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Newsletter 2004 issue 2 |
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The Secret to Winning
Applying for awards can seem daunting. Don’t
let the instructions defeat you. Two types of award applications
stand out to the judges—great applications and poor ones.
Here are a few tips to make you a winner.
Follow the directions
Sounds obvious, but many people don’t provide all of
the information asked for in the application form. In many
award competitions incomplete applications are automatically
booted out of the process.
The organization sponsoring the award developed
specific judging criteria to meet its objectives. If an award
is for reducing waste at the source, your recycling project
won’t fit the criteria. Spare yourself the rejection;
apply for a different award.
Respond to each criterion to give judges
a full understanding of your award-worthy activities. Write
in a clear, concise style to make your project easy to understand.
Measurement—show
the numbers
When you “Describe the environmental benefits” of
your project, judges are looking for hard numbers. Paint a
picture with data. Pull out every measurement system you have
and use the data to support your statements about why you
are worthy of an award. Quantifiable information will make
your application stand out.
For example, this data helped Hutchinson
Technology win a 2003
Governor’s Award, “100 percent reduction of
the use of butyl carbitol in the roller coater operations.
This is an 82 percent facility-wide reduction for the use
of this SARA Title 313 (TRI) reportable chemical...46 percent
reduction in annual chemical costs for roller coating operations...$113,000
reduction in annual waste treatment costs.”
Feedback
You do not have to win the award to benefit from the competition.
Awards like the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award offer
manufacturers a chance for feedback about their systems. The
feedback reports contain both strengths and opportunities
for improvement—important inputs that can help your organization
improve.
Application reuse
Completing an award application is a time investment. Pulling
together all of the project data can take just as long as
writing the application. If you won, think about repurposing
the information and submitting it to another award program.
MnTAP helped Anagram International submit
an application for a Governor’s Award for Excellence
in Waste and Pollution Prevention. A year later we repurposed
the information and helped the company apply for Manufacturer
of the Year. Anagram won each year.
Didn’t win? Find out what was lacking.
Maybe you just need to beef up your application—add that
measurement data—and resubmit next year.
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