Falmouth Harbour’s on-going drive toward sustainability in all its work has won it the “gong” for Most Sustainable Medium Sized Organisation in the Cornwall Sustainability Awards.
The award recognises the Harbour team for environmental work across the board – often working with partner organisations and using new and emerging technologies – including the protection of seagrass beds and enhancing wildlife habitats, tackling microfibre pollution and moving towards decarbonisation of its vessels.
“This award is a fantastic boost for us as a small commercial harbour trying to make a difference,” says Falmouth Harbour Environment Manager Vicki Spooner.
“We look at everything we do through the prism of our amazing environment and how we can best protect and enhance it, whilst operating safely and efficiently for all our users. We know there’s a lot more to do, and we can use this award as a catalyst to drive harder on our decarbonisation journey. The awards’ ceremony itself was full of hope and a great opportunity meet like-minded organisations and discuss how we might collaborate in future.”
Falmouth Harbour CEO Miles Carden adds, “The award recognises the hard work of our Falmouth Harbour team, project funders like the Cornwall Council Cornwall Good Growth team who allow us to accelerate our work and other local partners as we drive towards our sustainability targets. It was great to see so many organisations recognised, particularly those local to us in Falmouth, alongside organisations we have already partnered with such as Waterhaul, Falmouth Town Council and Mylor Moorings.”
Newquay-based Waterhaul won the Circular Economy award and was named Overall Winner for its work tackling the problem of ghost gear – lost, abandoned or discarded fishing gear – by recovering it from the coastline and turning it into durable and sustainable products such as sunglasses.
Falmouth Harbour’s other partnership initiatives include protecting around 30 hectares of seagrass with the Ocean Conservation Trust, enhancing wildlife habitats in collaboration with local and national varied organisations, tackling microfibre pollution with Cleaner Seas and providing marina charging facilities for electric vessels with Aqua Super Power.
Last month the Harbour celebrated the arrival of its new £1.6M state-of-the-art pilot boat Atlantic – one of the biggest investments by the Trust Port for almost 20 years: designed by Camarc and built by Holyhead Marine as one of the greenest pilot vessels operating in the UK, it will run on HVO (hydrogenated vegetable oil) in 2025 – with HVO infrastructure part funded by Shared Prosperity through the Good Growth team.
The Cornwall Sustainability Awards – now in their 22nd year and hosted by Cornwall Council – celebrate organisations and individuals across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for their contribution towards sustainability, environmental growth, circular economy and carbon neutrality. The 2024 awards’ ceremony held at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth – attracted more than 60 entrants across 5 categories.
Cllr Martyn Alvey, Cornwall Council cabinet member for environment and climate change and one of the awards judges, says, “The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Sustainability Awards showcases our region’s wealth of innovative organisations which are helping nature recover, lessening our impact on the planet and fuelling our green economy and skills. A big congratulations to all our incredible entrants and winners and thank you to everyone who attended our awards evening.”
