Green Apple Awards Triumph for Bywaters’ Clients

On November 25th at the 2019 Green Apple Awards a wide range of Bywaters’ clients were recognised for their sustainability improvements over the past year – along with a two Bywaters staff receiving personal awards for going the extra mile.

Another Successful Year at the Green Apple Awards

The Green Apple Awards are held every year at the Houses of Parliament, and Bywaters has a proud history of helping our clients walk away victorious year after year. In 2017 we were crowned the Green Apple ‘Champion of Champions’, and last year a total of seven Bywaters clients received awards.

This year six of our partners received awards: Tower Place, the Alphabeta Building, 90 Longacre, The O2, North Middlesex University Hospital, and the University of Westminster – alongside Mark Harbard and John Walsh from Bywaters, who each received individual awards after being nominated by clients.

The Green Apple awards are broken down into three categories: gold, silver, and bronze. Bywaters clients received awards in all categories; here’s a breakdown of the great work our clients have been rewarded for.

Gold Award: Tower Place

Tower Place is situated right by the Tower of London and is a property managed by Bywaters’ clients CBRE. They achieved the top award at this year’s Green Apples for making improvements across the board to their waste management and recycling practices, which resulted in the building achieving an 8.6% increase in its already impressive recycling rate and a 35% reduction in the amount of waste produced from April 2018 to March 2019.

These incredible results were achieved by introducing four new waste streams onsite (food recycling, cardboard recycling, coffee ground recycling, and WEEE recycling), alongside updating infrastructure such as bins and signage and extensive training and waste awareness events held to educate staff on correct waste practices.

The team at Tower Place really went above and beyond over the course of the past year. We’re delighted to see their efforts recognised with this gold award and looking forward to seeing what extra improvements we can make going forward from this strong start to our partnership.

Silver Award: 90 Longacre and the Alphabeta Building

In addition to Tower Place, CBRE buildings 90 Longacre and the Alphabeta Building achieved silver awards at the Green Apple ceremony on the 25th November. Also situated in Central London, these buildings were both granted awards for their recycling and sustainability efforts.

The Alphabeta Building has been partnered with Bywaters since 2017, with improvements made to onsite equipment over that time leading to consistent recycling performance. The target we set (and achieved) for 2018-19 was to keep the building’s recycling rate above 70%, while also adding new waste streams for food and glass. Additionally, we organised in-depth audits and cleaner training sessions to ensure high standards were always being met.

90 Longacre started working with Bywaters in January 2018. From the start of the contract, Bywaters’ Green Gurus got to work with overhauling the site and training staff, aiming to drive up the building’s recycling rate by as much as possible over the course of the year. Working in partnership we achieved a staggering recycling increase of 39% from 2018-19.

Both of these buildings were also recognised for their initiatives to improve sustainability more broadly. Alphabeta installed LED lighting across the entire building to reduce energy usage, and 90 Longacre introduced electric cars for executives and ran promotional campaigns for carbon-friendly methods of getting to work: 97% of people who work at 90 Longacre now commute by public transport.

Bronze Award: The University of Westminster, North Middlesex University Hospital, and The O2

Three of Bywaters’ partners attained bronze Green Apple Awards for their sustainability achievements over the past year, each of them from a different sector of the UK economy.

At the University of Westminster, which has over 20,000 students and 3,000 staff, Bywaters implemented a strategy that focused on all aspects of sustainability – from eliminating plastic straws on campus to installing British Heart Foundation donation boxes across residential halls to stream items for reuse. Across the year the total amount of waste being produced was cut by a third, and the overall recycling rate increased by 15%.

At North Middlesex University Hospital, one of many NHS hospitals and healthcare institutions for which Bywaters provides clinical waste services, a concerted effort was made to make a substantial increase in the site’s recycling rate. NMUH was recognised by the Green Apple judges for increasing it recycling rate by 37% in just one year, after devising a tailored recycling strategy with Bywaters’ Green Gurus.

And one of London’s most well-known landmarks, The O2, was also awarded a bronze award at this year’s Green Apples. The work undertaken at the O2 over the last year has focused on the logistical issues of reducing vehicle movements and emissions. By installing our innovative space-effective POD compaction systems, Bywaters was able to cut 26 vehicle movements a week, lowering both carbon emissions and congestion.

Bywaters Staff Nominated for Awards by Clients

We were very touched this year to see two of our own staff personally receive gold awards after being nominated by their clients for going the extra mile.

Mark Harbard, Bywaters’ associate director for business development, was nominated by our partners at BNP Paribas Real Estate for raising awareness of plastics in the ocean. Earlier this year, Bywaters won ‘Plastics Recycling Business of the Year’ at the Awards for Excellence, and it’s fantastic to see Mark get the personal accolade he deserves for helping us to achieve this feat.

And John Walsh, the account manager responsible for Bywaters’ CBRE portfolio, also received a gold award for his work improving the waste management standards across all buildings (three of which won either silver or gold Green Apple awards). Situated mostly in congested Central London, CBRE’s buildings present a lot of logistical challenges, so it’s great to see all the hard work John has put in to finding innovative service solutions being rewarded.

A Great Day for Bywaters and Our Clients

We’re absolutely delighted for all of our clients who won Green Apple Awards at this year’s ceremony. There has been a lot of hard work put in over the past year and it’s important this hasn’t gone unnoticed.

After our recent successes at the Awards for Excellence and PFM Awards, along with being highly commended at the Planet Mark Awards last month, it’s clear Bywaters is on the right track in our mission to make all our clients more sustainable, and we are greatly looking forward to having an even better 2020.