Pro Installer December 2017 - Issue 57 | Page 46

46 | DECEMBER 2017 Business Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk RECYCLING WASTE INTO REVENUE Plate glass such as window glass is 100% recyclable, otherwise such glass that is thrown away ends up in landfills and can take over 4,000 years to decompose. The value of recycling that glass is being demonstrated by J&B Recycling, the North East’s largest independent recycling com- pany. It operates a dedicated plate glass collection service to glaziers and window manufacturers. The company can also collect laminat- ed, wired, toughened/tempered, tinted, mirrored and float glass. J&B Recycling recently helped Greencroft Bottling in Stanley, County Durham, to generate an income of over £33,000 this year from recyclables. Rob Mitchell, Operations Direc- tor at Greencroft Bottling, said: “To remove our waste it was previously costing us over £28,000 a year. We are now making that back plus more.” Forum welcomes calls for US trade talks The Forum of Private Busi- ness (FPB) has welcomed calls for trade talks with the USA to proceed alongside the EU trade negotiations. The proposal was made by the Legatum Institute’s Shanker Singham at the International Trade Select Committee. He explained that by holding trade talks with the US alongside talks with the EU it would provide an incentive for the EU to give the UK a more favourable deal upon Brexit. Ian Cass, chief executive of the FPB, said: “We welcome these comments made by Mr Singham and would urge the government to go further. As part of our Get Britain Trading campaign we are calling on the government to sup- port Britain’s businesses in trading across the globe.” The Forum’s Get Britain Trading campaign has six key elements and after receiving backing from former chancellor George Os- borne, Mr Cass hopes that senior government officials will begin to incorporate it into the govern- ment’s longer-term plans. Among the campaign’s six key elements are re-launching the ‘Hall of Shame’ to highlight bad be- haviour of UK businesses - which damage the trust and reputation of UK plc - and a new Ethical Workbook and a Compliance Handbook. STRONG VOICE FOR MANUFACTURING A new council from the Emma Green, HR Administrator, and Rob Mitchell, Operations Director at Greencroft Bottling (right) with Mark Penny from J&B Recycling (centre). Confederation of British Industry will support the country’s man- ufacturers – helping them make the most of a global economy that is changing at ‘a dizzying pace.’ Manufacturing currently makes up around 10% of the UK economy and accounts for over two-thirds of all UK spend on research and development, so it is vital that it helps shape the UK’s future economic performance. The new CEO-level Manufac- turing Council will bring together dozens of the UK’s top manu- facturers – small, medium and large – and will be chaired by Tom Crotty, group director of chemicals multinational Ineos. At the heart of the group’s work will be: • Shaping the skills agenda to build a UK workforce fit to adapt to AI and digitisation • Building a new visionary in- dustrial strategy that supports productivity • Creating pathways to the delivery of the UK’s target of 3% of GDP invested in R&D by 2020 • Delivering a Brexit that works for the UK’s manufacturing base. DATA SHARING FRAUD SOLUTION National Business Crime Solution (NBCS) has introduced a fraud detection initiative to try and beat persistent offenders who commit fraud against multiple online businesses. Praesidio – the Latin word for protection – is a data sharing solu- tion that ultimately helps compa- nies develop a more effective loss prevention strategy. ‘Claims’ is a type of crime increasingly prevalent, as unscru- pulous individuals take advantage of the loopholes inherent within online purchasing. For example, retailers are reporting instanc- es of customers claiming not to have received goods, while some individuals are falsely stating that packages have not been packed correctly and ordered items are missing or that they have returned an item (when they haven’t) and their initial payment has not been credited. The scale of the problem is immense, and NBCS, using 75,000 lines of data from six major online retailers, uncovered £3.4m worth of potentially fraudulent claims. One example is approximately £13,000 worth of claims a month that had cross matched based on two out of six retailers. The launch of Praesidio fol- lowed significant government funding for NBCS as part of the Home Office’s Police Transfor- mation Fund. The award of a six-figure sum was in recognition of NBCS’s success in supporting the police in the battle against business crime and will enable it to drive membership up in order to operate as an entirely self-suffi- cient, self-governing entity, which is totally funded and controlled by members. nationalbusinesscrimesolution.com