Urbanism
Environment
Design

info@urbed.coop

In late 2005 we were commissioned by the Co-operative Bank to help them screen recycling projects applying for banking services against their ethical policy. The Bank was keen to draw upon our knowledge and expertise in sustainable waste management, and our recent work for Sustainability North West on social enterprise recycling. The Bank has a well established ‘Ecological Mission Statement’ as part of its Ethical Policy. This states that the Bank seeks to support businesses involved in recycling and sustainable waste management. The Bank required us to research and develop an investment framework for assessing the performance of projects and potential customers.

The resulting waste investment framework assesses performance against 14 criteria grouped under two themes:

• Ecological sustainability: The Bank will seek to support projects that demonstrate ecologically sustainable waste management practices. • Social responsibility: The Bank will seek to support projects which demonstrate that they follow socially responsible business practices.

The assessment criteria complement and seek to interpret the Bank's Ethical Policies on Social Enterprise and Ecological Impact, as well as wider sustainable development and Socially Responsible Investment aims. The investment framework as a whole enables sustainable waste management practices to be assessed in an open and transparent way, informing the dialogue with potential customers. In addition URBED has established a register of best practices that provides case studies of sustainable waste management projects and guidance for Business Banking in working with SME’s that fall outside of the scope of the assessment criteria.