News 
15th July 2011
2011 British Insurance Awards
Everyone at The Green Insurance Company were celebrating this week as we picked up an award at the prestigious 2011 British Insurance Awards.
We were awarded the Business Sustainability Initiative Award, recognition for our Green Grants scheme, a UK-wide scheme designed to promote environmental sustainability by funding local environmental projects.
Now in its 17th year, the prestigious British Insurance Awards, which was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London (July 6th) and hosted by Jonathan Ross, showcases top class performance and innovation, rewards achievement within the insurance sector and is widely recognised as the benchmark by which the industry judges itself.
Our Green Grants scheme invited voluntary community groups and environmental projects to apply for grants of up to £2,000 to help support either an existing project or brand new venture.
Since the innovative scheme was launched in August 2010, we received more than 300 applications from community groups across the UK.
Following the application process, a panel of environmental experts including the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, Glasgow University and The Green Business Partnership reviewed the submissions and selected 19 worthwhile community projects, awarding them a total of £26,000 worth of environmental funding.
The Green Grants initiative also received cross party support from MPs from across the UK who encouraged their constituents to apply for the grant to enable them to set up eco projects with funding from The Green Insurance Company.
June Lynch, managing director of Kwik-Fit Financial Services, parent company of The Green Insurance Company, said: “I’m delighted that The Green Insurance Company have secured the Business Sustainability Initiative of the Year award. We are passionate about the environment and the huge number of entries for the Grants initiative highlighted the huge number of people across the country who share our passion.”
A sample of the projects selected by the judges included:
- The Baby Bio project by Bryngwyn Primary School in Gwent that will teach pupils the importance of living a greener lifestyle. This will include a pond to learn about living species, bird and bat boxes with camera recording equipment to observe wildlife in their habitats and the creation of garden areas to help nurture plants and vegetables
- A PC recycling project in Norfolk which seeks to recycle unwanted IT equipment to be donated to the local community, preventing it from landfill.
- A Gardenshare project in Stirling which matches people looking to plant fruit and vegetables without access to suitable land with members of the community who have gardens but are unable to tend to them.
We strive to promote the sustainability of the environment through a variety of methods, from carbon offsetting of customer vehicle emissions to our work with a series of environmental charity partners.
The Green Insurance Company and the wider Kwik-Fit Financial Services group are part of Ageas UK who also tasted success at the British Insurance Awards, winning the prestigious General Insurer Award.
Further details on the Green Grants initiative can be found at http://www.greeninsurancegiving.co.uk/.
Some pictures of supported projects
