Sandwell Homes, a major client of Environmental Solutions through Partnerships (ESP’s), was recently placed 21st in the 2010 Sunday Times Best Green Companies List. This also means that the company is second in their sector of bigger companies with a low impact.

ESP believes this is a fantastic achievement and shows how much the company has improved over the last 12 months to go from 27th to 21st in the list.

The list also demonstrated that Sandwell Homes were greener than some large companies including B & Q, BBC Worldwide and HarperCollins Publishers. The list also revealed that Sandwell Homes were just 4 places behind last years winners Forsters.

ESP believes that the work carried out in partnership with Sandwell Homes has taken them from being leaders in the green agenda in their sector to being a leading light on a variety of environmental issues.

ESP would like to congratulate Sandwell Homes on their achievement and hope to help them improve their rating next time.

The questionnaire for the award identified that:

• 73% of staff know what ISO 14001 is.
• 79% (compared to a survey average of 68%) of staff agree that they receive adequate environmental training.
• 75% know how to reduce their carbon footprint.
• 72% believe this has led them to doing things differently at home.
• 69% of people don’t make excessive us of air conditioning in the summer.

Over the last 12 months ESP has helped Sandwell Homes to:

• Gain Eco-Management and Audit Scheme Accreditation, the first ALMO in the country to do so.
• Monitor the performance of their Policy, Objective & Targets.
• Increase the biodiversity of their managed land.
• Retain ISO 14001 Certification.
• Continually comply with environmental legislation.

Picture - Andrew Fletcher, Environmental Architecture Director, from ESP (back right) with members of the Cross Divisional Environmental Forum (CDEF) and the Sunday Times Best Green Companies Award.