All the entries for this year’s CREST21 Business Awards, Surrey’s first sustainable business awards, are now in
Despite the challenges that the pandemic has posed across the board, there was a last-minute burst of activity among businesses large and small to get their applications in ahead of zero-hour at midnight on Saturday, 20th March.
CREST21 Awards are being presented by the News & Mail which has worked in association with the University of Surrey’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability to develop them, supported by the headline sponsorship of Surrey County Council.
Deidre Richardson, Programme Manager, University of Surrey CES, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the response of businesses in Surrey to the CREST21 Award programme. The response shows how our local businesses are committed to addressing their environmental responsibility and playing their part in the climate crisis - this is both encouraging and impressive."
Applicants had a chance to enter five categories, Transforming Food Award, Going Circular Award, Efficiency Champion Award, Sustainability Impact Award and Resilience in Crisis Award. A sixth award will be presented to the judges’ choice for overall CREST21 Sustainability Hero.
The Sustainability Hero of the Year Award will receive a place on one of the University of Surrey’s week-long masters level modules, while the other category winners will have the opportunity to receive a complimentary sustainability consultation session with one of the Centre’s leading experts.
Warm praise also came from Jonathan Lord, MP for Woking, who said: "It's a wonderful outcome for these inaugural awards and it says a lot about the resilience of businesses in Surrey who have entered. Their participation in these new awards shows the will and energy to push on through this crisis and take action against environmental challenges. I am now very much looking forward to the awards event in May."
Terry Tidbury, Managing Director for the News & Mail, was delighted with the response and said: “It was great to see such an enthusiastic response to the awards by local businesses.”
The awards were due to take in November last year but impact of COVID-19 meant that it was postponed. They will now take place as a hybrid streamed event on 20 May.
