February saw Sauce Consultancy into its sixth year in business and continuing to build on the strengths of the previous years. The company has shown strong growth year on year, in line with that seen by the environmental services sector, with 2011 looking to be a busy and rewarding year ahead. Sauce’s strength is in the depth of knowledge it is able to bring to clients, in particular smaller firms that have expanded into multi-million pound operations relatively quickly, and new market entrants attracted by strong legislative and financial drivers. At this major milestone for a small company, we sincerely hope to be able to continue serving our clients for the next five years… and beyond!

On the highlights of the last five years and looking ahead, John Twitchen, Sauce MD, comments ‘It has been a great pleasure to work with such a diverse range of organisations over the last five years, the vast majority of which we are still working with. Looking ahead, our strategy is based on doing more of the same – high quality, cost effective, tailored support based on the highest levels of expertise and first class communication skills. Sauce’s mantra ‘Action speaks louder than words’ has never been more appropriate than as today and continues to drive our approach.’

Sauce will be celebrating its sixth year in style come the summer – details TBC!

People who know Sauce know that we don’t like the term NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard, a response to proposals to build something, anything, near you. But this is not always the case, you just have to try very hard to talk to people, be available, explain it.

Some say the Localism Bill is a charter for NIMBYs… we say “no it’s not!”

The recently announced Localism Bill reads like an initiative overload, but cut through the noise and there are some very interesting components.

Whilst the Bill reduces, reuses and recycles old policies and principles from the last ten years, in particular the solid foundations of the Local Democracy etc Act, it also recovers a fairly large chunk of responsibility and moves it onto local communities, in particular Parish and Town Councils, who can draw up their own local plans (after jumping through several hoops, and incurring a fair bit of cost). (more…)

Sauce is delighted to have our efforts to be a more sustainable business recognised through achieving the bronze level of the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code.

The Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code is a support service for organisations committed to reducing their environmental impact through responsible purchasing. The Green Procurement Code provides practical advice and support to introduce green purchasing into all aspects of an organisation, including sourcing green products. Since its launch in 2001, members have spent £548.7 million on recycled products, diverted 1.8 million tonnes of waste from landfill and saved 391,000 tonnes of C02 emissions. The programme is supported by the London Development Agency and delivered by LRS Consultancy.

Becky Borrow, Head of Operations at Sauce, says “We work very hard to reduce our environmental impact as a business and we are proud to be part of the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code and to have achieved the bronze level this year. The challenge is now to improve our performance even further over the next 12 months as our aim is to achieve silver in 2012!”

See www.greenprocurementcode.co.uk for further details.

We hope that everyone had a restful and restorative Christmas break and is prepared for the challenges 2011 has to offer. This year promises to be another busy and rewarding year for Sauce Consultancy which will see the company past its five year point and continuing to build on the strengths of the previous year. The company has shown strong growth year on year, in line with that seen by the environmental services sector. Sauce’s strength is in the depth of knowledge it is able to bring to clients, in particular smaller firms that have expanded into multi-million pound operations relatively quickly, and new market entrants attracted by strong legislative and financial drivers. At this major milestone for a small company, we sincerely hope to be able to continue serving our fabulous clients for the next five years… and beyond!

Sauce is delighted to announce the appointment of Paula Boyce (née Brooks) as our Projects Director. Paula will be joining the team in February and will be responsible for ensuring the highest possible quality outputs across all our key accounts.

Paula has considerable experience having worked in the waste and resource management sector for over 20 years. In that time Paula has held a range of senior positions working for waste disposal, waste collection and unitary local authorities. She has also provided interim management and technical consultancy services to the municipal waste sector.

“I’ve known Paula for over fifteen years,” says John Twitchen, Sauce MD. (more…)

Sauce would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 2010 has been a busy and rewarding year for Sauce and we look forward to the challenges and successes that 2011 will bring.

We’ve chosen not to send Christmas cards this year.  Instead we have made a further donation to the William Wates Memorial Trust (www.wwmt.org) and we pass on our season’s greetings to you via our newsletter. The William Wates Memorial Trust is the charity for which Sauce MD, John Twitchen, raised several thousands of pounds earlier in the year when participating in the Tour de Force 2010 – a huge thank you to everyone that kindly donated.

Wishing you all the best for the festive period,

All @ Sauce Consultancy

Sauce Consultancy is proud to be the first organisation to become a Practitioner Partner of The Consultation Institute.

The Institute requires firms to commit to demanding standards of public, stakeholder and employee consultation by initiating research, publications and specialist events in order to disseminate best practice and improve subsequent decision-making, providing potential buyers of specialist public engagement services with quality assurance. (more…)

SITA UK recently launched a report called “Looking Up” which considers international experience in delivering recycling in multi-occupancy dwellings – or flats.

What’s clear is that the experience overseas in places like Ontario, New York and Holland is not dissimilar to what Sauce and our partners, LRS Consultancy, have found  in the UK. The challenges are great and the mantra of “one size doesn’t fit all” is crystal clear.

Why should we be interested in delivering higher recycling from flats? Because half of London’s housing stock and 20% or more of housing in most major towns and cities in the UK consists of multi-occupancy dwellings. (more…)

A briefing paper published by the Consultation Institute and Sauce Consultancy highlights the need for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to engage heavily with local communities and the private sector.

In an analysis of all 24 successful bids for LEP status, the authors have looked at differing ideas on governance, local engagement and their relationship with the Big Society. It concludes that the new Partnerships will need to consult and involve extensively if they are to be credible with planners, developers, business leaders and, of course, the general public. (more…)