Landmark Information Group announced as National Business Awards finalist alongside Marks and Spencer, and Arla Foods UK for The ICAEW Sustainability Award

Landmark Information Group has been shortlisted for The ICAEW Sustainability Award at this year’s National Business Awards in partnership with Orange.

Alongside other finalists including Marks and Spencer and Arla Foods UK, Landmark – the leading provider of property related geo-spatial and environmental information – will battle it out for the prestigious award, with the winner being revealed at the National Business Awards gala dinner held on 13th November in London. 

The news will be of particular interest to Landmark's clients within the construction industry, who use the Promap service to access Ordnance Survey mapping data in connection with their projects.

Richard Spencer Head of Sustainability, ICAEW, judge for the category said: “Landmark Information Group has fully committed to integrating sustainability into its business.”

Stephen Stout, chief executive of Landmark Information Group, said: “We’re delighted to be shortlisted for such a prestigious business award, particularly for sustainability. It’s important for businesses like ours to place corporate and social responsibility high on our agenda, as we can use our strengths to work alongside other organisations to help to improve the lives for people around the world or make environmental changes within our organisation.

“We have focused particular attention towards our CSR credentials during the past few years to become as sustainable as possible and are delighted with the results. Landmark is ISO14001 compliant and our staff have worked hard to continually improve our carbon footprint for all our UK offices. This has led to Landmark recently receiving accreditation from the Carbon Trust. For the last 17 years we’ve helped people identify land and property risks via our environmental reports to ensure they are aware of any potential risks, in addition to being an active member of the Know Your Flood Risk campaign to promote flooding risks across the UK. We also participate in a number of carbon offsetting initiatives with the Carbon Neutral Company, Woodland Trust and Parcel Force.

“We’re all keeping our fingers crossed to clinch the award, but it’s fantastic to be shortlisted alongside some of the UK’s biggest business names and recognised for our efforts.”

The National Business Awards has today revealed over 150 of Britain’s leading businesses and business leaders as finalists in the prestigious awards programme. Organisations shortlisted include a range of private, public and third sector companies, including National Grid, Marks and Spencer, and London Early Years Foundation. 

All National Business Awards finalists represent an annual turnover in excess of £135 billion and collectively employ over 700,000. They cover activities as diverse as digital marketing, international road haulage and logistics, water engineering and life sciences: sectors that reflect key areas of UK capability with high potential for international expansion. The diverse size of the companies entering is also huge – ranging from a business with an annual turnover of less than £50k to high growth and high value companies with multi-billion pound revenues. 

Baroness Virginia Bottomley, Chair of Judges said: “This year has been a challenging environment for British businesses: these finalists demonstrate how companies are succeeding in the current climate through innovation, originality and tenacity. It’s good to see a broad range of companies both in sector and size – an impressive representation of the potential British businesses have. Congratulations to all our finalists.” 

The National Business Awards supports Help for Heroes, a charity that offers support and advice for wounded soldiers. 

Visit www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk for a full list of all finalists and to book a table at the event. 

The Olympic legacy...

Plans for the transformation of the Olympic Park post-games have been revealed, with the first phase set to be completed exactly a year after the games begin. The London Legacy Development Corporation has unveiled a timeline for its 18 month construction of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from October 2012; the new park will combine lush parklands and waterways, new neighbourhoods and world class sports and entertainment venues. As well as iconic permanent venues such as the Olympic Stadium and Velodrome, the Park will be defined by two distinct areas: the river valley in the North, and a 50 acre urban landscape in the South. The North park will include a nature-themed community hub and playground while the community area, the South Plaza will sit between the Stadium, Aquatics Centre and the ArcelorMittal Orbit. To have a global vision of the area and a deeper understanding of how the site was created we suggest you to watch the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qiVyg1bELII

Moreover thousands of new homes have been given planning permission to be built at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park following the games this summer. The London Legacy Development Corporation has been given approval for plans which will incorporate 6,800 homes planned across five neighbourhoods, new schools, nurseries, community spaces and health centres. As the LLDC chief executive Andrew Altman, said: “We can now realise the vision of creating a new piece of the city that will transform people’s lives with new opportunities.”

House funding project

Good news has come from the British housing market, as Housing Minister Grant Shapps has funded £30 million in favour of seven sites across the country to create self-built homes.

The £30 million fund will offer short term loans to community groups, builders and other small organisations looking to start self-build projects. Moreover the government has also handed over land it owns to encourage the start of the project.

The site in consideration is at Poole in Cornwall with up to 60 homes due to be built on surplus public land there. Other possible alternatives could be sites such as Bristol, Hemel Hempstead, Bolsover, Derbyshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Milton Keynes and at Upper Tuesley Milford in Surrey.

The aim of this policy is certainly to give support to the construction and building market, as confirmed by the words of the Minister: “Anyone with a dream to build should be able to do so.”

It’s great to see this funding being made available, which will bring more contracts and employment to the housing sector (particularly when the housing market has been called ‘lacklustre’). It’s important that the architects, engineers and surveyors, employed by the community groups, use digital mapping data during the development and planning process and to obtain a clearer appreciation of the complete picture; for example, concerns about building on green land, threats to historic sites and threats of flooding can all be better understood and rules interpreted more clearly using the right digital system. This will ensure that all utilities, historical details, risks are identified in order to build a detailed digital map.

Systems like Promap can do just that, as digital mapping systems like this will be invaluable during the planning process of such a land development project, as they enable detailed analysis to be conducted into a plot before any building work begins.