Best Business in the Community

Sponsored and judged by Essex & Suffolk Water (visit website)

The category

Is your company actively engaged in putting back something into the local community? You might, for example, be helping out at youth centres, helping to renovate parks and woodlands, be providing training or re-training, donating used equipment, helping to support deprived children; the list is almost endless.

When you come to the final stage of completing your on-line entry you will be asked to enter the number of employees including contractors.

What the judges are looking for

The judges are looking for a description of how your company supports its local community. This can be through practical means including staff volunteering, fundraising events, and financial support. Describe what you do and why you decided to do it. Please write your overall description in no more than 500 words (fewer are perfectly acceptable) and then separately answer the questions below. If you want to attach supporting materials such as photos, leaflets, testimonials, etc. please do so.

Specific questions to answer

1. How does your business benefit its community?
2. What is your community strategy?
3. What is the business benefit from its community involvement?
4. Describe the range of community activities your company is involved in?
5. Identify the financial and/or personnel resources allocated to community work over the last twelve months

About the judges

Jacqueline Searle, Corporate Affairs at Essex & Suffolk Water will be judging the Best Business in the Community category.

Essex & Suffolk Water is a well known and respected local business, supplying water to over 1.75 million domestic and commercial customers. Working in its local communities, it has a responsibility for both customers and the environment and land it operates in and around. Community involvement is something that the company takes very seriously and acknowledges its commitment through its corporate responsibility strategy which includes its company volunteering initiative 'just an hour' and the endowed Essex & Suffolk Water Community Fund, both of which Jacqueline manages.

As the new sponsor of this category, Jacqueline said: "I am looking forward to receiving the entries and seeing first hand the range of good work that businesses do to help their communities".