The VIBES Team has announced that all 2010 award entries will be considered for the VIBES Special Award for Energy Efficiency this year – good news for those of you who are currently filling out your application forms and another reason to apply for those who haven’t already!

The VIBES Special Award for Energy Efficiency, which is supported by the Scottish Government’s Action on Energy Efficiency, aims to reward businesses that have made the biggest steps in cutting their energy use and Co2 emissions.

Any organisation applying for a VIBES award this year will automatically be considered for the award and you will not need to fill out a separate application form for this category. So, remember to bear this new award category in mind when you’re completing your application to increase your organisation’s chances of being selected.

When completing your form, make sure you look through your standard award guidance notes, which you can download from our website, and where you can also find a full breakdown of what your award entry should include.

To help increase your chances in the VIBES Special Award for Energy Efficiency we have listed the essential criteria for this award below:

For management category entrants:

• You must be able to demonstrate a true energy and CO2 saving figure that is related to your business turnover.
• Consideration will be given to energy productivity. This ensures that expanding businesses are not disadvantaged by their increased activity and subsequent consumption. In the same way other businesses are not put at an unfair advantage because they have reduced energy consumption through contraction or recession.

 For product/process/service category entrants:

• You must be able to demonstrate how you have made innovative use of:
  • design;
  • material;
  • methods;
  • technologies;
  • approaches; or
  • intervention packages
•  You must provide quantitative evidence of how this had led to significantly reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions, for example through fuel bills or research testing results.
   Remember the application deadline this year for all our award categories is Friday, 9 July. The winners will then be announced at the VIBES awards ceremony in Glasgow in December 2010.

 If you would like to find out more about the VIBES Special Award for Energy Efficiency, please visit our website or contact one of our team by calling 01349 860398 or email us at vibes@sepa.org.uk.

 It seems the VIBES 2010 awards is getting even more interesting, we can’t wait to hear what businesses are doing this year!

 Best of luck,

The VIBES Team

With fewer than six weeks to go before entries close for Scotland’s most “environmentally-friendly” business competition, we’re keen to remind businesses of all sizes that they still have plenty of time to get their entries into the VIBES 2010 awards.

For more than a decade, VIBES has recognised businesses from across Scotland whose sustainable practices contribute to the overall well-being of this great country.

Previous winners and shortlisted companies come from a vast variety of sectors, including manufacturing; food and drink; transport; environmental services; oil and gas and leisure – to name but a few.

As the deadline approaches for this year’s awards we are keen to see how doing business in Scotland has changed this year.

This year will be an interesting one to judge, not only because of the extreme winter that businesses had to adapt to but in addition we have seen a rise in new businesses develop in a very different financial environment. We would be interested to hear about the methods that newer businesses employ to incorporate sustainability into their daily practices.

I advise anyone entering the competition for the first time to check out our numerous success stories from the past two years on our website by clicking here.

Or if you want to speak to someone from VIBES, feel free to give us a call to see if you’ll be eligible for an award entry on 01349 860398.

If you get shortlisted, you will receive constructive feedback from some of Scotland’s key environmental experts.

Remember the awards are free, so you have nothing to lose!

Look forward to hearing from you,
Alan Farquhar, VIBES chair

Just a reminder that the deadline for the VIBES 2010 awards is Friday, 9 July.

Entries are assessed on the submitted application form and an on-site visit to those that are shortlisted. Winners will then be announced at a (free!) prestigious award ceremony in Glasgow on 1 December 2010.

If your organisation hasn’t already done so, you can obtain an application form for VIBES 2010 by visiting the awards website at: www.vibes.org.uk or by contacting the VIBES Awards co-ordinator Fiona Whyte on 01349 860398, who can also chat through your application.

The VIBES Team.