With a week until Suffolk’s annual celebration of environmental achievements by a host of individuals and businesses in the county, John Grant looks ahead to the big day

East Anglian Daily Times: Ipswich artist Anita Honeyball, of Honeypie Handmade, with some of the trophies she has made from recycled glass for this years Suffolk Creating the Greenest County Awards.Ipswich artist Anita Honeyball, of Honeypie Handmade, with some of the trophies she has made from recycled glass for this years Suffolk Creating the Greenest County Awards.

We will have to wait until Wednesday week to find out who the winners are in 2015’s Suffolk Creating the Greenest County Awards - but whoever they are they are in for a real treat.

For they will be carrying away with them attractive trophies that are fine examples of the ethos of the awards scheme that has become affectionately known as Suffolk’s “green Oscars”.

Ipswich-based artist Anita Honeyball, who now works under her new Honeypie Handmade banner, has again produced the works of art that will be presented in recognition of a wealth of achievements in the environmental field.

Anita’s commission represents her fourth year of supporting the awards and she has again used her signature raw material - recycled glass - in the creation of the ‘gongs’.

She said her design this year was a “broad representation” of the awards’ current logo, which depicts a barn owl, a rabbit and striking pine trees in a sweep of Suffolk countryside.

“The logo is a complex image and my design represents the feel of it without actually having all its elements in it,” she said.

East Anglian Daily Times: Greenest County AwardsGreenest County Awards (Image: Archant)

“I was very proud to have been asked to create the trophies again this year - the awards are very close to my heart - and I am very proud of how they have turned out. I have had a good response so far from the people who have seen them and I hope everyone at the ceremony likes them.

“I try to live as green a life as possible and all the glass I use is recycled - I even flush a loo with rain water that we collect, so we are doing our best to be green,” said Anita.

She uses glass from sources such as car windscreens, old shelving, double-glazing and patio doors in her work, and she said staff at Crown Glass, in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, were “especially helpful” when it came to replenishing her supplies.

The trophies had been produced using a method known as glass fusion, which entailed firing in her kiln to a temperature of 800C.

Each trophy’s wooden base had been crafted by people attending a Genesis Orwell Mencap day centre in Ipswich, she said.

Anita has recently increased the scope of her business to include wood and ceramic work, as well as her popular recycled glass creations.

Earlier this year she entered an agreement with the Arts Lounge gallery in Swaffham under which her work is displayed and sold there. Other outlets include the annual Suffolk Open Studios event and she is a regular participant at the annual Art on the Prom event in Felixstowe each September.

She runs creative workshops for “beginners and improvers” at her Ipswich home and also leads workshops for Genesis Orwell Mencap.

Anita’s trophies will represent one of the key elements of the Suffolk Creating the Greenest County Awards ceremony at Snape Maltings on April 15.

In the awards scheme, the Creating the Greenest County movement is in partnership with Anglian Water and a host of other sponsors to make the event self-funding,

The main guest speaker at the ceremony will be naturalist, TV broadcaster, author and wildlife campaigner Chris Packham.

A frequent visitor to Suffolk over many years since early boyhood birdwatching forays from his native Hampshire, Packham is scheduled to resume co-presenting the BBC’s popular Springwatch programme for a second season from RSPB Minsmere just a few weeks after the Snape event.

Anita Honeyball can be contacted by email or visit her website

Entries in the running for the top honours on April 15

For each of the 12 categories decided by the awards’ judging panels, the shorlisted entries are:

Climate Adaptation - sponsored by Anglian Water: Aponic Ltd, sustainable food growing systems, of Waldingfield, near Sudbury, and Waldringfield Flood Defence Group.

Green Hero - sponsored by TA Hotel Collection: Student Anna Gretton and Leonard Woolf, of Ipswich.

Greenest Building - sponsored by Greenright Homes: Grove Primary School, Carlton Colville, and Mary Day Close, Coddenham.

Greenest Business - sponsored by Invest in Suffolk: East of England Co-op and Newton Commercial, Leiston.

Greenest Micro Business - sponsored by Flow Energy: Alder Tree, of Alder Carr Farm, near Needham Market, and Suffolk-based recruitment agency People with Energy.

Greenest Community Project – sponsored by Mosscliff Environmental: Bures Transition Group and Eden-Rose Coppice Trust, Sudbury.

Greenest Product or Service - sponsored by Barnes Construction: Barbecube, based at Alder Carr Farm, near Needham Market, and Flow Energy, of Ipswich.

Landscape and Biodiversity - in association with Aldeburgh Music: Suffolk Bat Group and Suffolk Community Barn Owl Project.

Local Food and Drink - sponsored by East of England Co-op: Castle Partnership Academy Trust, Haverhill, and Growing Places fruit and vegetable social enterprise.

Renewable Energy - sponsored by Suffolk One: Debenham Sports and Leisure and Kelsale-cum-Carlton Energy.

Sustainable Tourism – sponsored by the East Anglian Daily Times: Folk East and Ivy Grange Farm, Westhall, near Halesworth.

Waste and Recycling – sponsored by SITA: CPW Computing Ltd, Needham Market, and Greener Fram, of Framlingham.

Still neck-and-neck in awards’ Greenest School category - with the public choosing the champion

Your vote could help crown Suffolk’s greenest school.

The public is being asked to choose the winner from a shortlist of three schools in the running for the title in the Suffolk Creating the Greenest County Awards.

By this week, a grand total of more than 1,700 votes had been cast.

Awards organisers say the three schools have been “swapping places” regularly, with the number of votes separating them said to be extremely small.

The award recognises any educational establishment that is making efforts to increase pupil and staff awareness and taking action to improve environmental performance.

In the running are Saxmundham Primary School, Creeting St Mary CEVP Primary School and Copleston High School, Ipswich.

The Saxmundham school has 280 pupils and in its entry for the award it was described as “a community of people who care for one another and the environment – we do all that we can to keep our school and town clean and tidy and to save resources and energy”.

Copleston High School has 1,477 pupils aged 11-16 and 337 sixth-formers.

It said in its entry: “Our school’s aim is to enable students to be successful academically and socially in a warm and caring environment.”

Copleston’s Garden Project, now in its third year, featured strongly in the school’s entry. It “allows students to have the chance to extend their personal horizons through a greater appreciation and understanding of the world and people around them”.

The Creeting St Mary school, with 75 pupils, said it was a “small, close-knit village Church of England primary school” that encourages the “school community to care for each other and the world around us”. It added: “We know that by educating the whole child, not only can they fulfil their potential academically but they can also become a well-rounded citizen.”

Voting closes on April 12. To vote for one of the schools, and to view short films featuring them, visit greensuffolk.org/awards2015/thepublicvote