Last night saw the very first regional judging event for Shell Springboard. Held at the Palace Hotel in Manchester, the evening featured a keynote speech by Shell UK Chairman James Smith (pictured right with second placed finalist Ron Driver of EA Technical Services) and the judging of applications from Central England and Wales.
The distinguished judging panel - Dr Kevin Anderson (Tyndall Centre), Erik Bichard (Sustainability North West), Dr Annette Pinner (Environment Agency) and Lord Wade of Chorlton - vetted applications for carbon reduction, innovation and business credibility. From a highly competitive field, and after a full day of interviews, the judges decided on Varyflush, EA Technical Services and NetComposites as the companies in third, second and first place respectively. Prizes were awarded by Ken Rivers, Manager of Shell's Stanlow Manufacturing Complex in the region. Each winner will receive a Springboard Award of £40,000 and EA Technical Services and NetComposites will go onto the final London event on 7 March. The finalists all enjoyed the networking opportunity and, as winner Gordon Bishop of NetComposites Ltd put it, Springboard is "a great way of getting innovative environmental projects off the ground. We're elated to have won and can now take our products forward".
To find out more about the winners and their projects, please see Winning Ideas.