Ceteris celebrates double success at Clacks Business Awards

Ceteris is celebrating a double success at the Clacks Business Awards 2018 with awards in both the Success through Sustainability and Apprentice categories.

Our strategy for Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibilities, including our commitment to sustainability in all our activities helped us jointly win the Success through Sustainability award alongside SV24-7 Vending.

Congratulations are also due to Sophie Fraser, Modern Apprentice Receptionist at the Alloa Business Centre who received a Commendation in the Apprentice Award.

Margaret Mary Rafferty, Managing Director of Ceteris said. “I am absolutely delighted by this double recognition for our hard-working staff.  It was fantastic to see our extensive environmental and energy saving work, led by our Green Team, recognised as joint winners of the Success through Sustainability Award.  In addition, Sophie’s Commendation in the Apprentice Award is a fabulous and well-deserved reflection on her development over the last year”

“I would also like to congratulate all the winners and nominees honoured at the Clacks Business Awards 2018”.

Ceteris’ Success Through Sustainability

Our commitment to environmental sustainability and reducing environmental impact is central to our business strategy. With over 150 tenant businesses (employing almost 1,000 employees) accommodated in our property portfolio, we take seriously our responsibility as landlord to deliver and manage, good quality, sustainable, environmentally friendly buildings

As a business, we aim to integrate the consideration of environmental concerns and impacts into our decision making and, as our decisions impact on so many tenant companies and office locations, it is vital that we stick to our strategic goals:

  • Reduce waste
  • Promote efficient use of materials and resources
  • Purchase and use environmentally responsible products
  • Control usage of energy
  • Continually review and improve our purchasing and operating practices 

Over a sustained period we have made significant improvements including the following:

  • Replaced over 1,200 inefficient florescent internal light fittings with energy efficient 35w LED panels, taking a holistic view to this lighting replacement we removed 359 units and saved a total of 59.9 CO²
  • Replaced over 100 expensive, SON external lights with LED lights at all sites to improve efficiencies and security.  Saving 1 CO²
  • Installed an electrical car charger at The e-Centre
  • Introduced motion sensors in toilets, kitchens and offices
  • Invested in staff training via Resource Efficiency Scotland
  • Introduced recycling bins to all the common areas of our shared buildings
  • Energy efficient hand dryers replacing paper towels
  • Inefficient kettles replaced with small, energy efficient, timed boilers
  • Cavity and roof insulation improvements
  • Introduced a spray mopping system saving over 11,000 litres of water per year

As a result of these measures we have achieved substantial and continued energy consumption savings over the past four years, reducing our energy consumption by 14% between 2014 to 2018.

In addition to this, due to our recycling initiative we achieved a 55% decrease in our annual waste to landfill from serviced offices.

In 2017 both the Alloa Business Centre and Cooperage Way Business Village were awarded Gold Level accreditation from Keep Scotland Beautiful National Awards for Environmental Excellence whilst, in recognition of our commitment to the environment, we were finalists in The 2017 VIBES – Scottish Environment Business Awards.

The Success through Sustainability award from the Clacks Business Awards further cements Ceteris’ place as an environmental issues leader within the Clackmannanshire business community.

Sophie Fraser

Sophie Fraser joined Ceteris in Autumn 2017 as Modern Apprenticeship Receptionist, based at the Alloa Business Centre.

Over the last year, she has developed key skills, matured immensely and grown into her role to the point where she is no longer looked on as the Apprentice, but simply one of the team.

Sophie carries out many of day-to-day duties associated with an efficiently operating business centre reception:

  • Dealing with all enquiries in a professional and courteous manner
  • Operating a constantly ringing, modern and sophisticated telephone system containing hundreds of lines
  • Providing admin and postage services to tenants and visitors 
  • Assisting in keeping the reception areas and meeting rooms tidy at all times 
  • Accurate recording of finance data relating to office charges 
  • Providing cover for other Reception services staff at other sites owned and operated by Ceteris 

However she has coped so well with these initial duties that she has now moved onto be trusted with additional duties, assisting with a number of essential activities key to the smooth running of the Business Centre.

These activities have a direct impact on the health and safety of all tenants and staff within this sprawling location and include but are not limited to:

  • EMERGENCY PROCEDURES – Assisting with complete building evacuations, in case of emergency, acting as the first point of contact for both tenants and the Emergency Services  
  • BUILDING MAINTENANCE – Reporting of any maintenance issues and/or building damage and faults immediately to the Property Department Help Desk
  • HEALTH & SAFETY OF OTHERS – Ensure policies & procedures are followed for the safety of others, including assisting with Health & Safety Risk Assessments and Fire Risk Assessments in line with the Ceteris Health and Safety Policy 
  • EVENT MANAGEMENT – The attentive and courteous management of visitors, meetings and conferences across the 7 available meeting rooms in the Business Centre from booking and organisation to service and conclusion.

None of these additional duties with high levels of responsibility have fazed Sophie at all and she continually exceeds expectations when working on new projects.

Ceteris views Education as a key part of staff development and Sophie’s Modern Apprenticeship role is no different. She has shone brightly in this regard, completing and passing her SVQ Level 3 in Business and Administration in only three months when a 12 month passage to completion is closer to expectations!

The young lady that Sophie has become today is a supercharged, mature, self-assured version of the just out-of-school girl who joined us a year ago. The significant improvement is there for all to see and we are all so proud of her.