East Midlands-based synthetic turf maintenance expert Replay Maintenance is celebrating after winning a seven-year, multiple-site contract in the South West to service a range of military sports facilities.

The long-term deal with landscape construction company, Gavin Jones, now part of the nationwide green services provider, Nurture Group, means Replay Maintenance will take care of a variety of artificial sports surfaces at 13 sites.

Predominantly at Naval and Royal Marine bases, with a variety of sports surfaces including sand-dressed hockey pitches, athletics tracks and 3G football surfaces, the sites include Bickleigh Barracks, RMB Chivenor and HMS Excellent in the Plymouth area, HMS Collingwood in Fareham, Hampshire, RNAS Culdrose on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, Britannia Royal Naval College near Dartmouth in Devon, Royal Marine Commando Training Centre at Lympstone in Devon, HMS Rayleigh at Torpoint in Cornwall, RNAS Yeovilton near Yeovil in Somerset, and Norton Manor Camp near Taunton in Somerset.

Replay Maintenance will be drawing on the company’s 20 plus years’ knowledge and expertise to ensure that the sports facilities are in the best condition for His Majesty’s military personnel.

Nick Harris, Replay Maintenance MD, said: “We are delighted to have secured the contract to maintain the synthetic surfaces on these sites. Our teams have worked diligently to undertake ad hoc, specialist maintenance on behalf of Gavin Jones.

“The quality of works done has clearly been favourable in the decision to award the contract to Replay Maintenance for such a lengthy period. With a number of recent strategic partnerships in the South West including The Pitchmark Group, Wiltshire FA and Somerset FA, we look forward to building on our national reputation as the leading synthetic sports turf maintenance specialist.”

Introductions between the two companies were made when Replay Maintenance was contracted by Gavin Jones to undertake a one-off athletics track clean in 2015, using Replay’s trademark Aquatrax process.

Since then, Replay Maintenance has continued to build relationships with the team, gradually increasing the ad-hoc processes and being introduced to new facilities. Through these works, Gavin Jones has now entrusted the artificial sports surface maintenance of these 13 sites to Replay Maintenance, with talks for further sites ongoing.

Andy Mighall, Gavin Jones’ Regional Manager, said: “In awarding this contract to Replay Maintenance, we are confident that our customers will receive the exceptional quality service that they have come to expect from a Gavin Jones maintained site.

“We have worked with Replay Maintenance since 2015 and have found the works that they completed have always been delivered to a very high standard. I look forward to working with the team over the coming years in continuing to deliver outstanding service to our customers.”

Nottingham businesses are being urged to consider cash grants of up to £25,000 for green transport schemes before a deadline at the end of the year. The money can be applied for through Nottingham City Council’s Workplace Travel Service. So far, the scheme, funded by the government’s Transforming Cities Fund, has distributed more than half a million pounds locally to help Nottingham businesses go greener. In order to qualify, a business or organisation needs to be based within the Nottingham City boundary. Businesses contribute 25 per cent towards the costs of any scheme, but public-sector, voluntary or charitable groups are fully funded. The deadline for applications is 31 December this year. Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Highways, Transport and Planning, Councillor Angela Kandola, said: “Calling local businesses, public-sector organisations, voluntary or faith groups, we can help you to future-proof your workplace by adding electric vehicle charging points and facilities to make cycling to work easier. “We really want local groups and businesses to take advantage of this scheme before it ends so we can help as many people as possible. It’s all done for you from end to end – all you have to do is fill in a simple application form with around seven questions and our helpful team are there to support you.” LAC Conveyer Systems benefitted from a grant of £5,000. Lauren Cassidy, Head of Business Support, said: “The Workplace Travel Service team helped LAC Conveyor Systems discover available options and provided expert advice that proved invaluable in our decision to foster a greener, more responsible business model. “Thanks to the grant, we were able to install several EV chargers at our workplace, which has enabled us to take another step towards sustainability. We are charging the way to a greener future, one charge at a time.”

Green growth activity in the East Midlands has fallen over the past year amid a cost-of-doing-business crisis – but has still more than doubled since 2015, new research shows. A joint annual study by East Midlands Chamber and Derby Business School at the University of Derby found the proportion of businesses across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire that have made any income from environmentally-friendly goods and services dropped from 45% in 2022 to 36% in 2023. Despite the drop, this still represents a significant increase on the 16% that reported they derived turnover from goods such as energy efficiency, waste recovery, and eco-food and drink products in 2015, as the business community has increasingly identified opportunities in the UK’s race to net zero. In the face of conflicting messages from central Government about the net zero agenda, there was also a decline in the number of businesses that believe the policy environment is conducive to engagement in the green agenda – falling from 17% to 13% over the past 12 months. Other key findings in the Green Growth Trends in the East Midlands 2023 study were a major distinction between large and micro businesses in pursuing green growth opportunities and investing in decarbonisation, while four in 10 businesses are not engaged at all in the low-carbon agenda. The unique research provides the evidence base that informs East Midlands Chamber’s Sustainable East Midlands initiative, which was launched in 2020 to support businesses in engaging with the green agenda. East Midlands Chamber director of policy and insight Chris Hobson said: “The drop-off in green growth engagement among East Midlands businesses over the past year can in part be attributed to the ongoing cost-of-doing-business crisis, in which firms have been hit by once-in-a-generation cost pressures across energy, fuel, raw materials and people. “But this year’s findings have also identified that fewer companies believe the current policy landscape allows them to fully engage with green growth, perhaps the result of mixed messaging from different parts of Government over recent months around the importance of net zero policy. “The big picture direction of travel, though, is clear. As net zero increasingly forms the bedrock of our national economic strategy the nearer we get to 2050, the more businesses will identify opportunities for growth that has a positive, rather than detrimental, impact on our environment. “This is why we called on the Government to ‘grow our competitiveness the right way’ as one of the three overarching themes in our regional economic blueprint, A Centre of Trading Excellence: A Business Manifesto for Growth in the East Midlands and Beyond. “Many barriers to engagement remain, however, so it is imperative our politicians understand that now is not the time to row back on the net zero and sustainability commitments we have made as a country. “Long-term planning allows firms to grow sustainably and create opportunities for the UK to be world leaders in the products and processes that will drive global growth for decades to come.” Other key findings from the research, which was based on responses from 368 businesses in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire as part of the Chamber’s Quarterly Economic Survey for Q2 2023, included: · 68% of large businesses report they are actively pursuing green growth opportunities, compared with 31% of micro, 51% of small and 50% of medium-sized companies · More than a third of organisations invested in decarbonisation initiatives over the past 12 months – increasing to seven in 10 among large companies, which lead the trend · Manufacturers are investing 1.5-times more in decarbonisation initiatives than services companies · There has been a three-fold increase in firms reporting up to half of their turnover is made from supplying green goods or services since 2015 · Four in 10 businesses have no turnover generated from green goods and services, a 5% increase from 2022 · The information gap is widening, with the proportion of respondents saying they did not feel well-informed about the support available for green growth rising from 33% to 36% in the past year · The largest demands for skills development are in the areas of energy efficiency, business strategy, resource efficiency, environmental strategy and waste management. Dr Polina Baranova, associate professor of strategy and sustainability at Derby Business School, co-authored the report with Dr Fred Paterson, the university’s lead for sustainable business and clean growth. She said: “This analysis could indicate that the green gains we experienced during the pandemic are starting to fizzle out and businesses are reverting to the conventional, non-green operations and strategies. “It illustrates the fragility of green growth in the face of economic adversities and how companies of different sizes and sectors are affected differently. “Net zero does not just make environmental sense, but good business sense, and we now need to see leadership from Government to reverse the slowdown in progress if the UK is to be at the forefront globally of the new green economy.”