Background/Overview
Submission of applications for the pioneer ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards is opened today April 22nd, 2015. It is an annual award which aims at promoting effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and a Corporate Environmental Movement in the country. Over recent years there has been a strong move towards companies “being green” and focusing on environmental sustainability. In an effort to recognize and reward those companies that show excellence in “going green”, the joint initiative of the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) in Cameroon with the African Conservation Foundation (ACF) based in Britain, Trees for the Future in USA, Man and Nature in France, Fauna and Flora International (FFI) in Britain inspired the idea of the ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards. This joint initiative led by ERuDeF seeks to engage a relationship with corporation that will increase the national CSR of the corporations and drive home the much needed profits and a sustainability of the businesses.
Eligibility
Petroleum exploration companies, Agro and forestry industries, Financial institutions, Travel and Tourism and Utility corporations are all eligible to submit entries to the ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards. Participants may submit as many projects as they wish for the last 24 months.
Recognition
The winners of the ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards will be recognized at the ERuDeF Annual Dinner Celebration scheduled to take place as will be informed on the ERuDeF website, Green Vision Newspaper and the E-newsletter.
As bonus, winners will receive
- Exposure on the ERuDeF website
- Exposure in the ERuDeF E-newsletter
- Exposure in the ERuDeF social media (Facebook, twitter etc)
- One year Subscription of the Green Vision Newspaper paid by ERuDeF
- Exposure on the ACF, Man and Nature, Trees for the Future and FFI websites
- Both English and French Coverage in Britain and France, respectively
Categories
Awards will be presented in the following categories:
- Petroleum exploration companies
- Agro and forestry industries
- Financial institutions
- Travel and Tourism
- Utility corporations
There will be an overall winner and one runner-up from each category giving a total of four runners-up in the ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards.
Entry Summary
Entrants are required to submit a short motivation, which should include the following information:
- Name of Project
- Dates
- Brief Description of project and results
- Contact Details
Entry Form
An entry form must accompany each entry and the closing date for entries is Friday 30th October 2015.
Terms and Conditions of Entry
- No Entry Fee is required
- Entries must be a truthful representation of the entrant’s commitment to sustainable, green practices carried out within an ongoing programme with set objectives and measurable outcomes designed to reduce carbon footprint emissions and environmental impact of their organizations or communities.
- All entrants agree to be bound by the decisions of the judges and accept no correspondence will be entered into in relation to decisions reached.
- All material submitted in support of an entry is warranted by the entrant to be their property and is entered without any encumbrances by third parties.
- The entrant agrees that the organizers of the awards are entitled to judge their entry and select what they consider to be the winner without recourse to the entrants.
- The entrant agrees that should they win an award they will provide representatives to attend ERuDeF Annual Dinner to accept the award.
- If the entrant wins an award it grants permission to the organizers to use any photographs, video, sound, written or other material as it sees fit and without restriction.
- Entries received without the required entry form will be deemed invalid and withdrawn from the Awards.
- ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Award reserves the right to withdraw an entry from the judging process at any time if the entry is deemed inappropriate for any reason.
- The ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards’ decision is final.
- The person named on the entry form will be the person contacted by the ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards if they are successful.
- If the name of the nominated contact person changes, ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Award must be contacted immediately.
- Entries will be judged by a panel of judges from ERuDeF, Technical Administration, University, Legal Profession and the Media.
- The winners of the awards may state in advertising, promotional material and on their stationery that they are a winner, but this must make it clear which award and the year in which they won
Judging and Awards
A series of criterion are used by the ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards judges to determine the overall winner. To help you with your application each criterion is listed below and some guidance as to what the judges are looking for has been included.
The judges will be sent the project descriptions (no more than 4 sides A4 please, using size 12 font. Any photographs must be contained within these 4 sides) from each application prior to the judges meeting to be held on October 30th. Additional supportive materials are necessary. Companies and their projects are evaluated on the following basis:
Demonstrate good environmental and sustainability practice: This criterion looks at the company as a whole and evaluates how ‘green’ it is. Judges will be looking for evidence that the concepts of sustainable development are embodied within the company’s project. The most common ways to show good environmental and sustainability practice are reducing waste, reducing pollution, improving the environment or improving communities and employees’ well-being. Others could be reducing the amount of car journeys, addressing impact on climate change or finding new ways to use waste. Companies should adhere to all official national, regional environmental guidelines set for their industry.
Projects should be implemented within the last twenty four months: The ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards is an annual event thus the projects should be past or ongoing projects with new elements or ideas. Marking will be related to how much of the project has been implemented in the past year. Projects may build on ideas from previous years or take several years to implement. In these cases it should be made clear what the new aspect is and what work has been done in the previous twelve months.
Provide a good example for others to follow: The ERuDeF Green Corporate Leadership Awards not only reward good environmental and sustainability practice but promote good practice too. Projects that can be replicated by other organizations or simple initiatives that others could learn from will score additional points.
Offer opportunity for staff, customer, and community or pupil involvement: Participation and empowerment are important issues when thinking about sustainable development. Therefore any project that encourages participation will gain more points, the greater the participation the better. For instance involving staff, customers, community or pupils in the planning and decision making process of a scheme will score higher than a scheme where people are simply expected to follow directives.
Clear and comprehensive: All applications should be clear and comprehensive. A description of the project should be included. This can be on separate sheets and should be no more than three sides of A4. We welcome additional materials and supporting documents. These will be viewed by the judges prior to allocating the final scores. High marks will be given to clear, well presented applications rather than verbose, bulky documentation.
If you are interested in sponsoring one of the awards categories in Partnership with ERuDeF or entering the awards, please contact Cell 699 12 29 04; 650 42 57 50 or email info@erudef.org . Visit the website www.erudef.org for further details.
Good Luck
