Sponsored by the City of London Corporation, the Clean City
Awards Scheme (CCAS) has been run for nearly 25 years. Its primary purpose is
to promote a cleaner and tidier City for the benefit of residents, business,
tourists and other visitors and has developed in size and shape over the years.
One of the key elements of the Scheme is the awards lunch which takes place
each January. As the Company is a sponsor of one of the awards (see below), I
was delighted to receive an invitation to attend at the Mansion House, along
with the Fleet Warden Rob Casey. It was a very interesting day.
This high-profile event was overseen by Locum Tenens Alderman Sir Andrew Parmley (the Lord Mayor was abroad)
and commenced with a networking event in the Salon. Several interested parties
had stands there including the Plastic Free City (PFC) initiative in which the
Company is a heavily involved. This proved to be a great opportunity to meet a
wide range of major employers in the City, members of the Corporation and the
award winners, all of whom share a similar passion to make the City cleaner and
healthier. For its part, the Company have sponsored a new category – ‘Plastic
Free City’ and it was good to be able to explain to people how it works and
what the objectives were.
The campaign is designed to raise awareness of the damage
caused by plastic waste and litter, particularly along riverfronts and bridges.
It is aimed at helping businesses reduce their reliance on unnecessary
single-use plastics in their operations. The award is to recognise those
businesses who have taken active steps to do this and to celebrate their
achievements. In its inaugural year, this category attracted 13 high-quality
entrants and today the winner was to be announced – the tension was palpable!
After taking our seats for lunch, the award ceremony began.
A brief speech of welcome by Alderman Sir Andrew Parmley heralded the newly
appointed Director of Transportation and Public Realm, Zahur Khan to read out
the award winners. Prizes were presented by Sir Andrew and there were a lot of
them! Very impressive.
But before long we got to the award for Plastic Free City. Judging
of the 13 entries had been done by myself, the Fleet Warden and Past Master
Keith Tozzi together with the PFC Project Manager, Mike Simmonds. It was a
tough call to make but, in the end, we agreed that Rothschilds had done the
most to further the reduction of single-use plastic in their workspace. Worthy
winners indeed. It was with great pleasure therefore that Sir Andrew and I
presented an engraved water jug to Katie Davies, Assistant Environmental
Manager and Greg Ritt, Group Environmental Manager for their impressive work.
We aim to make this award an annual addition to the CCAS.
Other awards were presented including Street Sweeper and Waste
Operative of the Year. All good stuff.
After the awards ceremony a lunch was served and the
networking continued. It was an excellent opportunity to further promote the
good work of the Water Conservators and the PFC initiative which together with
other schemes in place, will do much to improve the environment of the City and
the wider global challenge of discarded plastic.
Pictures shows the Master with the winners from Rothschild, Sir
Andrew with some of the prizes and the Fleet Warden and Mike Simmonds manning
the stand.
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