Best Sustainable Finance Team of the Year

Description

This award is open to organisations in the financial services sector wishing to enter a specific team that has shown outstanding leadership in promoting sustainable finance – or sustainability more broadly - within their organisation. This can include any type of team within a financial institution, including research, investment, engagement, client relations and back office support – but they do need to be able to demonstrate that they’ve achieved really significant, game-changing impact.

Judges do not expect perfection in all aspects of the activities of the team: they know that embedding sustainable finance across all activities is a challenging process! But the judges expect a team to show evidence that it takes appropriate account of social and environmental issues across all of its activities and has a transition plan towards achievement of fuller sustainability.

Key achievements will include one or more major initiatives in sustainable finance (or, for back office functions, sustainability more broadly), which the team has initiated and led. The judges will assess the extent and range of achievements and must see evidence of how the team has been influential within their organisation; the degree of creativity and innovation that has been shown in taking forward the initiative(s); and the extent to which the team has shown leadership within their sector and has influenced others.

This award celebrates a team that has shown leadership in sustainable finance during the period 2022 to 2024, although teams put forward for this award may often have a longer history of leadership.

We request a total word count of 1500 words +/-10% (excl. supporting docs). Any confidential data will be treated as such and only shared with the judging panel, all of whom will have signed NDAs.

Criteria

Judges will be looking for evidence of progress on the following points (weighting percentages in brackets):

  • The team’s innovation and creativity in their approach to sustainable finance (30%)

  • Evidence of success of the initiatives developed by the team with verifiable data to support the reach and impact (30%)

  • A demonstration of an ongoing commitment to work with other teams in the organisation to bring them along on the sustainability journey; ensuring projects and initiatives are collaborative long-term efforts (30%)

  • The extent to which the team has also influenced practices outside their organisation (10%)

PLEASE NOTE: The criteria above are different to the questions in the application form. You will need to follow the application questions; cross-referencing these with the criteria to ensure you’ve captured them within your application. The criteria are followed by the judges in order to compare all entries in each category like-for-like. Please ensure you register / log in to AwardStage (opens 3 March), select the category and export a PDF copy of the questions. Some category application questions differ. The application questions will be available at least four weeks before entries open, so if you wish to get them ahead of time please email us.