Scores will be allocated to different sections on a weighted basis and will add up to a total possible score of 100. The key areas that scores will be allocated to and that should be elaborated on in your application for this category are as follows:
A. Background (10 points): Please explain why and how your nominated company has decided to address sustainability within the organisation or through its products/services. Please include a brief profile of your company’s environmental footprint, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions (if collected) and a description of what the biggest environmental challenges facing your company are, and/or what the biggest challenges are for the sector your company is providing products/services for.
B. Governance and reporting (10 points): Please explain how governance practices within the organisation are being used to bring sustainability to the forefront of business practice, and how the environmental footprint of the organisation is gathered, reported on, and used to drive further sustainability plans.
C. Innovation (10 points): SME’s face different sustainability challenges, both in terms of resourcing and market share. Please outline how, as an SME, your business is innovating to ensure your own internal sustainability goals are reached, or to ensure your products/services can have maximum impact on other’s sustainability goals.
D. Key Projects (20 points): Please outline any project(s) that has taken place (or continued) within the adjudication period that demonstrates the work being done on environmental sustainability in your organisation. These can be internal projects that demonstrate the efforts to reduce the organisation’s environmental footprint, and/or products/services provided by the company that are helping customers reduce their environmental footrprints. Please include any relevant data to support your claims.
E. Outcomes and impacts (20 points): Please outline any positive outcomes or measurable impacts from the company’s overall sustainability efforts. Please include data, graphs, testimony or any other relevant information that demonstrates the measurable sustainability outcomes of your company’s internal efforts or products or services (carbon emissions, water usage, waste volumes etc). Data from previous years can be included to demonstrate progress, as long as data from the adjudication period is also included. Please ensure any data around carbon intensity improvements is also accompanied by total emissions data. Please ensure any emissions offsets programmes are dealt with separately to actual emissions reductions.
F. Industry leadership (20 points): Please outline how your company has provided leadership in your industry/sector/community on sustainability. This can include initiatives to support others in your sector in their sustainability journeys through partnerships, research or any other pooled efforts. It can also include efforts to ensure your company’s suppliers are also reducing their environmental footrprint, or efforts to support your local community in furthering sustainability. Any other examples of leadership by your organisation are also welcome.
G. Plans for the future (10 points): Please outline your company’s medium/long term plans for addressing sustainability, highlighting any ambitions or clear goals that have been set by the organisation, and citing any clear roadmaps being used by the company to achieve these goals. Please ensure any targets (50 per cent reduction in emissions etc) are accompanied by the relevant baseline year.
The Business Post reserves the right to quality check applications and may be in contact to ask for additional information if necessary.
