WHY AWARD WINS ARE MORE THAN JUST A TROPHY:

How A Credible Award Win Can Add Value To Your Organisation

By Karen Sutton, founder and CEO of the Global Good Awards

With so many awards ceremonies out there, individuals and organisations can be forgiven for having awards fatigue, especially when many come across as ‘vanity’ awards that deliver little or no real impact.

That’s why I wanted to make Global Good Awards truly independent and purpose-driven and to reward businesses, NGOs, charities and social enterprises of all shapes and sizes globally, that are making strides towards a better world for people and the planet. Our awards are credible because we only reward entrants for action – not aims and targets.

As we have grown and more people are aware of us and what we stand for, we have seen entry numbers increase; this year we saw the highest number of entries from the widest global spread of entrants in the award’s eight-year history. It makes me so happy to see that organisations are striving to have a more sustainable outlook and impact as we edge closer to net zero.

We try to ensure our award categories are simple and straightforward so that entrants and people reading about them can understand exactly what we are awarding, without making them too abstract.

Our award categories include: - Global Good Company of the Year, SME of the Year, Start-up Enterprise, Individual Leader of the Year, Community Partnership, Educational Excellence, Environmental Behaviour Change, Game Changing Innovation, Best Product and Campaign of the Year and Technology for Good.

There is also the Canon Young Champion of the Year category, which recognises two young people who have shown outstanding leadership in campaigning for a good cause around a social or environmental issue. This year, we added a new award for Ukraine Crisis Champions and in line with our values we donated a minimum of 20% of the category’s entry fees to humanitarian aid experts, Goods for Good.

Year after year entrants tell me about the positive impact their award win has had on their business, their awareness and staff morale.

Supporting Entrants And Winners

At the Global Good Awards, we’re strong advocates of transparency, even when it comes to the scores and feedback that each of our entries receives. For us, it’s a case of ‘if you don’t know, how can you get better?’

AliKats Mountain Holidays entered the Global Good SME of the Year category in 2022 and won a silver award for the steps they were already taking to become a carbon neutral business. Naturally, our judges were impressed with what they saw, but also had some words of advice on how they could get even better.

We asked Al Judge, co-founder of Alikats, to explain how they listened, learned, and then implemented the judges’ feedback from 2022, to win gold in the 2023 Global Good SME of the Year category: “After we received the judges’ feedback for being awarded silver in 2022, we understood that we needed to do more around employee wellbeing. Whilst we have always done our best to take care of our team, we have ultimately been marching to the intense beat of the hospitality drum where long, tiring hours are the norm, and any illness or injury (very common for a winter ski season!) required one of the managers to backfill. This led to a very tired team by the end of the season! In the year since the awards in 2022, we have significantly changed the way we think about the team…and the results were instantly noticeable! We felt confident enough to conduct an employee happiness survey, and the results were overwhelmingly positive. We truly feel that we have redefined what it now means to work for AliKats.”

Raising Awareness

Whether you’re a large or small company, social enterprise, start-up, a charity or individual, simply associating with a truly sustainable awards programme presents PR opportunities. A win or being a finalist can act as a third-party endorsement for your business and provides an opportunity to benchmark against your peers and competitors.

This year, the all-new Purpose Summit also provided an opportunity for winners and finalists to come together to hear about what other organisations and individuals are doing in the sustainability space, what is actually working and making a difference. The day was a great opportunity for networking and learning from peers in the industry. Winners had the opportunity to present and speak and were encouraged to invite potential customers and investors to prove their authority in this market.

Mr Bug is a pioneering Devon bug farm, breeding sustainable, nutrient-dense mealworms in rural SW England. They won Gold in Product of the Year at this year’s awards. Managing Director, Conal Cunningham said: “We have found awards have been a fabulous way for us to convey the purpose of our business outside of just releasing products. This is really important for us at Mr Bug as our circular economy approach to farming and vision for future proofing food sources is easily missed without the detailed analysis that is part of competitions such as the Global Good Awards. To have been awarded awarded Gold for Best Product, especially amongst such a strong field of other companies, really helps highlight the efforts we have made. Being given the chance to speak at the Purpose Summit is a great way for us to share ideas with other concerned voices, listen to their questions and learn from their initiatives to help us be part of the map finding practical solutions for the road ahead.”

BRINGING LIKE-MINDED ORGANISATIONS TOGETHER

One of the great things about the sustainability sector is how keen everyone is to learn from each other – we all know how important it is to make these changes and that it’s a race against the clock. Everyone is committed to doing the very best they can.

Global accountancy firm KPMG won two Gold GGAs this year; one in Waste Reduction & Minimisation for their progress in reducing the amount of waste they produce, as part of their commitment to becoming a zero-waste business – eliminating all avoidable waste from operations by 2030. They have successfully removed over eight million items of single-use plastic across their estate, reducing paper consumption by 74% and overall waste by 24% in the past three years.

Roisin Sharkey, co-head of corporate responsibility at KPMG UK, said: “We are thrilled to receive a Global Good Award again this year. This recognises our efforts towards becoming a zero-waste business and our collective impact with the charity, National Numeracy, on the annual National Numeracy Day campaign, which we co-founded to boost number confidence and competence across the UK. It’s such an honour to be recognised, and it’s fantastic to connect with and learn from so many other organisations doing great work.”

Employee Satisfaction And Attraction

With millennials prioritising cause and impact in the workplace, a Global Good Award win, nomination or shortlisting can help immeasurably in attracting talent. It’s also an ideal way to recognise, reward and motivate employees already in your organisation.

Zoe Vafadari, Bupa Group Chief Brand & External Communications Officer said of their two wins: “We are honoured to be the Gold recipient for the Ukraine Crisis Cham- pion award and Silver winner for Employee Engagement and Wellbeing category. Our colleagues have worked incredibly hard on these initiatives and it’s wonderful for that to be recognised externally.

We believe companies have a responsibility to proactively advocate for important causes and initiatives. These awards are an opportunity to learn and share best practice with other businesses that are also trying to make a better world, raising awareness and encouraging peers to take action.

Awards can boost pride and morale and spotlight those in your business who are driving these efforts; in this case the recognition has helped to shine a light on our outstanding colleagues in Poland as well as our unwavering commitment to caring for Ukrainian refugees.”

Walking The Talk

In addition to the donations to Goods for Good, we support our charity partner, Cool Earth, 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 by helping to protect rainforest canopies via their carbon capture projects. This year donations totalled £3k - 50% up on last year’s contribution.

To enter in 2024 and for more information on the awards please visit the website on https://globalgoodawards.co.uk/ and to learn more about Purpose Summit and the current schedule of events please visit www.globalgoodawards.co.uk