Hosting an event to congratulate over 160 London organisations that have been actively greening their operations, the Mayor said: “I believe there are huge social and economic benefits to having a cleaner and greener London.”
“I believe very strongly that if we in City Hall work hard with you in business and with Government to promote a technologically optimistic green agenda than it can not only improve the quality of life for people in this city, we can boost jobs and growth and we can also save money.”
He said that, for its part, City Hall would be using the clout of its procurement budget to stimulate the development of environmental products, promote decentralised and combined heat and power energy generation and support schemes to retrain the unemployed so that they have the necessary green skills to work in areas of huge potential growth, such as retrofitting existing homes to improve their energy efficiency.
“In lean economic times, there are real financial savings to be made for businesses by becoming more energy efficient, helping them to remain competitive,” he said.
“This can often be done in really simple and cheap ways, and it is our job in City Hall to rally, support and publicly recognise organisations that want to do so.”
The City Hall event brought together members of the Green500 and Better Buildings Partnership – organisations that represent companies improving their environmental performance and commercial landlords ensuring their properties are more sustainable.
Mr Johnson used the event as a platform to announce plans for an awards scheme amongst Green500 members.
“People will vie with each other for the honour of carrying off the prize of being the greenest of the Green500,” said the Mayor.
“It’s our intention to become green with envy, in fact.”
Sam Bond