Category Description
This award is designed for projects, schemes or other initiatives delivering co-benefits; ones which succeed in both tackling climate change and at the same time delivering real benefits to people, planet and communities. These could include improvements in quality of life, poverty alleviation, health, income generation and jobs, or wider environmental improvements: benefits which reach more widely, in other words, than direct emissions reductions.
Delivering such ‘co-benefits’ can help win wider support for climate action. So the judges will be particularly interested in initiatives which bring tangible benefits to local people and communities, especially those not typically engaged or even interested in carbon reduction initiatives: benefits which reach those beyond the environmentalist ‘bubble’, in other words.
Successful entrants could include collaborations and partnerships between organisations – whether commercial, non-profit or governmental – including those whose main focus is outside the climate / environmental sphere.
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 (weighting percentages in brackets):
- Details of the initiative and how it drives specific climate benefits, with quantifiable data on emissions reductions it can achieve (30%)
- Details of the ‘co-benefits’ (beyond climate) which it delivers – including who / what are the beneficiaries, and the exact nature of those benefits, including quantifiable data wherever relevant (30%)
- Awareness raising and promotion: what methods have been used to reach people who will be the wider beneficiaries and secure their buy-in; how effective have they been and how extensive is their reach? (20%)
- Replicability and scalability: what’s the potential for the initiative, or other similar ones, to scale up and/or be implemented more widely. Is it seen as a positive example for others to follow? Is there evidence of this underway? (20%)
PLEASE NOTE: The criteria above are different to the questions in the application form. You will need to follow the application questions; cross-referencing these with the criteria to ensure you’ve captured them within your application. The criteria are followed by the judges in order to compare all entries in each category like-for-like, Please ensure you register / login to AwardStage (Opens 1st Feb), select the category and export a PDF copy of the questions. Some category application questions differ. The application questions will be available four weeks before entries open, so if you wish to get them ahead of time 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.