Highly Commended: Your Eco's Amanda Spicer Recognised as Entrepreneur of the Year

We're absolutely thrilled to announce that our co-founder Amanda Spicer has been named Highly Commended in the Entrepreneur of the Year category at the 2025 BusinessGreen Women in Green Business Awards.

This national recognition celebrates women who have successfully founded and led early-stage green businesses, demonstrating effective business leadership, entrepreneurial nous, and a track record of building pioneering organisations whilst overcoming the challenges that come with scaling a start-up.

In a word? We're buzzing.

What This Award Represents

The Women in Green Business Awards are the UK's premier celebration of female talent driving the net zero transition. With hundreds of nominations across individual, sector-based, and company categories, being recognised at this level is both humbling and energising.

The Entrepreneur of the Year category specifically honours women who have not only built successful green businesses but have also worked to make their organisations more inclusive and supported the career development of colleagues and peers. It's about business excellence and creating environments where diverse talent can thrive.

For Amanda—and for all of us at Your Eco—this recognition validates the journey we've been on: from a bold idea to a £6 million turnover business delivering 30+ megawatts of solar installations across the UK and beyond.

From Start-Up to Scale-Up: The Your Eco Journey

Nine years ago, Your Eco was founded on a simple but ambitious mission: working towards an energy-independent, low-carbon future. What started as a vision has grown into a team of 25 in-house employees, 40 trusted subcontractors, and a portfolio that spans from NHS hospitals to National Trust headquarters, from marinas to quarries, and from the British Virgin Islands to the Himalayas.

Building a business in the renewable energy sector isn't for the faint-hearted. Early-stage challenges included navigating complex regulatory frameworks, securing working capital (we need £300,000 to cover three months' overhead from project start to final payment), building credibility in a competitive market, and scaling operations whilst maintaining the rigorous standards our ISO certifications and B Corp status demand.

But entrepreneurship has never been about avoiding challenges—it's about solving them creatively, persistently, and with a team that shares your vision.

Leading with Purpose and Profit

What sets Your Eco apart isn't just the megawatts we install or the carbon we offset. It's the way we've built the business: rooted in our Planet, People, Profit principles, committed to real living wages for all staff, maintaining sub-5% staff turnover, and donating 1.5% of every project value to our Reduce Our Carbon charitable foundation.

Amanda's leadership has been instrumental in shaping this approach. From securing our Certified B Corp™ status to achieving ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001 certifications, from building partnerships with global leaders like SolarEdge (we're one of only five Platinum Enterprise Partners in the UK) to fostering a culture of continuous improvement through Kaizen principles—every decision has been guided by a commitment to doing business better.

And yes, that includes championing diversity and inclusion. With women in senior leadership roles, comprehensive family policies, and a workplace culture that values collaboration over hierarchy, we're proud to be building a business that reflects the future we want to see.

The Power of Recognition

Awards like this matter—not because they define us, but because they amplify the message that green entrepreneurship is thriving in the UK. They shine a spotlight on the women leading the charge towards net zero, the businesses proving that sustainability and profitability aren't mutually exclusive, and the innovations that will shape our energy future.

Being named Highly Commended alongside such impressive finalists—including winner Diane Gilpin and fellow nominee Anna-Maria Kypraiou—is an honour that reminds us we're part of something much bigger than one company or one project. We're part of a movement.

What's Next?

This recognition is a milestone, not a finish line. With a commercial pipeline of over 11 MW, expansion plans across the UK, and ongoing international projects, the next chapter of Your Eco's story is just beginning.

We're committed to scaling our impact—more megawatts installed, more carbon offset, more communities empowered with clean energy, and more proof that businesses can be a force for good whilst delivering strong financial returns.

And we're committed to continuing the work that earned this recognition: building an inclusive, innovative, purpose-driven organisation where talented people can do the best work of their careers.

Thank You

To BusinessGreen and the judges: thank you for recognising the work we're doing and for championing women in the green economy. Your platform matters, and we're honoured to be part of this year's celebration.

To our team: this award belongs to all of you. Every site operative, project manager, coordinator, and director who shows up every day to deliver excellence—this is your win as much as it is Amanda's.

To our clients, partners, and supporters: your trust in us makes everything possible—you've given us the opportunity to prove what's possible when ambition meets execution.

And to Amanda: congratulations. Your vision, resilience, and leadership have built something extraordinary. Here's to the next nine years—and beyond.

Highly Commended. Highly motivated. And just getting started.

View the full list of 2025 winners at the BusinessGreen Women in Green Business Awards.