Waste & Resources Action Programme

WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme)

Trustee

Candidate Information Pack

November – December 2015 CONTENTS

Welcome

About WRAP

Role description

Person specification

Timetable

How to apply WELCOME

Thank you for considering joining WRAP and helping to shape our future.

WRAP (The Waste and Resources Action Programme) was established by the UK Government in 2001 to find new markets for recycled materials. Since then, it has developed its role so that it is at the forefront of the sustainability, resource efficiency and circular economy agendas, providing a range of services that deliver economic value and environmental benefits for businesses and consumers. In 2014 WRAP became a charity so that it could expand its reach as well as its sources of funding.

WRAP’s impact is visible to all. You can’t walk into a UK supermarket today without seeing something WRAP has helped to change or improve to reduce waste or ensure that materials are recovered. For example Adnams bitter bottles are now 34% lighter thanks to WRAP, and this kind of light-weighting can be seen throughout supermarket aisles. Such innovations reduce both the amount of glass being produced to make the product and carbon emissions during transportation of goods. As part of the on pack recycling label scheme, WRAP’s Recycle Now initiative means that over 500 brands contain guidance on whether packaging can be recycled, helping consumers to recycle in the home. Thorough evaluation means that the benefits of the work are well understood, and what WRAP has achieved in the food and drink sector is now being replicated with textiles and electronics.

WRAP has a strong track record of authority and integrity. Over the last 15 years WRAP has been the main delivery organisation working in the UK helping governments implement their priorities on resource efficiency. As well as ideas and evidence, WRAP delivers on the ground, acting as a catalyst for change at all levels from local to national, and playing increasingly on an international stage. It has already worked with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the issue of food waste and is a partner in their ‘Think Eat Save’ global food campaign. WRAP’s consumer food waste campaign, ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ has now been taken up in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

WRAP is looking for two or three new Trustees to join the Board and help guide the organisation through the next phase of its development. In recent years, the pressure on public finances means that WRAP’s funding from government has reduced significantly and this trend is likely to continue. To ensure that the organisation makes the biggest impact it is diversifying its funding base and looking for trustees who relish that challenge.

In addition to someone with an audit/risk background, WRAP is interested in hearing from people who have a background in: research and evidence; consumer campaigns; management consulting and the development of new business models; delivering programmes internationally, and fundraising, including with European and global funding bodies.

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to receiving your application.

Julie Hill, Chair Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive ABOUT WRAP

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) was established as a not-for-profit company operating for the public benefit in 2000. We registered as a charity in December 2014.

Our Vision

WRAP’s vision is a world where resources are used sustainably.

We live on one planet with finite natural resources. It would require resources of nearly 3 earth-sized planets for future populations to consume at the rate we currently do in Europe. The increasing global population (forecasted at 9 million by 2050) means we cannot consume at current levels without a change in the way we use resources. We live in a world where many go hungry, while a third of the food produced around the world is wasted. In the UK we consume 680 tonnes of materials every year, half of which ends up as waste and much of which could have been used, costing the economy billions of pounds.

To tackle the challenges we all face, the world needs an urgent and radical step change in how efficiently we use the Earth’s resources. The future is about enabling countries, businesses and individuals to move away from the ‘design, make, use and discard’ model of the linear economy towards a resource-efficient, more ‘circular’ economy. A ‘circular economy’ is one in which we keep resources in productive use as many times as human ingenuity can conceive; where we can extract the maximum value from products and materials whilst in use, then recover and recycle resources at the end of each service life.

How we work

Our mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable, resource-efficient economy through:

 re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products

 re-thinking how we use and consume products

 re-defining what is possible through re-use and recycling

While there are many environmental organisations actively engaged in raising awareness of resource sustainability issues, WRAP’s expertise and focus is in helping organisations and individuals take the journey from awareness to action. WRAP provides information, tools, advice and help to businesses and consumers to make decisions, often collectively, that lead to action.

WRAP has built its reputation as a trusted interface and convenor between Governments, business and communities. WRAP has an extensive network of contacts in key business sectors, often at the executive board level, as well as with senior Government policy officials, local authorities and leading thinkers in academia, think tanks and NGOs. We understand that, in order to become mainstream, sustainable use of resources must be recognised to be not only good for the environment but also to be ‘good business’. Working in partnership with business sectors, their supply chains and their customers is fundamental to WRAP’s success.

We focus on three of the most resource intensive sectors where we have deep expertise and a track record of strong delivery. These are Food & Drink, Clothing & Textiles and Electricals & Electronics. Together they account for 40% of UK household waste, 80% of the UK water footprint and 25% of UK carbon footprint.

Our principal activities are:

Research and Evidence

Carefully building and understanding the evidence base is the foundation of all we do. WRAP has a track record of publishing ground-breaking research and evidence. Understanding the market failures and other barriers that prevent the sustainable use of resources enables us to work with our partners to develop practical solutions.

Voluntary agreements

WRAP brokers voluntary agreements between governments, leading companies in the sector and community groups. Each agreement sets challenging and measurable targets which the signatories commit themselves to deliver. In turn, we support signatories with their projects, share experience and collate detailed information on the progress against targets. Our agreements include:

• The Courtauld Commitment • Hospitality and Food Service Agreement • Sustainable Clothing Action Plan • Electrical and Electronic Equipment Sustainability Action Plan.

Consumer campaigns

Our campaigns provide information and messages that enable households and individuals to make decisions on consumption, waste and recycling. The signatories to our voluntary agreements and our partners in local government provide a channel for these messages . Our three flagship campaigns are:

 Love Food Hate Waste  Love Your Clothes  Recycle Now.

Grant–making and support

Working closely with our funders, we design and deliver grant programmes and other practical support to promote and encourage activities in waste prevention, resource efficiency, renewable energy and the sustainability of products and materials.

Impact

We place great emphasis on being able to account not just for the outputs of our work but also our impacts on the environment, the economy and more broadly on society. We are committed to using robust evaluation methods that draw on best practice around the world.

Between 2010 and 2015, in England alone, WRAP initiatives

 reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 50 million tonnes which is equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of Portugal;  reduced waste by 4 million tonnes;  diverted 29 million tonnes of waste from landfill; and  reduced water consumption by 856 million cubic litres.

We have recently completed a detailed cost benefit analysis looking back over the last five years. This confirmed an excellent return on investment; for every £1 of funding on our priority programmes, we leveraged £2 of external contributions and together this investment in resource efficiency of £400 million resulted in benefits to society worth £2.3 billion, an almost five-fold return on total investment and a nearly 20-fold return on the initial funding. We are confident that WRAP’s programmes and unique approach deliver excellent value for money for all our funders.

International

WRAP is building an increasing international reputation, and this is providing an opportunity to extend our reach and increase our impact. For example, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), we developed a ‘first of its kind’ global food waste guidance tool as part of the UNEP Think. Eat. Save initiative. It will help governments, businesses and communities to share food waste prevention expertise on a global scale, and represents an opportunity for WRAP to deliver impact outside the UK.

Our plans for the future

We have recently published our ambitious plans for 2015-2020 in Resource Revolution: Creating the Future http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/resource-revolution-creating-future

The key elements of our business plan are to:

Build on our reputation for  Evidence based understanding of the issues

 Bringing the right people together from around the supply chain to develop a system wide solution

 Making it happen in practice on the ground and

 Evaluating the outcomes,

Focus on key sectors and priority areas  Food and drink

 Textiles

 Electricals

All under-pinned by close engagement with the waste and resource management sector and local authorities.

Diversify our funding base

Historically WRAP received most of its funding from UK governments. With the pressures on public spending funding this has reduced over the last parliament and we expect our income to be approx. £25m this year. Our business plan is to develop a broad funding base for each of our programmes based on

• UK Government and other public sector funding • International funding e.g. EU, UNEP and other international governments • Charitable donations including trusts and corporate CSR funding • Business

Further information about WRAP can be found at www.wrap.org.uk

Experience and Skills

WRAP is looking for two or three new Trustees to help us deliver on our ambitious plans. WRAP is also looking for a Trustee with the skills to join the Audit & Risk Committee and the experience necessary to take over as Chair of this committee when its current Chair retires at the end of his current term. The role of the committee and its Chair are described in attachment 1.

Role Description – Trustees

The Board of Trustees is strategic and ambassadorial with the day to day running of the organisation delegated to the Chief Executive and the Executive Team. The Trustees are accountable to the Chair of the Board of Trustees.

The key duties of the Board are to:  ensure that WRAP complies with its governing document, charity law, company law and any other relevant legislation or regulations.  ensure that WRAP pursues its agreed mission.  give clear strategic direction to the organisation, setting overall policy, defining goals and setting targets and monitoring and evaluating performance against agreed targets.  safeguard the reputation and values of the organisation.  ensure the financial stability, probity and sustainability of the organisation.  appoint and monitor the performance of the Chief Executive.  represent WRAP as appropriate.

In addition to the above statutory and regulatory duties, each Trustee should use their specific skills, knowledge and experience to help the Board reach sound decisions.

Audit & Risk Committee – Role Description

The main responsibilities of the Audit and Risk Committee are to:

 monitor the integrity of the financial statements;  review the charity’s internal financial controls and the charity’s control and risk management systems;  make recommendations to the Board on the appointment and remuneration of the external auditors;  review of the findings of the audit with the external auditors;  review the independence of the external auditors;

The role of the Chair of the Committee is:

 To provide leadership for the Committee  To consider the qualities, skills and experience needed on the Committee and make recommendations to the Nominations Committee and the Board as required  To ensure that the responsibility and duties of the Committee as outlined in its terms of reference are well understood by its members  To agree agendas for the Committee meetings ensuring that all aspects of the terms of reference of the Committee are covered  To chair meetings, ensuring that business is conducted effectively and that all members have the opportunity to contribute  To agree the minutes of meetings  To report on the proceedings of the Committee at Board  To guide and advise the Board of Trustees in the approval of the annual report and accounts and an appropriate risk management framework  To ensure that accepted recommendations of the external auditors are implemented  To meet the external auditors independently from the management at least once a year  To keep in touch with developments which affect the governance and reporting requirements of the charity  To lead reviews of the Committee’s performance and of the performance of individual members, considering development needs as required Person Specification

It is essential that in your written application you give evidence of examples of proven experience in each of the selection criteria in Part One of the person specification. These responses will be developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview, together with the other criteria listed in Part Two.

Part One

1. Understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of trusteeship and an understanding of the respective roles of the Chair, Trustees and Chief Executive

2. Experience at board level in a substantial organisation in at least one of the private, public or not-for-profit sectors and ideally with practical experience across more than one of these sectors

3. Depth of experience and skills in your specialist area. We are open to applications from candidates with any background although would be particularly interested in those who have skills/experience in:

 audit and risk (essential if applying for the audit & risk role)  research and evidence  consumer campaigns  management consulting and development of new business models  delivering programmes internationally  fundraising including with European and global funding bodies

4. A proven ability to work effectively as a member of a team while contributing an independent perspective

5. The ability to think strategically and challenge constructively

6. A commitment to WRAP’s charitable aims and vision

7. Candidates applying for the role of member of the Audit & Risk Committee should also highlight their practical understanding of financial accounts, risk management and the role of audit committee.

Part Two

1. An understanding of, and commitment to, the values of accountability, probity and openness 2. A proven track record of being able to process detail and get to the heart of an issue 3. The ability to ask probing questions in a constructive way

4. Ability to promote effective working relationships among Board Members and with management

5. Undisputed personal integrity and personal credibility

6. A willingness to devote the time and effort required to effectively discharge the duties of this

THE TIMETABLE

The closing date for applications for either role is Friday 4th December.

Please also note the following dates:

 Interviews with WRAP Nominations Committee: TBC during December

 Trustee-elect to attend WRAP Board Meeting January 2016

** remember to please advise us about any dates that are really not convenient for you when your application is submitted

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for this role, please supply the following:

 a short introductory statement demonstrating your motivation for this role;

 supporting statement, explaining how you believe your skills and experience match the requirements of the role, directly addressing the person specification

 a comprehensive CV including details of your achievements in each role, and including details of two referees (who will not of course be contacted without your prior knowledge or consent)

All of these documents should be uploaded to the relevant fields on the website via the application link below, and please remember to annotate your application with details of which role you are applying for:

TU4748 WRAP Audit Committee application link

A reminder that this, like most trustee roles is an unremunerated one, although reasonable expenses will be reimbursed. For an informal and confidential discussion about the role, please contact: Emma Patmore: 01582 69 77 65 Ian Joseph: 07825 267 500