Luxury care home group, Oakland Care, has celebrated being honoured with a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development.
At a ceremony at its head office at Lambwood Heights care home on Lambourne Road, Chief Executive Officer Joanne Balmer (BME) was presented with the award by HM Lord Lieutenant for Essex, Jennifer Tolhurst, in front of residents, staff, families and invited guests.
The King’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK, celebrating outstanding achievement in areas including innovation, sustainable development and social mobility. Oakland Care has been recognised for its long-standing commitment to sustainability, with environmentally responsible practices embedded across all aspects of its operations, from energy use and waste reduction to sustainable building design and biodiversity initiatives.
It became the first and only UK care home group to achieve carbon neutral certification back in 2021, a status they have retained for five consecutive years. Earlier this year, it opened Harpenden Springs in Hertfordshire, the businesses ‘greenest’ development to date, and one of the UK’s most environmentally friendly care homes.
Since 2023, teams from Lambwood Heights and its sister home in Loughton, Woodland Grove, have dedicated hundreds of hours of voluntary work to plant thousands of trees as part of local sustainability projects and community programmes across Essex, initiatives echoed by teams at Oakland Care’s other homes across London and the southeast. Lambwood Heights also won the Climate Action Net Zero Award in the Essex Care Sector Awards. The 73-bedroomed home, like all of Oakland Care’s properties, has its own wildlife garden to encourage biodiversity as well provide residents with a stimulating sensory environment.
The presentation was appropriately made during Oakland Care’s ‘Green Month’ in which its 12 homes run events and activities with an environmentally sustainable focus.
Joanne Balmer, Chief Executive Officer at Oakland Care, received The King’s Award at Lambwood Heights on Wednesday 9th September.
“This was a celebration not just for Oakland Care as a group but for the teams that bring our sustainable goals to life for their residents and their communities. It really matters to us that while caring for the needs of people today, we’re also building a positive future for the towns our homes are part of.
“We were proud to accept the award but the event was also an opportunity to recognise the efforts of our ‘green champions’. They drive our vision forward at each of our homes and enable our residents to play an active role so that they too feel empowered to make a difference.”
