Sustainability
Our Philosophy: A Traditional Business Adapted for the Modern World
We’re proud to be a long-standing family-run business that is trail blazing a sustainable approach to waste and resource management in Scotland.
We have embraced the modern world and its challenges, continuing to innovate and evolve with the times. Brewster Brothers has had many iterations in the past 45 years. Originally farmers, the business then evolved from property development to quarry restoration and finally into waste management, providing high quality products and services to the construction industry in the Scottish Central Belt.
Circular Economy
Brewster Brothers is operated under the principals of a circular economy.
This means that we aim to operate as a closed loop system – ensuring that any waste or by-products created by our business are repurposed. We are constantly redesigning our processes and harnessing innovation to improve the efficiency of our recycling plant.
An example of this innovation is the Knowledge Transfer Partnership we have established with Heriot-Watt University to find new uses for the clay by-product from our wash plant which is currently used to restore our wider site.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do.
We believe in working together to provide quality products and services at competitive prices, whilst improving the environment and reducing carbon emissions. Our business is designed with convenience in mind, our products and services will save your business time and money all while ensuring minimal impact on the environment. We strive to be a circular business, and this means we’re continually innovating to keep up with the latest advances in sustainable technology. Our recycling wash plant is a closed loop system that recycles 90% of the water it uses and has generated around 1,000,000 tonnes of recycled aggregates since 2018.
Sustainability in Construction
We are in the midst of a global climate crisis. The decade between 2009 and 2019 was the warmest on record according to NASA, NOAA and the UK Met Office. Natural resources are dwindling and the world’s second most consumed resource, sand, is set to run out by 2045. The rate that we are consuming resources is 3 times what our planet can manage and is causing desertification, pollution, extinction and using up vital resources.
You might be thinking “So? What does this have to do with construction?”.
The Linear Economy
The construction industry is responsible for the consumption of a huge proportion of the world’s resources and its waste generation.
In Scotland alone, construction accounts for over 50% of total waste arisings and natural resource consumption.
This hunger and wastefulness also pollutes the atmosphere with over 40% of Scotland’s carbon emissions whilst only contributing 6% to GDP.
It’s about time we rethink how we operate. It is obvious that the traditional ‘take, make, waste’ linear model isn’t serving us anymore and we need to move on to a circular approach that maximises the value of materials by minimising waste and repurposing materials as many times as possible.
