Resource Futures’ projects receive well-deserved awards

Resource Futures is delighted that the past year has been so successful for many of the projects we run or have been involved in.

South West Waste and Recycling Forum (SWWRF) – Food Waste Prevention Campaign 2009

A food waste prevention campaign developed and delivered by SWWRF across the South West region, has received its just rewards winning a Gold, Green Apple Award for ‘Best Partnership Working’ presented at The House of Commons on 15th November 2010.

Resource Futures was a key player in the campaign, undertaking project management, partner liaison, design, data collection and reporting.

The project was also a finalist in the Letsrecycle.com ‘Best Local Authority Recycling Initiative’ and was winner of the Plant and Waste Recycling’s ‘Food Waste Award’.

To find out more about how Resource Futures can help you drive true partnership working and deliver successful collaborative campaigns - contact us.

Picture shows: Richard Haycock (Cornwall Council) and Gemma Coles (East Dorset District Council) representing the SWWRF campaign, being awarded the Letsrecycle.com ‘Best Local Authority Recycling Initiative Award’ by the BBC’s Huw Edwards.

Click here to find out more about this project.

Community Action Group work receives awards in Oxfordshire

Members of the Oxfordshire Community Action Group (CAG) project run by Resource Futures on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council won two categories at the Oxfordshire Community Voluntary Action (OCVA), Charity and Community Awards on 11th November 2010. 

In total over 100 nominations were received. At the award ceremony, held at North Oxford Golf Club, Low Carbon West Oxford (LCWO) won ‘Best Charity’ for their work with renewables and ‘low carbon living’ programme, and were shortlisted for ‘Greenest Group’ and CAG and Oxfordshire County Council Waste Management  won the award for ‘Best Statutory Authority use of the Voluntary Sector’ for their work on waste reduction. 

LCWO has a target is to reduce CO2 emission in West Oxford by 80% by 2050 and the group works in partnership with West Oxford Community Renewables (WOCR), who last year were awarded £800,000 by the Government to fund green community projects, after being named among 22 winners in the Low Carbon Communities Challenge, run by the Department for Energy.

The judges said of LCWO: ‘They are an excellent example of residents taking positive action locally in response to a global problem which has had a real impact on their local community’.

The results say it all....

CAG Oxfordshire organises a multitude of events and initiatives to raise awareness and take action on sustainability. Indeed, the swap shops alone have diverted over 20,000kgs of waste from landfill and as a result of the first Low Carbon Living Programme over 140 tonnes of CO2 was cut by the 36 participating households, representing an incredible cut of 36% in one year.

LCWO has also cut an estimated 80 tonnes of CO2 emissions by introducing three car club cars, used by around 170 people and has been responsible for planting about 640 new trees.

Picture shows: Low Carbon West Oxford receiving ‘Best Charity’ for their work with renewable and ‘low carbon living’ programme

More awards for Oxfordshire 

In November 2010, Simon Kenton, CAG Project Manager, was winner of the directorate winner of Oxfordshire Council Council’s ‘Involvement’ category of their ‘Your CHOICE Awards’ and was subsequently put forward for the corporate awards. These awards recognise individuals’ performances in helping to achieve the Local Authority’s objectives (CHOICE stands for Customer focus, Honesty, One team, Involvement, Can do and Efficient and effective). The corporate assessment panel, comprising one representative from each directorate assessment panel plus the Chairman of the Council, Cllr Hilary Hibbert-Biles and Steve Munn, Head of HR, said they had an impressive array of nominations to consider. All the hard work, energy and commitment to the CAG Project and contribution to the work of Oxfordshire County Council paid off, as Simon was given the award at a ceremony on Tuesday 15th March.

Colin Bailey, Interim Head of Waste Management, said: “This is great news and just shows you what we do in waste management on a day to day basis is recognised when we tell our story at the appropriate forum.  This really hit the nail on the head and we should all be proud of what waste management is achieving in the community”.

“This is about all of us, but without Simon’s energy and commitment it would just be another project.  What he has achieved is remarkable and he should be really proud of the work that he and Frances do.”

Picture shows: Simon Kenton, CAG Project Manager winning his award

To find out how Resource Futures can help you achieve this level of community action, contact our CAG Project Manager, Simon Kenton on 07793 647190 or visit the website www.cagoxfordshire.co.uk to find out more.

Multiple awards for Hull City Council service change

Another project which Resource Futures has been closely involved with has picked up two awards:

• Best Communications Campaign of the Year 2010 (CIWM Awards for Environmental Excellence)
• Best Local Authority Recycling Initiative 2010 - Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management (Let’s Recycle.com Awards for Excellence - May 2010)

Hull City Council were rewarded for the success of their major service change, integrating and rescheduling recycling collections and providing a complete new set of wheeled bins. The roll-out was undertaken in late 2009 and early 2010 with Resource Futures playing an integral part, delivering 110,000 carefully timed postcards, canvassing the same number of households, and recruiting and training two staff specifically for the Sustainable Waste Development Team to increase their capacity to respond particularly to information requests from the public.

Ralph Openshaw, Senior Consultant at Resource Futures who worked on the project said: ‘It was great to be involved in such a superbly managed service change.'

James Ward, Waste Strategy Officer at Hull City Council said of Resource Futures involvement in the project:  ‘The management of the transition from the old kerbside scheme to the new recycling service and the communication with residents was a key element in the success of the project.

Resource Futures’ role in providing the postcard deliverers which triggered residents setting out their old containers for collection and receiving delivery of their new bins a day later was very important.   

Residents then received a visit from the canvassing teams in the period between the new bins being delivered and their first collections, which ensured residents were fully aware of how to use the new scheme.  

In addition, the provision of two Recycling Communication Support Officers for the project meant that on-going communication and contamination issues have been managed effectively. Massive increases in participation rates and recycling tonnages have shown this to be a very successful strategy and the willingness of Resource Futures to work flexibly in line with the Council's communication plan was key.  The postcard delivery and canvassing teams were fundamental in maintaining the momentum of the roll-out and ensuring that residents were fully aware of the service change. The Recycling Communication Support Officers have also been an invaluable resource during the biggest change to waste collection arrangements Hull has ever seen.’