May 2015
A housebuilder has partnered with a social enterprise to recycle all wood waste from a local building site.
Story Homes is working alongside the social enterprise to ensure that work at its housing development in Middlesbrough is sustainable and as environmentally friendly as possible.
Show homes at Kingsbrook Wood, Middlesbrough
Community Wood Recycling is a network of social enterprises that specialises in saving and reusing timber. Story Homes has enlisted their help to remove all wood waste from the Kingsbrook Wood development.
Community Wood Recycling guarantees to reuse and recycle 100% of the timber they collect. Generally, most collected materials are recycled into woodchip or, even worse, end up decomposing in landfill sites – releasing CO2 and contributing to climate change.
Not only does Community Wood Recycling hold sustainability as a key priority, they are keen to help vulnerable and disadvantaged people gain transferable skills to help them get back in to paid work.
Frank Lincoln, Production Director at Story Homes says: “We are proud of our track record for working in a sustainable manner and we are always looking for innovative and new ways to help in this. Community Wood Recycling is a fantastic enterprise in that it delivers more than just green credentials, but also offers support to those in society who are disadvantaged. We are proud to be working alongside such a worthwhile organisation.”
Managing Director, Richard Mehmed from National Community Wood Recycling says: “Since November, we have collected over 23 tonnes of wood waste from Kingsbrook Wood in Stainsby. If this timber had gone into a skip, it would have been ‘downcycled’ into chips. Instead, Community Wood Recycling sorted the wood so it can be reused, a labour-intensive activity that creates jobs and training opportunities for disadvantaged people in the local community.”
A social enterprise is a business which has either social or environmental principles as its key drivers. National Community Wood Recycling currently has three enterprises in the North East: Hull, Middlesbrough and Newcastle. They are currently collecting from 24 sites in the region – mostly schools, hospitals and leisure centres and would like to work with more house-builders. The social enterprise feels that their work with Story Homes is a valuable stepping stone towards that goal.
Story Homes consistently delivers above industry standard recycling scores across its developments: using recycling organisation, Reconomy to ensure 90% and above of its waste is diverted from landfill, exceeding the industry standard of 85%.
Kingsbrook Wood is one of Story Homes’ many developments in the north east, with a current sales outlet in Shotley Bridge and plans submitted for high quality executive homes in Wynyard, Morpeth, Sedgefield and Lanchester. More information on our north east sites is available here.
