The University of Malta’s Cleaner Technology Centre organised the Environment Award for Industry for the ninth consecutive time. The ceremony was held at the Radisson Blu in the presence of Environment Minister Jose Herrera, who presented the awards.
A video message by the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, was shown welcoming the importance of these awards in encouraging businesses to incorporate the social and the environmental within their everyday practices. Cleaner Technology Centre director Anton Pizzuto and Mario Farrugia, chairman of the adjudicating board, presented welcome speeches.
The aim is to highlight policies, practices and process that help achieve economic and social development
The awards, designed to recognise and promote organisations that made a significant contribution to environmental protection during 2016, were awarded in three sectors – the management award, the conservation award and the environment protection initiative for SMEs.
The aim is to highlight policies, practices and processes from all sectors of industry, which are helping to achieve economic and social development while minimising the environmental impact of their operations, so that such initiatives may be of example to others. The Management Award for Sustainable Development went to Green Skips Services Ltd, a company that specialises in waste management as a one-stop shop service for the industrial sector. The company started working in hazardous waste management even before Malta ratified the Basel Convention in 2000.
The Conservation Award for Sustainable Development went to the Food Factory, which started as a family business and expanded into a large company operating beyond the Maltese shores. The new site at the Bulebel Industrial Estate aims to have cleaner manufacturing practices in an attempt to use resources more efficiently, protect the environment while trying to reduce waste and re-use or recycle as much as possible.
The Environment Protection Initiative Award for SMEs was given to Natural Health Malta in view of the company’s commitment to the use of organic products for hairstyling and for beauty products. It has also invested in energy conservation measures using thermal head wrap and avoids polystyrene packaging.