2007 North region winners announced

2007-02-14 19:21:53

Last night two businesses from the Shell Springboard North region picked up awards of £40,000 each, in this, the second year of the competition. Held at the George Hotel in Edinburgh the competition featured seven small businesses. The awards were presented by Shell UK Chairman James Smith and chair of the judges, Sharon Bamford, Chief Executive, Scottish Insititute for Enterprise.

The expert judging panel, Monica Straughan, SEPA, Clifton Bain, RSPB Scotland Professor Patrick Corbett, Heriot Watt University and Sharon Bamford - vetted applications for carbon reduction, innovation and commercial viability. From a highly competitive field, and after a full day of interviews, the judges decided on Aberdeen based Environmental Building Partnership Ltd and Martin Energy Ltd from Edinburgh as this year's North winners.

James Smith Shell UK Chairman with the winning businesses Dr Alistair Martin, Martin Energy Ltd and Dr Mohammed Imbabi, EBP Ltd.

Each winner will receive their Springboard cash award shortly and both businesses will go on to meet the National Judging panel at the UK final in London on 6th March.

Speaking about his award Dr Mohammed Imbabi from EBP said, "Legislation and market demand for better insulated buildings has already generated a lot of interest in our innovative product and winning the Shell Springboard award will allow us to advance rapidly to commercialisation."

The 7 finalists all enjoyed the networking opportunity and, as winner Dr Alastair Martin, managing director at Martin Energy Ltd, said "Balancing electricity supply and demand is a vital part of the effort to tackle climate change and we are delighted to pick up the Shell Springboard award which will allow us to develop our business to a wider market."

To find out more about North region finalists, the winners and their projects, please see Winning Ideas.