Objectives

Pacific Institute’s objective was to coordinate a clustered pilot in the Noyyal-Bhavani River Basin in South India where three global apparel companies have facilities and operations to drive action informed by catchment context. Anthesis worked with the Pacific Institute, in collaboration with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), and the three apparel brands, to conduct a water risk assessment of supplier facilities.

Project

Services

Anthesis produced an interactive Tableau dashboard, to display facility water management data and to highlight location-specific shared water risks. It was used by the Pacific Institute as a key part of the engagement process, to gain stakeholder buy-in and provide an element of credibility to the process. Our analysis factored in current, local, operational and shared water challenges to formulate targets and strategies to reduce overall consumption.

Impacts

These achievements have resulted in enhanced employee enrollment and engagement, a refined business strategy through the lens of circularity, and engaged customers through purpose-driven communications.

Objectives

Enfinium is a leader in the energy-from-waste sector and operates four decarbonisation hubs that transform waste into electricity and recycle metals, with two more in development within the UK.

However, the electricity market is undergoing a period of massive transformation as it moves from a system dominated by large, centralised fossil-fuel base load stations to a more decentralised system with significant generation from intermittent renewable sources. In parallel, the journey to decarbonise the gas grid is just beginning and there is significant interest in the substitution of hydrogen for natural gas as a key means of achieving it.

Therefore, the production of hydrogen from waste rather than or as well as electricity offers several potential commercial opportunities:

• Export / sell the hydrogen to the national gas grid
• Sell the hydrogen directly to a local industrial user
• Store the hydrogen and then use it to generate electricity to exploit arbitrage / variability in electricity market pricing

Project

The study formed part of a wider assessment of the technical and commercial feasibility of hydrogen production developments at the customer energy-from-waste sites. Anthesis was commissioned to deliver the initial technical prefeasibility study, focussing on defining the core hydrogen generation technology and associated balance of the plant.

Enfinium set the following aims for the project:

• Establish the maximum quantity of hydrogen that can be generated on-site
• Identify the key limiting factors for hydrogen generation on-site
• Estimate the CAPEX and OPEX for hydrogen plants capable of producing this maximum quantity of hydroge on each site

Recognising that the maximum scenario was unlikely to reflect a project that would be developed in the short-medium term, Anthesis also produced a preliminary design for a demonstrator plant that would represent the likely first stage of hydrogen generation rollout.

Services

• Technological assessment of potential suppliers
• Development of concept design for deployment of hydrogen generation at five sites
• Development of concept design documentation including:
  • AACE Class 5 CAPEX cost estimate and OPEX estimate of equivalent accuracy
  • Report with findings and recommendations

Impacts

Electrolytic hydrogen generation was found to be technically feasible at all the sites, at varying scales. At all sites, town water was used as the water source for the electrolysis process and the electricity generated by the EfW as the power source.

The limiting factors at each site were mainly associated with available power generation, but also with surface area availability and long-term industrial demand for Hydrogen. In the short term, the limiting factor across all sites will be tangible hydrogen demand. Anthesis worked with a supplier of small-scale mobile refuelling unit to develop a demonstrator site that would be suitable for short-term development.

Anthesis identified the sites that appear best suited to hydrogen in the short term and prepared a feasibility study for a demonstrator plant to be rolled out as the first step.

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Objectives

GUESS was looking for a partner to lead the development of its next sustainability report. The objective was to transition towards integrated financial and non-financial reporting gradually, while introducing a fresh sustainability strategy and goals. Additionally, the aim was to adopt a more strategic approach, discerning and leveraging the business value associated with sustainability.

Project

In 2022, Anthesis supported GUESS in the development of its sustainability strategy and reporting activities. This included a review and refresh of its sustainability strategy and goals for the preparation of the Sustainability Report.

Underpinning the strategy refresh, Anthesis also supported GUESS in conducting a double materiality assessment with the aim of enabling GUESS to build upon and strengthen the approach taken in previous years and be better prepared ahead of incoming mandatory requirements of CSRD/ESRS.

Services

• Developed a double materiality matrix through the identification, prioritisation and validation of a list of material topics, referenced to relevant reporting standards and frameworks including primarily ESRS, GRI, SASB and UN SDGs.
• Refreshed sustainability strategy targeting priority action areas for the next 2-3 years, aligned with best practice frameworks with a set of KPIs and a roadmap to support implementation.
• Developed a coherent creative brief, summary and full sustainability report covering GUESS’ achievements and plans in line with the company tone of voice and style. The finished report was aligned to GRI and SASB and mapped against the UN SDGs. The report achieved the ESG Investing Award “Best Company for Sustainability Reporting” in the Corporate ESG Awards 2023.

Impacts

The outcomes of the double materiality assessment helped better understand the significance of material topics from both a risk, opportunity and impact perspective for the business and inform its strategic planning process.

Objectives

WRAP trials have proven that low-cost intervention measures, such as using bin stickers, information leaflets and caddy liners, can increase the amount of household food waste collected for recycling. With this in mind, WRAP’s goal was to produce a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) tool that would be available to local authorities (LAs) and Anaerobic Digesters (AD) plant operators – the tool would conduct a Cost Benefit Analysis of implementing these interventions under the local circumstances of the user, and consider three contract mechanisms that could be used to fund the interventions, i.e. cost sharing of intervention costs, energy profit sharing and variable gate fees.

Project

Anthesis was commissioned by WRAP to develop the CBA tool for use by LAs and AD operators. Firstly, our team liaised with a number of LAs and AD operators to understand their experiences of:

1. food waste collections,
2. implementing interventions aimed at increasing food waste yields, and
3. how effective contract mechanisms are at stimulating higher food waste yields.

Using the information obtained from this engagement, and our own understanding of food waste contract arrangements and AD operational costs, we developed the CBA tool. The tool was then tested by a number of LAs and AD operators, from whom we gathered feedback that was incorporated into the final design.

Services

• Gathering industry experience through engagement with LAs and AD operators.
• Development of a specification that covered the structure, layout and functionality of the tool.
• Creation of the CBA tool in the form of a macro-enabled Excel spreadsheet.
• Calculation of the default values for the tool, including AD operator costs and LA gate fees.
• Conducting a series of tests with the relevant stakeholders and potential users to determine the accuracy and presentation of the outputs, as well as its usability.
• Incorporating the outcome of the testing into the final tool.

Key Project Outputs

An easy to use CBA tool, which uses locally-generated information about the collection and treatment of food waste to generate a fully bespoke assessment. The tool is now downloadable from the WRAP website.

Impacts

WRAP has already used the CBA tool in collaboration with a number of LAs in London.

Objectives

Wokingham Borough Council was looking for a partner to assist them in understanding and assessing the various routes to compliance with The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015, also known as the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES).

MEES is a set of legal requirements that aim to improve the energy efficiency of private rented properties across the UK. Under MEES, buildings in England or Wales must achieve at least an ‘E’ rating on their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in order for them to be leased or rented.

Wokingham Borough Council has an extensive portfolio of private rented property so decided to focus on a sample of their stock and utilise the results from these assessments to inform future decisions in relation to their remaining stock.

Project

We assessed the performance and prepared EPCs for 36 of the client’s buildings, creating an asset register in the process.

We then prepared a report which detailed the energy, carbon and cost savings which would be achieved from the implementation of seven potential Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs), all of which had a seven-year payback period, as required by MEES.

We also created simulations of the seven options, packaged eleven different ways in order to assess net present value and lifetime return on investment.

Services

Through our assessments and simulations, we were able to present two potential routes for Wokingham Borough Council to achieve compliance with MEES. The first route achieves compliance by implementing all of the ECM recommendations on the EPCs, however, this may not necessarily result in all buildings achieving an EPC rating of E.

Should Wokingham Borough Council decide to go one step further, they can choose the second route to compliance, which involves implementing a different package of ECMs which will bring all of their buildings up to the minimum EPC rating of E.

Impacts

Through this process Wokingham Borough Council were able to make an informed decision about how best to achieve compliance with MEES, weighing up the energy, cost and carbon savings as well as the return on investment from each of the two options. They can also use the learnings from this project to make informed decisions about the rest of their building stock.

Objectives

US-based energy transition and decarbonisation infrastructure investor ECP, formerly Energy Capital Partners, sought a detailed understanding of the current and future UK plastic waste market.

The objective was to support ECP’s due diligence for a proposed acquisition of Biffa plc, one of the UK’s leading integrated waste and recycling companies with a leading position in plastics through Biffa Polymers.

Project

Anthesis examined all aspects of the UK’s current and future plastic waste value chain, from arisings, collections, and sorting, through to recycling, disposal, and exports.

Anthesis assessed the potential impacts of changing regulations and market drivers, including deposit return schemes (DRS), extended producer responsibility (EPR), and the plastic packaging tax, to provide ECP with a detailed understanding of how the plastic waste industry operates in the UK and how it might change in future.

Anthesis assessed the current and potential future waste sorting and plastic recycling infrastructure in the UK and compared this against anticipated future plastic waste arisings, to establish the future UK infrastructure ‘capacity gap’ for plastic packaging recycling.

Anthesis identified leading operators in the plastic recycling industry and delivered research into the historical and projected pricing trends for plastic packaging, including insights into the push to recycle additional polymers and grades.

Services

• UK plastic waste market assessment
• Commercial and policy analysis & insight
• Plastic recycling infrastructure capacity gap assessment

Anthesis’ plastic waste market assessment supported ECP’s investment decision by providing a clear understanding of the UK plastic waste value chain.

UK sorting infrastructure must produce high quality, separate polymer streams to support successful mechanical recycling in the UK, both to meet recycling targets and to avoid the need for exports. The UK’s capacity to sort, refine, and recycle plastics will therefore have to increase and evolve from that available today, requiring significant further investment.

Impacts

In January 2023, ECP successfully acquired Biffa Plc. Biffa has been at the forefront of the UK’s waste management industry for over 100 years, with a commitment to enabling the development and prosperity of a circular economy, providing essential waste services to ~100,000 business customers and ~2 million households in the UK.

Biffa’s portfolio includes Biffa Polymers, which operates several advanced plastic reprocessing facilities converting ~165,000 tonnes of plastic into recycled polymer each year.

ECP’s investment provides an opportunity to further develop this treatment capacity and expand Biffa’s ability to support the circular economy for plastics.

Objectives

A global investment organisation with a focus on investments that drive climate action, acquired an operator of Waste-to-Energy facilities in North America, the UK and Ireland in 2021.

The organisation’s purpose-driven investment model presents several growth opportunities for the waste operator, whose business centres on sustainable waste processing and the advancement of the transition to a circular economy.

Annually, the operator reports the conversion of approximately 21 million tons of waste from municipalities and businesses into electricity to power one million homes and recycle 600,000 tons of metal. The Waste-to-Energy, or Energy-from-Waste (EfW), process is a key contributor to landfill diversion, reducing methane emissions and recovering energy from waste.

Project

Anthesis provided commercial due diligence support to the global investment organisation, to evaluate markets for the waste operator’s EfW plant portfolio. The focus of Anthesis’ work was to provide specialist insights and expertise on the individual EfW assets and their commercial viability, including analysis of gate fee assumptions and revenue forecasting for financial modelling, as well as contract reviews to ascertain the level of feedstock security. In addition, we provided recycling rate and EfW market and competition assessments to identify risks and opportunities for the portfolio as well as the individual assets. Anthesis also considered on-site expansions, co-location opportunities, implications of carbon taxation to advise on the expansion potential for value creation of the existing portfolio and the future pipeline. 

Services

• Commercial due diligence of revenue drivers and feedstock security
• Market and competition analysis for residual waste and EfW infrastructure
• Gate fee assessment and revenue forecasting
• Recycling rate analysis to evaluate the future impact on the EfW markets
• Support in the assessment of additional opportunities and value enhancement

Impacts

Deliverables included comprehensive due diligence reporting, including red flag reports, management meetings and QA. 
Our assessment included the identification of key risks and issues that potentially impact on business plan assumptions and a summary of key diligence findings. 

Objectives

A Swedish Government Agency wanted to understand and quantify the public value of “good environmental status” (GES) in Sweden’s marine waters in accordance with the European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Anthesis conducted a comprehensive study to measure public willingness to pay to achieve GES in marine waters. 

Project

• Designing a comprehensive survey with special attention to language around “good status.” The intention was for any respondent, without previous knowledge, to gain an understanding of the current environmental situation and the importance of improving the marine water quality.
• Designed recruitment strategy for questionnaire, sent out on August 2019. The recruitment took place gradually to ensure that the final sample was nationally representative of age, gender, education and region. There were 1039 respondents.
• Conducted descriptive and statistical analyses. A regression analysis was performed to investigate which factors explain a willingness to pay, such as income, proximity to the sea, and knowledge of the environmental problems in the sea.

Impacts

The study concluded that the Swedish population’s aggregate willingness to pay for the additional measures required to achieve good environmental status in the Swedish marine waters by 2040 is SEK 8.2 billion, 0,72 billion pound and 0,80 billion euro per year respectively.

The results of the study will inform socio-economic analyses required by the EU to update the action program for the marine environment and to update the Baltic Sea Action Plan in collaboration with Finland, Germany and other surrounding countries. These include cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis of the proposed measures.