Helping charity Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland shape their Circular Economy strategy

Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland is the largest healthcare charity in Scotland, dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by chest, heart, and stroke conditions. To sustain their important work, CHSS operates a network of 39 charity shops across Scotland. Our retail estate serves as a vital source of income, enabling the organisation to fund our support service.  

All charities with a retail operation like CHSS, play a crucial role in promoting sustainability and contributing to the circular economy. The circular economy is an economic model that aims to minimise waste and keep resources in circulation for as long as possible. By donating and purchasing items from charity shops, individuals actively participate in reducing waste and extending the lifecycle of products. 

A colleague of mine saw the 360+ programme, run by SIS and Zero Waste Scotland on social media and shared with me. The retail directorate in CHSS has the biggest opportunity to create positive benefits for the environment, so I applied to broaden my knowledge on circularity and discover how charity retail at CHSS could enhance its environmental credentials.

A significant challenge to CHSS is managing the volume of donations to maximise the income potential. This income enables our colleagues to support people with our conditions. In the financial year 2022/23 we were gifted 219,000 bags of donations from our generous supporters which we converted into more than £5.5 million. From those bags we resold 800 tonnes of materials, which equated to nearly 10 million kg in CO2 savings. Additionally, we sent 300 tonnes of materials to our recycling merchant partner.

I have loved being part of the programme not only for the learning but more so for the people I met. I am motivated by innovation and the cohort was full of innovative and entrepreneurial people. The organisations created and run by my fellow cohort members was immensely impressive. I have come away with blossoming new relationships to help our endeavours at CHSS and for the size of our retail estate to support others. As a starter, we purchased a tent, repurposed as a coat from Stitch the Gap (see image above) to use as a centrepiece for our pitch in the Charity Supermarket in Glasgow Fort, the newest collaboration with charity retailers in Scotland. 

The learning for me was inspiring. The programme has motivated me to change my perspective on the items we do not sell. I am now exploring ways to keep more items in circulation for even longer. I have met some amazingly talented people to work with to repurpose items. Not only will this offer our customers new products but will also support some of my fellow cohort’s organisations to grow their income. However, the most enthusing benefit for me, is keeping materials in circulation for even longer.   

Over the six weeks I have made great connections that will hopefully grow into strong collaborations to benefit the whole of Scotland.