Scotland’s most environmentally-friendly businesses were crowned yesterday at a prestigious award ceremony at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow.
Eight companies have beaten off stiff competition from the cream of Scotland’s green businesses to take winners titles at the 2010 Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland (VIBES) Awards – which are celebrating their eleventh-year anniversary this year.
The winners are:
Best Management Award
Large company category (more than 250 employees): FMC Technologies Ltd
Medium (between 50 and 250 employees): Clark Contracts
Small (less than 50 employees): EAE Ltd
We told you the story about EAE Ltd one of the five Edinburgh companies short listed for an award here. The company is the leading arts and tourism leaflet distribution company servicing over 5,000 display sites and 800 clients across Scotland.
Another Edinburgh based company, Vegware, won the best Microbusiness Award and Aquamarine Power won a special commendation in the Product Award.
Now in its eleventh year of operation, VIBES recognises and rewards the efforts of Scottish businesses to become more efficient and competitive through improving environmental performance and benefiting their bottom-line.
Keynote speaker at the event, Iain McMillan, director of CBI Scotland said: “We are blessed with a natural environment in Scotland and, as a nation we trade on its quality, so its continuing health is vital to sustainable economic growth. Companies are not just responding to environmental issues, but are leading the way in developing new products and services which will enable customers to reduce their own carbon footprint. The purpose of the VIBES Awards is to showcase these new developments and the companies responsible for them and these awards have a strong track record in attracting entrants from some of the most dynamic and forward thinking businesses in Scotland.”
VIBES chair Alan Farquhar commented: “All of the winners were companies who showed real dynamism and innovation in their approach to their business and environmental performance. They are a great example to others and it shows how developing management systems, services and products to deal with environmental challenges, can make real cost savings whilst identifying new business opportunities.”
VIBES is a partnership between: Environmental Protection UK; NetRegs; Scottish Business in the Community; Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland.
The scheme is also supported by: CBI Scotland; Energy Saving Trust; Forward Scotland; Green Business Partnership and Scottish Enterprise.
Stagecoach Group sponsored the Best Micro Business Award and William Tracey Group sponsored the Service Award, both of whom are previous winners of VIBES.
VIBES winners are eligible to enter the European Business Awards for the Environment. These awards have been running since 1987 and attract around 200 entries per year from the cream of Europe’s most environmentally positive businesses. VIBES is the only award scheme in Scotland that feeds in to these prestigious European awards.
Regular updates on how the 2010 winners are doing will be posted on Twitter and the VIBES blog. Follow @VibesAwards or visit www.vibes.org.uk/blog
For more information on how to apply for next year’s awards, please visit www.vibes.org.uk
