Member Article

Esh Group wins at the 20th annual Responsible Business Awards

Durham based business Esh Group is celebrating today after being crowned a winner at one of the most prestigious corporate awards programmes, The Responsible Business Awards, run by the charity Business in the Community (BITC).

Located in Bowburn, Esh Group won the UBS Award for Education for its work to get more children interested in science, technology, engineering and maths careers (or STEM). Its innovative ‘Get into STEM’ initiative: provides free construction-themed kits to primary schools. The kits which are deliberately designed to be gender neutral, introduce children to STEM through the story of Three Little Pigs, and include over 30 different books, toys, materials and clothing for dress up and role play. Children also have access to role models from Esh who deliver interactive presentations about possible STEMN careers

The UK is heading for a skills shortage with not enough graduates in STEM subjects to meet the demand. As one of the largest construction companies in the north of England, Esh Group is directly impacted by this. Its award winning programme is part of a wider strategy to develop its future workforce and tackle both the gender imbalance and lack of young people going into careers in the industry. Since starting out over 100 schools, including two special schools, and 3,500 students have benefitted – more than 1,000 of which were female.

Amanda Mackenzie OBE, Chief Executive of Business in the Community, commented: “Congratulations to the 2017 Responsible Business Award winners for being inspirational yet practical examples of the difference business can make to address some of society’s biggest issues. The winning businesses are all different, they span sectors and continents and range from large high street names to small start-ups. What unites them is a belief that with courage vision and leadership, business can do remarkable things for good.”

The Awards Gala, held at the Royal Albert Hall and presented by broadcasters Jeremy Vine and Emily Maitlis, celebrated and championed the hundreds of inspiring businesses who make a difference by taking action to build more inclusive workplaces, stronger communities and address global challenges.. This year’s Gala was hosted by Veolia, the UK’s leading resource management company and Business in the Community’s Responsible Business of the Year 2016.

The headline sponsors of the 2017 Responsible Business Awards are Aviva, Barclays, Experian, Fujitsu, Hogan Lovells, UBS, Unilever, The Unipart Group For more information and a full list of all winners, visit www.bitc.org.uk/awards and follow @BITC on Twitter #BITCawards.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Business in the Community .