Red Funnel nominated for Green Initiative Award in the 2019 IW Chamber Business Awards for Excellence
Mon, Sep 9 2019
Red Funnel Ferries is pleased to announce it has been nominated in the Green Initiative Award category of the 2019 IW Chamber Business Awards for Excellence.
The award recognises commitment to the environment and sustainability and is awarded to businesses that are conscious of the way they operate and are changing the way they work.
The nomination recognises the steps Red Funnel has made since launching its three-year environment strategy ‘Red Goes Green’ last year. With many new initiatives to help improve and conserve the environment, a number of changes have already been implemented at the company.
Red Funnel kicked off its new three-year plan by painting its iconic funnel logo green on Red Falcon, as well as changing the livery to read as “Green Funnel”. These actions made a symbolic declaration of the company’s commitment and accelerated the adoption of the Red Goes Green strategy.
Red Funnel has significantly reduced the amount of single-use plastic items used on-board its fleet including condiment sauce sachets, milk sachet cups, plastic cutlery and the implementation of greener packaging made from renewable, lower carbon or recycled materials.
In conjunction with the Environment Centre and Southampton’s Clean Air Network, Red Funnel has amplified its anti-idling campaign to encourage more customers not to idle engines, particularly when boarding or disembarking from the ferries. This includes more banners at terminals to inform customers and increase awareness on the need to improve air quality for customers, staff and local residents.
In addition, Red Funnel maintains three pure-electric vehicles and two Euro 6 diesel tug units for hauling freight trailers; fitted new power management systems that improve fuel efficiency and have more than halved emissions on the Ro-Ro ferries’ electrical generation machinery. Red Funnel employees also took part in an Island-wide beach clean in 2018, pledging £15,000 to support the clean-up of the Isle of Wight’s coastline.
Red Funnel also continues to explore alternative fuel options and developments in propulsion in order to shift its fleet of ferries away from traditional fuels.
Fran Collins, CEO of Red Funnel, said: “We are delighted to be nominated for the Green Initiative Award, as it’s such an important focus for us as a company. We are continuing to make big strides with our initiatives and work to our three-year environment strategy plan, as well as ensuring our green ethos is incorporated into our day-to-day decision making. It takes time, and there is more for us to do, but every little helps and we hope to continue our conscious effort towards being more green and sustainable as a company.”
The winners of the 2019 IW Chamber Business Awards for Excellence will be announced at a ceremony on Friday 18th October.
For more information about Red Funnel’s Red Goes Green environment strategy, visit: https://redfunnel.co.uk/policies-and-conditions/quality-health-safety#environment
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For further information regarding Red Funnel, please contact:
Lisa Norman or Kirsti Pawlowski at McKenna Townsend
T: 01425 472330
About Red Funnel
Red Funnel is the original Isle of Wight ferry company with roots tracing back to 1820. Based in the UK port of Southampton, Red Funnel carries 2.3m passengers and over 800,000 vehicles on its ferry route between the UK port of Southampton and East Cowes and 1.1m passengers between Southampton and West Cowes on its Red Jet Hi-Speed service. In addition to ferry travel, Red Funnel is the only cross-Solent operator to offer ferry inclusive bonded holiday accommodation, attraction tickets, festival and event tickets and activity packages. Sub-brands include ‘Red Jet’ (the Hi-Speed passenger only ferry service serving West Cowes) and two food & beverage brands, ‘Steam Coffee Company’ and ‘ReFuel’. The Company is a founder member of Visit Isle of Wight Ltd, the Island’s not for profit destination management organisation and Red Funnel sponsors or supports most of the Island’s premier events including the IW Festival, Cowes Week, Isle of Arts, The Red Funnel IW Literary Festival, IW Newport Jazz Festival, Isle Walk Festival, Ventnor Fringe Festival and Wolverton Manor Garden Show as well as a range of community and niche interest events. Red Funnel’s 2019 Charity of the Year is Mountbatten Hospice, Isle of Wight.
For more information visit: www.redfunnel.co.uk