Winners

Founded as The Wool Packaging Company in 2009, Woolcool is a pioneering, second generation family business in Staffordshire that harnesses the properties of natural materials to create environmentally responsible products – and which has been awarded a coveted 2022 Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development.

Woolcool has spent almost two decades investing significant time, resource and money in its technology, researching and developing sustainable temperature-controlled packaging products for the food and pharmaceutical markets. Woolcool insulated packaging solutions use a grade of 100% pure sheep’s wool that might otherwise have gone to waste, as an alternative to polluting manmade insulation such as polystyrene.

This innovative use of wool – which is recyclable, reusable, renewable, compostable, abundant, and part of the natural carbon cycle, helps avoid tonnes of toxic polystyrene from going into landfill sites across the globe.

The honour is the second to be won by the company, which received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation in 2018. Managing Director Josie Morris MBE said: “It is a huge honour to receive a second Queen’s Award for Enterprise, this time for Sustainable Development. This prestigious award helps drive home the message that using natural materials offers a truly sustainable alternative for businesses that want to seriously address the climate challenges we all face.”

“Following the challenges of the last two years, this award reflects the hard work and resilience of the entire Woolcool team, as well as our valued wider family of suppliers, clients, customers and friends.”

Customers such as Morrisons, Abel & Cole and Fortnum & Mason use Woolcool to ensure chilled food deliveries arrive in perfect condition, while pharmaceutical and clinical clients Certus, Quantum, Well Pharmacy and Baxter Healthcare trust the firm’s years of R&D with British Universities to deliver lifesaving medical supplies within vital temperature ranges.

CEO & Founder Angela Morris added: “As a company founded on ecological principles, we are so proud to have achieved the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development. Now, after almost two decades of serious academic research and design innovation using natural materials, this award acknowledges both the pioneering position we took many years ago and the results we have achieved since.”