UK: Wormery helps Aviva win top waste management award

Aviva is delighted to announce that it has won, for the second time, the prestigious Chairman’s Cup in the City of London Clean City Awards.

The award, presented on 21 January, is for Aviva’s group head office, 1 Undershaft, EC3 and honours best practice in waste management by reducing, reusing and recycling.

Key factors that impressed the judges include the wormery that is used to manage Aviva’s food waste. Additionally, food waste is also sent to a local centre where it is turned into compost and energy that provides local electricity. 

Also, on top of the recycling that already occurs, all general waste is sent to a local material recycling facility where further materials that can be recycled are sorted.  These measures have resulted in an overall recycle rate of 88% - the remaining 12% is processed into biofuels. 

The initiatives in place at Aviva’s group head office mean that we send zero waste to landfill.

Aviva has also looked to influence suppliers to minimise waste through reduced packaging and supported tenants in the building by providing them with free recycling bins.

Aviva UK’s head of corporate responsibility, Heather Smith, said: “Aviva is very proud to win this fantastic award. We are totally focussed on reducing, reusing and recycling our waste and will continue to embrace new initiatives that will lessen our carbon footprint.

“None of this would have been possible without the help and support of organisations that we work closely with. Our cleaning contractor, Lancasters, have been central to our waste management initiatives and have provided an exceptional service. Also our tenants and suppliers have provided great support to us which we thank them for. 

“And finally, none of this could be done without the great support from our staff, who have fully embraced the challenge to continually reduce our carbon footprint and our impact on the environment.”

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If you are a journalist and would like further information, please contact:

John Franklin : Aviva Press Office 
01603 680795 / 07800 692110 
john.s.franklin@aviva.co.uk

Notes to editors:

Aviva is one of the world's largest insurance groups* with 53 million customers worldwide and 46,000 employees.

Aviva’s main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £45.1 billion and funds under management of £379 billion*.

In the UK, Aviva takes care of its 19.2 million customers by helping them look after their future, protecting what’s important – from their health to their homes, their cars to their business – and saving for the future.

Aviva has a 10.5%** share of the UK life and pensions market and insures one in six homes and one in 10 cars in the UK. It is also one of the oldest UK insurers, with a heritage stretching back more than 300 years.

RAC, which is owned by Aviva, provides breakdown and insurance services for individuals and businesses and has around seven million customers.

Aviva is carbon neutral worldwide, and is ranked in the top 10% of socially responsible companies globally by the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. In the UK, Aviva invested £3.8 million into local communities in 2009. Read our corporate responsibility report at www.aviva.com/cr.

Aviva’s global Street to School programme is working in partnership with Railway Children in the UK to get children living on the streets back into education and everyday life. Find out more at www.aviva.co.uk/street-to-school.

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*based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2009
**Source: ABI data released August 2010