Uni-Blinds integral blinds manufacturer Morley Glass has been shortlisted for an award in ‘The Yorkshires’ Business Awards 2024 in recognition of its commitment to environmental and social sustainability.

The company is a finalist in the ‘ESG Excellence’ category of the awards programme organised by Yorkshire Children's Charity. These awards are held every year to celebrate Yorkshire’s entrepreneurial spirit whilst at the same time raising money to support children and young people who are living at a disadvantage.

Strong environmental and social governance – ESG – is an area in which Morley Glass has invested significant time and resources over the past 20 years, ensuring the company operates in a way that not only minimises its impact on the local community, but works to actively improve it.

The company’s ESG approach is demonstrated in a number of ways, including through its pioneering post-consumer IGU (insulating glass unit) recycling service. This scheme enables Morley Glass customers to arrange for the end-of-life IGUs that they remove during window and door replacement work to be collected and crushed into cullet for the remanufacture of new building glass.

This scheme generates revenue, all of which goes into the Morley Glass GreenVision fund. This fund was set up to provide grants to charities, groups and individuals who are involved in all kinds of social and environmental improvement projects in communities across Yorkshire, and so far more than 180 grants of £500 have been awarded.

In addition, Morley Glass works to maximise the re-use of waste materials, particularly the high quality wooden boxes in which it receives all its ScreenLine integral blind systems. These are donated to schools and the PIECES Project, a community interest company which delivers a number of programmes designed to help young people unlock their creative and entrepreneurial potential.

And in the company’s latest development of its ESG strategy, it has partnered with a waste management specialist to divert the waste metal drums used by its sealant supplier away from recycling into re-use. This means hundreds of metal drums every year will now be reconditioned and sold on for new industrial uses, raising further revenue for GreenVision in the process.

Ian Short, Managing Director of Morley Glass said: “We’re thrilled to be shortlisted for the ESG Excellence Award at The Yorkshires and we are looking forward to what is set to be a superb awards ceremony. And the awards programme has significant extra value given that all the businesses entering are supporting the Yorkshire Children's Charity – this is a fantastic organisation that does incredible work to help young people in more challenging circumstances.”

The Yorkshires Business Awards 2024 ceremony will take place on Friday 6^th December at The Queens Hotel in Leeds City Centre, and is expected to be attended by around 400 professionals from across the Yorkshire business community. The event will celebrate the very best in Yorkshire business with entrepreneur and BBC Dragon’s Den ‘dragon’ Sara Davies.