Enter the 7th Annual Responsible Business Awards

The 7th Annual Responsible Business Awards are the world’s leading Awards for CSR, sustainability, supply chain and business executives. The internally-renowned Awards recognize genuine, truly innovative and meaningful approaches to making responsible business a reality.

If you are looking to bring awareness to your recent ground-breaking sustainability or CR project that took so much of your effort and dedication, or would you like to boost your broader corporate reputation, or you’d like to challenge yourself and your company’s sustainability and CR efforts, or benchmark against your peers, these awards are for you.


5 reasons to enter:

Bring awareness to your recent, ground-breaking sustainability initiative
Enhance your corporate reputation and build trust with key stakeholders
Showcase your sustainability commitments and values
Benchmark your performance with 400+ world’s leading organizations
Reward your team for their hard work and make them proud employees

Categories

Business – Business Strategy

Sustainable Innovation

This award goes to the company that most clearly demonstrates how they have incorporated sustainability/CR into commercial objectives, or applied it to address a business challenge. The winner will show how they have created a definitive new product or service from a sustainability/CR perspective and will be able to show how it has been incorporated into mainstream business thinking across the company. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Best Company

This award will go to the publically-listed or privately-held company which has best demonstrated their commitment to embedding sustainable business throughout their operations. Judges will be looking for a comprehensive approach, targets set across the board, and a clear demonstration of top level leadership from the board or owners of the business. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Best Social Enterprise

This award goes to the company whose mission is to address any existing social or environmental challenges. The judges will be looking for clear measurable gains and tangible impacts from the enterprise’s efforts. Entries will be considered over a two-five year timescale, but activity during 2015-16 must also be demonstrated. The enterprise should demonstrate profitability or commercial success alongside its mission efforts. Entries are welcome from for-profit or non-profit organisations operating in any legal form. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Communications Excellence

Best Sustainability Report

Our best sustainability report award will go to the company that most effectively shows how they have delivered corporate responsibility/ sustainability transparency to stakeholders in an honest, humble and clearly consistent way. The winner will have shown judges how they are communicating progress whilst being candid about the challenges they face. They will need to showcase the business wins their report has achieved for the company. Demonstrating critical stakeholder engagement is a must. Only reports published in the period of 2014-2016 will be considered. A link to the entered report must be provided alongside a corporate logo of the nominated organisation, and entry submission.

Best Integrated Report

The winner of this category should demonstrate integrated thinking throughout its report. The report should clearly show and explain the value the company as a whole creates and how it achieves this. The entry should also display how various parts of business/ departments have contributed towards value creation. There should be a clear explanation of how stakeholder engagement activities have contributed towards developing the company’s materiality matrix. Only the reports published in the period of 2014-2016 will be considered. A link to the entered report must be provided alongside a corporate logo of the nominated organisation, and entry submission.

Best Communications

This award will go to the organisation that has been most successful in making their company’s story meaningful and relatable to its stakeholders. Innovative ways of engaging stakeholders in the organisation’s sustainability work is one of the main things judges will be looking for. Other important criteria for judges include; honesty, simplicity and the ability to build trust. The winner needs to demonstrate the ability to engage its key stakeholder by showing clear and measurable outcomes. The category analyses activities during 2015-2016. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.



Best Engagement Campaign (Social Media & Traditional)

This award will go to the organisation best demonstrating how it has engaged its target group in one or more markets with a positive social/environmental message or campaign. The judges will be looking to reward the organisation that demonstrates how it has chosen a particular issue and campaigned to promote pro-social/greener behaviour via traditional/new media channels. Judges will be looking to reward the winning organisation both for creativity, the importance of the issue(s) chosen and the effectiveness of the campaign through the measurements available. Entries are welcome from any types of organisation, including commercial, non for profit organisations and public bodies. An organisation’s logo and the nominated campaign (if applicable) must be provided alongside entry submission.

Value Chain Sustainability

Best Supplier Engagement

The organisation or initiative who wins this award will have demonstrated how they are now clearly managing a more socially and environmentally responsible supply chain, and how this represents an improvement from their recent past. The award will go to the organisation or initiative that shows clear engagement – both bottom up and top down – with suppliers, and is helping suppliers deliver on sustainability goals proactively against firm and clear targets. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Best Business to Business Partnership

This award goes to the best sustainability/corporate responsibility partnership between two companies. The companies could be competitors, business partners or in different industries/sectors. The winner will have shown clear commitment to a long-term, mutually-beneficial collaboration that can demonstrate real commercial benefits and social/ environmental/governance gains. Corporate logos of all the nominated organisations must be provided alongside entry submission.

Best Business NGO Partnership

This award goes to the best sustainability/corporate responsibility partnership between a company and other entities (i.e. NGOs, governmental bodies, charities or others). The winner will have shown clear commitment to a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership that can demonstrate real social/environmental/governance gains. Corporate logos of all the nominated organisations must be provided alongside entry submission.

Most Effective Domestic Community Investment

This award goes to the company clearly demonstrating how investment has benefitted local communities in a long-term and sustainable way. The judges will be looking to reward the company showing how community investment strategy has resulted in ‘win-win’ outcomes for both parties in the last two-five years. Monetary level of investment isn’t the key criterion, as this award is more about the impact made as opposed to amount invested. Activity during 2015-16 must also be demonstrated.

Entries will be considered from investments in “home” markets, i.e. from the country where the entering company’s head office is located. The winning entry, for example, might be a site-specific or community-specific example, or a general multi-site or issue-based strategy which the company has implemented across its home market. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Most Effective International Community Investment

The winner of this award will have demonstrated in their entry how community investment works outside of their home market (where the head office is located) has benefitted a community or communities in a meaningful, measureable way. Entries will be considered over a two-five year timescale, given the complexities of effective community engagement, but activity during 2015-16 must also be demonstrated.

Our judges will be seeking a winner that demonstrates genuine commitment to vulnerable communities, and who has responded to them meaningfully. Monetary level of investment isn’t the key criterion, as this award is more about the impact made as opposed to amount invested. The challenges of measurement will be taken into consideration but the winning entry will demonstrate measurements of effectiveness and the positive results of their community investment work. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Internal Engagement

Best Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is vitally important in embedding sustainability/CSR into a business. This award will go the company that has best showed how they successfully communicate their policies on sustainability with colleagues. More importantly, the winning company will demonstrate how they engage with and listen to employees, and take that feedback into consideration when refining their sustainability plans, business opportunities and targets. A corporate logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Diversity and Inclusion

It’s a proven fact that the most diverse boardrooms and organisations deliver both better monetary and non-monetary returns. This award will go to an organisation that proves diversity at a workplace, including targeted campaigns addressing one or a set of issues, such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, age or any other issues. The organisation should also demonstrate inclusiveness of diversity approach into decision making process at all levels, e.g. boardroom, top or middle management, or entry level positions. A logo of the nominated organisation must be provided alongside entry submission.

Sustainability Leader of the Year

This award will go to a sustainability or corporate responsibility executive that has done the most to drive systemic change in their company in sustainability and CSR terms. Not only will the winner have effectively managed risk, but will also have shown how sustainability/CSR related opportunities can be seized by companies and integrated into their business offerings and operations. The category analyses activities during the 2014-2016 period, and activities in 2016 must be demonstrated. Entries are encouraged in this category. Our editorial advisory board and the judging committee will also make suggestions to broaden the pool. Nominee’s biography, photo and a corporate logo must be provided alongside the entry submission.

CEO of the Year

This award is for the CEO of the year. Our judges will be looking for the business leader who has clearly shown they have led their company effectively during 2014 – 2016 on sustainability/CSR issues. Activities in 2016 must be demonstrated. Our winner will have demonstrated a clear grasp of both the issues and the need to commit to managing the unknown towards real targets, which demonstrates both sector and individual leadership. Entries are encouraged in this category. Our editorial advisory board and the judging panel will also make suggestions to broaden the pool. The judges will pick the winner. Nominee’s biography, photo and a corporate logo must be provided alongside entry submission.

Lifetime Achievement Award

This award will go to the individual that our judging panel, editors, contributors and advisory board feel has dedicated their career to sustainability/CSR, and has a considerable track record of success too. The winner will have been a catalyst for real, proven change. Although the award is non-entry, Ethical Corporation welcomes your suggestions.

Enter by 6th July 2016

Click here to download the entry guidelines.