Criteria... SUSTAINABILITY
Always forward-facing, the King’s Awards have constantly evolved and changed to better reflect UK industry and business development. To this end, a new awards category was introduced in 1993, under the heading Environmental Achievement. This new award reflected the growing awareness of man’s impact on the environment and how manufacturing and processing operations could take steps to reduce our carbon footprint both locally and globally. In 2001 this award was updated to better reflect how businesses were tackling their environmental impact through the development of positive strategies to encourage new, less damaging ways of doing business: it was renamed Sustainable Development. The King’s Awards for Enterprise continues to evolve in step with modern business realities. In 2026, the transition from ‘Sustainable Development’ to ‘Sustainability’ reflects a clearer expectation that organisations demonstrate an integrated, organisation-wide approach to responsible growth. While this remains one of the smaller awards categories, the achievements made by the companies involved are hugely beneficial and demonstrate how business and sustainability can go hand-in-hand. There were 36 winners in the Sustainability category for 2026.
The general eligibility criteria for The King’s Awards can be found on the website https://www.gov.uk/kings-awards-for- enterprise/eligibility.
To apply for the Sustainability award, you must also:
z Show how you’ve gone beyond sustainability compliance requirements for at least 2 years
z Show how your organisation has built sustainability into its vision and strategy
z Show the impact or positive outcomes of your actions or interventions
You can include examples, such as showing how you’ve:
z Developed an innovative product, service or process that has environmental benefits
z Made sustainability an essential part of your organisation, supply chain or community
Read the United Nations sustainable development goals to identify which goals are relevant to your work.
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator