How to enter

We are seeking entries for the inaugural Sunday Times Best Green Companies Awards – a project designed to encourage, acknowledge and publicise businesses and other organisations, which are striving to improve their environmental performance.

Anyone can nominate an organisation – from the cleaner to the CEO.

You don’t even have to work for the business you nominate.

Entries are invited NOW. Registration will remain open until February 29.

Surveys must be completed and returned by March 31. The winners will be announced in May.

There are five competitions within the overall contest

Large companies of more than 5,000 employees and mid-sized companies of 250-4,999 employees, operating in high environmental impact sectors

Large and mid-sized companies operating in medium impact sectors

Large and mid-sized companies operating in low impact sectors

Small companies of between 50-249 employees, operating in high and medium environmental impact sectors

Small companies operating in low impact sectors

What an award can do for you

Imagine the benefits a listing could bring you. It would generate credit among the general public for your success and tell all your business partners, suppliers and customers that you are helping to tackle one the of the biggest problems facing all industrialised nations.

The winning companies will be profiled in a dedicated Sunday Times supplement, which will be distributed with 1.3m copies of the paper in the spring next year, and their achievement will also be marked at an awards event. Winners will also be given our special logo for branding on publicity, advertising and letterheads.

The survey

It is unique in a marketplace where several corporate environmental awards compete for your attention.

The Sunday Times, working with leading environmental consultancy Bureau Veritas and data analysts Munro Global, has developed measures of environmental performance that will encompass a wide range of organisations - in size, activity and environmental impact. These have been incorporated in a two-part assessment:

The company survey (worth 70% of the overall score)

The first section collects information from organisations on their approach to environmental management and measures performance on key indicators. This includes standard core areas such as energy use and recycling, but also allows organisations to describe their environmental objectives and efforts to increase awareness of green issues in the workplace.

The employee survey (worth 30% of the overall score)

The unique bit. This second section will be answered by employees (40% of your workforce up to a maximum of 1,000 employees) and seeks to understand the extent to which management strategies are embedded in, understood and acted on, throughout the organisation. Employees are asked to rate from strongly agree to strongly disagree their responses to a series of more than 50 statements to do with their company’s approach to the environment.

The environmental impact of your business

To ensure fairness companies will be divided into high, medium or low impact organisations (depending on the environmental effect of their business) and again into large and small enterprises.

The impact categories are in line with those contained within the FTSE4Good criteria. They are based on a common knowledge and acceptance of environmental impacts.

View our table of industry impact categories

What’s in it for you?

All participating companies will receive a free four-page report from Bureau Veritas outlining the key findings from the two surveys and showing the overall score recorded in each survey.

From this you will be able to see at a glance in which areas your environmental strategy has been a success with your staff, engaging them and drawing upon their commitment.

More detailed analysis of the surveys’ findings – benchmarking your performance against others in your sector, your region, or those with similar sized workforces - will be available from Bureau Veritas and Munro Global at extra cost.

* * *

This venture deserves your attention and could bring you great credit.

There is no greater challenge facing us. If you believe you have taken the key steps to address your organisation’s impact on the environment – and you have also recognised that the key to success is to carry your workforce with you – then enter our unique contest.

Enter at www.bestgreencompanies.co.uk

I wish you the best of luck should you choose to join the Sunday Times Best Green Companies project.

Richard Caseby

Managing Editor, The Sunday Times