We’re delighted to announce we’ve been shortlisted as finalists once again in the Hull Daily Mail Business Awards. After winning the Green Award in 2019, this year we’ve been shortlisted for both the Environmental and Sustainability Award as well as Medium Business of the Year.

And what a year it’s been! The global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns were always going to be a challenging situation to navigate, even more so for a business like ours that had recently suffered a fire on Christmas Day 2019.

We’d be lying if we said it hasn’t been tough, it’s certainly been a challenge but we’re proud of how far we’ve come over the past 12 months. While many businesses stood still, we’ve successfully continued the rebuild and expansion of our recycling plant, with works due to be completed by March 2021.

Our resilience, determination and innovative approach are evident not only in our continued growth but in the way we’ve continued to provide invaluable support to customers during the pandemic.

This growth and resilience is testament to our unwavering appetite to innovate, solve customer problems and continually deliver first-class customer service. Shortlisted as finalists for both the Environmental and Sustainability Award and Medium Business of the Year Award is thanks to the fantastic team we have here at Brocklesby.

Environmental and Sustainability Award

This category recognises outstanding performance in environmental responsiveness and sustainable activity, something we’re incredibly committed to.

We don’t believe in landfill. Instead, we recycle everything, creating feedstocks for biofuel, renewable energy and green electricity from unwanted used cooking oil and fatty food waste.

As one of the UK’s leading waste cooking oil recycling companies, we help to reduce carbon emissions and support the worldwide commitment to renewables and sustainability, recycling 100% of all collected waste.

Since 1987, we’ve continued to grow, developing our technology to move into blending oils for biodiesel; created a unique oil blend to produce ‘green’ electricity, converting oils to generate fuels for generators and CHP systems to power local schools and businesses; and launched our biogas facility in 2017, converting food waste into green energy.

Our renewable energy delivers a carbon reduction in excess of 84%. By replacing fossil fuels with biofuels, every litre of biofuel produced from waste saves approximately 2.8kg of carbon.

On a day-to-day basis we’re working towards sustainable development goals, collecting waste products from the food sector in the UK and Ireland and processing them to produce a sustainable feedstock for biofuel. This encompasses the processing of food waste, oils and fats as well as recovering oils and fats from food manufacturers waste water streams. All the output is then turned into green diesel, offsetting a significant amount of damaging carbon.

We continue to make improvements in our energy efficiency and environmental practices.

Our existing facility has the capability of providing power to 11,000 homes and enough heat for us to run our recycling ovens and energy to run the factory. As part of the rebuild, we are well placed to grow and expand our position within the sector, going even further towards being environmentally-conscious with the installation of a gas pipeline to produce a cleaner steam rather than burning oil. We’re also installing the most energy efficient boilers to reduce the amount of wasted steam.

Medium Business of the Year Award

Open to companies with between 25 and 99 employees, this award looks at all aspects of company performance, paying particular attention to managerial and financial performance, evidence of success against targets set, long-term plans and company strategy, and product and service development.

As part of our continuous improvement programme and consistent growth plans, our biogas plant is currently capable of producing enough green energy to power around 11,000 homes. Processing up to 60,000 tonnes of food waste every year, the biogas facility supplies 3.5MW of electricity to the national grid.

We’ve seen continued success in recent years, achieving an increase of 17% volume sold. And despite the challenges of the last 12 months, we’re set to achieve a further increase in processed volume sold this financial year.

As part of our North Cave site rebuild following the fire, an increase in process capacity will enable us to process greater volumes and meet increased customer demand.

Research and development is a significant part of our success, with a deep rooted ambition to innovate, finding and processing solutions and meet specification standards, positioning the company as market leaders. Further investment being made into the company will allow greater flexibility and wider capability for us to meet customer requirements.

Investment in the company’s logistic department is enabling an expansion in our fleet and service level rise. Increased levels of investment have also been dedicated to developing the business process, removing reliance on paperwork to instead operating via a bespoke App utilising QR and scanning technology. This improvement in practices will bring live data straight into the business operating system.

During a time when businesses nationwide faced uncertain times, rather than make staff redundant, we continued to grow. Earlier this year, the management team expanded to welcome Neil Taylor as the new managing director and Iain Jennison as Finance Director.

These appointments, alongside wider recruitment to support the company’s growth, demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to continuous improvement, adding value to both customers and the environment.