The Ringley Group was recognised as Green Champion of the Year 2010

FREE. FLAT LIVING MAGAZINE. DOWNLOAD. The Ringley Group was recognised as GREEN CHAMPION OF THE YEAR 2010 and congratulated at a dazzling awards ceremony in London on 10th November, hosted by BBC Scotland's Fred MacAulay and organised by The Negotiator magazine in association with The Digital Property Group. Clare Bettelley, editor of The Negotiator, says: This years event is our biggest and best to date, and the quality of our entrants has been staggering. This is testament to their efforts and those of The Negotiator in continuing to strive further raise industry standards.

Mark Milner, The Digital Property Group's Chief Executive said: The success of the Negotiator Awards is a testament to ongoing excellence within the market, with firms such as The Ringley Group gaining much deserved recognition, it's a pleasure to celebrate their achievements. Managing Director, Mary-Anne Bowring says: Winning this award is immensely encouraging. We are humbly at the start of our green agenda and spent of 2010 capturing key data on all the developments of flats and houses we manage for our Clients so we truly know who has un-insulated pitched roofs and where grants are available.

We have pinpointed the nearest car club to each development, recorded what recycling facilities are on site, put together a dossier on bike rack solutions and started installing bike racks which can be vertically mounted so take very little space indeed. Where cost is prohibitive we have got residents to vote on all alternatives such as re-using their conventional brick built bin stores as bike sheds and creating a new fenced in area. Life cycle costing is also being used to promote PVC-U windows where the breakeven point on redecorations is normally 3 or less decorations cycles and three major sites now either in funds or having just completed installing double glazing. For traditional Victorian buildings we deal with prior to paint timber replacements or throwing away good quality Victorian window components which so greatly outlast modern softwood equivalents. In 2011 have plans to roll out to composting to larger sites, divert rainwater goods to water butts to re-use for gardening watering, washing cars and installing simple low cost irrigation to flower beds.

We are already working with cleaners to replace bulbs with energy saving bulbs. Few blocks can afford this in one hit so our approach is as we replace bulbs to rotate the old bulbs so that gradually fitting by fitting energy saving is introduced. In terms of our supply chain we are now asking cleaners to declare whether they are using environmentally friendly detergents and green transport. We have started to capture the distance of their office to site as we believe it is best for our Clients if we can buy local where sensible to do so. It's a tough agenda and there has to be proven benefit as it is hard to gain leaseholders support if initiatives mean that service charges will rise even if just short term. We do recognise the importance of the role the Ringley Group plays in influencing a lot of people and packaging just what is possible so that gradually the green agenda can filter down to the annual service charge budget and action plan we hold for each development we manage.

The Negotiators panel of judges included some very distinguished experts including James Caan (entrepreneur and star of Dragons Den), Harry Hill (Former chairman, Countrywide), Miles Shipside (Commercial Director, Rightmove), Mike Goddard (founder and CEO, Belvoir Lettings), Ivor Dickinson (MD, Douglas and Gordon), Susan Fitz-Gibbon (Co-Director, Fitz-Gibbon), Richard Lupo (Sustainability consultant, Sustainable Homes), Bill McClintock (Chairman, The Property Ombudsman), Richard Rawlings (MD, Estate Agency Insight) and Ken Waller (Former Connells Residential) To interview or contact MD Mary-Anne Bowring, Ringley Group Tel: 0207 428 1976 of 0797 441636 www.ringley.co.uk