CLEAN wins double Silver at the 2026 Commonwealth Environment & CSR Awards

The awards are organised by The Green Organisation, an independent non-profit environmental group founded in 1994, in partnership with Global Diaspora Village. This year's programme runs in parallel with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the awards are presented as medals rather than trophies, with winners placed as Commonwealth Champion, Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Commended. Entries came in from organisations right across the Commonwealth.

What matters more than the medal is what the judges were looking at. Both entries had to show evidence of what had already been done and what it changed, rather than a statement of intent or a target for 2030. Here is what went into each one.

The carbon reduction entry

The central figure is a 25% cut in CO2 emissions against a 2019 baseline, with emissions validated at each site rather than estimated across the group. That number is the sum of a lot of unglamorous work, and the entry sets out the main pieces of it.

Solar PV has been installed at sites across the business, cutting the amount of grid electricity needed to run the wash floor. Route optimisation has reduced the miles our vehicles cover to make the same deliveries, thereby reducing emissions and fuel costs. On packaging, cardboard use has been halved, and the products used for processing and packaging are now 100% recyclable, with plastic reduction projects running alongside that.

Behind all of it sits the reporting. Our Sustainable 7 Strategy and the CLEAN Sustainability Matrix, a framework we developed ourselves, govern how ESG performance is measured and reported, and the annual ESG report puts the numbers in the public domain. We also hold an EcoVadis Silver rating, which places us in the top 15% of assessed companies globally, and ISO 14001 certification for environmental management.

The community engagement entry

The second entry covered the social side of the same programme. Our Silver Lining Programme raises money for causes our colleagues choose, including a donation to Every Cloud Play and Creative Arts Therapy CIC, which funds mental health support for children. We are also the Official Clean Sheet Sponsor of Cheltenham Town FC, and our in-house Driver Academy brings people into HGV driving careers who would otherwise struggle to get a start.

Sustainability work at CLEAN is coordinated centrally, but almost none of it is carried out there. Route changes are made by transport teams who know their patch. Waste reduction happens on the production floor. Fundraising happens because someone at a site organises it. Both submissions leaned on evidence gathered from colleagues across every site, and the recognition belongs to them.

What an award like this is worth to a customer

Most award announcements in our industry stop at the trophy. This one is worth a little more of your time if you buy linen or workwear services, because of where the evidence ends up.

If you run a hotel group, a food production site or a manufacturing business, your own reporting almost certainly reaches into your supply chain. Scope 3 emissions include the services you buy. Supplier ESG questionnaires ask what your providers are doing and how they prove it. Tender documents increasingly want a social value response with something behind it. Answering those questions is far easier when your laundry provider has independently assessed figures, a published ESG report and a validated site by site emissions position, rather than a page of green wording on a website.

That is the practical use of an award judged on evidence. It gives you something to check and point at.

Chris Bell on the awards

Chris Bell, Director of Safety & Sustainability, said:

"Silver in both CSR Community Engagement and CSR Carbon Reduction reflects the work colleagues have put in across the business, from route planning to waste reduction to the fundraising our sites organise themselves. We are proud of it. We are also clear that a 25% cut against 2019 is a position to build on rather than a finish line, and the next round of work is about the sites and vehicles where reductions are hardest to find."

What happens next

Winners of the Commonwealth Environment & CSR Awards progress automatically into either the International Green Apple Environment Awards or the International CSR Excellence Awards, with ceremonies held at the Houses of Parliament and St Paul's Cathedral in London. CLEAN has been recognised at the Green Apple Awards before, with Gold in 2015 and Bronze in 2017.

Our thanks go to The Green Organisation and the judging panel, and congratulations to the other winners across the Commonwealth.

The work carries on either way. Emissions reporting continues site by site; the next ESG report is in preparation, and the projects that produced these results are still running.

If you would like to see the detail behind the figures, our latest ESG report is available on the sustainability section of our website. To talk about what our reporting could support in your own supply chain returns, call 0330 818 7008 or visit https://www.cleanservices.co.uk/about/sustainability