Joseph Holman, founder of Green Doors, will be presented with the King’s Award for Sustainable Development by the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire at 2.30pm on April 29. In a symbolic nod to the firm’s origins, Holman will accept the honour from inside a skip.

Holman launched Green Doors 11 years ago after finding a set of unwanted doors in a skip and deciding to restore and resell them. Today, the company operates from a 25,000 sq ft warehouse in Bedfordshire, employs six staff — known internally as the “door doctors” — and generates around £2 million in annual revenue.

“I started with a set of doors I found in a skip,” Holman said. “Now I’m receiving an award from the King. Accepting it in a skip feels like the most honest way to tell that story.”

Holman met King Charles III at Windsor Castle in June as part of the awards programme.

“Everyone knows the King is passionate about the environment, so it was great to tell him about the work we’ve been doing,” he said. “The whole experience was surreal — Windsor Castle feels like a totally different world from our warehouse in Luton.”

Green Doors rescues discarded, mismeasured and surplus doors and windows, restoring them for resale to builders, renovators and homeowners. Last year alone, the company saved more than 3,000 items from landfill.

“Putting UPVC doors into landfill is dreadful — they release horrible toxins as they degrade,” Holman said. “We want every door and window to have a second life. This award will help us raise awareness of the issue.”

Holman said the rigorous application process for the King’s Award forced the business to “put everything under the microscope”, but the recognition has given the whole team “a tremendous boost”.

To mark the occasion, Green Doors will open its warehouse to the media for an exclusive tour, showcasing what it calls its “adorable” collection of reclaimed doors — including high‑security doors from the former US Embassy in London and historic pieces such as 14th‑century church doors.

Holman added: “Winning the King’s Award is huge for us, but it’s also about something bigger. Perfectly reusable doors and windows are being thrown away every day. We want to show that reuse works — and that waste doesn’t have to be waste.”