Green glory for North Northamptonshire

21 September 2022

North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) has won an International Green Apple Environment Award in a national campaign to find the greenest companies and organisations. 

The authority competed against more than 500 other nominations in the Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice with its Desborough Greenspace project.

The Desborough Greenspace was established in 2012 as a large 22-hectare site that would be far less formally managed with a vision to create a very large and accessible natural space for local people as well as biodiversity.

NNC will be presented with a trophy and certificate at a glittering presentation ceremony in the Houses of Parliament, in London, on November 21.

As a result of this International Green Apple Award success, the local authority has been invited to accept Green World Ambassador status and have their winning paper published in The Green Book, the leading international work of reference on environmental best practice, so that others around the world can follow their lead and learn from their achievement.

This will also entitle the council to represent their country in the Green World Environment Awards that are held in a different country every year.

With this site, we have shown that by taking a more considered, less intensive approach to open space land management, we can deliver a site of incredible tranquillity, which provides a biodiversity rich environment, enhancing the experience of local residents using the space.

We recognised the hard work and dedication that the in-house grounds services team has put into providing a greener and more sustainable environment for the future.

This is a great honour for the council, and deserved recognition for the team involved, and supports our wider work to create a greener, more sustainable environment in our area.Cllr Harriet Pentland the Council’s Executive member for Climate and the Green Environment

Well done to all those involved in creating this refuge for nature in one of our towns. This award is richly deserved and is the culmination of a decade or hard work and commitment.Cllr Jason Smithers, Leader of the Council

The Green Apple Awards are run by The Green Organisation - an international, independent, non-profit, non-political environment group that began in 1994 to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world.
 
This is the second Green Apple Award in as many years for the council, after the authority’s ‘Pardon the Weeds, We are Feeding the Bees’ campaign received the accolade in 2021.