One Planet Products wins Green Oscar at Sustainable City Awards

Story published 26.02.08

The winners of the “Green Oscars”, The City of London Corporation’s Sustainable City Awards were announced last week at London’s Mansion House. BioRegional's One Planet Products initiative won the Sustainable Procurement category, in recognition of exemplary work it has achieved in making it easier and more cost effective to use green construction products for the housing industry.

One Planet Products is a member-led, social business which was set up for housing associations, developers and architects. The scheme focuses on making it easier and more cost effective for its members to specify and use high quality, sustainable building products and materials.
Judges felt that by assisting organisations to make the right choices One Planet Products has tremendous influence over the behaviour of a large number of organisations, and ultimately the huge number of individuals those organisations those organisations provide services for.

Says Simon Mills, Sustainable Development Co-ordinator, City of London Corporation,
“All winners of the awards were picked not only for recognition of their achievements in CSR, but also as worthy ambassadors in sustainable business practise. It’s our hope that other businesses will be inspired by the winners’ approach to sustainability. They have shown that it’s not enough to tick boxes in the annual report, but that real commitment is needed to achieve change.”

Mark Watson, Executive Director, One Planet Products said “We are delighted and honoured to accept this award, which reflects the increasing importance of green procurement. By making it easier for our members to specify and purchase sustainable construction products we are helping to reduce the environmental impact of their developments”.

The City of London Corporation’s Sustainable City Awards were presented by Harriett Lamb, Director of The Fair Trade Company and were attended by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, David Lewis.

The awards were judged by a panel of respected environmental and sustainability experts across three areas of sustainability: the environment, social issues and the economy. The highly respected RSA-accredited awards are staged by the authority for the Square Mile financial district and since launch seven years ago have grown to become the most prestigious sustainability awards in the UK.

The Sustainable City Awards were established in 2001 by the City of London Corporation and are run in partnership with 20 organisations, including livery companies, trade bodies, voluntary sector organisations and businesses. Representatives from each of these organisations join the judging panel to select winners and runners-up across the award categories.

Sustainable City Awards
Further information and judging criteria for the Sustainable City Awards can be found at: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/sca. For more information on the European Environmental Awards, visit www.defra.gov.uk/environment/internat/euroawards/