Our Responsibility

We received the first GOLD standard ‘Awards Trust Mark’ in the world in May 2018… and have retained it every year.

Being ethical and transparent…

In 2018, the Global Good Awards was awarded the ‘Awards Trust Mark – Outstanding’ standard and have retained it every year since. The Trust Mark recognised that:

• Entry is open to all organisations with no restrictions, however we will refuse entries if we feel it poses a reputational risk to our ethical and responsible practices.
• Programme timelines, costs, dates, commitments, Ts&Cs and processes are clearly outlined on the website prior to the entry process opening.
• No fees are taken until the final entry has been submitted. Descriptions and criteria are on the public website pages, and, once registered with us, entrants have immediate access to the application form questions without payment being required.
• Entrants can contact us, and expect a quick response, at any time.
• The judging process is fair, transparent and robust with NDAs signed by all judges.
• Judging is scored online using a clear and effective system removing any possible bias or inconsistency.
• All judges are independent and have all judged before. Judges and categories are matched only by their professional experience and no judge will be asked to score a category out of their sector knowledge.
• Although judges can enter their own organisation, they will not take part, be notified or consulted about a category in which they entered. They will also have no commercial interest in the decisions made.
• A free feedback report is emailed to ALL entrants, whether they were finalists or not, immediately after the awards ceremony (this includes scores AND written feedback) but is made available to those not shortlisted after the finalist annoucements. If an entrant requests information about the score given to the winner of their category, they will be supplied with the percentage mark for the benefit of benchmarking.
• We DO NOT offer free or discounted entry rates to judges or sponsors.
• Finalists are not obliged to attend the awards ceremony, although we encourage them to do so. We try to make the ceremony as accessible as possible to those on tight budgets. From 2022, entrants will be able to choose to attend physically or virtually.
• Our Shortlist is exactly that – short! We don’t do long shortlists to sell more ceremony tickets!
• We are a partner of Positive News – the online and print magazine for rigorous journalism. Instead of negative narratives, they focus on the positive news stories; offering a lens on the world that helps give people a fuller picture of reality, supports their wellbeing and empowers them to make a positive difference.
• Winners are announced live on Twitter on the night, and we are one of very few award programmes to publish a full-page promotion of each category on our website that will remain there indefinitely.
• No charge is made for finalists and winners using our logo or widgets, they are sent to all finalists straight after the ceremony.
• Quotes for press releases, winners photos and vox-pop videos are supplied free of charge.

Being sustainable…

We believe that if we are to recognise and reward change across all aspects of purpose driven sustainability and social impact, then we have to ‘walk that talk’ right beside our entrants! We’re working to ensure that everything we do is sustainable; and here’s how:

• We support the work of CoolEarth in several ways throughout the year by donating:- 1% of all turnover from sponsorship, entry fees and ticket sales, a £5 or £10 donation per paying entry to protect a tree or plant an Inga Bean and finally, we help to protect rainforest canopies via their carbon capture projects to match the emissions from our event that we aren’t able to remove.
• We require all our venues, including those that we have meetings in throughout the year, to meet certain sustainable standards or have ethical or social values. Our ceremony hosts often utilise 100% renewable energy and hold a Green Tourism accreditation. We expect similar standards from associated catering contractors of our venues too; and since 2018 we are proud to have worked with BMA House (certified Green Tourism Gold) and their caterers CH&CO (certified 3 Star SRA).
• All printed marketing materials have been sourced/printed sustainably since 2016.
• From 2022 we’ll be following advice to replace our previous offsetting schemes by supporting CoolEarth in their efforts to protect forests that absorb and store carbon more efficiently.
• With the help of Erjjio Studios, our website is not only hosted with 100% renewable energy, but also optimised to reduce carbon emissions on page loading.
• Our sponsors must be able to demonstrate their purpose-driven sustainability and good governance – we don’t allow brands to greenwash through our programme!
• With the help of Thames Water, our events are also Water Neutral. Free Business Assessments are undertaken at our venues to help them reduce their water use.
• We work with our venues to deliver a fully vegan menu that can demonstrate that you don’t have the ‘be’ vegan to ‘eat’ vegan. All our alcoholic and non-alcoholic are vegan too, as well as biodynamic and/or organic.
• We encourage a ‘freshly-eco’ dress code where people wear something sustainably made, something from a charity shop or dig something out from their wardrobe and ‘reuse’.
• We avoid the traditional and somewhat unsustainable ‘goodie bag’ in favour of an ‘Eco-goodies Market Stall’ – only selecting eco-friendly products from sponsors, partners and entrants that contain no single-use / unrecyclable plastics and allowing attendees to select those goodies they wish to have. They’re even asked to BYO tote!
• Our event signage is minimal, relying mainly on our venue’s digital screens but all tangible signage is made from cardboard or recycled and recyclable plastics printed by the world’s top B Corp scorer, Seacourt.
• Unlike many business awards, our trophies are true works of art. Made by one of Britain’s leading contemporary fused glass artists, Siobhan Jones, the beautiful awards are all unique and Siobhan shares the ethos of our awards in her daily life and business. They are all made from offcuts and fragments of glass from her workshop with the bases made from reclaimed wood.
• We bank with Starling, one of the very few truly sustainable banks.
• Our events are focused on delivering a purpose, and from 2023, we will be replacing the traditional ‘Award Ceremony’ with a day of purpose-led content sessions delivered by the winners and judges – where ALL entrants will be invited to encourage and support them on their own sustainability journey.

Rewarding with purpose…

We are in the final decade to save our existence on this planet, so we only reward entrants for action – not aims and targets:

• We don’t purely rely on the maths of online scoring. Our independent and impartial panel of judges has considerable experience in all areas of purpose driven sustainable development and we match that experience to the most appropriate category, to ensure each entry gets the most thorough evaluation possible. They don’t reward for aims and targets (or greenwashing!) – only action.
• We don’t give out prizes just because an entry is the best in the category. Our entrants must hit a minimum standards for each prize level and these are expected to be: 80% (Gold), 75% (Silver), 70% (Bronze) and 60% (Finalist). You can find out more by watching the video to the right. >>