Latest / Insights for a Better Workplace - Sponsored By Manutan / Turning Workplace Waste Into Better Workplaces: With Helene Carpentier
Transcript
- 00:00:00:06 - 00:00:09:59 Rachel On today's episode of insights for a Better Workplace, we're joined by Helene founder of Circular Workplaces. It's great to have you on the show, Helene. 00:00:09:59 - 00:00:11:26 Helene Hi. Thank you. 00:00:11:31 - 00:00:14:45 Rachel And so tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. 00:00:14:47 - 00:00:28:09 Helene Yeah, sure. So I am the founder of Circular Workplaces. We are a workplace consultancy that is focusing on helping large organizations to reduce waste within their workplace. 00:00:28:14 - 00:00:45:31 Helene And this is quite new. It's just like one year, a bit more than one year old, and it's built upon ten years of working within facilities management, supporting like a lot of organizations across different sectors. So that's pretty much me. Thanks for having me here. 00:00:45:36 - 00:00:53:11 Rachel No, it's great to have you. So you were saying you also you spent a lot of time working in quite large organizations in facilities management. 00:00:53:11 - 00:01:02:47 Rachel And how did that kind of shape your sort of this idea of actually you wanting to go and do this for yourself and build your own business around it? 00:01:03:01 - 00:01:16:45 Helene Yeah, sure. So actually, I can tell you a bit about how it all started. So I studied sustainable development as a master's degree, and then I was looking for jobs and I didn't really know what I wanted to do. 00:01:16:47 - 00:01:43:20 Helene And the only thing I could find was in waste. And my first job was actually waste coordinator at Heathrow Airport. So this was like my first time, you know, really being confronted to waste. And I realized very quickly that it's so tangible and it's so such a big representation of like, how our society is not functioning, let's say, because we are consuming stuff and we're just disposing of it. 00:01:43:21 - 00:02:12:42 Helene And in the airport environment, you can imagine the amount of waste is huge. And so I realized quite quickly that these big commercial buildings where such big consumers and big waste generators. And then in my career I moved across different sectors. So I worked with NHS Barclays and then moved into CBRE in a more central position, where I helped large organizations again. 00:02:12:42 - 00:02:44:57 Helene And what I could see in this last role at CBRE when I was working with like, internal teams, is that not many people are focusing on waste because most of the sustainability focus is sustainability and not sustainability. But like energy efficiency, I wanted to say, or carbon measurement and waste is kind of there in the priority list, but it's kind of like maybe in the bottom priority list. 00:02:45:01 - 00:03:12:16 Helene And so there is not enough like bandwidth and like skill sets to focus on this. That's what I saw when I was at CBRE. And then unfortunately, I went for redundancy at CBI. That was in May 2025. And I felt like, you know, what's going to happen? Nobody is going to to look at ways because nobody is pushing this. 00:03:12:21 - 00:03:41:16 Helene People within sustainability teams, they are just focusing on energy from waste or carbon measurement or compliance. So I felt like there was really this niche and like this opportunity to start something that was going to focus on circular economy within the workplace, and that was also going to give those teams that like the bandwidth and the skill set, that support from from the outside, so that, you know, those big clients, they don't have to hire full time employees to do that for them. 00:03:41:16 - 00:03:50:42 Helene And they can just work with companies like mine, circular workplaces to do that for them without, you know, the hassle of like hiring someone, 00:03:50:57 - 00:03:52:42 Rachel of course. And it's such a big topic as well. 00:03:52:42 - 00:04:10:13 Rachel At the moment. And like you say, there's there's a lot in there about the CO2 emissions and, you know, the sustainability side, which of course is so important when it comes to the waste side. I think, like you say, it's maybe been overlooked for a little while. So it's brilliant that, you know, you've got this business that actually goes in and does that. 00:04:10:13 - 00:04:22:54 Rachel So when you're dealing with sort of like clients, what does it look like when you talk to them and you maybe go to their facilities and look at their spaces? What does it look like when you're trying to support them with their waste? 00:04:22:56 - 00:04:45:42 Helene Yes. Something that I want to to say, I suppose, before I start talking about like, what is it that we do that that we do when we're helping them with their waste? Is that actually like the I think that waste is very powerful because it tells you so much about a workplace, and waste reduction helps you get to better workplaces. 00:04:45:42 - 00:05:22:42 Helene That's kind of our like, vision with circular workplaces. So yes, we want to reduce waste, but actually what we want is that we want to create amazing workplaces and we're just using waste reduction to get there. And I can talk a bit about a bit more about that, but simple examples like, you know, getting people to to come and have lunch together with like in a proper restaurant style area of the office, rather than having a takeaway in their desk, is a way to make the workplace better while reducing waste, something like that. 00:05:22:47 - 00:05:48:06 Helene So to me, with circular workplaces, it's really important that we don't lose the focus of creating better culture, creating better workplaces that work better for all. But we're using waste reduction to get there. Yeah. And so how we help clients with doing that is that we do start with waste. So we try to understand, like what the waste is made of from a site. 00:05:48:11 - 00:06:11:09 Helene And actually doing that exercise tells you a lot about the workplace. It tells you are we ordering too much stuff? Are we or doing stuff that we're not using that could be like, you know, stationary, that could be food, that could be furniture. You know, if we're throwing away stuff that unbroken, that tells us something about the inefficient operation, I guess. 00:06:11:13 - 00:06:35:35 Helene And then it also tells us, you know, how employees are behaving, like I mentioned about the catering stuff, like if you see a lot of coffee cups from Starbucks and you're offering like coffee within your workplace, you can start wondering what's wrong with the coffee you're ordering, your offering in your workplace. And then finally, it's like very tangible way of looking at cost and carbon. 00:06:35:35 - 00:06:49:37 Helene What's inside your bin. So we first do that exercise. And then once we understand that we work with clients to plan around waste reduction that reduces costs, reduce carbon and also improve culture for clients. 00:06:49:42 - 00:07:06:21 Rachel Look, that way of looking at it where it's not actually looking at just the waste. It's looking at the workplace itself and how you improve the workplace, the culture. And it's almost like a mindset as well for, you know, the employees that are working there. When you know, when you go in and you look at all the different ways that they could be reducing that way. 00:07:06:23 - 00:07:27:33 Rachel Yes. And there are so many ways, you know, I think a lot of people think of ways. They think of the bin like, you know, just just putting, you know, something in a bit. But actually there's there's so many different meanings of that. So it's great that you look at sort of everything. Have you had any sort of, I don't know, case studies recently that have been really amazing that you could maybe share as well. 00:07:27:35 - 00:07:58:33 Helene So we are still like venue and like one year into running circular workplaces. But we do have like examples where we've worked with clients to, you know, understand what their waste is made of and then recommend them like initiatives that they could put in place in order to, to improve their workplace. And so things that we are talking about with clients right now is how do we you know, one of the issues that they had was that there was too much food waste. 00:07:58:33 - 00:08:19:40 Helene And also people are going out to get food when they could actually stay in. The problem with people going out to get food is also that they don't stay in the office and they missed collaboration opportunity, you know, like I think, organizations, they really want people to connect with each other. It's not just about coming to work. 00:08:19:40 - 00:08:47:54 Helene It's about like, you know, finding friends, maybe, or like exchanging ideas, creating stuff. And so we put in I mean, we are currently like discussing how we can, you know, really take this blue sky thinking of turning the office into a place that is actually keeping people inside. And like, so the idea here is like, maybe talk to like those independent food vendors. 00:08:47:54 - 00:09:15:52 Helene This is in central London to get them to come into the workplace and like start doing like food pop ups like every Tuesday, whereby like you create excitement around the food offering and at the same time you keep your people inside and you try to give like reusable containers for them to eat their food. So it's like looking at these like three aspects of like sustainability culture and like in this case, like supporting local communities as well. 00:09:15:57 - 00:09:47:21 Helene So yeah, this is this is an example of what we're doing now. And then in my past work, I worked with a large bank in the UK, and we did a whole zero waste program. And in fact, this zero waste program was really attached to workplace experience and it was more of a workplace experience project rather than a sustainability project, because it was all about creating those moments of sustainability within the customer journey and food. 00:09:47:23 - 00:10:06:04 Helene I think in offices, like food is like a big one. So like there was a lot around food and coffee. How do you make this experience more interesting and like less wasteful? Yeah. So that's the kind of thing we are into. And to me it's important to because when I talk, I realized that maybe, you know, I'm not like I'm not circular workplaces. 00:10:06:04 - 00:10:26:01 Helene It's not like a waste, a normal waste consultancy because we're not focused on I mean, compliance is like important, but that's not really what we are focusing on. And that's not our strength. I guess I would say what we are focusing on is really like this idea of making workplaces better for people. And waste is just like one way to get there, basically. 00:10:26:06 - 00:10:47:06 Rachel Yeah, I love that as well, because I know from experience and generally working in a larger business is actually trying to get people to sort of understand and get them excited about things like sustainability, waste, all of those different things. It's quite difficult when you've got, you know, a business full of, you know, hundreds of people, you know, how do you bring them together. 00:10:47:09 - 00:11:10:54 Rachel So actually by talking of taking that sort of that word experience, it kind of changes it as well. The mindset of the people that we're, you know, we're trying to encourage to actually reduce waste and to to change that culture as well. I don't know whether that's something you see, when you go into workplaces and you do, you know, make these suggestions on actually, let's try this to, you know, encourage better culture in a better workplace. 00:11:10:54 - 00:11:21:06 Rachel And at the same time, we're reducing waste. Do you see a better uptake in how sort of like the employees and things respond to that, I suppose, as opposed to just talking about waste? 00:11:21:09 - 00:11:44:06 Helene Yeah. I think that, also the keys that it's not people that I mean people, they do whatever they, they can, I guess, like what, what we have to do is work with like, procurement teams and like workplace design teams and like, embed zero waste in the way the workplace function is not so much like, yes, we need the employees to like, buy into it. 00:11:44:06 - 00:12:09:04 Helene You don't want people to really be angry because they can't take they don't have like coffees at their at their, at their desk, for example. So you need them to be happy about the new workplace. But like the changes need to be designed within procurement, like within, you know, FM tenders, within workplace designs. And then employees are need to need to to to buy in. 00:12:09:04 - 00:12:36:45 Helene But I think, you know, there's like a lot of stats around like the new generations wanted to see like sustainability initiatives from their employers. And so I think the buy in is there like people want to, to see more from their employers. But it's they want to see something real. And I think that waste reduction, again, is like a real thing that you can do and that you can implement from like from procurement and, and like you've got control over it. 00:12:36:45 - 00:13:01:25 Helene So, you know, if you were to say no more, I mean, I don't know, like if we were to if procurement was to say from now on we only have like reusable items or like we no longer have single use plastics, I'd say. And they remove it from their procurement policy like it's in the policies and everything. 00:13:01:30 - 00:13:12:45 Helene Then employees, they'll just they'll just kind of like they'll follow with it I think. So yeah, I lost a bit my, my process there. 00:13:12:45 - 00:13:31:42 Rachel But it's always going ahead of it isn't it. Yeah. Like if you're making these things part of the day to day. Yeah. For your employees, it's something that they almost they're used to it straight away. And I think you're right with sort of like the generational shift as well. What, what people want to see from their employers when it comes to things like waste reduction. 00:13:31:42 - 00:13:48:18 Rachel I think that's a huge one, you know, and we see it sort of all over social media and everywhere else. So I think it's great work that you're doing. And in terms of the sort of services that you offer. So if there's someone listening and thinking, actually this sort of thing would be really, really beneficial for my business. 00:13:48:28 - 00:13:53:23 Rachel What are the sort of key services that you offer when you go into a workplace? 00:13:53:28 - 00:14:18:47 Helene Yeah. So we've got like two key offering right now. So one is more like a transformation program. So we help clients understand diagnose their way. So we do like a waste assessment and understand what how their workplace is working and where are the risks in terms of carbon and and costs. And then we work with them to, you know, mobilize new solutions, right. 00:14:18:47 - 00:14:44:42 Helene Policies, review operating procedures. And then we can help them with like, you know, making sure that everything is in place and like keep tracking progress, like keep the engagement going. So that's our kind of like big program. But then we also have something that's more of a standalone product, which we call the waste open day. And so we would generally do these as well within the transformation program. 00:14:44:42 - 00:15:06:59 Helene But you can also be done as a standalone. And it's basically like a pop up kit that we send to workplaces to create engagement around waste for a day. And at the same time we capture data. So it's basically like a eight bins, like a wall of bin, eight bins where you can see through each of the bin. 00:15:06:59 - 00:15:25:40 Helene And then we ask people to segregate the waste into these eight compartments just for one day to create and like a talking point. And then at the end of the day, we capture the waste data from those different wave streams, and we put together like a report explaining, you know, what is the level of waste that is on site. 00:15:25:40 - 00:16:01:35 Helene And we also look at the cost and carbon impact of that. This is kind of like a little bit more fun, I suppose, because it engages people. And so it's like very visible. And it's really taking the waste audit process like in front of employees. And, and it's supposed to be self delivered as well. So if a client wanted to do something on their own and they don't really want to, you know, pay a lot of money for the consultant, then they can order DOS kits and then they can do them in like multiple locations at once, and then they can get this engagement and these insights on their workplace. 00:16:01:35 - 00:16:03:16 Helene So we're doing those two things. 00:16:03:16 - 00:16:21:57 Rachel They're amazing. That sounds that sounds amazing. It'd be great. And I think yeah, we're definitely interested in things like that at my time for sure. I know you've obviously come down today on the podcast and you're going to be meeting one of my colleagues who's actually starting the circular hub in our warehouse as well, which is for all the sort of refurbished goods. 00:16:21:57 - 00:16:41:40 Rachel So that's something that we're really keen to start with. We're obviously doing a lot of that over in France at our head office, but in the UK we're really starting to pick up now on the way, circular hub, all of those things where we're really starting to make traction with. So that's really exciting. I suppose, you know, in terms of starting your own business. 00:16:41:40 - 00:16:56:18 Rachel I know you sort of spent about a year, hasn't it, for circular workplaces. How have you found, you know, just from like a personal and business perspective, how have you found it starting your own business and being a founder. How has that been for you? 00:16:56:23 - 00:17:26:13 Helene It's like a really big roller coaster. So there's definitely like ups and downs and it just never ends. The ups and downs and like so I think that's like my first thing that I would say it's been very exciting to kind of like work on something that I'm really passionate about. I'm learning so much and there's a lot of stuff that I don't know, because I obviously come from a very, very corporate background, like working with really big companies. 00:17:26:13 - 00:17:48:47 Helene And now, like starting from scratch by myself is like, yeah, a bit of a slap in the face sometimes. But I also found that, you know, like a lot of people are here to help as well. So this is something I didn't realize when I was working for these big companies is that actually there is a world outside the big companies. 00:17:48:49 - 00:18:00:30 Helene There's a lot of people that are, like, really keen to help and like, really curious and like really wanting to do some change as well. And that I really love I really love that. Yeah. 00:18:00:33 - 00:18:09:47 Rachel Would you say that's the sort of your favorite part that's been about, you know, starting your business? The best part has been actually connecting with other like minded people. 00:18:09:49 - 00:18:10:08 Helene Yeah. 00:18:10:11 - 00:18:12:01 Rachel For sure. That are really curious as well. 00:18:12:04 - 00:18:28:09 Helene Yeah for sure. I think that's been the first I think now I say to my husband, actually, I said, wow, that's amazing. Like so many people are actually loving their job. They really want to like, achieve something. And I didn't realize people were like that. So. 00:18:28:13 - 00:18:45:04 Rachel Oh, that's amazing is that it's there any advice that you could give to anyone that's listening now to this that's maybe starting their journey or looking at their waste reduction things? Is there maybe like one bit of advice you could give people to maybe like start with or, you know, anything that you would say to anyone. 00:18:45:09 - 00:19:15:45 Helene To start on their waste reduction journey? Yeah. I think that like, yes, I think the key advice would be to like look into like your procurement rather than like your waist. It's easier to try like what you're buying rather than tracking your waste. So if you had like a waste reduction, if you want to start reducing waste, maybe pick a category or an item and you reduce from upstream because then you can easily track, you know, like if you reduce the amount of one, if the amount of coffee cups that you buy, it's easy to track it. 00:19:15:45 - 00:19:31:35 Helene Rather than saying, let's reduce 10% of our waste and then it's becoming complicated to to track that. So I'd say if you want to start, pick a target. If you want to start, yeah, look into your procurement, the stuff that you are doing and then set targets there. Yeah. 00:19:31:37 - 00:19:51:42 Rachel That makes complete sense. Well with everything that we've discussed I'll be putting all of your details obviously in the buyer as well into your website and everything that you can support businesses, whether we think it's, you know, at time, we think it's great what you're doing. And yeah, it's been really great to talk to you and understand more about it as well, because it's learning for all of us. 00:19:51:45 - 00:20:09:16 Helene Yeah. Thank you. And I think that actually, you know, magnetize also one of the company that I met on LinkedIn. So in my journey of like starting my business, I've been like putting myself out there a lot more and then I've reached out to people. And so I did reach out there to, to to Minuto and Roof. She responded to me, which is pretty amazing. 00:20:09:16 - 00:20:25:30 Helene And today I'm here. So I think that, you know, maybe also this is like one of the highlights of this journey is that, like, you can actually reach out to people and like it's okay. Either they respond, don't respond, and that's fine. And if they do respond, maybe there's like a connection that starts and like, who knows what happens next. 00:20:25:33 - 00:20:41:52 Rachel Yeah, that's such a good message. I think like just connect with people like reach out, you know, find those connections, like minded people, people that are curious about the same things as you. And you say you never know where you'll end up with it. So, sure. It's great. Well, it's been so great having you as a guest on the show. 00:20:41:52 - 00:20:43:06 Rachel Thank you so much. 00:20:43:09 - 00:20:43:23 Helene Yeah. 00:20:43:23 - 00:20:44:40 Helene Thank you for having me. 00:20:44:40 - 00:20:48:04 Rachel Yeah. We will continue our conversation on waste, I'm sure. 00:20:48:06 - 00:20:49:40 Helene Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. 00:20:49:42 - 00:20:50:32 Rachel Thanks, Helene.