Carillion has won the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Year Award at the Construction Week Awards 2011. The winners were announced at a gala awards banquet held at the Westin in Dubai last night.

The UK contractor, whch also won the award last year with Al Futtaim, launched its 2020 CSR strategy during its Sustainability Week 2011, which saw presentations and toolbox talks delivered to over 12,000 people, over 50,000km saved by people sharing transport and over 4,000 hours spent involved in community engagement activities.

"It's been a great result for us. What we're doing here is part of the wider strategy of the company in terms of community engagement and the CSR plan is in line with our 2020 strategy," said Stuart Mee, head of sustainability at Carillion.

The Carillion approach is that, no matter where the project is, we're thinking about the community around us and the environment. So the outlook is reflected in all partsd of Carillion."

He added that a contractor's drive to implement good CSR strategies was now a greater differentiator in the Gulf. "I think it's becoming more important on projects, particularly with initiatives such as Estidama - so it's great to be recognised. Being environmental is good for communities and it's good for business."

Al Fara’a Integrated Construction, also nominated in the category, was highly commended “for harnessing the collective capacity of a major group to meet the needs of its diverse stakeholders.”