Award schemes

This work, conducted as part of the award Dynamic Adaptative Materials for Separation and Sensing Microsystems made under the European Heads of Research Councils and European Science Foundation EURYI (European Young Investigator) Awards scheme in 2004, was supported by funds from the Participating Organisations of EURYI and the EC Sixth Framework Programme. See www.esf.org/euryi. 

Regulation (EC) No 1980/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000 on a revised Community eco-label award scheme, Official Journal of the European Union, EC, 2000, No L. 237. 

Table 4.3 Point award scheme for sample ranking, based on potential hazards (Dutka et al., 1991). 

We thank the ORS Awards Scheme of United Kingdom Scholarships for International Research Students and the Salford University for the financial support during this work. 

A host of award schemes for environmental reporting have sprung up around the world, perhaps the most significant being the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) scheme in the UK. Started in 1991, it aims to support the development of corporate environmental techniques. ACCA is one of the largest professional accountancy bodies in the world, with nearly 200 000 members. 

European directive on freedom of access to environmental information ACCA starts environmental report award scheme PIRC adopts UK environmental investor code Rio Summit Agenda 21... 

In the short period that CERs have been in existence, a relatively large number of award schemes have appeared. The terminology used for these is wide-ranging and at times confusing. The two main items in use, rating and ranking, may be defined as follows ... 

Most of these award schemes utilise certain guidelines/criteria. In nomenclature terms, there is often considerable overlap between these CER award schemes and environmental reporting guidelines. For example, the ACCA criteria are also referred to by some as guidelines, which is fair enough as they are every bit as comprehensive and relevant as some of the so-called guidelines (see section 4.3). 

The ACCA award scheme has emerged as one of the leaders in this field, and has managed to attract government support in that the UK Environment Minister has presented the awards in recent years. Table 3.14 shows the winners of the ACCA awards for the years 1991-1999. 

It should be noted that the term guidelines is also used to cover the criteria utilised in various initiatives, charters and award schemes. 

The ACCA set up the UK Environmental Reporting Awards (ERAs) scheme in 1991, which at the time of writing had completed its ninth cycle (see section 3.7). The scheme aims to support the development of corporate environmental techniques. The ERAs are now regarded as a major national initiative, which reflects the growth in corporate environmental reporting and increased demand from stakeholders for corporate accountability. The ACCA concept has become the prototype for many other country award schemes, as well as attracting the attention of the UK environment minister to present the awards for four consecutive years. 

Following the success of the ACCA award scheme in the UK, a pan-European scheme was launched in 1997, known as the European ERA (EERA). By 1998, equivalent accountancy associations from six countries were involved the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and France. Portugal joined in 1999. 

Acknowledgments This work was funded by The Wellcome Trust under Seeding Drug Discovery Initiative and the Strategic Award scheme. 

The author is grateful to J. Xu, E. Ma, J. Eckert, H.B. Lu and M. Calin for their stimulating discussions. Financial support provided by Research Services of The University of Western Australia (through UWA Research Development Award Scheme) is gratefully acknowledged. 

One of the ways of increasing awareness and raising interest is through the operation of a Health and Safety Award Scheme. Whilst there are a number of national award schemes run by safety organisations such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the British Safety Council, many organisations run their own internal award schemes. An example of the criteria for a typical Health and Safety Award scheme follows ... 

DEVELOPING A SAFETY CULTURE 177 HEALTH AND SAFETY AWARD SCHEME... 

Three Awards (Gold, Silver and Bronze) would be presented initially for the best health and safety performance by individual units during the year under review. After the first year of the Award Scheme coming into operation, an Award for Most Improved Performance would be added to the three Awards. 

Where there is clear evidence of lack of commitment to the Award Scheme by managers, which may be shown by a continuing deterioration in performance shown in the assessments, some form of stimulation, and even disciplinary action, may be necessary. 

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