Category Description
This Award is for any organisation involved in the commercial financing of purpose-driven sustainability, whether in the form of loans, investments or other financial mechanisms (but not including philanthropic or charitable work).
The activities may have been initiated at any time, but the judges will predominantly focus on progress during 2020-2023. The winning company will be one which has leveraged its financial power to effect significant impact, bringing more sustainable initiatives, projects or businesses to life and / or helping them expand and go to scale.
It will prove that it is possible to achieve financial success by acting on sustainable, ethical principles, and so be an example for others to follow.
Judges will expect to see measurable outcomes and impacts, in both financial and sustainability terms, as well as clear commitments to future progress. Specifically, they will be looking for real leadership in environmental performance, in social best practice and in good governance. Innovative mechanisms and approaches which have succeeded in unlocking new sustainable sources of finance will be welcomed.
While judges will not necessarily expect every single aspect of the company’s business to be wholly sustainable at present, they will expect evidence of a clear transition in that direction underway, with the core business increasingly guided and shaped by sustainability principles.
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):
- Possession of a set of clear criteria for making decisions on commercial financing which have meaningful sustainability principles at their heart. These could govern both loans and investments, and stipulate any sectors or activities which would either not attract financing at all, or require specific sustainability conditions to be met before unlocking it.(15%)
- Evidence that such financing has enabled or accelerated really significant practical progress in purpose-driven sustainability, including but not restricted to sustainable energy, industry, agriculture, transport, circular economy breakthroughs, and wider ethical progress. (30%)
- Evidence that such progress is also financially sustainable – proving that enabling a more sustainable economy can be financially as well as ethically sound. Judges will be looking for evidence of the ongoing viability of the business or activity financed, and its ability to flourish, go to scale, and influence progress in its sector. (30%)
- Evidence of game changing innovation in sustainability financing: the deployment of fresh thinking, new approaches and mechanisms which can drive change faster and take it further than traditional methods, and which can be adopted by others in the field to scale such change. This can include new or modified forms of financing (whether in loans, investments, bonds, crowdfunding, etc) and new approaches to active engagement with the business or activity enabled by the financing. (15%)
- Evidence that the company is playing an active and successful role in influencing others in the finance sector to adopt a more purposeful, sustainable approach to financing decisions. (10%)
PLEASE NOTE: The criteria above form only the scoring questions section in the application form. 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 full 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.
