edie Awards Winner, Co-op Retail Conference & Project Nautilus Name
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Published 31 Mar 2023 in Phil's blog
This week I would like to start off with some fantastic news. We are very proud to announce we won Energy Project of the Year at the edie Awards in London last night. A prestigious award nomination against fellow businesses OVO Energy, Lloyds Banking Group and Mitie; it recognised our brilliant work supporting the growth of community renewable energy projects and reducing energy usage across our operations.
As part of the Sustainability Steering Group, I know how hard our teams have worked amidst the uncertainty of rising energy costs, recovering from the pandemic and inflation, so I am thrilled we have been recognised for this accolade.
A big well done to everyone involved including our colleagues in-store, at our sites & offices as well as our members and customers for helping us make a difference. Excellent news.
Mike Pickering, Head of Sustainability (left) & Julie Sheldon, Head of Energy Efficiency(third from left) with our Energy Project of the Year award
Executive Away Day
As part of our Executive away day earlier this month, the team came together at a special development day. Hosted by one of ‘Best of our Counties’ suppliers, Purity Brewing, on the day, we were given a tour of their operations and briefed on how they produce the products supplied to our stores. We were extremely impressed with the quality of their products as well as the care and values they apply to production and the environment within which their operations. As you know, this aligns well with us and is something extremely important to our organisation.
We were kindly offered the use of their meeting room facilities for the day and I see this as an important approach going forwards, where we work collaboratively with our partners and take time to understand each other’s operations.
The executive team at Purity Brewing in Alcester, Warwickshire
Co-op Retail Conference 2023
The Co-operative Retail Conference 2023 took place last weekend in Cheshire and was organised by Co-op’s UK, the network for the UK co-ops. Joining me and members of the Board, representing Midcounties Co-op were Parm Kalirai, Head of Marketing Technology, Pete Westall, Chief Values Officer, and Anders Mittag from LobyCo (Coop Denmark)
Parm Kalirai, Head of Marketing Technology presenting at the Co-op Retail Conference
Parm and Anders hosted a fantastic session showing how digital innovation is redefining membership today. Together, they shared the digital transformation journeys that both organisations had been on to better engage and improve members’ experience. It gave us a great platform to showcase the brilliant work we’ve been doing to develop membership digitally and how we’ve pioneered the change since our membership campaign and App launched in October 2021. The session stimulated a lively discussion as many Co-operatives have similar challenges and are seeking similar solutions.
Pete, representing the Bright Future Co-operative, co-hosted an informative session with Sarah Pullen from Reach Solutions and Debbie Robinson, CEO of Central England Co-op, showing how modern co-operation is inspiring change and having a positive impact on individuals, communities, and the UK economy. This session also stimulated a good debate and generated energy in the room given the collective passion to create a fairer future for all.
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who presented at the conference. The contributions helped showcase our incredible achievements to the wider co-operative movement, not only in the UK but globally too.
Project Nautilus name – Update
Finally, you may remember my callout a few weeks ago for colleagues to help us name Project Nautilus. Well, the wait is nearly over, and a name will be announced very soon.
As a reminder, we are in the process of launching a fantastic new app and website to help us work better together and make our working lives easier. Keep an eye out for the update shortly.
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