Go Green: The Doncaster family firm with big ambitions for changing how businesses get rid of their rubbish

Doncaster firm Go Green may have annual revenues of over £40m and more than 150 staff on its books these days but the waste management broker still retains the feel of a family business.

The company was co-founded back in 2000 by Carlos Ferrinho and Stephen Bolland, the son of well-known local skip hire businessman Roy Bolland.

The pair are still directors in the firm to this day and have overseen its evolution to help organisations meet growing sustainability requirements for getting rid of their rubbish in as environmentally-friendly way as possible.

The business model involves Go Green identifying a company’s waste management needs and finding local subcontractors to dispose of unwanted materials at suitable locations; thereby substantially increasing recycling rates and lowering costs.

The company’s revenues have almost doubled in size in the last six years alone with clients including the giant Frasers Group retail chain and it is now expanding into Ireland, with ambitions to move into mainland Europe in the coming years. It was also Highly Commended at the recent Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business awards for its sustainability work.

Commercial director Jon Mimms, who has been with the company for 19 years, says the business has moved with the times.

"When I joined I was the 11th member of the team. It was still at the same location we are now but we were all sat in one room together. Back then it was a one stop shop – ‘we will get a skip anywhere, any place, any time’ is what we would say.”

He says that as companies began to want increasing levels of information about what was happening to their waste, Go Green had a “game-changing” moment in 2010 when it rolled out a new IT system and online portal for customers allowing them to track information in areas like how much was being recycled and what was going to landfill.

The system evolved to include how much was going to incinerators allowing waste to be turned into energy as well as tracking the carbon footprint of getting rid of rubbish.

The introduction of an online business aimed at smaller businesses and the general public had been in the works prior to Covid but proved to be well-timed when lockdowns arrived and many people launched home improvement projects.

Mimms adds: "As cheesy as it sounds, the name Go Green is what we are focused on. Whether it is somebody clearing the garage to building a university development it is no different. It must be legal, compliant and there must be an audit trail. It is very much what the world should be doing and not just throwing it in a hole in the ground for landfill.”

Go Green sees itself as a national business that happens to be based in Yorkshire but it sets a premium on using local SMEs as subcontractors close to the businesses it serves.

Sales director Paul Allen says: “We also have a really heavy emphasis on waste is disposed at an appropriate local outlet. It sends their recycling rates through the roof and brings their costs down.”

Allen says prospective new customers do sometimes need persuading the service is right for them.

“A sustainability manager sees value from Day One. But because we are a management company and we subcontract we don’t always have the luxury of just being cheaper. Our cost savings come from us doing it better.”

He says simple steps such as getting clients to separate their waste into different materials at source can soon pay dividends – giving the example of timber as something which can be disposed of by specialists in a way that leads to far higher recycling percentages.

Allen explains: "Why it has been an attractive proposal for the blue chip end is they are under pressure now from government, from society, from legislation to do it better and prove they are doing it better.

"Our business in a nutshell is we might be five per cent more on price but will save you 20 per cent as a business because of everything we will do for you.”

Mimms adds: “When we began working with Frasers three years ago, they were the first to admit they didn’t have the full visibility on their waste. It became a no brainer for them.

"We work for several major organisations like the contractors for council and NHS projects.

"The first questions we ask are how much waste do you produce, what do you spend and what do you recycle. 99 per cent of the time no matter how big they are, they don’t know because it is so fragmented. We can consolidate it, track it and report it and that’s what businesses are crying out for.”

Another relatively recent development for the business is the introduction of a sustainability department overseen by Sabrina Barnett.

As well as ensuring that subcontractors are working to the correct standards, part of the department’s work has been on social and educational projects linked to their wider work.

Parcels of land at a nearby disused quarry will be transformed into woodland as part of those ongoing efforts.

She says: "We are not just putting things out there on paper, there are tangible things we are doing.”

Mimms says that in common with the vast majority of the senior leadership team at the company, the trio have all worked their way up the business.

"I came as an assistant manager knowing nothing about waste, Paul was a paintballing marshall, Sabrina was at New Look. The team we have formed have had the opportunity to build careers. We develop people through the company, it is a fantastic place to work with lots of opportunities.”

Barnett adds: “You are valued for what you do here and you can have an influence on how things operate. As much as we are an SME and very family-run but we are now operating like a large business with a sustainability strategy and accreditations for everything we do. But we still feel like a small business once you are in the building.”