ACTOR Stephen Mangan hosted an awards ceremony to celebrate the best talent in the events industry.
The Sodexo Prestige team in Scotland, a company that specialises in providing catering for meetings and events, scooped two awards at the ceremony.
The team won gold for the Best Corporate Responsibility category and silver for Best Hospitality Experience while working for The John Hope Gateway. (A new biodiversity and information centre at the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh).
The John Hope Gateway team were also recognised with a bronze award for Event Venue of the Year (up to 500 capacity).
Over 700 professionals attended the event held at the five-star Hilton Park Lane hotel in London.
The Green Wing actor watched the Prestige team impress the judges with their extensive work on raising awareness of local food sourcing and production.
The team used a number of several events in their campaign titles “Science on a Plate.”
They also worked with students across Scotland, inviting them to participate in the Student Chef competition and teaching them that they should use local, seasonal and sustainable foods.
The John Hope Gateway, which has hosted over 450 events since it opened in 2009, operates a zero carbon plan which is supported by the Prestige team.
They use a food waste process which sees all food waste that is created on site, returned to the garden as compost.
The team have also invested in an electric vehicle to service the venue which has helped to reduce the carbon footprint and means the venue only uses 100% bio-degradable cleaning agents.
Staff are encouraged to cycle to work and 98% of the staff are local residents, contributing to an effective local community recruitment scheme.
Graham Box, managing director of Sodexo Prestige in Scotland, said: “I am very pleased with their success.
“The team have worked tirelessly to ensure that corporate responsibility is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, particularly focusing on driving home the importance of local, sustainable sourcing.
“They very much deserve this award.”
Chris John, managing director, Sodexo Prestige, was delighted with the team’s performance.
He said:“We are immensely proud of both teams.
“They work extremely hard to deliver a five-star service, in line with Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow Plan, our sustainability strategy to 2020 and are very worthy winners of this external recognition.”
