02/12/2022
We’re thrilled to announce Kate Richards and Soozy Willis – owners (and fabric engineers) of The Queens@46 - are the winners of the ‘Green Business category’ in the West Country Women Awards 2022.
LHC Design sponsored this category in recognition of the importance of businesses taking action to address the Climate and Biodiversity Emergencies. Our judging team, Glayne Price, Paul Osborne and Rebecca Thurgood, took on the task of selecting 6 shortlisted candidates from the 13 nominees, before shortlisting the 3 semi-finalists and our winners. It was a challenge selecting our winners from these diverse & talented women.
All of our shortlisted candidates are amazing women whose business actions are directly reducing carbon emissions and our impact on the planet. We have learnt so much from each of them and would like to thank all of them for being so forthright, honest and passionate about what they are doing!
Our winning women, Kate Richards and Soozy Willis, of the The Queens @ 46 are two amazing women who have created a social enterprise through passion for sewing. They create low priced original handmade, upcycled fashion and accessories, homewares, kitchen wares and jewellery use reclaimed and recycled fabrics aiming for zero waste. Their creativity is something to behold with their business constantly changing to meet society’s needs, without any compromise on their own ethics of carbon reduction and zero materials to land waste. They also set up workshops to impart their sewing knowledge to the wider community providing a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ+ community, the local homeless and children from Camborne and the local area.
Our other shortlisted candidates, all of whom are impressive in their own right, were:
Elaine Anning – Operations Director of Global City Futures
Exeter based ‘Global City Futures’ helps bridge the gap between the public sector, private investment and local communities to achieve a legacy of clean, sustainable growth and future through the complex challenges of urbanisation (including sustainable development and infrastructure). Elaine has been constructively and passionately working to breakdown cross-organisational boundaries, achieving outcomes not otherwise achievable.
Lola Grogan – Founder of The Eco Laundry Ltd
The Eco Laundry is the UK’s first eco-friendly laundry company; providing a unique and professional service to private clients and commercial businesses in the South West. Lola is a self-confessed visionary and business woman and, through her research, saw that there was a true market place for an Eco-Laundry business. Whilst some laundry services offer the eco-friendly detergent option, nobody was offering an entirely eco ethos to power them - hence The Eco Laundry being born.
Kate Deacon – Owner of Mix Clean Green Ltd
Mix Clean Green is an eco-friendly cleaning products company, redefining what 'sustainability' means. The plastic-free products are refillable, highly eco-friendly, palm free and organic where possible. Kate has been absolutely committed to ensuring that her products are so filled with eco-credentials that the list is too long for today but needless to say she is uncompromised on ethics, on standards, on customer satisfaction and accessibility to the produce.
Amanda Forman – Executive Director (and environmental scientist) of Planet A Solutions CIC
A registered social enterprise set up just before the pandemic and focussing on addressing issues in energy supply and improving the quality of housing. Based in Cornwall and working with over 50 organisations to help them realise their decarbonisation pathways, Amanda has been developing low carbon strategy for businesses, using both architectural and renewable energy solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Sarah Cain - Operations Director for UCSP Ltd
University Commercial Services Plymouth Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary company of the University of Plymouth serving a range of clients. This currently includes retail catering, hospitality, early years education and childcare. The team are approaching sustainability in the hospitality and catering arm to reduce their Scope 3 emissions a number of ways, not least of all by purchasing locally produced food and putting carbon footprint options on café menus. Sarah is a trained engineer who worked in the Air Force. She joined UCSP 2.5 years ago – only a week before lockdown
