Winners unveiled in Herefordshire's Greener Footprints Business Champions Awards

Two winners were unveiled this week in Herefordshire's inaugural 'Greener Footprints Business Champions Awards' and Cllr Elissa Swinglehurst, cabinet member for environment at the county council, went to meet both.

"We were really impressed by the standard of entries and would like to say well done to all the teams and individuals who were nominated," said Cllr Swinglehurst.

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"It was a pleasure to learn about all the great work that local employees are doing to support the environment and nature and I hope that the awards will inspire others to take action."

The winning team was the six-strong Sustainability Committee at Hereford College of Arts (HCA), while the winning employee in the individual category was Sian Hill from renewable energy supplier Caplor Energy.

The team at the college has been behind driving its progress along the Climate Commission for Education’s Climate Action Roadmap and for taking action to increase sustainability at their campuses in the city.

Cllr Swinglehurst then went to Caplor Energy's office in Fownhope to congratulate Hill, who had pitched an idea for a company-wide car-share scheme to Caplor's senior leadership team.

It means staff are invited to share journeys to and from work by car and then tracks the miles they've saved and subsequent reduction in the carbon footprint.

"It became my thing to do every time I had a slot to spare, but it was so rewarding as I could see the difference it was making," said Hill, who also introduced a reward scheme.

"It didn’t take long before staff started to feel the difference in their pocket, the impact on their carbon footprint, and feel other benefits.

"Sharing those journeys not only makes people mindful of their carbon footprint across the day, but it also brought people together in new ways – we were hearing how they'd chat through issues in the car together and it became a great start and end to the day," she said.

Elsewhere in Herefordshire, the team from Edward Bulmer Paints was commended as runner up in the team group.

At their base near Leominster, the firm produces plant-based sustainable paint ranges, but their commendation came for their stunning combination of efforts on site, including ensuring just about everything delivered to the office is fair-trade, manufactured in an eco-friendly way, and recycled and/or recyclable.

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