Graham Simmonds believes that more needs to be done to recognise achievement and calls for a new Nobel Prize for “Sustainability”.

It is very telling that Elinor Ostrom, co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, will on 21 October be giving the 2010 Senator George J. Mitchell Lecture on Sustainability.   Ostrom’s forthcoming lecture, “Unconventional Wisdom: Sustaining Our Natural Resources in a Rapidly Changing World”, highlights the level of importance that economists and scientists are quite rightly placing on sustainability and says to me that the Nobel Prize should give serious consideration to adding a stand-alone prize for Sustainability to its other Prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences).

However it’s not just the global crème de la crème that need to be recognised and rewarded for innovation and effort;  climate change presents such a huge challenge that there needs to be a concerted effort at all levels to recognise individuals and organisations that are placing sustainability at their core.  And that’s why Green Rewards has this year partnered up with Green Awards which does so much to raise the bar when it comes to sustainability in communications.  As Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, Rt Hon Chris Huhne MP commented “The transition to a low carbon UK will be nothing less than a green revolution. And like the other industrial revolutions, the low-carbon revolution will be driven by entrepreneurs, businesses and the private sector, so I applaud the Green Awards showcasing the talent that is required to communicate sustainability and best practice across the business sector.” 

At Green Rewards, recognition and reward are core to our mission and whilst much of our work to-date has focused on incentivising staff and consumers, I am delighted that we have now teamed up with Envirocomms and RWA (Resources and Waste Advisory Group) to develop a new approach to household incentivisation, Local Green Points (www.localgreenpoints.com); with our partners we are currently working on a feasibility study to assess how this new approach can be used to reward households for reducing waste and increasing recycling for a pilot locality in London.