From the Editor: Ready, Set, Submit!

Reflections from Jen

Today is a real TGIF day, ending a busy week of brainstorms, meetings, calls and content creation, conducted against a background of gray skies and rain – not something we’re used to in sunny northern Colorado but we’ve had more than our share this fall! It was a good week, though, highlighted by seeing submissions for the EL Awards and the EMT Awards begin to arrive.

Have you considered your submission yet? Don’t forget that the Early Bird deadline is just a little over a month away, on November 16. That’s plenty of time to choose a product or project (or both) for EL or EMT (or both) and send it in via the simple online submission process. But you know how time slips away – don’t put it off until the last minute (says the master of procrastination).

The EL Awards and EMT Awards give winners great promotional opportunities:

• Business Sector Media publishes an awards report featuring all winners, which is available for download throughout the year.
• Winners are featured for a year on a Hall of Fame on the Environmental Leader or Energy Manager Today websites.
• Product of the Year and Project of the Year Award badges are available for winners to use on their websites, promotional materials, product packaging, etc.
• Quotes from judges may also be used for promotion (real-life example: “Big kudos to P&G for taking the initiative to develop a bio-based laundry detergent. Good example of a product that is designed for the environment, produced at a zero-waste facility using renewable energy, and packaged for end-of-life management,” said one judge.)

And I touched base with one winner from last year – John Loheit, director of strategic initiatives for the Energy Management Collaborative, which won for its EnergyMAXX Tool – about his company’s Product of the Year Award. He told me, “We leveraged the win through a press release and social media, and can now refer to our ‘award-winning prioritization tool’ in the marketplace which further establishes our credibility and leadership in the market.”

(Side note: I was lucky enough to meet John at last year’s ELEMCON in Denver. I enjoyed getting to know him during a fun meet-and-greet cocktail party, where we chatted about energy management issues as well as life in general. If you want an opportunity to meet, learn from, celebrate with, and just get to know other environment and energy management professionals, don’t forget to plan for your trip to Denver for this year’s ELEMCON, May 13-15.)

The sun is peeking out, the weekend beckons, and I’ve got projects to wrap up, so that’s all for now. Have a great weekend and, as always, stay in touch.

Jennifer Hermes Nastu
Content Director
[email protected]