Chorley dad sets up ground-breaking sustainability app where anyone can source free or cheap building supplies

34-year-old Nigel Eastham launched Sustainability Yard in January 2022, a free marketplace app where users can buy, sell or give away their excess and unused building materials in a bid to mitigate landfill of reusable materials from sites across the UK.

Previously working in recruitment, Nigel became a property developer in 2017 and it was from his own experiences in this role that the idea for Sustainability Yard was born.

The father of two said: “All the while, there was this little thing nagging me, and it was a double edged sword. It was one, I was paying a fortune on storage units - I had three at one point - with materials in there, leftover from jobs, that the truth was, I was never going to use, I was paying for the liberty of storing them, and when a new job came along, I would just buy new materials.

"And the flip side of it was I was paying a fortune for skips to get rid of materials, when in reality a lot of those were perfectly reusable. You’re talking timber, plasterboard, insulation, bricks, roofing tiles, even an extra toilet; any job that you do in infrastructure, there are always materials leftover, no matter how meticulously you plan, for example the specification might change, somebody might deliver the wrong stuff. So it’s what you do with it then and unfortunately, at the moment, the mind says, just throw them in a skip but I had a lightbulb moment, I thought there must be something we can do to prevent these materials from going to landfill, I’ve got a young family and the idea of not doing the right thing, doesn’t sit right with me, so that's where the idea was born.”

Although only a year old, Sustainability Yard has over 10,000 users – ranging from tier one and two contractors, national house builders and developers to local traders and DIY lovers – and has featured in media outlets such as YPN Magazine, Property Hub, and Britbuild.

They hope to have 50,000 users by summer, and Nigel believes uptake has been so good as they are the first company of its kind.

He said: “I was shocked but more than anything I was pleased that people were taking notice and agreed that something needed to be done with these materials. Everybody is there for the same reasons - to buy, sell or give away building materials and do the right thing.”

Sustainability Yard has already stopped over 300 tonnes of materials from going to landfill by finding them a new home, with Nigel adding that, by doing so, the platform allows larger brands to demonstrate their ESG and sustainability activity, helping to hit the government’s net-zero targets, and reduce skip and storage costs.

As part of their mission, Sustainability Yard also planted 500 trees last year and aim to double that in 2023. Nigel added: “Within the industry, it’s widely acknowledged that what we do isn't particularly good for the planet in terms of generating climate issues so we've tried to combat that by planting broadleaf trees to help counterbalance the effects of manufacturing materials.”

Available to everyone, Sustainability Yard is free to download and use, with no tie-ins or charges to buy or sell.