Winners of European Business Awards for the Environment (Irish stage) announced

Vodafone in Dublin has been named winner of the European Environmental Management award. It introduced a comprehensive environmental strategy with ambitious targets to reduce CO2 emissions to improve the environmental efficiency and sustainability of its business activities and products, including its tree planting campaign, "Goodbye paper bills, hello trees" to encourage its customers to switch to paperless billing.

Larkin Engineering in Galway has won the European Product award for applying eco-design and waste minimisation principles to its 120-litre jumbo bin, which has reduced the resources and materials consumed per bin manufactured. Energy savings per bin produced is equivalent to the amount used to travel 520km in an average family car.

Roadstone Wood in west Dublin received the European Process award for reviewing existing pumping arrangements in their quarry and consequently achieving significant savings in electricity consumption and reducing their carbon footprint.

Irish Cement in Louth received the IBEC Environmental Excellence award for substituting a portion of its fossil fuel usage with renewable energy derived from solid recovered fuel, significantly reducing the company's carbon footprint and improving the sustainability of the cement manufacturing process.

Announcing the winners, IBEC Director of Policy Brendan Butler said: "These awards provide an opportunity to showcase the best of Irish innovation in environmental management and practice. The number and quality of Irish entries this year reflect the increasing importance of environmental issues for businesses of all types and sizes."