The Sunday Times working in partnership with Bureau Veritas, the environmental consultants, and Munro Global, the market research group, have devised the Sunday Times Best Green Companies competition.

It has a number of entry criteria that must be met in order for an organisation to qualify for the awards. These are very similar the Best Companies to Work For competition also run by The Sunday Times. In order to enter a company must:-

• employ at least 50 full-time staff, or part-time equivalents (this cannot include contractors, freelancers, or people not on the payroll)

• at least 50 staff that are based in the UK.

The competition comprises two parts – a detailed assessment of an organisation environmental performance and an employee engagement survey.

The assessment of an organisation’s environmental performance is extensive; we gather data on environmental policies, systems and controls as well as performance metrics such as energy consumption, waste production, recycling and carbon footprint.

The second part of our competition is what sets the Best Green Companies apart from all other green award initiatives. We are the only awards that ask employees what they think about their organisation’s environmental standards and performance, allowing us to identify if corporate culture, policies and procedures filter down to the shop floor.

A 52-statement survey is sent to staff that must be completed by a minimum of 40% of the workforce or 385 employees, whichever is the lower figure. These thresholds are set in to give a robust number of responses for reliable analysis. Employees are asked to score the series of statements on a seven-point scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The statements cover everything from the attitudes of employees and managers to recycling and other green commitments to green awareness in the workplace.

Only if a company completes both the company and the employee surveys in full are they eligible for entry into the Best Green Company Awards.

To ensure a fair contest, all information submitted is verified. Company data supplied is subject to verification by Bureau Veritas, with a sample of companies even receiving a site visit. Employee data is also thoroughly scrutinised by Munro Global.

Post verification, both company and employee data are combined. The company survey accounts for 70% of the final ranking with the employee survey contributing the remaining 30%. This allows us to report a single green score for a company that both reflects environmental performance and staff attitudes.

Results are further split into four reporting areas covering policies and systems, training and motivation, reporting and communication and performance.