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London's Sustainable City Awards winners announced |
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24 Mar 2015, 1:11 PM
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The economic fortunes of cities depend on the quality of life they offer, according to the organisers of the City of London Corporation’s annual Sustainable City Awards, who have tracked essential themes in the area of sustainability.
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This year the overwhelming message from the winners is that the economic fortunes of UK cities depend on the quality of life they offer – particularly for generation Y. The winners at this year’s awards show how environmental improvement and community engagement are essential to city regeneration.
There is more focus than ever on cities in the definition of global, economic supremacy. Cities across the world and within the UK are competing to attract the brightest and best talent and it is green space, clear air and well-being that will achieve this – not company laws and tax regimes.
The big winners at the award ceremony at Mansion House last night were projects focused on transforming areas and making them thrive. Argent LLP was selected as both the overall winner of the Sustainable City Awards and the Peter Parker Award for its role in the regeneration of the Kings Cross area, one of London’s most drastically improved places.
The regeneration area is spread over 67 acres which includes 23 office buildings, 17 residential buildings and 500,000 square feet of shopping, hotels, culture, leisure and educational buildings. The redevelopment has put sustainability at its heart and demonstrated how businesses, employees and community groups can work together to transform the area’s fortune. Sustainability focuses have ranged from community wellbeing through the provision of bio-diverse spaces, green walls and roofs, to education and training programmes. The project also features an onsite CHP energy Centre which supplies 99% of the estate’s heat and hot water and 79% of the development’s total power demand.
Business Improvement District inmidtown was also recognised with a total of three awards for its pioneering transformation of the Holborn, Bloomsbury and St. Giles London districts, representing 570 businesses.
Its projects have developed a pioneering corporate environment, leading to the award of 3 Sustainable City Awards this year including Sustainable Places, Air Quality and Sustainable Travel and Transport. The philosophy behind the business improvement district’s projects is that enhancing the quality of corporate life makes business sense – employees are happier and so they work harder. As a result of their work, employees lucky enough to work in the district can indulge in lunchtime walking tours of local historic sites using their BUPA app, enjoy rooftop farming and bee-keeping and are encouraged to cycle into work. The project has also delivered in more traditional areas of sustainability, including building recycling systems for all the area’s companies (waste white paper turned into post-it notes) as well as reducing emissions through joint supplier procurement work. As part of their air quality commitment, the area has even created an ‘Air Quality Monitoring System’ to publically broadcast the latest local pollution figures outside Holborn tube station.
The awards are open to organisations from across the UK however, with 85 per cent of this year’s entries coming from London organisations, it appears that London is leading the charge in creating a liveable city – a fact reflected in the capital’s astonishing economic growth rate – which at 4 per cent even rivals Hong Kong. This year’s data also reveals that SMEs are leading the sustainability revolution – with over half the awards being given to companies with fewer than 250 employees.
Simon Mills, Head of Sustainable Development at the City of London Corporation commented; “The massive population growth we are currently seeing in cities, requires huge investment in infrastructure such as energy, water and healthcare. SMEs, especially those in the tech sector, are innovative and fleet of foot, so they are literally cleaning up. It’s a virtuous circle, the more that cities deliver on ‘resilience’, the greater the range of opportunities.”
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