WORKING TOGETHER
BWT & THE HIGH­CREST ACADEMY

Local Students Save Poten­tially 41,000 Plastic Bottles from an uncer­tain future!

What is the differ­ence between BWT and other similar compa­nies? A recent joint venture with The High­crest Academy in High Wycombe serves to high­light that they are more than just a water cooler company.They may be part of an inter­na­tional group that delivers world class patented water solu­tions to compa­nies and busi­ness organ­i­sa­tions across the globe. Yet to High­crest they are a partner, someone that the school can work with to ensure they have the right prod­ucts and services across the school site. “Working together is so impor­tant” states Gary Garland, the National sales Manager at BWT. “There is no point trying to force a solu­tion on to a school that they can ill afford with the likely result it ends up depriving the school of valu­able resources in the class­room or one that fails to meet their needs.”

Under­standing the needs of the school, its students, and staff, can only be achieved by listening and learning from the previous expe­ri­ence of both parties. “Prod­ucts need to be suited to the envi­ron­ment and still be afford­able or there is no point” adds Nigel Walker, High­crest’s Busi­ness Manager. “Of course, we like to buy cost effec­tively, in fact, it’s essen­tial but this can’t be at the cost of living with substan­dard goods or services. After working along­side Gary and his team, I am happy to say that we were able to agree on a solu­tion that is tailored to our needs, including that all impor­tant bottom line.”

It is one thing deciding on a solu­tion but ensuring it works and remains rele­vant is another and one, many compa­nies simply forget but BWT’s close working rela­tion­ship with the school ensured this did not happen. Which is why in 2019, BWT and the High­crest Academy launched a new initia­tive, the ‘Staff and Student Drinking Water Survey’ with the idea of asking students and staff what they thought. The survey was designed in such a way that would not only allow a better under­standing of the needs of the school and its people, but also their atti­tudes towards drinking habits in general and the envi­ron­ment.

Created by BWT’s marketing team, with input from school staff, the survey was made avail­able on-​line and in paper form to students in Years 7, 8, and 9 as well as staff them­selves. With the results in: there was good news for the school. Students, by their actions, chose water as their favourite drink, pushing Cola into second place, with sugary drinks being a major concern and a contrib­u­tory factor in the growing trend towards obesity in young people, this simple choice is a major and a welcome step towards student welfare. Further results showed that not only did students under­stand the prob­lems that plastic waste brings to the envi­ron­ment but the fact they were willing to do some­thing about it; by refilling plastic bottles whilst at school, which to a large part was all made possible by the BWT water coolers installed at the school. It helped the school in creating their own Bottle Free Zone and every refill is poten­tially one less plastic bottle making its way into a bin and an uncer­tain recy­cling future. 

Over 73% of respon­dents said they refill at least once a day, which is 280 refills from the respon­dents alone. With typi­cally 39 weeks in a school year, you would have an approx­i­mate figure in excess of 41,000 poten­tial bottles saved from going to land­fill. A govern­ment report from 2016 stated that, an esti­mated 1.53 million tonnes of plastic waste was reported. This was up by 24% since 2010 and 13% since 2014! (1) As shocking as those figures may be, they only further empha­sise why reducing the amount of single use plastic is imper­a­tive.

The survey high­lighted that the school and its students are already aware of this and are working towards making a differ­ence. “As a school and commu­nity, we are extremely encour­aged by the atti­tude of our students to recy­cling and the envi­ron­ment in general. The chal­lenge now is to improve on that and who knows maybe even achieve the acco­lade of a plastic bottle free zone in the not too distant future” said Nigel.

With the results in both parties were keen to see how the solu­tion they had agreed on was fairing in the minds of a natu­rally tough audi­ence. A majority of students and staff alike loved the fact that they did not need to top up water bottles in the wash­rooms. Stressed that they would like addi­tional cooler loca­tions. Whilst some were disap­pointed that their peers did not always treat the coolers with respect. Crucially, the report meant that the good and not so good could be consid­ered and discussed openly by the school and BWT. This team­work approach has already shown results as Nigel and Gary plan for the future. By looking at the issues together, means that any ideas and even­tual solu­tions are discussed openly and costed from the begin­ning, saving unnec­es­sary toing and froing and reducing frus­tra­tion as ideas are devel­oped.




Links: 

(1) House of Commons Library: Plastic waste"