Reflections from Jen
It’s gray and rainy - that means it must be time to submit your products and projects to the Environmental Leader Awards!
With the return of fall weather, the editorial gang here at Business Sector Media always feels a sense of renewed commitment and dedication. The more relaxed days of summer draw to a close as the pace of the news cycle increases. Fall also brings a renewed sense of excitement as we step up our planning for ELEMCON in the spring - and that includes the launch of the year’s EL Awards program next week.
Six years ago, we conceived the Environmental Leader Awards (previously the Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards) as a way to acknowledge the incredible momentum in the space and to honor the companies that are doing the most to innovate. Each year, the Awards recognize the year’s most innovative and successful products, projects and companies in the sustainability industry. Judged by an independent panel of unbiased industry experts, winners are selected based on the success of their projects or by the capabilities of their products and their impact on the industry.
Award winners benefit from high visibility among both their peers and potential customers, judge kudos and winner logos to use in their promotional materials, and increased business opportunities. Better yet (or at least more fun), we celebrate the winners in a big way at ELEMCON in May with a festive cocktail party complete with a tasty buffet, great music and conversation, and - memorably - some drop-dead dance moves by attendees and Business Sector Media staff alike (if you were at last year’s party, you know what I mean).
We will announce the Call for Submissions for the EL Awards next week. The process is simple: just write a few hundred words about the success of your product or project, attach supporting material like case studies or spec sheets, and hit “submit.” Done!
Each year, we field numerous questions about the number of winners: How many winners are named in each category? What percentage of entrants will win? Will there be more or fewer winners this year than in the past?
The answers are the same every year: we just don’t know. Unlike many awards programs, where a predetermined number of awards are given, the EL Awards are handed out based solely on the average scores of our independent judges. The judges receive a rubric for scoring. At least three judges for each entry carefully evaluate the submission materials. They each assign a score based on a scale of 1 to 5. Our judging coordinator receives the scores from the judges and averages them for a final score. Entries that achieve a certain score or higher - whether there are just three or more than 33 of them - are named winners.
It’s as straight-forward as that.
Because the pace of innovation the industry is experiencing continues to advance rapidly and there are so many strong contenders, we tightened up our scoring last year so entrants need to achieve an even higher level of excellence in order to win. But we still don’t put a cap on that excellence - because if you’re that excellent, we want to celebrate with you!
Award winners will be announced and recognized in person at the fourth annual Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference (ELEMCON), May 13-15, 2019, at the Marriott Denver Tech Center. We look forward to seeing you there!
Stay tuned for the Call for Submissions coming next week. I’ll keep you updated on EL Awards submission timelines, as well. In the meantime, contact our Awards program manager Jacey Whittemore - jacey@businesssectormedia.com or 617-270-5555 - with questions.
Have a great weekend and, as always, stay in touch.
Jennifer Hermes Nastu
Content Director
Jen@businesssectormedia.com
