Winners of FT’s first environmental awards announced

A healthcare company, energy supplier and ice-cream producer have become the first companies to scoop environmental awards hosted by the Financial Times.


Swiss heathcare firm Roche, US energy giant Con Edison and Scottish ice-cream producer Mackies triumphed in the FT and Citi Private Bank’s inaugural Environmental Awards, presented at the Royal Opera House, in London.

The accolades recognised business’ efforts to improve carbon efficiency.

John Ridding, chief executive officer of the Financial Times, said: “We were impressed by the quality of entries to these awards and the commitment shown by these businesses to tackling the challenge of carbon emissions.

“We congratulate this year’s winners for their schemes and dedication, and look forward to building on the success of these inaugural awards next year.”

Roche, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, walked away with the global award and the award for large enterprises in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The company improved its carbon efficiency by 31%, and reduced direct emissions by 19% through policies such as introducing new building technologies and committing to phasing out all halogenated hydrocarbons from cooling systems by 2015.

New York-based Con Edison won the award for large enterprises in the Americas, after improving carbon efficiency by 20% and reducing carbon emissions by 1.3million tonnes.

The energy supplier replaced old technology with natural gas burning turbines and has reduced its sulphur hexafluoride emissions by 62.5%.

The small and medium enterprise award was given to Aberdeenshire farm and food producer Mackies Ltd for its commitment to generating 100% of its energy through wind turbines, improving carbon efficiency by nearly 70%.

Mackies also produces a surplus of energy its private wind turbines, which supplies enough electricity to the national grid to power 1,000 homes.

Kate Martin

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