The Artisan Food Trail is a finalist in the Hertfordshire Green Awards

Perhaps we should have told you about this a little earlier but as our Artisan Food Trail members always come first, we've been busy promoting them and completely forgot about ourselves!

Last Wednesday we attended the Hertfordshire Green Awards as we were selected as finalists in ‘The Green Communications Award’.

The awards are organised by Archant Herts & Cambs, the publishers of several newspapers in our county and beyond. This year was the third time the Green Awards were held. It recognises businesses that are already actively involved in championing green issues and at the same time making their businesses and in turn their local communities a greener place to live.

The Green Communications Award recognises the efforts that companies have introduced to communicate in a 'greener' format. This could include the transmission of any marketing messages, the implementation of a greater use of digital media, an increase in employee engagement or an increase in community engagement.

One of the awards sponsors is Environmental Population, an initiative which provides environmental information to people whether they want to improve their home or their business.
As a membership based organisation they offer some great options for their members to promote what they do, develop new business contacts and sales and ultimately help the business community become fully sustainable.
The Artisan Food Trail is a member of Environmental Population (you may have noticed the logo on our website and blog) as we are always looking for ways to improve how we run our business from an environmental aspect and also we want to be able to pass on the benefits to our members too.

It’s not always about winning, 

but about taking part and meeting people…

We weren't chosen as winners of our category, but we still feel very honoured to be finalists and congratulations to The Eco Schools Network who took the top prize.

There is always an upside to events like this though as it provides the perfect opportunity to meet new people and share what we do with them. Let's face it there aren't many people who don't have an interest in food.

Prior to the awards ceremony an exhibition was put on for businesses to showcase their products and services – all green, of course. We spoke to companies offering electric and hybrid cars, solar panels, waste management/ compliance, environmental consultants and digital marketing services. You may well ask what has that got to do with food? Well, we are developing many more angles to The Artisan Food Trail, all of which will be put in place to help our members with their businesses.

Valuable connections

The awards dinner offered a particularly favourable moment as we not only shared our table with the mayor and mayoress of Stevenage but also the managing director of Lussmanns.
Andrei Lussmann runs two restaurants in Hertfordshire, in St Albans and Hertford where ethical practice, sustainability and the sourcing of food from regional artisan producers is key. Because of its values, Lussmanns scooped the ‘Winner’ status in ‘Best Hotel or Hospitality Environmental Programme’.

It was Andrei that approached us as he is very interested in how we could work together. This a very exciting proposition and plans will be made for us to meet again soon and discuss things further.

Being a finalist is one thing, but to leave feeling very excited because of a chance meeting is something else altogether as the spirit is lifted by the prospect of widening horizons in the future.