Beach Buddies has won an award for its ’outstanding sustainable best practice project’ from the Energy Globe organisation, based in Austria.

The organisation, which has 187 member countries, annually makes awards around the world to innovative projects that are setting worldwide examples in protecting the environment.

The organisers said: ’The aim of the annual awards programme is to present successful sustainable projects to a broad audience, in particular projects which conserve and protect resources or that employ renewable energy.’

Around 800 projects and initiatives from all over the world are submitted annually to compete for the Energy Globe awards which were founded in 1999 by the Austrian energy pioneer Wolfgang Neumann.

Beach Buddies’ founder Bill Dale said: ’We were approached around a year ago to submit an entry, as we had been anonymously nominated to the Energy Globe organisation.

’This is a real honour for Beach Buddies and the Isle of Man, and another endorsement for what our thousands of volunteers have achieved in recent years.

’The best thing of all is that this shows the world really is watching what is happening in the Isle of Man, and that we should all be aware that everyone is taking notice of what we are all doing as a community in our efforts to protect the environment.’