CSA Awards 2020 Winners

Local businesses came together to celebrate the Cornwall Sustainability Awards at a virtual ceremony on Friday 4th December. Even though the event was held virtually the attendees felt part of a larger community all working together to protect and grow Cornwall’s beautiful environment whilst also growing the local economy.

Chris Packham gave a rousing call to action in his keynote speech, saying “We must all stand shoulder to shoulder to make the difference we need for the environment. Our world needs us and it needs you more than ever!”. He put an emphasis on community and the fact that we are all connected to nature. He said “Don’t be afraid, don’t be small, we all have a voice, raise it, politely, democratically, peacefully but demonstratively. Cornwall is leading the way in terms of sustainability and I am delighted to help recognise the achievements made”.

Bennamann were crowned Overall Winner. The overall winner is chosen from the winners of all the categories. The judges felt Bennamann stood out as the unique process they have developed can be scaled up and rolled out across Cornwall and beyond. This innovative energy company seeks to develop circular supply chains in biomethane, as a carbon-neutral process. The company is developing innovations at all four stages of the biomethane value chain (capture and process, storage, distribution and use) for a variety of organic waste sources. They have spearheaded some key technology for producing, storing and using bottled biomethane for vehicular use and they are trailing the production of an alternative green fuel made from manure slurry. This is a pilot scheme believed to be the first of its type in the world. If successful, the programme could be rolled out to hundreds of small-scale farms across Cornwall and create significant opportunities for farmers to diversify their income streams, save on operating costs, join the green economy and contribute to helping fight climate change.

Chris Mann, Chief Executive of Bennamann said “The Bennamann team are so excited and proud to receive this prestigious award. The support from Cornwall Council, LEP Cormac, Tevi and the European Regional Development Fund has been so important in getting us to this point in time. Next year is going to be momentous for us. What a great way to end 2020! Thank you!”.

The winners in the categories were as follows:

Green Innovation in a time of Coronavirus; Beach Guardian CIC
Circular Economy; Bennamann
Environmental Growth; Woodland Valley Farm
Carbon Neutral; Cornish Lithium

The judges also awarded a special award for ‘continued commitment to sustainability’ to Ward Williams Associates.

All results can be found on the new CSA website which was launched at the award ceremony is sustainably created and carbon neutrally hosted by LEAP, a certified B Corp. Alongside the website being hosted on 100% renewable energy powered carbon neutral servers, it has been developed in line with the sustainable web manifesto which Leap helped write for the global web design community. Each page has a carbon counter to show its Co2 impact and each page has been designed to ensure the website uses under 0.9g of CO2 per page view minimum. The site will help showcase how important sustainability in the digital world is because If the Internet was a country, it would be the 7th largest polluter. 

The Cornwall Sustainability Awards are sponsored by Tevi (Cornish for ‘grow’) which is a unique and exciting EU-funded venture to create both economic and environmental growth in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Tevi is a partnership between The University of Exeter, Cornwall Council, Cornwall Development Company and Cornwall Wildlife Trust.

Tevi Project Manager Dr Dan Bloomfield said “Tevi are very pleased to host CSA this year as sponsor and delighted to see such a wide variety of nominations and range of companies from across Cornwall, it just shows you what an amazing impact small businesses are having to help make the economy of Cornwall more circular and help the environment grow. It’s fantastic to see so much innovation and business adaptation, particularly during the challenging times we are in”.

Cllr Julian German, Leader of Cornwall Council, gave a joint speech with Kate Kennally, Chief Executive of Cornwall Council. Julian said, “For the last 18 years this event has been an encouraging reminder of the shared ambition between public and private sectors; aligned on a shared mission to forge a sustainable future for Cornwall. There’s much to be proud about what has been collectively achieved; but I think we all know that there remains much to be done to face up to the scale of the environmental challenge over the coming decade. At Cornwall Council we are committed to tackling the climate and ecological emergencies head on.”

Kate said, “This year has been harder than any of us could have imagined; and a warning of how disruptive nature can be. But the nominees here today have shown once again just how innovative Cornish businesses can be by stepping up and taking on the challenge. Although the environmental challenge ahead is formidable, we are confident that local leadership – combined with the action and innovation shown by today’s nominees – can inspire, transform and set the foundations to set us on a path that reduces our impact on the planet’s natural systems.”