Planet Mark honours sustainable best

• News
• Sustainable living

Sustainability champions were honoured in London last week at The Planet Mark’s first awards event, as the organisation behind the environmental certification programme marked its fifth anniversary with a rallying call to action and a move to add social impact to its critical measures of sustainability.

A dozen UK businesses were recognised as sustainability champions last week, as environmental accreditation programme The Planet Mark celebrated its fifth birthday with a set of anniversary awards – and a move to add social impact to its measurement of what makes an organisation sustainable.

The Planet Mark was established five years ago after Planet First founder Steve Malkin met Eden Project co-founder Sir Tim Smit – and the pair launched a brand designed to accelerate sustainability by making it easier for organisations to have more a positive impact on both society and the environment.

The new scheme set out to empower and inspire individuals within organisations to do their bit for climate change, positioning sustainability as “achievable, easy to do and aspirational, from a personal and organisational perspective”. Seventy organisations across industries are now certified, with a million people in The Planet Mark network. It will target more startups in the year ahead.

The fifth anniversary awards, at London’s Sadler’s Wells theatre, showcased achievements in sustainability from The Planet Mark’s community, with 12 separate winners across four categories – engage, measure, communicate and overall. See the winner list below.

Sarah Gillett, director of Planet First, which leads the programme, said the organisation would soon phase in measuring social impact alongside environmental impact, for “a more rounded and holistic picture” of an organisation’s sustainability.

The 2012 Social Value Act meant organisations had to demonstrate how they improve social, economic and environmental wellbeing, she said – and she pointed to the Social Value Portal framework as a key way to measure social impact.

Earlier, in a rallying cry to stand up to climate change, Tim Smit told the awards audience that “we are all psychotically hooked into a world where we don’t know when to say stop. We are better than being just consumers, we are citizens and we have future generations to keep in mind. That is why The Planet Mark is important. It is something around which we can cohere; it is about having a moral compass”. Listen to Tim Smit’s speech.

Web agency Giant Peach won the absolute carbon reduction award after a 41% reduction in electricity emissions, and a 79% drop in business air travel emissions.

The Planet Mark Awards 2018 – winners

Employee engagement
CLARITY -The Soap Co.

Sustainability campaign
Bidfood

Carbon reduction per employee
Eight Associates

Outstanding individual
Ed van Reenen, Bywaters

Sustainability influencer
Emma Cowper, DP London Gateway

Community engagement
Bidfood

Supply chain engagement
Prologis UK

Absolute carbon reduction
Giant Peach

Data quality and collection
The Furniture Practice

Best newcomer
CLARITY -The Soap Co.

Best company
GreenZone Cleaning & Support Services

@ThePlanetMark