Community wind farm charity Point and Sandwick Trust are celebrating after winning the title of UK Environmental Social Enterprise of the Year at the UK Social Enterprise Awards last night (Wed, Nov 28).
Wind farm developer Calum MacDonald picked up the award at the glittering event in the beautiful Guildhall in London and admitted he was “very surprised” but “delighted” to have won. It is Point and Sandwick Trust’s second award this month, their third this year, and their fourth so far.
They were automatically shortlisted for the UK Environmental Social Enterprise Award after winning in that category at the Scottish Social Enterprise Awards, held in the Scottish Parliament on November 6.
The award recognises the innovation and success of Point and Sandwick Trust in operating a commercial business for social good. And the economic power of social enterprise was made clear at the awards ceremony with the revelation that social enterprise companies in Britain pay more tax than Amazon, Google and Facebook combined.
The Environmental Social Enterprise award was the first category to be announced and Calum admitted he was “very surprised” to hear Point and Sandwick Trust’s name called out.
But he added: “I’m delighted. Really delighted. It’s a great testament that the achievements of Point and Sandwick Trust are being recognised across the UK now.
“I think it’s a great encouragement for all these other communities that want to develop their own community wind farm schemes. Also, it’s a recognition of the achievements of all the community-owned companies in the Western Isles. We have the biggest community-owned scheme in the whole of Britain and it’s just so sad that the council and others do not recognise the strength of these community schemes from Barra up to Ness.”
The community wind farm organisation, which runs the Beinn Ghrideag wind farm near Stornoway with the sole aim of ploughing all the profits back into the community, had also been shortlisted in the category of Social Enterprise of the Year.
The month’s two awards from the social enterprise sector follow previous ones from the renewables and charities sectors.
Beinn Ghrideag is the largest community-owned wind farm in the UK in terms of output, with its three turbines generating a total of 9MW, and in 2015 it was named ‘Best Community Project’ at the Scottish Green Energy Awards.
Then, in June this year, Point and Sandwick Trust won the the ‘Celebrating Communities’ trophy at the Scottish Charity Awards.
The fact that last night’s awards ceremony was held in the beautiful Guildhall had extra meaning, too – as it was here that Calum MacDonald had secured the finance to build Beinn Ghrideag.
