Firms recognized in London’s ‘environmental Oscars’

Ten businesses and individuals were honored at the 24th annual Clean City Awards. Held at the Mansion House by the City of London Corporation, the awards recognized large and small firms for best practices in waste management.

Among the awardees were the Royal Bank of Canada, Brookfield, Nomura and the Bank of England. Ranging from dentists, conference centers and financial institutions, applicants are recognized for driving behavioral change through engagement and communication, waste minimization business models, creative campaigns and reuse and recycling initiatives.

“City businesses are making a tremendous difference by pushing the boundaries on environmental sustainability,” says Jeremy Simons, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s environmental services committee. “These firms are working hard to make a difference, from reducing plastic to improving recycling and keeping the streets clean.”

Businesses awarded the Chairman’s Cup for successful waste and recycling initiatives include:

• Nomura for continuing to run effective waste campaigns and declaring its plan to be “plastic free” by 2019. Nomura is empowering its environmental reps to raise awareness of the impact of plastic waste in the company by removing 225,000 pieces of disposable cutlery from its service area.
• Broadgate Estates, City of London campus, for excelling in recycling communications, campaigns and occupier engagement across a vast and complex site. Recycling increased from 10 percent to 76 percent despite an increase in footfall and headcount.
• Royal Bank of Canada for creating a Trading Floor Green Team, which introduced reusable metal drink bottles and removed wooden stirrers and plastic cups from the trading floor. This saved 110,000 cups and 6,000 stirrers each year, as well as 120,000 throw-away items.
• Brookfield for improving their bin store area with multilingual signage and installing a “Green Room,” where environmental initiatives are promoted. The site has an increased its recycling rate from 4 to 74 percent.

Rothschild & Co. won the Plastic Free City award for removing 410,668 single-use plastic items from its London office and creating their own Plastic Free Business Pledge.

London Stock Exchange received the Cheapside Business Alliance Award for introducing biodegradable straws, non-plastic cutlery and its first waste management forum. Catering facilities actively sought out imperfect fruit and vegetables for catering operations, which would ordinarily be discarded by retailers. The business also moved to a 100 percent renewable fleet.

For more on the Clean City awards visit here.