Recently, we attended the Plants at Work, Leaf Awards, a ceremony that recognises the finest work from designer and maintenance teams from across the UK.
The event is like the Oscars of our industry, with a couple of major differences, nobody misbehaved, the master of ceremonies didn’t get punched, there were no tantrums or overly long speeches filled with self-praise, it didn’t go on for five hours and everybody seemed really pleased to be there.
Apart from that, it was just like the Oscars.
Ours is a competitive industry, with a number of very fine companies all pitching for the same business, but while we are all driven to succeed, there is also a camaraderie, a commitment to share best practice, particularly when it comes to environmental protection and equality.
We are proud of our commitment to the creation, and management of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity programme, along with our sustainability policies, and it was wonderful to speak with so many other companies that share our vision. As an industry we recognise our responsibilities, and although we were far from being the largest organisation at the awards, we felt proud to be judged alongside our peers.
Awards, especially the application process, give us an opportunity to reflect on our processes and policies, what we do right, and what we can improve upon, and this is the same for every business that entered, win or lose.
So many people think that winning is everything, and of course, recognition is important, but just by entering a prestigious competition like this, we are putting our heads above the parapet and allowing ourselves to be compared to other, often much larger companies.
We are delighted to confirm that we enjoyed a successful evening, picking up a very pleasing number of awards, but just by applying, taking the time to have a long, honest look at our business we had already won…(it was nice to get the trophies though).
