The Business Awards for Wales are an initiative of the IWA and the Western Mail, in association with PwC
The finalists can be unveiled in the Go Green Environmental Award category in the inaugural IWA/Western Mail Business Awards.
They are West Wales holiday resort company Bluestone Resorts; conservation charity the National Trust; and architectural practice Stride Treglown.
The three were selected from more than 20 applications made on behalf of, or from, leading businesses and organisations across Wales that have all demonstrated a strong environmental awareness and a commitment to reducing the environment impact of their practices.
Bluestone Resort was opened in 2008 as a holiday resort comprising luxury lodges, recreational facilities and a purpose built village, within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park near Narberth.
Sustainable materials and energy saving technology was used in the building of the holiday lodges, and a biomass boiler has been installed to heat the water park.
The biomass material used to fire the boiler is sourced from local farmers, which Bluestone sees as its contribution to a sustainable local economy.
The National Trust is well known for caring for historic buildings and natural landscapes across the UK (except Scotland). In Wales it looks after 225km of coastline, 18 fine houses, castles, gardens and industrial heritage sites and 45,000 hectares of land.
The organisation, which has many hard-to-heat buildings, has set itself targets of 20% reduction in energy use and 60% generation from renewables, both by 2013.
It has unrolled a programme of replacing oil tanks, installing reedbed water treatment systems, and putting in place biomass heaters, heat pumps, photovoltaic and solar thermal systems.
Stride Treglown’s new Cardiff office was built to the highest environmental standard and was the first office building in the UK to be awarded Breeam Outstanding status.
The architectural practice has now adopted One Planet Living across all its operations as a holistic framework designed to minimise carbon emissions and waste and maximise its use of sustainable materials.
The Go Green Environmental Award is being sponsored by logistics company NR Evans. Its business development manager, Andy Johnson, said: “NR Evans Temperature Controlled Logistics, works tirelessly with its clients and suppliers to reduce the number of food miles travelled on the UK’s roads each year.
“Our innovative business solutions, investment in state of the art equipment, technology and education reduce the impact of our carbon footprint, year on year. As a Welsh business we are passionate about our country and aim to leave a cleaner, brighter Wales for generations to come. NR Evans Temperature Controlled Logistics are proud to sponsor the Go Green Environmental Award 2011.”
The overall awards, across nine categories, are being sponsored by professional advisory firm PwC.
Its chairman for Wales and the West of England, Rob Lewis, said:
“PwC is delighted to be the headline supporter of The Western Mail and Institute of Welsh Affairs 2011 Business Awards. PwC Wales enjoys a long history of working alongside Welsh companies and organisations, and of supporting their efforts to attain success, achieve profitability and create employment. We all recognise that these businesses have experienced extremely challenging conditions over the past few years as global economic issues have impacted on virtually each and every one of them. We feel there has never been a better time to run a national business awards scheme for Wales. It is essential in the current climate that we identify and recognise the success stories within the Welsh economy.”
The winners will be unveiled at an awards ceremony at Cardiff’s Coal Exchange on November 25.
