The Sunday Times ran the Best Green Companies list from 2008 to 2011. Last year’s winners (and rightly so) were Skanska. However due to a number of things happening - and others not - the organisers have had to withdraw the list for 2012.
Aggregate Industries has been involved with The Sunday Times Best Green Companies listing since it began and have always featured, albeit our position had fallen nearly 20 places in the most recent listing.
To qualify, there are a range of measures and questions that the survey requires, the focus being on getting an overall picture of the business at corporate level. There is less focus on commonplace terms such as carbon footprinting (energy use is measured), recycled materials and product assessments.
A benchmark for sustainable development
So why did we take part? The listing gave us an opportunity not only to benchmark ourselves against other companies outside of our sector (only a very small number of building materials companies took part) but also amongst a group of organisations that clearly take sustainability seriously. Part of the assessment included an employee survey which acted as an internal barometer of the general awareness of the sustainability issues related to the business - for us there were some real areas for improvement.
The Sunday Times Best Green Companies list may be one of the casualties of the economic difficulties we are all facing - but it will probably come back in a few years. Will we take part again? Maybe, as undoubtedly something else will emerge to fill the void it has left behind.