The national campaign by The Green Organisation recognises and rewards the greenest individuals, companies, councils and communities in the country, and winners were announced this month at a ceremony hosted by Liz Kendall MP at the Houses of Parliament.
Image: L-R: Dave Goodall, health, safety environmental advisor / Ben Thomas - health, safety and environmental manager
Mazak competed against more than 800 other nominations in the Environmental Best Practice category, but its project, ‘Reduce & Remove Single Use Plastic Cups’, stood out. Historically, the factory was using 8,000 disposable cups per month but, thanks to the efforts of Mazak’s Environment Team, this has been significantly reduced.
The judges commented: “The Attenborough effect has taken hold at this factory. By giving all employees a reusable drinks bottle, Mazak has saved purchase and landfill costs, as well as hundreds of thousands of single-use plastics.”
Following the Green Apple Award success, Mazak has been invited to have its winning paper published in The Green Book, the leading international work on environmental best practice. In addition, there is potential for the company to progress to represent the country in the Green World Awards 2019 and have 100 trees planted in its name as part of the United Nations Billion Trees initiative.
Richard Smith, European managing director at Yamazaki Mazak, commented: “We were delighted to have our efforts recognised at the International Green Apple Awards. Something as simple as supplying all employees with a reusable bottle will make a noticeable difference to the impact our factory has on the environment. We hope that others across the industry will follow suit and make similar changes to improve sustainability.”
