Green Leaders honoured for promoting sustainability
BUSINESS leaders together with leading representatives from the public sector and the region’s universities have been honoured for their commitment to sustainable strategies.
Coventry City Council Chief Executive Martin Reeves, Kirstin Kane, of Birmingham Airport and Professors Andreas Hornung and Tony Bridgwater, both of Aston University are among the winners of this year’s Green Leaders awards.
Simon Dingle, operations director for Carillion, who is spearheading the company’s involvement in the £193m Library of Birmingham, is also one of the 33 recipients of this year’s awards.
The awards scheme, organised by Sustainability West Midlands, is designed to help the region recognise its low carbon objectives.
The Green Leaders, who received their certificates from Sara Parkin at a special event at Austin Court in Birmingham, are being urged to pass on their experiences, skills and knowledge to others in order to improve sustainability.
George Marsh, chair of SWM said: “This year our Green Leaders feature a diverse group of individuals, who are all having a positive environmental impact in helping the West Midlands achieve our vision for a low carbon economy.
“There are some excellent examples of innovation, community and workforce engagement and, importantly, case studies of how proven techniques can deliver real cost savings whilst reducing the collective carbon footprint.”
He said he was especially pleased by the growing number of businesses recognised in the awards.
“We’ve got big names such as Alumet Systems, Amey, Denso and Travel de Courcey, but also smaller firms such as Silent Computing and Architype featured,” he said.
Mr Dingle is playing a fundamental role in helping the library project achieve its ‘Excellent’ BREEAM Rating, incorporating low and zero carbon technologies in the process.
His aim is to achieve excellence in both environment and community activities during the construction phase and so far all suppliers are signed up to and achieving waste targets (99.3% diverted from landfill), hitting 100% responsibly sourced timber, taking on local staff and apprentices and minimising impacts of dust, traffic and noise.
The Library of Birmingham will also be pivotal to sharing eco-learning, with 10 schools, college and universities involved and the project recently being awarded ‘National Skills Academy and Skills for Life Provider’.
“Spreading the low carbon message is crucial and we all have a role to play in helping the West Midlands to reduce its carbon footprint and embrace new environmental technologies,” he said.
“The lessons we learn on the construction of the Library can be used for new projects and opportunities that the West Midlands can lead on.”
The West Midlands Green Leaders event was part of Sustainability West Midlands’ annual conference, which this year looked at the ‘priorities for a sustainable 2020: where next on our journey?’
Pictured are some of the winners from this year’s Green Leaders awards. Back row, from left: Karen Leach, Localise West Midlands, Kristin Kane, Birmingham Airport, Prof Andreas Hornung, Aston University, Chris Crean, Friends of the Earth and Kamal Parekh, Silent Computing with Cllr Tim Huxtable, Birmingham City Council and Simon Dingle, operations director, Carillion.
