On Friday (27th January 2023) we attended Exeter Sustainability Awards, where EX2 Group won in the Small Business category sponsored by Global City Futures.
Rachael Gilliam and Will Treadwell (pictured, with Kerry Lane of EX2 centre) were inspired by the winners, from retrofit schemes providing skills training to a one-woman mission to make a difference with wildlife gardening to improve her local community.
Rachael, Senior Consultant for Global City Futures said “It was so heartening to hear about projects large and small that are happening in our home city, and to celebrate their successes. The EX2 Group have really gone all in to build their business to express what they believe in – with electric vehicles and a low carbon operation, while providing solutions to organisations to do the same.”
The Awards took place at Exeter’s St Sidwell’s Point, a newly built community leisure facility built to passivhaus standards. Attendees heard from Anne Daniels, Arctic explorer who talked about the changes she had experienced due to global warming. She read from One Chance Left, a collection of poems written by scientists from the University of Exeter and the Met Office.
Rachael: “What I took away from this event is that it is really important that we engage with sustainability at all levels – from local authorities, how we run our businesses, the local communities as well as the choices that we make as consumers. We saw that it can be done, and can be done successfully to make differences locally that have global impact.”
This was the first year of the Exeter Sustainability Awards, launched to recognise all the amazing people, businesses and organisations that are making a difference to sustainability in the city.
Global City Futures are working with local authorities across the UK to support the implementation of their Climate Action Plans – see our projects in Lambeth and Lancaster