Best Energy Excellence in Food, Agriculture & Consumer Products

This award is open to organisations operating in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), agriculture, and food production sectors, of any size, throughout the island of Ireland, that can demonstrate outstanding sustainable energy initiatives. The judges will want to know everything you do to reduce your energy use and carbon dioxide emissions. You must explain what you have achieved so far and what you hope to achieve in the future. We also need to see evidence of an overall strategy that sets out your targets, how you plan to achieve them, and hard statistics demonstrating year-on-year comparisons. Entry is by a 5 A4 page submission; the judges will be looking for freshness of content and clear information and evidence of delivery on core objectives, paying attention to the criteria listed below.

• Organisation background: Outline the size and nature of your organisation or operation. Include your annual energy spend or energy use, production outputs where relevant, and any accreditation, benchmarking, or external validation.
• Strategy Background: Provide a background of your energy strategy, outlining how it was developed, its objectives, and the measurable targets set to improve energy efficiency, increase renewable energy use, and reduce emissions.
• Implementation: Provide an overview of how the strategy was implemented efficiently and effectively. Include all steps taken to improve energy efficiency, increase the use of renewable energy, reduce direct and indirect emissions, and integrate low-carbon technologies into your operations where applicable.
• Organisation Commitment: Describe the commitment made to staff training, communication, and engagement to support your energy initiatives. Explain the level of buy-in and support from across the organisation and, where relevant, from suppliers, producers, advisors, and other stakeholders.
• Outcomes & Results: Summarise the practical benefits of your energy initiatives to date, detailing the benefits to both the environment and the organisation. Include achievements in reducing energy demand, increasing renewable energy use, reducing emissions, improving operational resilience, and delivering business benefits. Show comparisons with previous years where possible and describe how the impacts and benefits were measured and reported.
• Supporting facts & statements: Include any other facts or statements that you feel are relevant to support the entry.