Premier's Sustainability Awards – How to enter

The screen opens with a grey background and pink waves in the left corner that represent the awards brand, Information session 4 April 2022 text in the center, and government and sponsor logos along the bottom. A small video screen of the speaker appears in the top right corner.

Kathryn (Kat) Smith: Thank you everyone for joining us this evening. As we wait for just a few more people to join the room, I’ll take a moment to introduce Alicia Darvall who'll be opening the session. She's the director of regions and partnerships at Sustainability Victoria. And we're all really excited to be here tonight to talk to you about why you should enter the awards and all of the exciting benefits of participating in this program and work. So please Alicia, launch us into the program.

Alicia Darvall: Thanks Kat. I'm very pleased to welcome you to this year's Premier’s Sustainability Awards information session. I join you today from Bunurong country in the beautiful Bayside Melbourne, and I acknowledge them as the traditional owners of this area, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I acknowledge that we live and work on the lands of the world's oldest and most sustainable culture. I acknowledge the deep connection to earth of the First Nation's people over the past 60,000 years. And they're invaluable contribution to our understanding of climate change and the environment. Feel free to let us know which lands you are on today in the chat function. So it's a really exciting year this year for the PSAs, Premier’s Sustainability Awards. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the awards. This year's awards are also our first going to be delivered collaboratively by sustainability Victoria, Banksia Foundation and Keep Australia Beautiful in Victoria.

We're super excited to have developed this new partnership, and the program will continue to go grow and reflect the action and sustainability happening across industry, business and community from regional to metropolitan Victoria. As a result of the new partnership, winners and finalists will be able to connect with the larger alumni network, increasing our opportunities to learn from each other. We also will work with the winners to create a pathway from the state-based awards through to the National Banksia Awards.

Community champion winners will have the opportunity to enter the Keep Australia Beautiful Awards program and all winners will have the chance to enter the National Banksia Foundation Awards. Please excuse my snoring dog in the background. This information session is a chance for you all to hear from our partners about the awards process. It'll be very practical in nature, and we're also really thrilled to have previous award winners, a Banksia Foundation judge, and a few others who'll be able to give you some advice and tips that you may not pick up just from reading the screen alone. This will give you the best possible chance for an engaging compelling submission for this year's awards. Good luck with your submissions. And I look forward to celebrating with all the finalists at the awards ceremony later this year. Thank you for your time in advance and thank you for your leadership. Thanks Kat.

Kat: Thanks Alicia. So just to quickly run you through a few things, we'll start by hitting a little poll with all of you to find out which of you have actually participated in one of the three awards programs here before. So we've got the PSAs, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards, the Banksia Awards, the Tidy Towns and Sustainable Cities. So we're just really curious to know if you've been involved before. So please make a note in the poll, we're really curious. Then Sam, if you could just move over to the agenda slide, I'll run you through while we wait for the results to come in. Some stuff that we're going to take care of. Then I'll go back to housekeeping, I apologize. So we're going to run through why you should enter the awards and why you should get involved. And a big part of that is giving you a chance to hear from our previous winners.

And then we'll cover off the detail about how to enter the awards and then go through with some advice from one of our judges from the Banksia Foundation and then segue into questions directly from you. So in terms of housekeeping, sorry Sam, we have a few functions. So we've got the Q and A function down the bottom, the poll function which you've already used, and the Q and A will be how we determine which question gets answered first. So you can upvote other people's questions if there's something you've already seen or you can raise your hand. You could also use the Q & A box to make a comment. So if you're having a technical difficulty you can pop that in there and one of our colleagues will help you. If you require the auto-captioning, that is on the toolbar at the bottom of your screen and you can just flick that on to see some automated captions for today.

So at the beginning of the session we're going to hear from Graz around the benefits of being involved with the awards. But before I do, I see there's been quite a split. Almost everybody here has been involved in some way, and there's an even split between the Banksia Awards, the Tidy Towns and Sustainable Cities. So thank you all for participating in that poll. It's really exciting to hear that you've been involved before. And without further ado, I'll hand over to Graz Van Egmond, CEO of the Banksia Foundation to talk us through why you should get involved.

Graz van Egmond: Thanks Kat. And I'd like to thank Sustainability Victoria and Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria. This is a really exciting opportunity to be working as a collaboration. I'm really excited to be doing this. So thank you to both organizations for coming on board and playing with Banksia to speak. Now the question why you should enter, well, you all want to enter because you want to win. But I've been hanging around Banksia for 22 years now and really having a look at why people are entering the benefits and going beyond just the actual winning the awards, which is phenomenal. But even actually using the process. If you have a look at the experience and putting together an entry, you do look at external criteria that you might necessarily be looking within your business or organization or community group or whoever you're entering with.

So it's really maybe assessing your progress against external criteria and looking taking a fresh look about it. Being recognized for your contribution to a more sustainable Victoria, passing on that recognition. More than ever we need to show people how it's done. Everyone's complaining that it's not being done, we're not doing it. And we are seeing it. I'm in a very fortunate position to see that the optimism and the productivity around the sustainability sectors that I work with on a day to day basis. So it's a great opportunity to show Victoria what you are doing and also to allow your team, your suppliers, your staff, et cetera, to be part of this journey with you, because I think that's really important to bring the whole team on board.

Sharing your story. Storytelling is what we need. We need storytelling, again, on what we are achieving. And going through the awards process, you really are being judged by your peers and you are being recognized. So it is a great platform to be able to have that credibility to go forward and share your story. Talk about what you are doing with confidence. This gives you confidence to be able to go out there and provide, as I said, information, but also for issues like collaboration. We've seen so many people come together after the awards and just collaborate with each other just to see because there are so many things in common. So that's another thing. Encouraging others to be more innovative. Again, I keep on saying we need to show, we need to storytell, we need to do all these things so people can replicate. That's why Banksia was started 33 years ago. It was an awards recognition program, but to encourage others to take on sustainability agendas and do the things that our leaders and innovators are achieving.

So from a community perspective to show the opportunities around volunteering for a great cause, again, you're putting your program out there. You're showing what can be done and you're able to promote various aspects of it. Rewarding your team. Well, we all want to do that. The team works hard behind us. We're always go, go, go. It's achieving, achieving, achieving, what can we do? But this is a time to just take that time out and enjoy the process of entering. Go out there and talk to all the people that are part of this program that you are doing. You might even learn even more things that you didn't even know. So talk to everybody that's been involved in the program. And credibility, well, it does give you that credibility to attain the status that will assist you in getting funding, sponsorship and market share for your product.

So all those things I think are a pretty good reason to enter the awards. And if we can just now jump onto the publicity opportunities. Look, as I said, I found this is really up to you. If you're in an award to become a finalist, it's what you do with this recognition. But what it can do for you is build that brand reputation. And brand reputation can't be bought, it's earned and you are earning it through the awards. So this is something that you really should consider. Well, I can't even talk today. Sorry. Third party advocacy. We all seek that out. And I think again, this platform is perfect for anyone that is seeking advocacy to, as I said, possibly get funding, look at investment opportunities, engage with more people, volunteering. There's so many areas that third party advocacy can help you with.

Again, driving awareness for your project. Utilizing all the marketing collateral that is provided and really using the awards to be able to do that I think is really important. Media interest. Well, you want to create a good media story. It's always easier to create maybe not such an interesting one out there, but I tell you what? With winning the Premier’s Sustainability Awards, I'm sure you create a really good media interest and foster that, don't forget that it takes a bit of hard work too. You just don't sit back with the trophy on your desk or whatever, you need to go out and contact people and talk about it. And again, attracting new customer base, new volunteers, new touch points. This is a real opportunity to be able to actually expand business, community group, whatever you are doing, whatever initiative you're doing, this is the perfect opportunity to do that. So you'd be crazy not to enter that Kat. Do you agree?

Kat: I totally agree. There's a lot of great opportunities that come from the awards publicity. I think maybe let's start with Josie to hear a little bit about her journey with the awards program. So Josie Jones has won many awards with Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria and just has done a huge power of work. So Josie, please tell us a little bit about why you entered the awards and what you got out of participating in the program.

Josie Jones: Yeah, I've unmuted myself. Thank you, Kat. Hi everybody. I actually came to enter the Keep Victoria Beautiful Awards, thanks to an officer at the Mornington Peninsula Shire. I had been undertaking several projects at the time and didn't actually know how the Tidy Town Awards were and was recommended to enter the Keep Australia Beautiful gift fund. So that's how I entered into the awards. And yeah, it's gone on to become other awards. I hold the Dame Phyllis Frost Award for long standing contribution to the environment and two litter prevention awards with Keep Australia Beautiful. But I will say that going for awards is probably the last thing that I would ever think to do because you're putting yourself out there, but I have to say that obviously the suggestion to enter the awards really has changed my life and the platforms have given...

But people seem to revere awards. I tend look at results but people really do look at awards and it helps people listen to you and to respect what you're trying to achieve. So I encourage everyone, whoever's passionate to use the processes in the awards system to refine your project and even look at ways you can improve and be honest in your submissions because I know that the judges always look for what Graz is saying a real story. So that's my contribution. Thank you.

Kat: Thank you Josie. Really appreciate it. So next I'd like to welcome Venkata, the Sustainability Officer at Brentwood Secondary College who won the climate action community champion award in last year's Premier’s Sustainability Awards.

Venkata Kalva: Thank you Kat. Hello everyone. As Kathryn mentioned, I'm the Sustainability Coordinator at Brentwood Secondary College in Glen Waverley. At Brentwood a student leadership group called the Green Team has done an amazing job over the past few years. We are the only second week college that has received the five star results smart school certification due to all the work that we have done in the areas of water, waste, biodiversity and energy.

Having done all that hard work we thought it's the best way to recognize the student work, as teachers we always recognize the student work through certificates and awards. We thought we will give ourselves the opportunity to test our work against all the other members out in the community and put in an application for the Premier’s Awards last year.

It wasn't until the time that we started drafting the application that we noticed that there were so many things that we have done and we had to just bring everything together and then put them in a proper application. It was good to see us listed as one of the three finalists and then end up winning the award as well. So the best thing that we got out of winning the award is grow the new connections. As we speak we got an invitation from the Monash University to attend their zero initiative industry immersion day on the 5th of May. So it's a new connection and that partnership with a branded university will give us that added advantage to keep more goals and also achieve further goals along the way. The entire community, the students, staff and parents are now aware that we are a school that is focused on sustainability and from all sides we seem to be getting that support in making a college even more sustainable.

We seem to use this as the opportunity grow more connections and we are also being approached by a lot of other schools to coach them and also give them some ideas on how they can also progress through their resource smart school journey. So my topic for everyone is that to be in it to be able to win it. So even though it's not a lot, but still awards is something. Like now you can only win if you apply. So it doesn't matter how big or small your project is. Just give it a go. You never know what the unique selling property of your particular project is. So wish you all the best and apply for it.

Kat: Thanks Venkata. We've got one more winner to hear from this evening, which is Brendan Condon, the director of The Cape, the winner of Climate Action-Industry Leader Award. So Brendan, thank you for joining us this evening.

Brendan Condon: Thanks Kat and Graz and everyone. So my comments are that the awards are really well curated. So the reasons to enter are that the awards are really well curated and attract great talent and quality of submission. So don't be dissuaded if you're not successful in your first attempt. And I'm sure you're going to be inspired by the great efforts that you see. And also the diversity of the entrants across the different categories as well. The evening as itself that's a pretty star-studded lineup of best practice innovators and sustainability industry leaders, NGOs, community and government. And it's really a great opportunity to network with your peers and inspiring people. And that leads to collaboration and it's really educative in its own right. I like the way that every finalist in their initiative is a showcase with the summary poster put together by the organizers and that explains with beautiful images and words what your project and initiative is.

And the whole crowd got to take the time to go around and read them all. It's a great evening to get together with your staff, your friends, your partners, your colleagues and celebrate progress and breakthroughs in sustainable innovative practice. The media coverage and the social media coverage fantastic. So for instance, we are in Bass coast with our sustainable housing project, and we're seeing coverage of our initiatives come through if you become a finalist, and then a second round of coverage coming through if you actually win the award. And that's right across media and social media, and that's generated by the awards team. So terrific support in the marketing, and then you can grab ahold of that collateral yourself and then undertake your own marketing to your own industry media and your own audiences.

The other thing is your industry takes notice, your cohort or your area of activity takes notice. For instance we were finalists in the circular economy category last year with reusable trades in the horticultural industry. And we found that this was recognized and shared by peak industry bodies and clients. It's a really powerful marketing to all commercially and if you're working with government. The fact that the Premier Sustainability Award provides brand weight and gravitas, and that provides confidence with your clients and community that you are taking sustainability seriously. And finally for businesses, well for everyone, including not for profit entrance, right now we're in a constrained labor market, staff are looking for leadership across sustainability circular economy zero waste from their organization.

So if you're a finalist or a category winner in the Premier’s Sustainability Awards, it shows to your staff particularly younger talented thinking cohorts that you're potentially an employer of choice who align with their values and concerns for the future. And I think finally, the collaboration between banks here and the Premier’s Sustainability Awards this year means that it's an even more stronger and credible platform going forward. So yeah, we think it's a fantastic fun event and you should be in it to win it. Be in to participate and hopefully become a finalist and win it. Yeah.

Kat: Thanks Brendan. It's so great to hear from the three of you. And I just want to remind everyone we've got some people in the background answering questions in the Q & A, but please feel free to submit your questions throughout this session and we'll get to them all at the end. And particularly if you have any questions for our winners, just make sure you note the name of the person you want to ask a follow-up question at the end of the session. So thanks again to our winners and I'll now hand over to Sam from Keep Australia Beautiful-Victoria to take us through the detail of how you enter the awards.

Sam Lawson: Hi everyone. I'm here today to show you firstly the timeline for completing the awards, when you have to have your entries in by. So get your calendars ready, and then I'll take you through some of the categories, how we'll have two tiers this year, one for community champions and one for industry leaders. Then finally I'll share my screen with you and we'll actually go through the process of submitting an entry so you can see how it works. Okay. So the awards timeline for this year, entries opened on the 28th of March. You're here today on the 4th of April in the information session, and entries close on the 1st of May, 2022.

So you've got a couple of weeks to get your entries in. The judging period will be conducted during May and finalists will be announced at some point during July with the awards gala planned in September, 2022. So pencil those dates into your diary, and we'll definitely give you more details as we approach them. So this year our three organizations have come together and created 60 categories that really reflect and incorporate all of the different entries that we've all seen in the past. So the first that you could apply for is future energy. And that's for projects that are transitioning Victoria to net zero emissions, and providing clean, affordable, and secure energy. We have circular economy innovation, which is for projects that are accelerating Victoria's transition to a more circular economy.

Thriving environment, which is for projects that are protecting, restoring and enhancing Victorian habitat, flora and/or fauna. And to ensure that ecosystems are secured and flourished for future generations. Sustainable places and destinations. It's for projects that are creating sustainable and resilient communities, environments, and economies. And waste and litter reduction. Is a category for projects that are enabling responsible production and consumption of resources while minimizing what goes into landfill or reducing litter. So this year we have two awards types. We have six categories with two tiers.

So the first tier is community champion. Your entry will be entered into community champion if your project or your organization has less than $250,000 of annual turnover, has less than 10 employees, less than 100 volunteers, or your project impacts less than 10,000 community members. Also if your project has less than 50 per year in funding, including government funding. If your project has more than those numbers. So if it has more than 250,000 a year in turnover, more than 10 employees, more than 100 volunteers, it affects more than 10,000 community members or your project has more than $50,000 per year of funding, it would be eligible to enter into the industry leader area. Before I move on, does anyone have any questions that you could pop into the Q & A? We can talk through that. No?

Kat: No. We've got some questions coming through Sam, but I think let's give people a chance to upvote and that way we can get to all of them as we go. So Rosie's asking, do you need to meet all of those criteria?

Sam: So they consider threshold. So you don't have to meet all of the criteria. And if let's say you are over one of them and under another, it's a conversation that you could have with either Keep Victoria Beautiful, Keep Australia Beautiful-Victoria if you are thinking you're a community champion or with Banksia Foundation if you're thinking that you're an industry leader. We recognize that there will be some people that don't clearly fit into these tiers, but the tiers are a good way for us to be able to make sure that entries are being compared fairly.

Kat: Great. Thank you. We've got another one that's got a few likes. Can you submit in two categories if it applies across the two? So that's from Dixon Leo. And there's a few others that are I think curious about that. Can you enter more than one category?

Sam: Yes. My understanding is yes.

Kat: And then there's another one. Can an organization apply even if not all of the results or outcomes or sorry, if the outcomes are still underway. So if you are still in the process of getting results, can you apply?

Sam: I might defer to Graz for this one.

Graz: Yeah, the judges do look at results and I might refer to Izabella on that, but I think you have to be fair on yourself because sometimes innovation has very early results and you have to weigh it up. Do I wait another year or do I enter now? But please be warned that you just cannot enter initial projects without any results or legitimate findings that judges can really assess. And that's important. Izabella, would you like to add maybe something to that?

Izabella: Found my unmute button. And results can come in many different ways. But you have to justify that you have achieved something. The fact that if you're just in a planning process it's too early. So you look at your project and say, "Can we actually say we've achieved something?" And that's what you need to demonstrate that you've achieved something. And that's the important side of it.

Graz: And can I add, look, there's no harm in entering if you'd want to test the water. You can totally enter even if you're early and we at Banksia we give feedback to all our entrants to try and encourage them to have a look at how they can improve in regards to their entry. But as I said, there's no harm in giving it a go.

Kat: Thank you Graz, and then I'll just take one more question this section before Sam walks through and then we'll get to the rest at the end. So thank you Dave. How about my business that turns over above 250k but not other criteria in that category. Sam, are you happy to answer that?

Sam: Yeah, sure. So Dave, it would really depend on the purpose of the project that you're completing. So if it's really about benefiting community and helping your community members or benefiting the environment in your local community, then I would encourage you to enter into community champion. But if it's about positioning your business as an industry leader or improving the way your business approaches its operations, I would encourage you to enter into the industry leader one. So again, if you need more information, happy to chat to you about that, you can contact either of us.

Kat: Thanks Sam. Alright. We're going to keep doing questions a little bit later in the program for this evening but if you could step through the process of applying, I think that would be really helpful.

Sam: Definitely will, but before I move on, as [Jess] has rightly pointed out, I missed fair and healthy society. So that's one more category that we have, and the fair and healthy society is about promoting increased awareness and support for physical or mental health, equity and wellbeing of all Victorians to create a resilient, healthy and happy community. Thank you very much Jess. So now I'll take you through how you would put your entry submission in. There's many ways that you can get a link. You'll see them in lots of emails that we'll send out to you. I'm sure that there'll be a link in the summary session that we send from this session. So you click the link to go to the entry portal.

Once you reach the entry portal, you'll see this page where it's required that you create a new account this year, even if you've previous entered into the Banksia awards, sustainable cities, TidyTowns, or the Premier’s Sustainability Awards. I've already created accounts, I'll log in, but you need to go through the process of creating an account. Once you've created your account and you log in, you'll land on a page here which has a range of information, including entry kits that have more information for each category. You also have at the bottom here a list of the different entries that you've started. So if we're doing it right we only have one entry this year, and to create your entry the first thing that you do is click the green ad button here, the green cross. And then you would click Premier Sustainability entry form.

Okay. I've already started that. So I'll go to my entry form. Once you've created your entry, you'll land on the entry landing page like this. You'll see information on the awards and you'll see the entry kits one more time. So the entry kits are the key part to the entry process. You must download an entry kit. It has the steps within it to prepare your entry, which will later be uploaded. So if I'm going to enter into thriving environment, I would click thriving environment and you'll see this entry kit pop up. So you download this entry kit. Again it has all the information you might need about into the awards, including which stream you might fit in, whether that's industry leader or community champion.

It also helps you understand things like sustainable development goals and how they might apply to your entry and gives you a range of other links to resources that might help you. But the important part of the entry kit is understanding the three essential elements and that we have to create a separate document that gets uploaded into the entry portal. So the first element is the submission document itself. You have to create this submission document yourself. It can be in a Word document or a Notepad document, however you want to create it.

It's important to go through the appendix down the bottom of the entry kit, where you'll see a guide to creating your submission. So there's four parts, the overview, the objectives, the implementation, and the results, as well as the legacy. Five parts. And within each of those there's a range of questions that will help you create your entry. So if you go through the appendix and just answer those questions, you'll have a high quality entry that's able to be submitted. Okay. I'll show you an example that I've already created. So here you'll see, from my amazing project, I've created the overview, the objectives, the implementation, the results and the legacy, and I've typed all the information that might be relevant for the judges with lots of advice within that entry kit. That has guided me.

Just a heads up that this document has to be less than 1500 words. Okay. You save a copy and it's ideal if you can save it as a PDF. If you need help saving it as a PDF, Keep Victoria Beautiful or Banksia Foundation may be able to assist. Okay. So once your entry is ready and is saved as a PDF, we then go back to the entry portal. You'd log into the entry portal. You'd go to the landing page and you would see the first question is please confirm that you have downloaded the entry kit. We have downloaded the entry kit.

The next question is about selecting which stream you believe that your project is in. So select the stream that you're in. Then you identify which type of organization you are, whether you're a team or an individual. You click next. To fill out the relevant contact information. I've already filled all of this in. Once that's done, you click next. And this is where you put your response to the criteria. So this is the document that we just made using the entry kit questions. So I click this, upload it and I'll upload my PDF with my responses to the entry criteria. Once that's done you see that tick. Okay. You click next.

This is where you could upload a range of supporting materials. So you can see here it's videos, promotional materials, testimonials, certificates, anything that might support the judges in understanding your project further, that didn't necessarily fit into your entry submission. Okay. The next step is uploading your PR images. These are the images that will be used by the Premier’s Sustainability Awards to advertise if you become a finalist or a winner. And the next step is likewise, the PR information. So again, that's the project summary and the case study that will be used by the Premier’s Sustainability Awards if you become a finalist or a winner. Then you can insert some of the web and social links that you might have. This is all optional, but it is a way that the judges can get to know your organization or your project a bit more.

And finally, the last step is where you can provide us with collaborative partners. So you can discuss where you might have worked with other people, and have that documented within your submission. Once all of that is done, and you click next and your awards entry will be finalized. So I'm guessing there'll be a few questions and I'm happy to take people through it more.

Graz: Sorry Sam, can I just add something? Sorry to interrupt. No, thank you for taking through and something that really struck me and something I found is that there's a little way of cheating if you're really stuck on the 1500 words and you need more. Uploading the materials is really important because it does give you that in depth. And also the other thing, in your entry use diagrams, use tables, use all those sorts of things that might take a lot of words, but can... A picture says 1000 words. So don't be scared of putting, as I said, pictorial all sorts of depictions in there.

But the other thing, please remember that the judges don't always just read all your material that you've attached. You need to encourage the judges to go there. You need to encourage the judges to see the importance of why you've attached that material and how it relates to your entry. So sorry Sam, just thought I'd just add that because I thought that was an important aspect.

Sam: Yeah. Very important. So I'll hand over to Kat from this point who will be able to moderate any questions that people might have. I'm sure there's some around.

Kat: Thank you. Okay. We do have a few. I just need to remind everyone if there's a question that you are also curious about, please hit like and that will help us prioritize the most popular question. So we've got a question from Scott around the period of time that initiatives need to have occurred. So Sam or Graz, what would you say the period of time is for an entry to be valid for this year's awards?

Graz: We need the results possibly over the last two years, but it doesn't mean that you just have that initiative over the last two years, but we want to compare like to like, so the last two years is what the judges are looking for.

Kat: Excellent. Thank you. And we've covered the two categories thing, but I think we can come back to that at the end again. Do finalists receive recognition even if we don't win? I actually think that might be a good question for Brendan or Venkata or Josie, just about their experience being. so Brendan for example was finalist in two categories. So Brendan, would you like to answer that question?

Brendan: Yeah, we were finalist and as I said, we saw a round of media here and on industry media just noting the fact that we're a finalist. And then we had a second round of media and this was not media publicity that was initiated by us, but it's just that supporting work done by the team that allowed us to have that nice exposure. So absolutely. And you can mark off being a finalist if you're finalist you're an esteemed company. It's terrific.

Kat: Thank you Brendan. Seeming to fit in both categories is a bit of a theme. I know that in previous years we've always had assistance around helping you choose the best fit for you. Graz, can you speak to a little bit about how the support team can guide entrants in choosing the right category for their initiative?

Graz: Yeah. Look, we usually are there to talk you through what your entry is and ascertain what you're trying to. It's very hard on a webinar to have that personal information. But I think a one-on-one conversation if you really are a little bit unsure, whether you are stream one stream too, we can sit down and work it out with you. And again, which categories, I think there's a question there. Will we put you in the right category? We will, but why not start off addressing that issue from before you put your entry in and have a chat to us before you even put your entry together. I think it probably make for a much better entry.

Kathryn Smith: Thank you Graz. I'll just see, we'll do maybe one more question now. So it looks like we've covered that off for you Michael. Would being a national business be an issue? From Nick, if head office and the primary operations are in Victoria. Graz, you and I have talked about this a lot. I'll throw that back to you.

Graz: Yeah, look, it has to be demonstrated that there's benefits to Victoria. You have to be located in Victoria. You're a national business that's fine. But you really do have to address the evidence of your results having an impact on Victoria. It is the Victorian awards so we are really trying to keep it in that area.

Kat: Thanks Graz. And I'd like to just pass over now onto Izabella Kobylanski who is the principle of planning results, a marketing and communication company focused on environmental sustainability. She's been a judge with Banksia for over 15 years. So we're really keen to hear from you Izabella, what are the judges looking for and tell us a little bit about how you should plan a submission.

Izabella: Okay. So I'll start by saying that I've sat on both sides. Oh, thank you for the opportunity to talk. I'm jumping in because I realize the time is of the essence. I've sat on both sides of the process. I have submitted entries and have been a judge. So I talk about it from both angles and which is quite useful. So I'm going to try and be as concise as possible. I'm known for expanding and I can talk on this area for hours because there is so much to capture. The first thing I think with planning the submission is to give yourself enough time. It's not going to happen overnight. So don't expect to be writing the submission the night before the deadline, because it's just not going to work. And it's going to show in your submission.

The other thing that is the obvious is read the entry kit. It's surprising how many people don't when they're writing in the submission. And as a judge, I could say you picked that up fairly quickly. The entry kits are fairly detailed and do give you a lot of information and guidelines. So do follow them. The other thing is to take a moment and find the category that gives you the right fit, because that's important too. Both organization will help you out if need be. But you need to have a look at them and look at your project and compare, do a matrix, whichever way you want to do it, but see which one fits you the best. Because as some people have already identified, you could fit into more than one category and go for more than one award. But that will also depend on how much time you have.

So, the first line is saying assume no prior knowledge. What we really need to say is you are the expert of your initiative. So you must present the information so it's clear and understood and appreciated. You don't assume that everyone is going to understand what you're talking about. And this is very important. In the first process, I would suggest to you to do a data dump, put everything you have about your project together. Don't worry in the first instance about the word limit, because you've got to work out how much information you've got and then decide what is the best information? What is relevant? What covers the various criteria that is recommended? So don't call until the end because you might miss out on very valuable information. So that's the first thing about... And I'd assume that the judges whilst they are experts in their areas, they're not experts in your initiative.

So you must be clear and concise about what you're talking about. The concise is important because of the word limit. You need to support it with evidence and information. Now supporting evidence can be various, it can be data, it can be experiences, it can be case studies. And this is where the appendices at the end may be useful, where you mark the information you've come from a case study to refer the judge to an appendix at the end of the submission. So evidence is very important because the judges need to know that what you're doing is actually giving results. That's what they're looking for at the end. So you have to demonstrate that you are doing something that is getting results. It's not just a plan, it's not just an idea, but it's something that's actually giving results. So try not to waffle, which is my speciality.

Try and tell it in as clear as you can in your words. I always say to this, this is not a report. This is your project. This is your initiative. So use your words, your passion, because that's what's going to make the difference from a judging perspective is when you see people, the passion and what led them. And once you start putting in your passion, you'll actually find that the submission is actually really interesting to read and putting that aside can be a useful document for other things that you want to promote. Industry speak or company speak, be very careful about that because you might be using language that is not familiar to the judge. I came across this personally.

For example the word noise for process management is bad, but as a marketer, noise is good because we are creating noise and getting attention. Whereas it's the opposite. So be careful with simple words that can actually be different things in different context, in different industries. Now the X factor is the thing that no one can actually define but makes you an amazing and incredible submission that gets all judges very passionate. I have been passionate about submissions by just reading them, and I've virtually become a champion and want to watch them and see how they go. And it's about the X factor that there's something about your project or initiative that makes you just switch on the light and get everyone excited. And you need to try and get that across in a submission. How it's done, differently for different projects, but it's all about letting your passion in. So that's about planning. If you have any questions at the end I'll answer that. I'll try to go through that as quickly as possible.

But now to just have a quick look as I put my judge's cap on, so if we could just go to the next slide if I could. So as a judge, what's obvious to you is not always obvious to me as a judge. So when you're doing you're making a claim back it up with data or evidence of some sort. Don't assume that we'll understand. If it's important say it, because I'm not a clairvoyant. I don't understand where you are coming from. So if you don't tell me, I'm not going to know about it. The evidence is, and I keep hopping on evidence. Evidence can be a table. It can be some commentaries, some endorsements that you've had. It can be various things, but there's evidence that you have made progress. What makes your initiative unique? Please don't be shy. Tell me. Because I won't pick it up in between the lines. So there's no point in trying to be humble here.

This is not a platform for humility, this is a platform for boasting. And it's important because judges are reading a number of different submissions. So you need to yell, not in caps, but you need to tell everyone what's going on so that people understand why you deserve to win. And you should say we deserve to win because X, Y, Z. Don't assume that the judges will naturally see it. Tell us, are you the best in Victoria? Are you the best in Australia? The best in the world? I need to know all these sorts of things as a judge, because I haven't got the time to go and check on those things. Although there will be things I'll go and check through your submission. Address the criteria, because I'm judging against a set of criteria to see if you tick the boxes or you don't.

You may not fit all the criteria. So don't worry about that, but try and get as many as you can. So that the judges can see and make it clear of the different criteria. We're not going to be hunting to see if you match the criteria. So state clearly the criteria that you are meeting and how you meet them. Write the submission with the judge in mind. This is what I recommend to everyone. Don't write about you. Write thinking about how I'm thinking. Ensure your submissions highlight your project's dedication and passion. Again, this is very important in the way you write the entry. Because generally speaking, most entries are really good. Most entries that we come across are really quite interesting and fascinating, but you need to push your entry so that it is seen as standing out from all the other ones that are there.

And part of this is making it clear why you should win. I keep coming back to that. And finally from the judge's perspective, make it easy for us to read it, because we're reading a lot. The easier I can read it as Graz mentioned earlier, graphics, tables, evidence. The easier you make it for us, the easier it is for us to judge you and it's easy to see how good you are. That's what we are looking for. We're on your side. We are not trying to find faults in you. So if you make it easier for us, it's easier for us to give you a higher score, rank you better and so forth. So that's it for me. Thank you for your time.

Kat: Thanks Izabella. I think we've got a good question for you from Stuart actually. So don't disappear on us just yet. As a small business setting a new standard in sustainability for industry, do I need to demonstrate industry adoption of the standards I'm setting? From these discussions the awards seem to be more based around defined projects rather than ongoing action.

Izabella: Graz help me with this one as well. What do you think? I think...

Graz: You're setting a new standard for the industry. I think you do. Depending on what you're entering, the awards are based around defined projects, but if you as a business are setting a new standard or working on something, it definitely is part of the entry process. And maybe we have spoken too much about just projects and initiatives, but as a whole of business approach too. Yes, we are definitely looking at that. So by all means we will be, looking at how as a business you are doing that rather than just a project.

Izabella: Because in fact you're setting a new standard can be looked at as an initiative in itself that you are doing something, this is your action that you're taking forward. The term initiative and project is fairly broad. It's something that you do that is making a difference. Would that be?

Graz: Yeah. And it's the impact that you're having it. I don't think it's really relevant to the context. I know it's hard to say, look, we're trying to look at apples with apples and oranges and oranges, but that's not always the case. We do have to look at a broader sphere, but it is the impact that you're having and the outcome that you're generating. So as a business, as a project, as an initiative, I think yeah, they all relate.

Kat: Thanks Graz and Isabella. We've got one here from DRI education. The $50,000 funding threshold. Does that include any fundraising or income streams from education programs for schools or is it only relating to grants or similar? Sam, that might be one for you.

Sam: Yes. So the funding threshold is for all funding received from the project. And this circumstance, yes, the 50,000 funding threshold would apply for the income streams for the education programs, no matter where they're coming from.

Kat: Thanks Sam. We've got another one here. Are school children looked at as a part of the 100 volunteers on the school theme? I might ask you again Sam if that would be the case.

Sam: Yeah, sure. I think it really depends on the project. I think it's unlikely that a project would be pushed into the industry leader category because it has more than 100 school children committing to the project. It's very likely that it would sit within community champion if it's a school based project.

Kat: Thank you. And Graz, I might throw to you on this one. If you fit into more than one category, do you have to address two separate criteria or would you combine the responses into only one? And would the 1500 words then increase?

Graz: Look, I think if you do fit into two categories, you have to do two separate entries. Because I think it would muddy the water for the judges. And I think it's really worthwhile or you decide which one is more relevant to you, which one you want to tackle. I think by combining into the one it is just going to make the likelihood of you as I said confusing the judges a little bit on which category. So as I said, there are awards for a specific category. So as I said the 1500, yeah. I think you need to do as two separate ones and it's 1500 per category. So you'll have a lot of words to be able to explain your initiative. There's no worries there.

Kat: Excellent. Thank you Graz. Look, we've only got two minutes left of our session tonight. So I just want to highlight that we have on the screen at the moment the contact information for Banksia Foundation and for Keep Victoria Beautiful who will be available to help support you in the process of applying for the awards. So you can reach out to them with any of your questions that you weren't able to ask this evening. If there are any questions outstanding as well, we'll endeavour to respond to them over email, and this again, it's recorded. So if you'd like to refer back to it you can, and with just about a minute or two to go, I just wanted to see if any of my panel speakers would like to add any further comments to help people with their award application.

Graz: What I'd like to say and when you start entering, sometimes you have a clear head and you do get stuck. Even if you do get stuck and it's a small issue, please give us a call, we're always there. We want to help you. We want to make sure that you complete the entry, that you feel satisfied in completing your entry trip. Because as I mentioned before, it is a great process in itself. So at any stage, please give us a call, but not midnight or anything like that, or when I'm having my glass of wine or you might get the right answer that you want when I have that glass of wine, but who knows? But yeah, we're there to help. So whenever you want to call just do...

Kat: Excellent. Thank you all for coming this evening to find out more about the awards program, we really appreciate you taking the time, and a big thank you to our previous winners and judge for joining us to give some tips and tricks for people on their applications. So thank you everybody and finishing 30 seconds early. I hope you all have a gorgeous evening. Thank you so much.

Graz: Thanks Kat.

Kathryn: Bye everyone.

End of transcript.