Birmingham Post Business Awards - Manufacturing, Science & Technology, plus Environment & Sustainability categories
Jul 16 2010 Birmingham Post Business Awards
Birmingham Post Editor Alun Thorne introduces the Manufacturing, Science & Technology and the Environment & Sustainability categories.
Just a few years ago, the words ‘manufacturing’ and ‘environmental’ seemed to be diametrically opposed to each other.
The former often conjured up images of belching chimneys and grimy factories and the latter evoked hair-shirted hippies and tree-hugging eco-warriers.
But so much has changed since then.
Today it is the manufacturing, science and technology sector which offers our strongest hope to bring down global emissions and drive forward the environmental and sustainability agenda.
So it’s right that we are featuring the Manufacturing, Science & Technology and Environment & Sustainability categories together in this week’s look at the Birmingham Post’s Business Awards - and that they are both being sponsored by a company like Jaguar Land Rover.
Our ability to make useful things has always been at the heart of the West Midlands’ economy, right from the times when we were known as the workshop of the world.
Despite all the knocks our industrial base has taken over the years, we still have an enormous amount to be proud of here in the region, and that is what these two categories aim to showcase.
It’s become something of a cliché to hark back to our great industrial heritage, but today’s West Midland manufacturing sector still leads the world in many ways.
In the West Midlands we have companies working on leaner, greener automotive and aerospace products, cutting-edge medical technology as well as firms who have successfully diversified from traditional activities into supplying growing markets like the wind power sector.
That’s not to forget the smaller companies supplying a vast range of industries who have weathered so many financial storms to keep investing and growing their workforce.
We at the Post have reported on how manufacturers in the area have been winning back work lost over the past few years to low-price competitors in China and elsewhere.
What is so pleasing to hear is that these customers have chosen West Midland firms because they know they can’t get the same quality elsewhere - and they are willing to pay a bit more for it.
That’s the kind of success story we like to hear.
The Manufacturing, Science & Technology and Environmental & Sustainability categories aim to celebrate those companies in our region who are not just growing but also innovating and investing, thereby ensuring jobs and prosperity for future generations.
It is for the next generation that now more than ever, we need the brightest and sharpest minds to turn their attention to issues like climate change, which is why the second category is so important.
This Environmental & Sustainability category is aimed at firms delivering environmental products and services as well as those companies that have shown a real commitment to the environment and sustainability within their own operation.
We’re not looking for the “greenwashers” jumping on the environmental bandwagon, we want to see genuine commitment and innovation in embracing the sustainability agenda.
So if you fit into either of those categories - we want to hear from you, as businesses like yours are the building blocks of a sustainable, prosperous economy in the West Midlands.
