for children and families and used our powers to support those most in need, particularly with the introduction of our new social security system.

“We are now supporting low income households, carers and helping disabled people lead independent lives through 12 benefits, seven of which are entirely new and not available anywhere else in the UK.

“We have made progress despite significant challenges. The pandemic and the continued impact of UK Government welfare reforms has disproportionately impacted the most disadvantaged and been severe. And, of course, households are all now facing the current cost of living crisis.

“That is why we remain determined to continue with our national mission to tackle child poverty.  Our second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2022-26, Best Start, Bright Futures, is ambitious and has a range of actions to support families both immediately and in the long term to deliver change.

“We will also continue to call on the UK Government to reverse their welfare reforms, including the two-child limit. Analysis shows that reversing them would put an estimated £780 million in the pockets of Scottish households in 2023-24 and help to lift 70,000 people out of poverty, including 30,000 children.”

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A Just Capital? End Poverty in Edinburgh first annual report

Poverty Week

The first annual report of how Edinburgh is progressing in its aim to end poverty by 2030 has detailed significant positive developments taking place in the Capital.

It is a year since the Edinburgh Poverty Commission, an independent group sponsored by the City of Edinburgh Council in 2018 to define the steps the city needed to take to end poverty, published its final report.

A Just Capital: Actions to End Poverty in Edinburgh concluded that poverty in Edinburgh is real and damaging, but it is not inevitable and set seven calls to action needed to end poverty within a decade. 

In the first 12 months following publication of that call to action, the work of the Council and partners has involved building a strong foundation for the long-term actions needed to change ways of working and prevent poverty in Edinburgh, as well as providing immediate improvement and upscaling of support for people experiencing poverty in the city.

The latest data on poverty rates in the city show that an estimated 78,900 people in Edinburgh were living in relative poverty after housing costs in the period to 2020, including 16,100 children.  Most commentators project a risk of significant rising poverty across the UK during the next 12 months, driven by rising living costs, energy costs, slow wage growth and benefits changes.

In response to this challenge, the commitment to end poverty in Scotland’s Capital is now one of three strategic priorities embedded in the new Council Business Plan approved earlier in the year.

The plan outlines actions to ensure that the Council is on track to end poverty by 2030 by meeting targets set by the Commission and deliver the End Poverty Plan 2030.

This first annual progress report was discussed by Councillors on the Policy and Sustainability Committee yesterday (Tuesday 5 October) with the debate taking place during the nationwide Challenge Poverty Week.

The report outlines key actions delivered in 2021 for providing immediate crisis support to people in need, expanding income maximisation services, promoting fair work, improving access to employability support, helping those at risk of homelessness and improving prospects, opportunities, health and wellbeing.

Specific outcomes described in the report include:

  • Over 44,000 crisis and community care grants delivered in the past year (more than double the previous year) alongside 8,800 Free School Meal payments and 8,300 School Uniform Grant payments (a 50% increase in take up). In addition, led by the third sector, partners across the city provided 45,864 meals as food parcels and 3,654 pre-prepared meals during the first half of 2021 alone for people in food crisis
  • Investment in advice and income maximisation services across the city. Council and third sector work in this area has secured a total of £22m of financial gains for Edinburgh citizens through improved access to entitlements and reduced costs
  • Expansion of the successful the Discover! programme to help 671 families and 1,346 children with support to reduce and prevent food and financial insecurity, doubling the number of families supported this year
  • Delivering £41.5m of Council investment in building new homes and through partnership working, reducing the number of people sleeping rough in Edinburgh to 10 or less on any given night, down from 80-120 before the pandemic
  • Supporting 3,800 people in Edinburgh through Council funded employability programmes
  • Committing to pay all Council staff the Scottish Local Government Living Wage, changing the pay structure so that 4,400 employees in grades 1 to 3 received a pay uplift

Leading a new action group of employers committed to making Edinburgh a Living Wage City, with a goal to encourage 500 new living wage accredited employers in the city in the next five years.

These outcomes have been given additional financial support thanks to an extra budget investment of over £2.5m earlier in the Spring directly focused on meeting the Edinburgh Poverty Commission actions.

Last year’s report marked the end of the work of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission and the start of a movement that needs to take root to create an Edinburgh without poverty.

As a legacy, Commissioners helped to develop End Poverty Edinburgh – a new independent group of residents with first-hand experience of living on a low income and their allies who want to be part of shaping the solutions.  With the support of the Poverty Alliance, End Poverty Edinburgh has been meeting regularly throughout 2021 and aim to raise awareness of poverty in Edinburgh, influence decision-making and hold the city to account.

Councillor Cammy Day, Depute Chair of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission and Depute Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “Whilst there has been positive progress made in the first year since the Commission’s call to action no one is underestimating the scale of the challenge we face.

“Tackling poverty is one of our key priorities as a Council and our 2030 target is ambitious but one I’m convinced can be achieved.

“There’s no doubting the enormous impact the pandemic has had on families in this city especially those on the lowest incomes. However our work to limit this impact has seen 44,000 crisis and community care grants issued, over 8,000 free school meal payments and an action group of employers set up to make Edinburgh a living wage city to help lift 40,000 city workers out of low pay.

“We are one year into a long and difficult journey, but if all our partners, communities and residents work together, along with support from the UK and Scottish Governments, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a real difference to those most in need.”

Council Leader Adam McVey said: “As a city, we’re trying to eradicate poverty by the end of the decade and we’re the first local authority in the UK to set such a target. Tackling poverty and inequality in our city drives the choices we are making as a Council such as our new business plan which has ending poverty by 2030 as one of its three core priorities.

“Additional investment is also required and this Spring we agreed a budget package of £2.5m specifically targeted at poverty. This is expanding our money advice and income maximisation services, providing new resources to help those at risk of homelessness, increasing our Discover! programme to help families reduce and prevent food and financial insecurity and the relaunch of the Edinburgh Guarantee to help people of all ages into work or learning. Last year we spent or administered over £100m in core anti-poverty measures to support our citizens.”

“We have made an encouraging start but these are just the first steps and it’s critical the positive work of the past year continues. This isn’t something the Council can achieve in isolation, however, and we need a Team Edinburgh effort and Governments supporting our efforts through housing and welfare policies if we’re going to succeed in meeting the call to action the Commission has set for us all to end poverty in Edinburgh.”