Category Description
This award is open to innovative programmes and projects that ‘set new standards in environmentally positive business practices’. Regardless of what service you offer, this award is focused on how you carry out your business and what steps you take to actively reduce your negative environmental impact as far as practically possible, while at the same time enhance your positive contribution to environmental sustainability. Extra weight will be given to those demonstrating true sustainable innovation in how they carry out their core activities.
The award will recognise organisations that push the boundaries in an effort to reduce their general ecological footprint and enhance their environmental sustainability. Initiatives will be rewarded for addressing carbon, water and general ecological footprinting as well addressing wider concerns around food and waste generally
The judges will specifically be looking for evidence of: verifiable reductions in your negative impacts; whether they be measured in carbon emissions reductions, water saved, food waste reductions and/or waste generation reductions. These can be achieved through a variety of approaches to reducing overall ecological footprint; the degree of innovation in delivering the initiatives, pushing the envelope to achieve industry best practice; the use of awareness raising to promote efforts amongst staff; integrating employee behaviours and transformative thinking to the wider stakeholder community; and the extent to which the entry is one of a number of activities by the organisation to reduce its environmental impacts.
The judges will also give credit for evidence of positive, value adding results that make innovative use of otherwise wasted resources, through, for example, the use of a previously regarded waste product into a new useful product.
The timeframe for this award is programmes and projects undertaken between 2014-2016 or ongoing.
Criteria
Judges will be looking for evidence of the following points within the supplied application form (weighting percentages in brackets):
- The organisation’s commitment to reducing their environmental impacts demonstrating true innovation and leading the way in creative solutions to reduce waste in all its forms; (25%)
- The measured effectiveness of the project and the verifiable impacts on the organisations use of water, materials, energy, production of waste and overall carbon emissions; (25%)
- Whether the project/programme has led to financial benefits; (10%)
- Awareness raising of the project to promote the scheme for all employees and to engage their support for environmental improvements in workplace practices; (15%)
- The wider organisational efforts towards a radical reduction of environmental impacts of the business practices and it’s support by senior management and the Board of Directors. (25%)