BaxterStorey scoops Major Commendation at environmental awards
The best in UK environmental excellence was celebrated on 1 July at the 2009 Business Commitment to the Environment (BCE) Environmental Leadership Awards in London. 12 companies received recognition for their outstanding achievements and BaxterStorey received a Major Commendation from Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI.
Founded by Sir Peter Parker in 1975, the BCE Awards scheme is one of the world's longest running environmental award schemes. It celebrates businesses that the BCE independent judging panel recognises as meeting the commercial demands of the present, without compromising the environment for future generations.
BaxterStorey is the UK’s leading independent food service management company for business and industry. From its Reading base, the company provides staff catering and hospitality services across more than 450 sites throughout the UK and Ireland. In receiving a Major Commendation from BCE this year, BaxterStorey was recognised for a tenacious drive in challenging existing environmental performance across its sites, and across its supplier and customer base.
This work has led to the identification and introduction of a raft of new measures including an increased commitment to using fresh, locally sourced products to help sustain the local supply chain; office recycling; energy efficiency programmes and processes; changes to packaging; and transport emission reductions. The company was also the first in the UK food-service industry to trial energy-from-waste programmes for collected food waste.
The catering and hospitality industry is notoriously poor when it comes to matters of the environment. The leadership excellence shown by BaxterStorey means it was the first UK-based contract-catering company to operate an EMS certified to ISO 14001.
Commenting on its achievement at the BCE Awards Mike Hanson, Head of Environment and Sustainability at BaxterStorey said: ‘At BaxterStorey we recognise that our success is dependent upon the environment around us and we do all we can to behave in a responsible fashion. In recent years we have invested significant thought, time and funds in ensuring our business is best positioned to maximise its role as a responsible corporate citizen and minimise the environmentally detrimental effects of our operation’.
He added: ‘Having our efforts recognised as an example of best practice by an internationally recognised thought-leader in this field is a source of much pride and we are delighted to be part of the BCE programme’.
Bovis Lend Lease scooped the Sir Peter Parker Award and the winners of the BCE Premier Awards were: Pfizer, River Dart Country Park, Sainsbury’s with NCR and Toyota Manufacturing UK. Major Commendations were also awarded to: InterfaceFLOR, Camira Fabrics, Marshalls, Robert Wiseman Dairies, ScottishPower Renewables and Seacourt.
Praising all of this year’s winners, BCE President, Sir Anthony Cleaver, commented: ‘Never in BCE’s 35-year history has UK business faced greater economic challenges. This year’s BCE Award winners must surely be congratulated. They should be very proud of their outstanding achievements and held up as shining examples of how improved environmental performance can deliver significant business benefits’.
Sponsored by AEA, Blake Lapthorn, Brunswick, E.ON, Gazeley and The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the 2009 BCE Awards once again successfully promoted the business benefits that the UK’s environmental pioneers have achieved through their endeavours and ingenuity.
Congratulating the winners, Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI, said: ‘The CBI has just published its second climate change tracker, which monitors the progress of government and business towards meeting our environmental goals. It shows that much needs to be done to get us back on track, not least by business. Today's winners are true low-carbon leaders. They have made great strides in curbing their emissions and developing some remarkable low-carbon products and services. It will be their commitment and innovation that will get us on the road to a low-carbon economy’.
Applications for 2010 BCE Awards are now being accepted. Any company that feels it deserves peer and public recognition for its outstanding environmental excellence and leadership should download an application form from the BCE Awards website (www.bceawards.org) and send it in before the closing date of 5 October 2009.