First for public sector as Enfield wins Liveable City Award

The London Borough of Enfield has been named winner of the Corporation of London's Liveable City Awards 2005, and Beacon Press won the inaugural Environment Business Outstanding Achievement Award.


Enfield’s win marked the first time that a public sector organisation has taken the overall title with the Borough receiving the honour as a result of its outstanding entry in the Built Environment category. It faced stiff competition with more than 80 entries from organisations as diverse as BAA, UBS, Barclays Bank, the Royal Mail, Sainsburys, Quaker Social Action, The Carbon Disclosure Project and Standard Charter.

Councillor Terry Neville – cabinet member for environment, street scene and parks – said: “These awards recognise Enfield leads the way in sustainable living. The Council has made the environment its number one priority. Not only are we encouraging others to improve our environment, but this award demonstrates we are leading by example.”

Award ceremony chairman Jonathon Porritt, said: “The London Borough of Enfield should be congratulated for its holistic approach to managing the physical environment; not least for its work in establishing the principles underpinning new construction in the borough, but also for putting in place the processes needed to ensure that the standards to which it aspires are delivered.”

The judges were impressed by Enfield’s first class record in encouraging the construction of sustainable buildings and in particular in establishing comprehensive performance monitoring systems to quantify the impact of the Borough’s interventions. This, coupled with innovative training programmes enabling staff to apply the principles of sustainable design in their work, backed by an active stakeholder communication programme, was essential in securing the award.

Michael Snyder, chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee at the Corporation of London, who presented the awards, said: “Previous years’ awards have seen a focus on leaders in the field of sustainable and ethical investment. I am pleased that this year’s judging panel has recognised the London Borough of Enfield and its work to apply the principles of sustainability to the very fabric of the City we all enjoy.”

Winners in their own right of the Resource Conservation category, the judging panel also applauded Beacon’s long standing commitment to addressing and managing the environmental impact of the print industry. In addition the company’s first class record in controlled resource usage and waste minimisation was noted as a “shining example of how integration of sustainable development into a core business model can directly benefit a firm’s profitability”.

On the day that the Kyoto Protocol came in effect, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Aubrey Meyer for his contributions to tackling climate change. Aubrey, author of “Contraction and Convergence – the Global Solution to Climate Change”, is widely recognised as providing a global framework within which to resolve policies and measures to avert climate change.

“I made the effort to establish Contraction and Convergence because a fully international agreement to avert climate change is urgently needed. It is encouraging that C&C now gathers increasing international support. To discover there are people who also feel this effort deserves acknowledgement, is reward in itself,” Meyer said.

He won the award in a poll, conducted by climate change company Future Forests, of MPs, FTSE 250 Chairman/CEO’s, NGO’s and environmental media representatives.

The Carbon Disclosure Project gained the ‘Highly Commended’ award for contributions to Air Quality and Tackling Climate Change. Project Manager Paul Simpson who collected the award, told edie news he was delighted with the win.

“I would just like to thank all of the investors who have made the project possible. We now have 143 signatories with assets of US$20 trillion under management and have just sent out our third information request from companies and will be publishing results in September this year. I’m pleased that we are helping the financial community take climate change more seriously,” he said.

By Rob Bell and David Hopkins

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