MARSHALLS’ CHRIS HARROP NAMED GREEN GURU

Marshalls’ Group Marketing Director Chris Harrop has been named Green Guru Manufacturer by Building. Announcing the results at its Sustainability Now online event, Building celebrated the green achievements of leaders in the construction industry.

The driving force behind Marshalls’ sustainability agenda, Chris Harrop was nominated and won the Green Guru Manufacturer award by public vote. Chris said: “It’s great to see sustainability awards in the mainstream, recognising the environmental and social achievements of the building industry as a whole. For me, it’s a great honour especially because this has been voted for by the public.”

Under Chris’ direction, Marshalls has carbon labelled over 2,000 domestic and commercial paving products with the Carbon Trust's official scheme and achieved Wildlife Trust biodiversity benchmarks for two sites. Since becoming the first company in the hard landscaping industry to belong to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), Marshalls has been working in India to raise awareness of child labour issues in quarries and putting in place award-winning ethical supply chain management programmes. Last month, Marshalls demonstrated its continuing sustainability leadership by launching Fairstone, the UK’s first fairly traded Indian sandstone.

Building has been running Green Gurus since 2007 with the idea of recognising the people who are instrumental in driving the green agenda forwards. Previously the Green Gurus were selected by the team at Building but this year they have been chosen by the readers. After being nominated, the winners were selected by public vote.