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The Footprint Awards have been used to reward responsible business practices, innovative entrepreneurship and sustainability for 10 years including late March when 1,200 participants from all areas of the industry gathered digitally for the virtual awards ceremony. The Meiko Group won the coveted trophy in the ‘Sustainable Catering Equipment Manufacturer’ category. Specifically, the award recognised the BioMaster infeed station as a sustainable, green tool for processing wet waste in the food service sector and the food industry more generally. The station takes in organic kitchen waste, fats and other food waste to create homogenous biomass that can be used as a raw material at biogas plants which convert it into energy, feeding it back into the energy cycle.

The panel was impressed with this contribution to greater sustainability. ‘We knew from day one that with our ideas and innovative technology, we would be able help protect the common good,’ reports a happy Patrick Hoffmann, CEO of Meiko Green. ‘The Footprint Award is further confirmation of just how important it is to drive change in our industry and our markets, and to help our customers to think in new ways – without damaging anybody’s business. In fact, quite the opposite! You see, this system is actually profitable – so it even pays to go green. This is the sort of synergy we need in order to provide the industry with opportunities for real sustainability, not just greenwashing. I also believe that we have a responsibility to use food resources wisely.’

Footprint’s motto is Sustainable Responsible Business and their aim as a media company is to raise awareness of these issues, focusing on the hotel and food service sectors, as well as the food industry more broadly. They use their own media and events to communicate technical solutions, provide background information and report on responsible business practices. Footprint also provides networking for CSR representatives throughout the food and drink sector, helps companies to implement environmentally friendly practices and supports research projects. This sheds light on the many environmental, social and economic layers of sustainability, allowing Footprint to actively influence the discourse around these issues in the UK and making them an important source of information for decision makers.

All of that lends this award a certain weight, something Paul Anderson, Managing Director of Meiko UK, pointed out at the ceremony ‘Sustainability is coming higher up the agenda for action by the UK catering industry – indeed it has to – because we are running out of water and learning more about the harm we have done to our suffering planet. BioMaster completes the circle of what we do as a supplier, providing ware washing solutions, maximum hygiene and returning sustainable benefit back to the planet. I know that Meiko staff will be as delighted as myself with this recognition for BioMaster. True sustainability pays back in the long term and products such as BioMaster represent the type of new generational thinking that will help us bring our planet back to a sustainable level.’