Redbridge businesses who’ve turned green into gold celebrated their achievements at a ceremony last week.

Ilford Recorder: Rachel Roots from The Orange Tree, Wanstead, gave a guest talk about the Totally Locally campaign, which supports high street businesses in RedbridgeRachel Roots from The Orange Tree, Wanstead, gave a guest talk about the Totally Locally campaign, which supports high street businesses in Redbridge (Image: Archant)

The Green Business Redbridge awards, backed by the council, Ilford Business Improvement District and Hainault Business Park, have been running since November – and already a spread of companies across different industries have met the criteria for gold, silver or bronze status.

Ilford Recorder: Rachel Roots from The Orange Tree, Wanstead, gave a guest talk about the Totally Locally campaign, which supports high street businesses in RedbridgeRachel Roots from The Orange Tree, Wanstead, gave a guest talk about the Totally Locally campaign, which supports high street businesses in Redbridge (Image: Archant)

It’s understandably a big deal for the Redbridge Institute of Adult Education (RIAE), based in Gants Hill.

Ilford Recorder: Rachel Roots from The Orange Tree, Wanstead, gave a guest talk about the Totally Locally campaign, which supports high street businesses in RedbridgeRachel Roots from The Orange Tree, Wanstead, gave a guest talk about the Totally Locally campaign, which supports high street businesses in Redbridge (Image: Archant)

“Winning this award celebrates the achievements of staff and students alike,” said principal Joni Cunningham. “It enhances our reputation in the local community and confirms that the Institute is a great place to learn.”

For RIAE, the scheme was simply a way to keep track of spending – so the award was a pleasant surprise.

“We wanted to see what impact our work on loft insulation, low energy lighting and changing people’s behaviour has had on our energy bills,” explained Joni. “By applying for the award we could make use of the council’s energy consumption dashboard to properly track our energy use.

“We found we’ve already made an amazing difference, saving over £3,000 on our gas bills this year and reducing our carbon emissions by 22tonnes.”

And it’s not just the institute that benefits.

“We want to do even more to prepare our students for greener work practices so they can take these skills into employment, supporting local employers by saving them money,” added Joni.

RIAE now joins three other firms who have bagged gold awards – M&S Ilford, installation firm RGE Services in Hainault Business Park, and Select Butchery, also based in Hainault.

Among other things, gold certification means firms have driven down carbon usage in the last 12 months.

The certificates were presented to the nine new winners of gold, silver and bronze awards by the council’s environment boss Cllr Shoaib Patel at the Ilford Exchange.

For more information, go to www.redbridge.gov.uk/greenbusiness.

And for the full list of winners since the scheme was launched, click the link to the right.