When it comes to waste management, businesses are seeking solutions that not only support their sustainability goals but also offer tangible benefits.
Total Utilities’ Sustainable Business Improvement Manager Pravind Singh explains that Total Utilities is working to reshape business waste practices whilst keeping a sharp eye on delivering great value to its customers.
“Our mission is simple – to redefine waste management in a way that makes sense for our customers. It’s about going beyond services and ensuring businesses see real value in what we offer.”
“We understand that our customers want to demonstrate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) without compromising financial outcomes. Our commitment is to find solutions that strike that delicate balance, ensuring that sustainability is an investment, not an expense.”
Empowering businesses with compelling services
Pravind explains that Total Utilities offerings comprise integrated waste reporting, waste audits and overseeing highly competitive RFP bid processes for your waste services.
“Our advanced waste reporting tools are designed to empower businesses. By seamlessly integrating waste metrics with energy consumption data, we provide insights that lead to tangible improvements in operational efficiency, which, in turn, means cost savings for our customers.”
“Waste audits follow a similarly customer-centric approach, and are about more than just compliance. They offer a deep-dive into understanding each business’s unique needs, allowing us to make recommendations that will bring direct benefit to your operations.”
“Finally, our waste procurement service is designed to align with our customers’ goals. It’s not just about securing the best deal; it’s about securing the most sustainable solution that contributes positively to our customers’ long-term success.”
Showcase your sustainability commitment
Pravind emphasises that meeting environmental standards through responsible landfill diversion solutions is more than just a checklist item – it’s a chance for businesses to protect the environment whilst showcasing their commitment to sustainability.
“In today’s business landscape, where being environmentally responsible matters, compliance isn’t just about following the rules; it’s an opportunity for businesses to demonstrate their dedication to the environment.”
“This not only benefits the planet but also enhances a company’s reputation. People notice and appreciate when a company acts responsibly, building trust and goodwill in your brand.”
“At Total Utilities, we see every challenge as an opportunity and our goal is simple – to provide waste solutions that make sense for our customers.”
“Environmental responsibility, practical waste solutions, and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. We work to seamlessly align them to ensure our customers’ ongoing success,” adds Pravind.
When a renowned hotel group faced a waste management challenge across multiple locations, the problem was clear — too many suppliers, unclear reporting, and a hefty price tag. They needed a solution to streamline operations, reduce costs, and align with sustainability goals.
Our solution: nationwide RFP, supplier consolidation, and purposeful reuse
Total Utilities tackled the challenge comprehensively. Initiating a nationwide Request for Proposal (RFP) for various hotel sites, we aimed to consolidate services to two suppliers, enhancing engagement and simplifying reporting.
Simultaneously, during hotel refurbishments, we facilitated a connection between the hotel and ‘Free For All,’ a charity specialising in furnishing homes for families in need. The hotel embraced the opportunity to redirect materials from landfill to meaningful reuse, creating a sustainable and purposeful solution.
The outcome: a greener, leaner, and more compassionate future
The hotel group experienced significant savings of $105,000 annually – an impressive 21% reduction in spend – ensuring a greener and more sustainable waste management future.
The commitment to fixed pricing, transparent reporting, and supplier engagement not only simplified invoicing but also contributed to the group’s broader sustainability goals.
Simultaneously, the hotel’s decision to repurpose materials made a positive impact on both the environment and needy families.
This commitment to sustainability extended beyond financial savings, creating a ripple effect of positive change within and beyond the hotel’s walls.
These impressive results show that smart waste management isn’t just a cost-saver; it’s a game-changer for your business, a win for the environment, and can provide real and measurable benefits for your local community.
Learn more
Contact us to find out more about our Waste Management service.
Welcome Pravind Singh, our new Sustainable Business Improvement Manager, spearheading our mission to create a greener business landscape! Discover how Pravind and Total Utilities can transform your business’s waste management by booking your free waste consultation today!
With an impressive background in sustainability, waste management, recycling and accounting, Pravind will be leading the charge as we continue to develop and refine our waste reduction service offerings.
He arrives brimming with experience and is dedicated to steering your business toward a greener, more efficient future.
Pravind’s mission is clear: to help businesses like yours save money while embracing eco-friendly practices.
His knack for connecting with people and his solutions-focused approach have been instrumental in transforming projects, aligning them with sustainability goals, and delivering impressive, measurable results.
In his previous roles as Key Account Manager for both Waste Management and Reclaim, Pravind demonstrated exceptional acumen in transforming projects, yielding both significant savings and innovative solutions.
At Total Utilities, Pravind will oversee and optimise waste services and initiatives for the business, including waste reviews, managing waste RFPs, conducting audits, integrated waste reporting, and handling commercial cleaning services RFP management.
Passionate about impact
“I’m excited to be joining Total Utilities on a permanent basis,’ says Pravind. “I’ve been contracting with the team for many years now, so this is a chance to apply my industry background and waste and recycling experience to make a real impact.”
“My passion lies in connecting with people and delivering results that drive savings, promote sustainability, and reduce waste.”
“Understanding each client’s unique needs allows us to tailor strategies that truly benefit each business, ensuring the best results that meet or exceed their objectives,” he adds.
Outside of the office, Pravind wears many hats! He’s not just a committed family man with a wife and young daughter, but he is also deeply involved in his local community.
A past president of Rotary Club, he also keeps himself busy volunteering at Hospice, serving as a Justice of the Peace and mentoring a school entrepreneurial programme! He enjoys honing his public speaking skills, and connecting with people at every level.
How Total Utilities Can Help
Total Utilities is dedicated to assisting you in reviewing your current waste contracts, focusing on pricing, efficiencies, and diversion rates. We offer advisory services to help you evaluate your options and find solutions for increased diversions, enabling you to make informed decisions about your waste contracts.
By staying proactive and informed, you can better manage your waste contracts, optimise costs and efficiencies, and make strategic decisions for your business’s future.
Discover how Total Utilities can help you streamline your Waste Procurement, reduce costs, and provide comprehensive reporting.
It’s no secret that the world is facing a waste crisis. How to reduce it, pay for it, its impact on our public and planet’s health, and where it ends up are just some of the concerns we’re grappling with.
The good news is, Total Utilities can help you identify, monitor, and reduce your waste. Here’s why engaging us as your waste management consultant is so important.
Waste is costly for our planet and business
Our growing waste problem is not only costly to the environment but expensive for businesses. New Zealand faces rising transport and disposal costs, changes to national policy and levies, and uncertainty around where to export our recycling when we don’t have the facilities to handle it here.
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), our government’s primary climate change response, plays a leading role in how we collectively manage waste and reach our internationally established targets. Our 2030 target, which is New Zealand’s first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, is as follows:
Waste is a specified activity under the ETS, so those in the waste sector must participate in the scheme. This means disposal facility operators must report their emissions to the government. They need to pay for permits to emit carbon and can offset their emissions. Land disposal facilities have options: they can either decarbonise their activities, face mounting costs, or offset their emissions by supporting climate action projects like forestry and conservation.
The most cost-effective and sustainable path for landfill facilities is to find ways to reduce their emissions. The government incentivises these facilities to find and deliver innovation and efficiencies by becoming eligible to apply for a Unique Emissions Factor. You can read about this here.
Waste levy increases
Growing pressure to address climate change, the uncertainty surrounding recycling commodity returns and stricter separation and hygiene standards are all factors behind the government’s decision to raise waste levies.
The levy increase will be phased in over four years, the first of which happened in July 2021. Levies will increase to a maximum of $60 per tonne by 2024.
These increases are designed to encourage more recycling and to divert waste from landfills. The costs apply regardless of which waste supplier you choose.
Based on the average industry wage, the cost increase would equate to an additional $22 per 4.5m³ front-end load pick up. We’re investigating with each supplier how this cost will be passed on.
The big issue: Spoiled or contaminated recycling
In a 2018 Stuff article, Green Party MP, Eugenie Sage, who was the Associate Environment Minister at the time said, “The co-mingling of waste like glass, paper and plastic was what led China to stop accepting it.”
One solution is to improve the quality of our waste by changing our behaviour – getting better at sorting and separating our waste at the source.
Countries no longer taking some recyclables creates greater uncertainty
Now that the Chinese market doesn’t accept specific categories of recyclables, costs have grown significantly.
The Chinese government also signalled to reduce its annual cardboard recycling quota by six million tonnes (10% of global demand). This means the cardboard price will drop further – it’s a market characterised by extreme pricing uncertainty.
China’s ban had a massive ripple effect on where millions of tonnes of waste ended up. Indonesia bore the substantial brunt of this.
In late 2019, the Indonesian government was looking to pass urgent legislation which would allow them to legally return spoiled recycling back to the port of origin, not the last port of call.
Indonesia has now closed its market to recycling and has indicated it would only re-open if spoiled waste could be sent back to the country of origin.
How the tightening of global spoilage standards will affect us.
Stricter global spoilage standards will affect the ongoing rates for recycling in New Zealand. The market has not priced all these factors in yet. Under the current uncertain climate, suppliers are unable to fix pricing for recycling.
How Total Utilities can help you navigate the costs and changes.
By working closely with our specialist waste consulting partners, suppliers, and customers, you can achieve reduced waste charges and levies, improved monitoring and reporting of your waste systems, and ultimately send less waste to landfill. This is a win for your bottom line and the environment.
Navigating the waste environment alone is complicated – it takes a deep understanding of the political, environmental, and global trends and policies. We expect that what happens to our waste will continue to be complex for many years to come.
Total Utilities has a finger on the pulse of policy, pricing and procurement. We can effectively interpret the changes and identify smart ways for you to contribute towards a more efficient, greener, cleaner planet.
40% reduction in exposure to waste levies Contract savings of $420k between 2021 and 2024 Ongoing recycling savings of $288k + each following year
Why Organisations Need Us
Significant financial, environmental and brand gains are achieved when businesses manage and monitor their waste efficiently.
To combat our growing waste problem, the New Zealand government is increasing the levies on nonrecycled waste from $10 per tonne to $60 per tonne by 2024. Now more than ever, businesses need to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill.
Our experienced waste consulting service team will help to navigate the often-complex waste management environment in Australasia.
How we help
Total Utilities provides a coordinated waste procurement, supplier management, monitoring and reporting service to many well-known New Zealand and Australasian brands.
We make sense of the options available, and know when and how to manage contracts,supplier engagement and multiple waste streams.
Major Client Wins
Case one: Increasing recycling and reusing behaviours
One of our big retail clients generates around 7,000 tonnes of waste each year. Until recently, most of this headed straight to landfill with minimal recycling or reuse. If they continued down this path the additional government levies and disposal tariffs could have added around $400,000 each year to their waste bill. Not to mention the damage to the environment and their brand’s reputation.
By engaging Total Utilities, the above customer:
managed their supplier and contracts effectively
gained significantly improved reporting and identified insights into their waste and waste behaviours
got their staff on board with new systems and policies
Reduced 40% of their waste levies through contract and performance efficiencies – and diverting waste from landfill by reusing and recycling
will save $420,000 between 2021 and 2024
after that they will save at least $288,000 p.a.
Case two: Waste mitigation and colloboration
We recently conducted a waste mitigation project in partnership with a well-known Australian firm, their supplier, and a specialist recycler. This partnership not only produced significant costs savings but allowed all parties to measure and monitor their results.
By engaging Total Utilities, the above customer:
standardised many previously disjointed supply and service arrangements
extended an existing major client contract
reduced their landfill usage, governance costs and costs to serve individual customer branches
reduced their waste charges and levies and improved their efficiency of supply.
Case three: Achieving long-term win/win contracts
Our client was about to negotiate a new contract with an existing waste supplier. Head Office in the meantime was facing increasing pressure to reduce costs and report on robust decarbonisation, recycling and waste diversion targets.
Total Utilities worked with the supplier to agree a win/win contract that included agreed targets and reporting. The supplier met these targets in the first half of the contract term, earning them the right to extend their contract for a much longer period, subject to continued performance.
As a result of this improved contact, the customer:
saw improved efficiency
faced much reduced waste charges
could see clear and measurable sustainability and decarbonisation outcomes
can now report their results to their Board, executives, shareholders, the market and government.
Total Utilities continues to work with all parties to provide ongoing improvement suggestions,
verifiable reporting on cost and consumption trends, and to ensure everyone complies with the
contracted billing and performance outcomes.
Successful outcomes for business, consumers and our planet
By working closely with our specialist waste consulting partners, suppliers and customers, Total Utilities improves the performance and efficiency of waste management, whilst negotiating the best possible contract terms. For our customers, this means reductions in their waste charges, levies and carbon footprint, improved monitoring and reporting of their waste systems, and less waste sent to landfill. We’re proud that as a result of these engagements businesses can reduce and reuse. These sustainable practices can be maintained long into the future for the benefit of current and future generations.
Keen for your business to enjoy the similar outcomes? Email us at [email protected]
