1. The Guardian Sustainable Business Awards 2016 (the “Awards”) are open to businesses, public sector organisations, voluntary sector organisations, individuals and academic institutions with a place of business or registered office in the UK (“Qualifying Organisations”). The Awards are not open to employees or agencies of Guardian News & Media Limited (“GNM”), its group companies or their family members, or anyone else connected with the creation or administration of the Awards. UK national and regional newspapers are not eligible to enter.
The Awards
2. The Awards consist of 13 categories (each an “Award Category”), excluding two reader-voted awards (each a “Reader Award”, described further below). For a description of each Award Category and further information on the criteria for each, please click here.
3. To enter any of the Award Categories, follow the instructions online here. The deadline for entries to all Award Categories is 23:59 GMT on Friday 12 February 2016. Entries received after this deadline will not be processed. For information on the entry requirements and the information you will need to provide in order to enter, please click here.
4. Qualifying Organisations are able to enter into one or more Award Categories, but a separate entry form and entry fee will be required for each entry. You may not submit multiple entries in the same category.
5. The work or project referred to in your Award Category submission, or some part of the work or project, must have taken place between 14 February 2015 and 12 February 2016.
6. Entries on behalf of another organisation will only be accepted if the entry is made with the consent of that organisation.
7. By submitting an application form to enter the Awards, you confirm that you have the right to enter and have obtained all and any consents, permissions and authorisations that may be required in order for you to enter.
The Reader Awards
8. The Reader Awards consist of 2 categories: leader of the year and unsung hero.
9. No fee is required to make a nomination for a Reader Award.
10. Nominations will be accepted from 14 March 2016 until 23:59 on 25 March 2016. Nominated individuals must work for a Qualifying Organisation (as defined in paragraph 1). Instructions on how to make a nomination will be published on the Guardian Sustainable Business website on 14 March 2016. Readers will be limited to one nomination for each Reader Award.
11. GNM will use the nominations to create a shortlist of (maximum) 5 nominees for each Reader Award category (the “Reader Award Shortlisted Entrants”). The Reader Award Shortlisted Entrants will be selected by a panel of judges including at least one who is independent of GNM.
12. The Reader Award Shortlisted Entrants will be put to a reader vote to determine the winner. Readers are restricted to one vote per Reader Award Shortlisted Entrant. The voting will open on 11 April 2016 and close at 23:59 on 22 April.
Entry fees
13. The fee to enter each Award Category is as follows. The fee is payable by the individual or organisation that submits the entry. Please note no fee is payable in respect of nominations for the Reader Awards.
a. small businesses (1-249 employees), public and voluntary sector organisations and academic institutions: £295 (plus VAT) per Award Category entry;
b. medium and large businesses (250+ employees): £850 (plus VAT) per Award Category entry.
14. For entries submitted between 11 November 2015 and 18 December 2015 there will be a 25% early bird discount off the total applicable fee stated above
15. Entrants who enter three Award Categories will receive two-thirds off the applicable entry fee for the third Award Category. For the avoidance of doubt, this discount will only apply to the entry fee for a single Award Category and not the total fee payable.
Judging the entrants to the Award Categories and picking the winners
16. GNM will produce a shortlist of entrants for each Award Category, applying the relevant judging criteria available here (the “Judging Criteria”). Award Category entries must take account of any word limits specified in the Judging Criteria – any Award Category entry that exceeds a stated word limit will, at GNM’s discretion, be disqualified and not considered. A maximum of 6 shortlisted entries (each an “Award Category Shortlisted Entrant”) will be selected in each Award Category. GNM reserves the right to move entries into a different Award Category where GNM deems it appropriate to do so. Entries will not be moved into a different Award Category without the prior consent of the entrant.
17. A panel of judges, including at least one member who is independent of GNM, will judge the Award Category Shortlisted Entrants for each Award Category and will select one winner and a maximum of two runners-up in each Award Category, although there is no obligation on the judging panel to select runners-up. For a full list of people acting as judges for the Awards click here and for the criteria to be applied by the judges please click here.
18. The Reader Awards will be determined by votes from Guardian Sustainable Business readers.
19. Any entrant to the Awards or nominee for the Reader Awards may be contacted by GNM for due diligence purposes.
20. The judges’ decision is final and no negotiations or correspondence with entrants will be entered into. Entrants must not contact, or try to contact, the judges in any way in connection with the Awards, or otherwise try to influence the judges’ selection of the winners.
21. Award Category Shortlisted Entrants and Reader Award Shortlisted Entrants (together, “Shortlisted Entrants”) will be contacted by email in the weeks commencing 29 February 2016 for Award Category Shortlisted Entrants and 28 March 2016 for the Reader Award Shortlisted Entrants. If a Shortlisted Entrant does not respond to GNM within 14 days of being notified, their place on the shortlist will be forfeited and GNM shall be entitled to select another entrant in accordance with the process described above (and that entrant will have to respond to notification within 14 days or else they will also forfeit their place on the shortlist).
22. Three representatives from each Award Category Shortlisted Entrant and the Reader Award Shortlisted Entrants will be invited to attend the Awards ceremony to take place at a venue in London in May 2016.
23. The winner and runners-up in each Award Category and the two Reader Awards will be announced at the Awards ceremony. More complete details of the Awards ceremony will be provided to Shortlisted Entrants at the time GNM notifies them that they have been shortlisted.
24. Shortlisted Entrants might be contacted by GNM prior to the Awards ceremony to gather further detail on their entry. This is for the purposes of collecting and reviewing content to be provided on the Guardian Sustainable Business website and also the special supplement which will be published, in GNM’s sole discretion in the Guardian newspaper after the Awards. GNM shall be under no obligation to publish or exhibit any Award Category entry.
25. GNM accepts no responsibility for any costs associated with the Awards, including but not limited to costs associated with attendance at the Awards ceremony (for those who are invited) or costs associated with submitting entries to the Awards.
26. The winners and runners-up of each Award Category and the winner of each Reader Award category will receive a logo from GNM reflecting their achievement. In order to use the logo, the winners/ runners-up will be required to enter into a licence with GNM, the terms of which will be determined by GNM.
Other terms and conditions
27. No responsibility is taken for entries that are lost, delayed, misdirected or incomplete or cannot be delivered or entered for any technical or other reason. Proof of submission of the entry is not proof of receipt.
28. GNM reserves the right to not process entries that are illegible or incomplete or those that do not meet the entry criteria.
29. Entries must be the original work of those submitting the application. Any evidence of plagiarism may result in the entrant being disqualified.
30. Winners may be required for promotional activity related to the Awards and shall participate in such activity on GNM’s reasonable request. The winners and runners-up in the Awards consent to the use by GNM and its related companies, both before and after the closing date of the Awards for an unlimited time, of their voice, image, photograph and name for publicity purposes (in any medium, including still photographs and films, and on the internet, including any websites hosted by GNM and its related companies) and in advertising, marketing or promotional material without additional compensation or prior notice and in submitting an Award entry, all entrants consent to the same.
31. Material entered will not be returned to senders.
32. The named entrant of each organisation’s submission(s) to the Awards owns the copyright to that Award Category entry. If another person or organisation is the author of your entry, you warrant that you have received an assignment of all associated copyright to your Award entry from that person. GNM may ask to see evidence of that assignment at any time.
33. In consideration of GNM agreeing to consider your Award Category entry, each Award Category entrant: (a) grants GNM a royalty-free licence to copy, edit, display, publish, broadcast and make available their entry in any format in connection with the Awards or promotion of the Awards; (b) agrees that GNM may publish their name in connection with GNM’s use of the entry; (c) warrants that the work submitted with their entry is their own or the relevant organisation’s original work, that it is not defamatory and that it does not infringe any third-party rights; and (d) agrees that GNM may grant to its partners and/or associated companies a sub-licence of the rights licensed to GNM under these terms and conditions on such terms as GNM shall agree in its sole discretion.
34. GNM shall use and take care of any personal information you supply to it as described in its privacy policy, a copy of which can be seen here, and in accordance with data protection legislation. By entering the Awards, you agree to the collection, retention, usage and distribution of your personal information in order to process and contact you about your Awards entry, and for the purposes outlined in paragraph 30 above.
35. GNM reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Awards or any feature thereof with or without prior notice due to reasons outside its control (including, without limitation, in the case of anticipated, suspected, or actual fraud).
36. GNM accepts no responsibility for any damage, loss, liabilities, injury or disappointment incurred or suffered by you as a result of entering the Awards or attending the Awards ceremony. Nothing in these terms and conditions shall exclude the liability of GNM under law for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for death or personal injury resulting from its negligence.
37. GNM shall not be liable for any failure to comply with its obligations relating to the Awards where the failure is caused by something outside its reasonable control. Such circumstances shall include, but not be limited to, weather conditions, fire, flood, hurricane, strike, industrial dispute, war, hostilities, political unrest, riots, civil commotion, inevitable accidents, supervening legislation or any other circumstances amounting to force majeure.
38. The Awards and these terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and entrants to the Awards submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
