Premier Award 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
EDEN PROJECT
Bodelva, Cornwall
The creation of a living theatre for the public and for the scientific community to enhance the study of plants and their ecosystems - and their relationship with man. Three climatic zones - two covered, one open - feature plants from all over the world. These and the visitor centre are located within a 15Ha, 60m deep china clay pit.
The Millennium project highlights a unique partnership formed to build a world class visitor attraction and science institute, committed to the local regeneration of the economy of Cornwall, and the provision of a major tourism attraction. The aim of the Eden Project is to educate and to encourage best practice in the environment and conservation, with both a local and global impact.
www.edenproject.com
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Premier Award 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
WESSEX WATER
NEW OPERATIONS CENTRE, Bath
This is an outstanding building project which incorporates best practice in community and stakeholder involvement. Approximately 10,000m2 of office development has been created on a brownfield site on the outskirts of Bath, with construction completed in July 2000. The buildings comprise three parallel office wings which are restricted to two stories high, to minimise impact on the landscape and neighbouring community.
The new Operations Centre houses 580 staff and comprises training and meeting rooms, public areas, a restaurant and an education centre for local schools and the community. The project demonstrates how a commercial building can be environmentally sustainable in its design, construction and operation, creating a good working environment, an enjoyable environment for staff and visitors, and excellent involvement of the local community.
www.wessexwater.co.uk
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Premier Award 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
POOL HOUSE HOTEL
Poolewe, Wester Ross
Pool House Hotel is a family-owned and run business which has developed a relatively run-down establishment into an internationally-renowned 5-star hotel. It aims to remain one of the most environmentally friendly hotels in Scotland - it currently holds the Scottish Tourist Board's Gold Award in the Green Tourism Scheme with a score of 99%. Despite being very small and extremely remote, the hotel attracts low impact tourists, and, although operating at the top end of the luxury market, Pool House Hotel proves that quality need not equate with wastefulness, and that being 'green' does not impair a guest's enjoyment of his or her stay.
The hotel has recently won the 'Vibes' award as the greenest small company in the north of Scotland and it has in the pipeline a range of new developments which will add to its reputation, including grey water recycling, use of solar panels, a local 'green holiday' package and expansion with a particular focus on the disabled. Furthermore, the hotel demonstrates a major contribution to the life - and sustainability - of the local community which much impressed the BCE Assessors.
www.poolhousehotel.com
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Premier Award 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
DIAGEO
WATER OF LIFE, London
'Water of Life' is the Diageo Foundation's international environmental and humanitarian support programme. Projects carried out under the programme are concerned with promoting conservation and biodiversity and the encouragement of sustainable practices and technologies.
Projects have practical, educational and research objectives and are always carried out in a genuine partnership between the local Diageo company and another appropriate body. Water of Life takes water as its main theme and so dealing with the affects of water pollution throughout the world has become a specialist concern of the programme. Over 70 projects have so far been taken on, in five continents and costing over £1m. Specific projects used to exemplify the programme with the Islay project and a micro-hydro electric project in Peru.
The Islay initiative has given practical help to develop alternative energy sources and to assist the island's Development Company in its regeneration efforts. The Peruvian initiative was in partnership with UK charity Intermediate Technology and involved supporting a training programme to promote a more extended use of micro-hydro energy based on generators which can provide electricity for the agricultural, industrial and domestic needs of villages - a small stream can generate 50kW of power - sufficient for a village of 80 households.
www.diageo.com
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Premier Award 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
THE CO-OPERATIVE BANK, Manchester
INTEGRATED APPROACH TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
The Bank's Ecological Mission Statement seeks, among other things, to reduce the company's reliance on finite resources and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions for which the Bank was responsible. The Bank's commitment to these challenges has been very public and this award is for both the high profile demonstration of commitment to the environment and for the achievements themselves. Between 1997 and 2000 the Bank reduced its energy consumption by 9.4%, and moved to renewal energy sources, albeit at a premium of over 6%. It can therefore demonstrate net CO2 emissions have fallen from 8K tonnes to 5.4K tonnes - a 29% decrease per customer account. Over the same period, the Bank's car fleet has reduced distance travelled by 19%; it is replacing its air conditioning systems to eliminate use of CFC-based gases; it has run a Greenlease asset finance product to assist businesses seeking an affordable method of acquiring environmental technologies; in 2000 it launched a green low-cost flexible mortgage, incorporating a Home Energy Rating and investments in forests as 'carbon sinks' to sequestrate CO2 - currently offsetting 1835 tonnes CO2 on behalf of its mortgage customers. Since 1998 the Co-operative Bank has been recognised as a world leader in social and environmental reporting; the various specific initiatives demonstrate that the ethical and ecological commitments are real.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk
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Premier Award 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE PROGRAMME FOR INDUSTRY
The title of the entry from the Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI) was 'Reconciling profitability and sustainable development : a global business network'. CPI is the premier provider of professional and executive development in sustainable development, pioneering learning processes to establish the business care for sustainable development for senior executives, mid-career managers and others whose functional specialism is not environmentally related. It has thus created a network of over 500 executives from some 350 organisations, including representatives from the developing world and from NGOs. The ethos of CPI is that it is individuals and organisational values that will sustain sustainable development rather than just the collection of financial data. Seminars, inter-organisational projects and networking activities make up the Programme. CPI set up HRH The Prince of Wales' Business & The Environment Programme in 1994, expanding it into Europe in 1997 and the USA in 2001. The Programme for Industry has as its stated objectives:
- To be a leading international provider of sustainability education for current and future business leaders
- To build on our strengths to pioneer new models of personal and organisational learning for a sustainable economy and
- To work with companies and other organisations to demonstrate the power of embedding sustainability literacy throughout an organisation.
www.cpi.cam.ac.uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
ANGLIAN WATER SERVICES
Osprey Reintroduction Project
The overall commitment to the environment by Anglian Water Services was illustrated by four varied initiatives this year.
The Osprey Reintroduction Project is particularly high-profile - a partnership with the Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust which has resulted in the first osprey chick to be hatched in England in 150 years. The 5-year project demonstrates the benefits to biodiversity to be achieved through co-operation, in this case with a privatised industry, environmental bodies and local volunteers working together.
Covering the whole of its operational area, Anglian Water's 10-year Biodiversity Action Plan and Index goes beyond the water industry's Code of Practice on Conservation, Access and Recreation (COPCAR) which provides guidance on best practice to limit impacts on the environment. The Action Plan is written into the company's long-term business plan and has a dedicated budget. Interestingly, the approach has led to a reduction in expenditure in some cases, such as where close mowing of grass has been decided to be inappropriate.
On the East Anglian Coast, the company has developed a Blue Flag Water Policy with a new Bathing Water Quality Management System - a water industry leader. Fundamental to this is research into the impact of discharges on water quality, resulting in improvements in infrastructure and in a rapid response capacity.
Finally, the Flag Fen High Purity Water Production scheme illustrates the company's response to the high incidence of drought years in East Anglia in the 1990s. Research suggested a range of initiatives to help sustain water supplies for customers. At Flag Fen final effluent from the wastewater treatment works is treated to provide a high quality water supply for a local power station. This has freed some 1200m3 per day of portable water for use in the Peterborough area.
www.anglianwater.co.uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
JAGUAR CARS LTD
Commitment to Sustainable Development
Jaguar has embarked on a journey towards sustainability. Following participation in the Prince of Wales Business & the Environment Programme Cambridge Seminars on Sustainable Development, Jaguar initiated a two-year programme to accredit the whole company to ISO 14001. This was achieved in 1998 and has been followed by a strategy for environmental improvements and sustainable development, embracing Jaguar dealers and suppliers, resulting in environmental and social responsibility being seen as being at the heart of the values of the company.
The company's Environmental Management Systems identified energy efficiency as a major opportunity for environmental performance improvements. From this came the decision to introduce a combined heat and power unit at the company's West Midlands assembly plants. This has reduced CO2 emissions by a half (relative to a 20% increase in production in 2000). Site-wide the reduction has been 24% thus meeting the government's targets for a 20% reduction nine years before the deadline. In addition the investment has resulted in a £340K pa saving, a reduction in labour and servicing costs associated with heat production and the elimination of the need to chemically treat water.
www.jaguarcars.com/uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
BARRIER BIOTECH
'Barrier H'
Barrier H is a herbicide developed to control ragwort. Its active ingredient is citronella oil. This is derived from plants harvested from sustainable crops in third world countries - and represents a novel approach to the production of herbicides. Barrier BioTech is a small company based in Attleborough in Norfolk and it has had to go through the whole process of product development - including design and formulation, prototype trials, manufacture, market authorisation from Pesticides Safety Directorate and marketing.
Ragwort is a significant rural problem. It causes the deaths of over 100 horses each year. Barrier BioTech, which has been using natural materials to make animal healthcare products for a decade, recognised that conventional ragwort treatment by chemicals not only affected surrounding plantlife but also meant animals had to be excluded from the treated field for up to two months because the plant takes a long time to disappear. With Barrier H the ragwort dries within 48 hours and disappears within a couple of weeks - and only the ragwort is affected. Barrier H is completely non-toxic. It has proved effective in SSSIs and other sensitive areas.
Barrier BioTech's objective is to replace dangerous chemical substances currently used for weed control, crop protection and animal healthcare. Barrier H is promoted as "the world's first environmentally friendly herbicide" to be licensed and illustrates a particularly strong business commitment to the environment.
www.barrier-biotech.com
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
FOREST ENTERPRISE
Forest Design Planning
The UK's forestry policy stems from commitments made following the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the 1993 Helsinki accord on forestry which together established the framework for Sustainable Forestry in the UK. Forest Enterprise has been exemplary in overturning behaviours perceived to be environmentally unfriendly and creating environmentally and socially acceptable and sustainable forests throughout the UK (involving 1m Ha of woodland) through the development of Forest Design Planning.
Forest Enterprise previously won BCE Awards for its work in forests in Wales, the Lake District and in the Loch Lomond area in Scotland. This award was for activities demonstrated in the Peninsula Forest District in Devon.
The detailed Forest Design Plans cover a wide range of considerations including legal status and existing landuse. It looks in great detail at recreational use and potential, carrying out a sensitivity analysis, reviews its landscape character and then reviewing the importance and potential importance of historical monuments, special scientific sites and habitats for wildlife. It then sets out clearly the objectives for planting and thereafter embarks on consultation. Finally, of course, it uses its particular expertise in optimising the growing of trees within the various constraints and parameters established in the Design Planning process.
www.forestry.gov.uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
J R TYRES LTD, Pontefract
ISIS Blocks
Some 35 million used tyres are discarded each year in Britain alone and effective solutions for their disposal prove illusive. In February 1998 J R Tyres was formed in Pontefract, West Yorkshire and its MD, Ian Richardson, began researching the problem of the disposal of tyres.
In 1999, developing a technique used in the US, J R Tyres began baling tyres into block form. The American bale was generally large and unwieldy, requiring steel bindings. J R Tyres produced ISIS - Impact Support Inertia Suppression - made entirely from recycled materials and at just smaller than 1m3 a flexible product for a variety of uses.
Uses include flood defence systems, including both permanent barriers and emergency use (such as the successful protection of the Selby Pumping Station in the floods of November 2000), the construction of temporary roadways, thermal insulation (such as protecting pipes from frost), soundproofing (1600 bales helped soundproof a motor training school in North Yorkshire) and as barriers on motor racing circuits.
www.tyretradenews.co.uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
HANSON AGGREGATES
Trusham Quarry Redevelopment
This project saw a complete redevelopment and modernisation of Hanson's dolerite quarry at Trusham, adjacent to Exmoor National Park, in Devon. It included the realignment of the B3193 to take the road outside the operational area of the quarry, the replacement of old and outdated plant and improvements to screening and landscaping, including the incorporation of a conservation plan for undeveloped parts of the landholding.
The quarry dates back to around 1900. However, after 1976 it was believed the quarry was approaching the end of its life. It continued to supply an adjoining pipe manufacturing plant, owned by Hanson, but in 1995 it was announced this was to close, having become outdated and uneconomic. However, at the same time, geological exploration identified very significant amounts of high quality dolerite were close to the base of the quarry.
www.hansonplc.com
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
CORUS GROUP PLC
Environmental Improvements throughout the steel packaging life cycle
Corus Packaging Plus, part of the Corus Group, has significantly reduced the environmental impact of steel packaging throughout its life cycle, from product development through manufacture to use and recycling. For example, the Ultimate Can has 28% less weight than a conventional can and use of this will have a dramatic effect on consumption of new materials as well as production of emissions (100K tonnes CO2 pa).
Corus Steel Packaging Recycling (CSPR), set up in 1998, has worked hard to develop and use the 'packaging chain', involving local authorities, waste companies and local community collection schemes to increase the amount of steel packaging diverted from landfill to recycling by 36%. This represents 75000 tonnes of steel which saves 112K tonnes iron ore and 37.5K tonnes of coal each year - as well as 100 tonnes CO2 emissions pa).
The Corus programme goes way beyond the current Packaging Regulations and illustrates once again Corus' commitment to environmental responsibility.
www.corusgroup.com
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
LEX VEHICLE LEASING
'A complete environmental approach'
Lex Vehicle Leasing introduced an environmental programme in 1998, following its achievement of ISO14001 - the first (and only) car leasing company to win this award. This programme was aimed at employees and also users of the 100,000 fleet of vehicles, leased to private and government organisations. It involves resource management, research and public events.
For example, the company sponsored a 'Clean Vehicle Event' at Dunstall Park Racecourse in April 2001. In partnership with Wolverhampton City Council, Lex organised a range of exhibitors and information providers primarily to help those responsible for fleet purchase and maintenance. This event was followed by a three day event at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire.
The company has been deliberately high profile in its environmental crusade. It produces an annual Lex Fleet Report highlighting environmental analyses of its cars. It has in hand a Green Drivers' Guide. The company has been an enthusiastic supporter of the government's Motorvate programme which aims to encourage fleet managers to seek reductions in CO2 emissions by 33% by 2008 which it is achieving through incentives for smaller cars to be used and video conferencing where possible.
www.lvl.co.uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
SOUTH EAST WATER
Environmental Enhancement of Arlington Reservoir
Over the years, Arlington Reservoir has been enhanced to Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status. South East Water has been working with partners to maximise the diversity of habitats in and around this functioning reservoir, creating reedbeds, islands, hedges and woodland compartments.
The 30 year old reservoir, near Polegate in the Sussex Downs, is now a showpiece conservation venue, home to a variety of protected species such as Barn Owl, Osprey, Nightingale and Great Crested Newt. It also functions as a local recreational facility, for angling, walking and picnicking.
The BCE Assessor noted "This is a small water company, punching above its weight in the environmental field. The development and management of Arlington Reservoir is led by an enthusiastic co-ordinator with a small team - including volunteers - well supported by their operational management. Theirs is an innovative and creative programme - excellent value for money".
www.southeastwater.co.uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Video & Audio Conferencing
The prime purpose of the Environment Agency is to provide a policing service for the environment of England. Its aim is "to protect and enhance the environment and make a contribution towards the delivery of sustainable development through the integrated management of air, land and water". Keen to practice what it preaches, the Agency has developed an exemplary environmental programme which has proved complementary to an efficiency savings programme which is saving the agency £12m pa.
A prime example of an initiative with very significant financial and environmental benefits has been the development of video and audio conferencing, with facilities rolled out over the past three years to 80 sites, representing a £1m investment. The commitment to this changed way of doing business is demonstrated by involvement from Chairman down, and 'green objectives', including reductions in business mileage, form part of employees' performance targets linked to pay reviews.
The impact of video conferencing has been dramatic - business mileage cut by 1.2m miles in 18 months (thereby saving 74 tyres and 147 tonnes of CO2), the equivalent of three years of working days in travelling time saved and a range of quality of life benefits.
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
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Major Commendation 2001
Presented at The Lincoln Centre, London on 29th January 2002 by Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL
LINNET Project
LINNET - 'Local Initiatives in Nurturing Environmental Technology' - is a Local Agenda 21 project in County Durham. Its purpose is to create partnerships to commission and demonstrate the value of local environmental technology in providing jobs, environmental good practice and social and educational benefits.
Examples of projects under the LINNET banner include wind turbine projects at two schools - England's first grid-connected school wind turbine generators - and a partnership with Northumbrian Water which is transforming ideas about sustainability in schools with pupils seeing water retention on site to avoid flooding and recycling to save energy and water resources.
In 1987 Durham County Council won the Green Apple Award as the "greenest county council", reflecting its pioneering work with Local Agenda 21. This BCE Award recognises the sustained and exemplary programme which has grown from this, as demonstrated in the LINNET initiative.
www.Durham.gov.uk
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