Category Description
This category will reward organisations that have shown innovation and creativity in reducing and minimising waste across all key aspects of their activities – notably materials, water, food and energy.
It will recognise achievements in ‘Scope 1’ – covering the organisation’s own ‘in-house’ activities; ‘Scope 2’ – those of its supply chain; and ‘Scope 3’ – the impact of its work and products ‘in use’, including among its customers.
It will reward the development and successful application of a comprehensive waste reduction strategy, where it can be shown both to have achieved measurable practical results, and to have laid the ground for further reductions. Specifically, judges will look for evidence (eg, volumes and percentages) of waste avoided, reduced, re-used, etc.
The award will recognise organisations that have adopted and implemented a thorough going ‘zero waste’ policy, either across a significant part of their operations or across the entity as a whole. The winner will be well-placed to inspire others to learn from its experience in tackling their own waste challenges.
Time Frame: Entries should focus primarily on activity from the past four years and must be ongoing. Earlier work may be included to provide historical context or demonstrate the development of the waste reduction practices.
We request a total word count of 1500 words +/-10% (excl. supporting docs). Any confidential data will be treated as such and only shared with the judging panel.
Criteria
Judges will be looking for evidence of the following points within the supplied application form and reserve the right to award multiple awards for different styles of initiative (weighting percentages in brackets):
- Adoption and implementation of a zero-waste (or close to zero-waste) policy and goals, with progress made to date and ‘SMART’ targets for the future (25%)
- Measurable achievements in waste avoidance, reduction and reuse/ repurposing, over defined time periods, across whole value chain (35%)
- Development of a ‘zero waste’ culture: how employees are engaged, trained and focused on waste reduction (20%)
- Successful engagement of suppliers, customers, end-users, and other stakeholders (20%)
PLEASE NOTE: The criteria listed above are used by judges to evaluate entries. However, you will complete a separate application form with specific questions.
When writing your entry, follow the application form questions while ensuring you address all the criteria listed above. This allows judges to assess all entries consistently.
Accessing the questions: Register or log in to AwardStage (opens 2 February), select your category, and download the PDF of questions. Application questions vary by category and will be available four weeks before entries open. To receive them in advance, please email us.
Are we eligible to enter?
Our awards programme is open to all organisations of any kind… companies large and small, charities, not-for-profits, social enterprises, NGOs, membership and accreditation organisations and government departments including local and county councils. We are all about rewarding sustainability practice – in all its forms. So if your organisation is making a difference, directly or indirectly to people and planet, you’re eligible.
We don’t just recognise businesses that are operating responsibly, or supporting / partnering with worthwhile causes. We also actively encourage entries from organisations that have been specifically set up or adapted to offer a product or service that tackles a social or environmental problem.
Our category descriptions and criteria have been written to guide entrants on what content should be detailed in their entries. However, we do not expect square pegs to fit in round holes… Some of your business activities or dedicated programmes might not fit entirely with any one specific category. In these cases, the descriptions and criteria are open to an element of interpretation and rest assured that our judges will still take into account entries that are strongly aligned with the overall context of the category.
If you have any concerns about the suitability of your entry, or would like to discuss your activities in more detail, we are here to help. Give Karen a call on 07813 718541 or email us.