Enter the iiE 2021 Awards

Has your businesses been taking steps to become more sustainable? Are you proud of what you have achieved? Then you should enter the iiE 2021 awards! This year our awards will be taking place over a fun packed week (11-15th October) of dedicated webinars on a wide range of sustainability topics. Different award winners will be announced throughout the week at our events. You can find out more on our ‘What you need to know about the iiE 2021 Awards article’. 

How to enter

Outlined below are the different award categories you can enter. You can apply for more than one award but only submit one application to each category. When you are writing your application, please make sure to address all the key points the award descriptions asks for. There is a 400 word limit. If you have any questions please email: info@iie.uk.com

Deadline to enter: 30th September 2021

Please note: the iiE Awards are only open to members only but anyone can attend the events during the award week.

Award Categories

1. Best Carbon Reduction Award

Considerations: Business size and time in accreditation.

The winner must demonstrate:

• Absolute carbon reduction relative to other iiE members or averages for their sector (based on carbon calculator figures)
• The winner must show significant progress on cutting their carbon emissions since their baseline year and previous year
• Key carbon reductions need to be shown in Scope 1 & 2 accounting, which will include direct and indirect carbon emissions from energy, transport, and other significant greenhouse gases relevant to your business type
• Scope 3, or embedded carbon reductions will further boost scoring in this area, though not all iiE members will be reporting on this

2. Water Saviour Award

Considerations: This may best apply to high water users in manufacturing, construction, real estate, healthcare, academia, or leisure, though other sectors innovating on water should also consider applying

The winner must demonstrate:

• Best reduction of water against their baseline year with clear evidence of continual improvement each year
• Winners will be able to demonstrate this progress through investment in water-saving technology and behaviour change campaigns to support reducing wasted quality drinking water
• Example technologies could include the use of water-saving toilets, fixtures, rainwater harvesting, or other innovations

3. Best Waste Reduction

Considerations: Business size and type. Professional services will need to show how they have tackled waste in an office environment; healthcare/manufacturers/construction companies will need to show how they have reduced waste through circularly economy, efficiency, and changes in ways of working (e.g. procuring products that are more readily recycled or with less packaging, reuse, repurposing, etc). Winners will be able to frame how their waste reduction efforts have been made in the face of specific challenges, as is made clear in the normal iiE audit process.

The winner must demonstrate:

• Best reduction of waste overall, including waste sent to landfill or energy recovery, OR Most innovative or impactful action on plastics reduction, reuse, recycling
• Use of Circular Economy principles

4. Sustainable Transport Champion

Considerations: Business size and type; how to measure (travel plan, engagement activities, recording greener travel; incentives, provided for low carbon transport; etc)

The winner must demonstrate:

• What actions were taken OR
• What investments or innovations they made AND
• How they measured this (e.g. greenhouse gas reduction, engagement, reduction in fuel consumption, etc)

5. Natural Environment Champion

Considerations: This award will recognise a business for how they have contributed to enhancing or protecting the natural environment, including support for biodiversity and conservation

The winner must demonstrate:

• Action or projects taken (examples include trees planted, planting wildflower meadows, etc)
• How they measured their impact (Who did they work with, who took part, how often, etc)

6. Sustainability Influencer

Considerations: Applicants will need to show how they have changed behaviours of other people or organisations to inspire change beyond their direct business activities.

Possible ways to demonstrate:

• List of organisations(s) they worked with
• Projects they undertook (e.g. worked with catering, worked with trade associations, etc)
• Feedback from those with whom they affected change
• Environmental campaigns they have run – communications and marketing

7. Overall Outstanding Achiever

Considerations: For this category, there will be two winners based on organisational size (small to medium businesses and large). The organisation will demonstrate their resource efficiency across all measured resources against an appropriate metric. For example, reduced energy use per patient/staff member/product produced, and reduced waste per patient/staff member.

This Award may only be gained by a Green-accredited member, measuring at least six resources.

The winner may demonstrate:

• Normalised reductions achieved on energy, water, and three others; plus, carbon footprint reduction
• Money saved
• Investments made in green technology or complementary innovations
• Process (evidence likely to come from audit process)
• Staff engagement levels
• Social impact

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