Award winner announced!

The winner of the first East Midlands Business Resilience Award was announced at Business in the Community's awards ceremony on 13th June 2013, at Goosedale Hall in Nottinghamshire.

Climate East Midlands sponsored the award, in partnership with the Environment Agency, to recognise and reward companies who are taking active steps to increase their resilience to severe weather and climate change.

The Winner: British Gypsum

British Gypsum is a major plasterboard manufacturer. Their head office and largest manufacturing site are near the village of East Leake, in the Nottinghamshire borough of Rushcliffe.

The award recognises a project that British Gypsum championed, to reduce flood risk in East Leake. Residents had noticed that the brook running through the centre of the village was over-topping more frequently, flooding houses and roads and causing distress and disruption. Half of British Gypsum's staff at their East Leake site live in the local area, and as a business they are also reliant upon the roads to get goods and materials on and off their site. So reducing flood risk made sense from both a community and a business perspective.

British Gypsum worked with Nottinghamshire County Council and East Leake Parish Council to accomplish the project. British Gypsum supplied a team of volunteers to clear out weeds and silt from the brook so that it would flow more easily. Some engineering work was also done to reduce the risk of road destabilisation, where the brook runs down one side of the main road through the village.

Living locally, the British Gypsum volunteers felt the benefit of actively helping their community, reducing the risk of flooding to local homes and businesses. The reduced flood risk on the local roads also helps to increase the resilience of British Gypsum's operations and logistics, allowing them to get goods and materials on and off site. The staff who live in the local area are less likely to be affected by flooding themselves, and won't have to struggle into work through floods. The project also increases the resilience of local schools, reducing the risk of them needing to close due to flooding, of children being affected, and of parents having to leave work to look after their children.

British Gypsum has improved its relationship with the local community and other stakeholders, developing mutual trust and genuine long-term community engagement.

Highly Commended: Moy Park

Moy Park is one of Europe's largest poultry producers. Their site in Grantham has been recognised for its work to improve its water efficiency.

The Moy Park Grantham site reduced water consumption by 10% in 2012, compared with 2011. They did this by effectively engaging staff on water reduction and supporting them with the resources to succeed. As a significant water user, the management at Moy Park's Grantham site recognised that in a drought situation their business could be impacted negatively, either by reduced access to water or higher costs.

Not only have the water reduction initiatives reduced water consumption by 10%, they have also reduced costs in the present, and reduced climate risk into the future. Examples of initiatives include: a reduction in the frequency of fryer cleaning, and the introduction of a more efficient procedure for defrosting and cleaning freezers, while maintaining technical standards. Wash-down procedures have also been organised more efficiently, improving technical standards. Staff awareness and training was integral to the success of the programme.

Further information

A case study about British Gypsum's project will be available shortly. We hope that the winner's story will help to inspire other companies to take action to increase their resilience to severe weather and climate change.

The East Midlands Business Resilience Award was launched as part of our Building Business Resilience project.

For more infomation please contact [email protected]