The green awards are constantly evolving.  In 2011 we introduced a questionnaire to develop a more robust and rounded picture of entrants sustainability achievements. The idea was to reward organisations that integrate sustainability into every aspect of their operations as distinct from those with pet “green” projects. In 2012 this process will continue and intensify.  Our hope is that the entry process will allow organisations to report on all aspects of their sustainability performance and eventually provide data rich enough to benchmark each against sustainability excellence for their sector.

It’s important that we begin to develop a common way to measure and report on what constitutes success in sustainability, not just from an Irish perspective, but a standard that is recognised and valued internationally.  To compete globally, especially in sustainability, we need to understand how our practices and performance stack up to international standards.  Our survey in April of leading Irish green businesses revealed that less than 1 in 8 believe their organisations are world class from a sustainability point of view. The Green Awards is committed to improving this.  Our intent is to reflect these international standards as much as possible in the judging criteria. We want to drive the standard for what green and sustainability means in Ireland and work with Irish businesses to continuously improve, year on year.

Fortunately, an accepted international standard of sustainability has already been developed by the Global Reporting Initiative.

Through a consensus-seeking, multi-stakeholder process, GRI sets out the principles and performance indicators that organisations, large and small, in all sectors, can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance.  Best of all the framework was developed using an open source model of sorts so you can find out if GRI is right for your organisation for free.  If you need support or training you can contact Kinelea Ltd or john@kinelea.com .  Kinelea Ltd. is the only Irish company certified by GRI to provide training.

The green awards will continue and evolve the process of integrating internationally recognised principles and indicators into our judging process for the 2012 awards and beyond.

John Harrington is the director of RealEyes Sustainability Ltd. and is working with the Green Awards to maintain and improve its influence in delivering progress toward sustainability in Ireland .