BUSINESS FOCUS on JPA Workspaces

Celebrating a King’s Award for Sustainable Development

Hot off the press, we are incredibly excited to share that JPA Workspaces have been honoured with one of the first King’s Awards for Enterprise. The King’s Awards (previously known as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise) recognise outstanding achievements by UK businesses and JPA are one of only 15 companies nationally to receive recognition in the Sustainable Development category.

“We are thrilled to receive The King’s Award 2023 for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category” says Richard Cooksey, CEO at JPA Workspaces. ”This has been a true team effort and it’s given us all a massive boost to receive this special recognition. We have a fantastic team that have worked for years with our clients and with our Head of Sustainability, Fiona Edwards, to embed sustainability into everything we do.”

Fiona Edwards, Head of Sustainability, is understandably over the moon “I’m simply delighted for our wonderful team and couldn’t be more proud. It’s a culmination of many years of development and our Dad would have loved this.”

Milestones

The King’s Award timing is perfect as JPA enter its 50th year of trading, another milestone in our development. We’ve tried to update and evolve over the generations to ensure we retain value and relevance, especially challenging after Covid which accelerated change on so many levels.

Post Covid, we identified 3 factors as crucial to the future success of our business, investing and preparing accordingly:

• Being ready for legislation in relation to Climate Change

• Meeting and evidencing client demands in relation to social and environmental issues

• Demonstrating clear business purpose and strategy to attract and retain the talent needed for growth.

During the last 18 months, we’ve built a leadership team with clear purpose, strategy, and supporting structure in place. Our vision has been updated, agreed and published – it is to be the “trusted expert designer and provider of sustainable workspaces which are better for people and the planet”.

Embracing Circularity

Our business model incorporates a mix of tangible products and intangible services jointly meeting the needs of clients and planet. It uses the same key building blocks of the Ellen MacArthur Circular Economy Framework (2010) i.e. product design, reverse logistics, cross-sector collaboration and crucially, customer acceptance which simply wasn’t there pre-Covid.

New Business from Evidenced Purpose

Evidenced Purpose has helped JPA to win new business and develop flourishing relationships through refurbishment works at Rothamsted Enterprises, BRE, Sky Studios, KMG, Moorfields Eye Hospital, CashPlus and The Herts Chamber – thank you for putting your faith in us.

#KeepingtheheartinHerts

We have embraced the Herts Chamber #KeeptheheartinHerts campaign, seeking new local partners to reduce supply chain length and impacts whilst also contributing to regional economies.

Hertfordshire networks and partnerships have provided invaluable sounding boards, ideas and support for which we are truly grateful. We have formed strong friendships through the Chamber #HertsGoGreenandGrow Group whilst Chamber Patronship has helped open doors and enabled us to integrate more smoothly in businesses and communities across the county #thankyou.

By Fiona Edwards, Head of Sustainability, JPA Workspaces

Purposeful Activity

We view our business as a force for good, committed to playing our part in developing solutions to some of society’s most pressing challenges within our sphere of operation. Reporting against the Triple Bottom Line framework is embedded into every activity and we are proud to have just completed our first ESG review for 2022.

Against a backdrop of climate change, biodiversity loss and rapidly diminishing finite resources, JPA joined the Race to Zero on 27th April 2022, pledging to Net Zero by 2040, publishing scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and an externally audited carbon-reduction plan.

STEVE FINLAN Chief Executive Officer The Wine Society