Green Apple Awards

We were delighted to find ourselves on the international stage at the Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice and Sustainable Development.

Our paperless office project saw us pick up a silver award in the Services Industry category. With over 500 entries this year to be one of just 80 companies receiving awards made us rather proud of ourselves!

Our paperless office project has been a huge undertaking and although we can’t verify we’re the first business in the country to operate virtually paper free we haven’t come across any who have converted to an electronic office to such an extent.

And that was endorsed by our award which we were presented with by former Bond girl, actress Alexandra Bastedo in front of companies, public sector organisations and VIPs from as far afield as Brazil,Eritrea and India – at the Houses of Parliament no less.

Our blue print is going to be used by the awards organisers to encourage others to follow our example and at least take steps towards a more environmentally friendly way of running an office – which we’ve found to also be cost effective and more efficient.

We’re doing a bit of trailblazing ourselves – talking to clients about little things they can do to follow our lead.

We’re happy to share our thoughts if you want to get in touch.

How green are we?!

Eighteen months ago we came up with the concept of a paperless working environment. Looking round our office in Park Road the idea was almost laughable. We had dozens of filing cabinets, hundreds of paper files and thousands of pieces of paper. Our only concessions were the banning of Post-It notes and the shredding and recycling of used paper.

But… not only have we achieved it – WE’VE WON AN AWARD FOR IT!
We’ve scored a Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice run by The Green Organisation.

The awards have been going for 15 years so are well established as one of the major environmental recognition schemes not just in the UK but internationally too. The Green Organisation supports the work of other environmental groups that play the role of environmental watchdog while concentrating more on the positive aspects of environmental endeavour – they describe it as looking at the carrot as well as the stick!

Our entry described how The Paperless Office Project required a substantial financial and time investment but how the benefits across the board have already exceeded expectations.

We’ve reduced costs and waste, streamlined office procedures, freed up valuable staff time and future proofed the office. And we’ve become quite evangelical about it all – talking to clients and other companies we network with about the benefits in the hope we can encourage them to adopt at least some of our proven methods.

We’re off to London in November to pick up our award.
Well done us!