29 June 2015

The 2015 VIBES Awards is well underway and businesses have been busy downloading application forms. To help applicants, we thought we would share some top tips on how to best complete the form and showcase your sustainable successes. We have also added a video onto our homepage to guide you through the application process.

The good news is you don’t need to be limited with your application choice as businesses can apply for as many of the eight award categories as they would like; so long as they are relevant. The even better news is that each of the multiple awards is also free to enter.

Once you’ve made the all-important category decision/s, downloaded the form and accompanying guidance notes (please read these, they are important), you are set to go. But what will make your award entry stand-out and more importantly, what is VIBES looking for?

It all starts with your executive summary and while this isn’t judged, it is a great way to grab the judges’ attention and get them interested in what your business has to say and what it is doing. An executive summary is not an excuse to waffle on, but offers a chance for you to tell your story starting with the main points. Don’t be scared to summarise any points with bullets, infographics or graphs. The same applies for each of the sections throughout the application form. Examples are also a good way to bring what you are saying to life and to show the judges how it applies to your business. In short, please give the judges as much evidence as you can.

You will then be asked to answer six criteria.

  1. Commitment: The judges are looking for you to show your commitment to the environment. Tell us, and, more importantly, give the judges examples on how your organisation is doing this. For example, do you have special environmental policies in place that engage all staff or you may have incentives that are highlighted on noticeboards throughout the workplace? Are all employees from senior management to the shop floor involved or do you have a particular environmental group? We want to know. 
  2. Innovation: What is your business doing differently to improve environmental performance and promote more eco-efficient production? Here you should tell the judges about new ideas, products or services in place.. Remember – those with ‘outside the box’ approaches stand out as winners.
  3. Environmental Benefit: This is one of the most important sections and is where you need to demonstrate how your product/service/process has reduced the environmental impact of your company? Here the judges will be looking for clear, quantifiable analysis that showcases this. This section is a really good opportunity to add evidence to your appendix.
  4. Social Benefit: Here the judges are looking for details on the social benefit you have made. Have you increased local employment, worked with local communities or improved working conditions perhaps?
  5. Economic Benefits: This section wants to find out about the economic benefits you have had as a consequence. You may have had cost savings related to a reduction in raw materials, waste or transport fuels. Has your environmental commitment opened up new markets, helped to win contracts or helped keep customers?
  6. Best Practice:  This is about how you have shared your environmental knowledge and experience with others and how your actions could be replicated within other organisations. Examples of this include speaking at workshops or business events, working within communities such schools or giving businesses the opportunity to visit your site.

As you are filling out these six criteria, remember you can use images, testimonials, graphs and other evidence to back up your information. Please add these to the appendix.

Applications need to be in before 5pm on Monday 13th July.

We would advise you to send your application in a few weeks prior to the deadline date. This lets us access them and let you know of any changes that need to be made. For example, we may advise that you apply for another category if we think you would have a good entry based on your first one.

To sum up, here are the top six things we feel a winning application will have:

  1. Senior management commitment and involvement from all staff
  2. Improvements that have environmental, economic and social benefits
  3. Quantitative evidence of the benefits
  4. Innovative ideas
  5. The potential to replicate these ideas
  6. A business that ‘stands out from the crowd’

If you have any questions during the application process please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can advise you on any queries.

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For all press & media enquiries, please contact:

vibes at sepa.org.uk