Sustainability Recognition Opportunities
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- Sustainability Recognition Opportunities
NOTE: Links to applications are for example purposes only and may not be the most recent form.
Please send any additional opportunities, corrections or proposed edits to erin.hiatt@rila.org.
Category
| Recognition Opportunity | Specific Category | Retail Eligibility | Report Process & Cost | Prevalence |
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| Building Design Leasing Construction Performance | ||||
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Holistic building management processes - operating procedures, safety, security, preventative maintenance, etc. |
All retailers managing occupied commercial & industrial buildings, including owner-occupied buildings. Program is open to both members and non-members of BOMA; however, application fees are higher for non-members |
Type: Application Deadline: Rolling Acceptance - results announced at the end of each quarter. Recipients must re-apply every 3 years. Cost: $900 to $1,800 for BOMA members and $1,140 to $2280 for non-members. Price variation based on square footage of buildings |
As of January 2019, 2,000 BOMA 360 designations since program inception in 2009 (retailers unknown) |
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Lease language |
Any retailer who is a landlord or tenant |
Type: Application Deadline: March 31st. Recipients must re-apply every 3 years. Cost: Free |
In 2019, 23 awardees: 6 Gold Recognition, 13 Silver Recognition, and 4 Team Transaction Recognition |
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Building design and construction |
Any retailer |
Type: Application Deadline: Rolling Acceptance Cost: Free |
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Building performance |
Any retailer with an existing U.S. retail store(s), distribution center(s), and/or office building(s) that score a 75 or higher on EPA’s 1 – 100 ENERGY STAR Energy Performance Scale by benchmarking in Portfolio Manager. |
Type: Application Deadline: Rolling Acceptance Cost: Free |
As of 2020, 36,235 ENERGY STAR Buildings & Plants certified including over 8,000 retail stores. |
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Green building design |
Any retailer whose building design and construction (BD+C) and/or interior design and construction (ID+C) achieves a tier of LEED certification, according to score:
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Type: Application Deadline: Rolling Acceptance Cost: Members from $5,200+ and non-members from $6,500+ per building |
As of April 2020, there are 124,471 registered projects, globally BD+C & ID+C ~2800 retail projects certified in the US (~3400 registered) |
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Holistic building management processes - operating procedures, preventative maintenance, etc. |
Any retailer whose building design and construction (BD+C) and/or interior design and construction (ID+C) achieves a tier of LEED certification, according to score:
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Type: Application Deadline: Rolling Acceptance Cost: Members from $5,200+ and non-members from $6,500+ per building |
As of April 2020, there are 124,471 registered projects, globally O+M - 1 retail project certified in the US |
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| Climate Change | ||||
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Any retailer who earns an"A" on its CDP climate change disclosure |
Type: Grade - based on CDP climate change disclosure response Deadline: Summer - for overall CDP climate change disclosure Cost: $975 subsidized contribution, $2,725 standard contribution |
In 2019, 181 companies (4 retailers in the US) received an A grade |
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| Communications and Engagement | ||||
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Any retailer who has planned and executed a successful promotion, marketing or consumer education campaign around an ENERGY STAR certified product category, series of products, or ENERGY STAR at large |
Type: Application Deadline: Winter Cost: Free |
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Any retailer engaged in cause marketing or brand purpose work or their consumer promotion, advertising, or public relations agencies |
Type: Application Deadline: January Cost: $195 (standard entry fee) |
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| Energy – Operations | ||||
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Energy management |
Retailers with a portfolio of buildings for which they track and control the energy usage, have signed a Better Buildings Challenge Partnership Agreement with DOE, share portfolio-wide data and submit two case studies. |
Type: Commitment - to improve energy efficiency of portfolio of buildings by at least 20% over ten years Deadline: Rolling acceptance - new Challenge members announced in Spring at Better Buildings Summit Cost: Free |
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DOE Interior Lighting Campaign (ILC) Exemplary Performance Recognition |
Interior lighting |
Any retailer |
Type: Application Deadline: Spring Cost: Free |
As of August 2019, 10 recognized organizations (3 retailers) |
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EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year and Sustained Excellence - Energy Management Category |
Energy management |
Any retailer who has demonstrated improved energy performance of buildings through an organization-wide energy program, particularly by integrating and promoting ENERGY STAR tools and resources. Must show active participation in and promotion of ENERGY STAR. Sustained Excellence winners must have also received Sustained Excellence award 1-2 years prior. |
Type: Application Deadline: Winter Cost: Free |
In 2020, Partner of the Year: Sustained Excellence - Energy Management – 45 organizations (5 retailers) received the award. |
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Renewable energy |
Retailers who meet GPP-specified green power usage requirements can apply for awards including: Partner of the Year, Excellence, Sustained Excellence, Direct Project Engagement GPP Top Partner Rankings are separate and determined by top annual kWh users of green energy |
Type: Application Deadline: Spring Cost: Free |
In 2019, Partner of the Year - 1 awardees (0 retailers) Excellence - 7 awardees (1 retailer) Sustained Excellence - 1 awardees (0 retailers) Direct Project Engagement - 7 awardees (0 retailers) |
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SEIA Top U.S. Commercial Solar Users (Solar Means Business Report) |
Renewable Energy - Solar |
Retailers who are in the Fortune 500 and among the largest on-site solar adopters in terms of MW installed, number of installations, solar capacity installed in previous year, or % of facilities with solar |
Type: Ranking - based on installed solar capacity Deadline: Spring & Summer - SEIA collects data from companies, installers, and public sources Cost: Free |
In 2018, 9 retailers were featured in one or more top 10 ranking lists (Rankings, By number of installations, On-site only) |
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Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) Energy Efficiency Awards |
Energy Management |
Any retailers may be nominated who have: 1. Demonstrated an outstanding and/or unique contribution to energy efficiency 2. Demonstrated quantifiable, cost-effective energy savings or evidence of the quantifiable impact the new technology could have within its market segment 3. Evidence that actions taken (program, practice, etc.) can be replicated and/or can serve as a catalyst for further efficiency gains. |
Type: Application Deadline: Spring/ Summer Cost: Free |
In 2019, 4 awardees (0 retailers): 1 Star of Systems Efficiency awardee 1 Star of Doubling Down on Efficiency awardee 2 Star of Dynamic Efficiency awardees |
| Overall Sustainability/CSR | ||||
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Corporate Responsibility Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens |
Business performance including governance, human rights, environmental |
Any retailer in the Russell1000 Index |
Type: Ranking - top 100 companies once evaluated according to 260 data poinType: Ranking - top 100 companies once evaluated according to 260 data points Deadline: N/A - results released in Spring Cost: Free |
In 2019, 7 of the ‘top 100’ Corporate Citizens were retailers |
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Ethical business standards |
Type: Application Deadline: Fall Cost: $3,000 USD |
In 2020, 132 companies (5 retailers) were selected |
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Environmental, social performance; products; job creation; investor alignment |
Any retailer who is a top publicly-traded company in the U.S. (922 were researched in 2019) |
Type: Ranking - Forbes and JUST Capital evaluate companies on"just corporate behavior", as defined by 36 components identified in a 2019 Roadmap for Stakeholder Capitalism public survey Deadline: N/A - results released in Fall Cost: Free |
In 2020, 4 of the 'top 100' were retailers |
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Sustainable development leadership |
Any retailer who is identified by the GlobeScan-SustainAbility Survey respondents (>800 experts in 78 countries in 2019) as a sustainability leader |
Type: Nomination by sustainability experts who respond to survey Deadline: N/A - results released in Summer Cost: Free |
In 2019, 3 retailers made the ‘Top 10’ rankings |
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Inclusion in S&P Dow Jones Sustainability World Index Inclusion in S&P Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index |
Governance, social, and environmental practices |
Any retailer who is invited to participate in RobecoSAM’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) (over 3,500 publicly traded companies are invited) For retail, there are two specific questionnaires: one for Retailing and one for Food and Drug Retailers. |
Type: Application - invitation only Deadline: Spring Cost: Free |
One Industry Leader is chosen for each of the 61 industry groups - which include Retailing and Food & Staples Retailing categories |
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RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook RobecoSAM Gold, Silver or Bronze Class RobecoSAM Industry Mover |
Governance, social, and environmental practices |
In 2019, 4710 companies were assessed in the the RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). For each industry:
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Type: Application - invitation only Deadline: Not specified Cost: Free |
In 2019, 90 global retailers participated in the Assessment. 17 of the 90 retailers received a Class designation (Gold Silver, Bronze, Industry Mover) |
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Human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption |
Any retailer |
Type: Application Deadline: Rolling Acceptance Cost: Annual financial contribution |
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Business performance based on Investment, Integration, Institutionalization, and Impact |
Private or Public company with U.S. operations and revenues of $1 billion or more |
Deadline: Application is open December, submission deadline in March |
In 2019, of the 50 awardees, 1 was a retailer |
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Recognizes companies that have had a positive social impact through activities that are part of their core business strategy. |
Any retailer- priority for companies with annual revenues of $1 billion or more. |
Type: Selection in collaboration with expert partners Shared Value Initiative. Fortune writers and editors then evaluate and rank the companies by these four factors:
Deadline: Not Specified Cost: Free |
In 2019, 52 companies were chosen (5 retailers) |
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Recognizes companies based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices |
Any retailer that falls into the top 1,000 publicly held companies incorporated and headquartered in the U.S., measured by market capitalization |
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Recognize strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices |
Type: Selection Process Deadline: Not specified Cost: Free |
In 2020, 1030 companies from developed companies in the index. |
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Recognize CSR efforts in leadership, innovation, and implementation |
Any retailer who is a member of the Responsible Business Alliance or associated to the RBA indirectly through factories and/or suppliers. |
In 2019, 3 winners Leadership – 1 awardee (0 retailers) Innovation – 1 awardee (0 retailers) Implementation – 1 awardee (1 retailer) |
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Responsible Sourcing and forest management |
Any retailer who contributes to the movement towards responsible sourcing and forest management. |
In 2019, 12 companies and organizations received the FSC Leadership Award (1 retailer) |
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| Products and Packaging | ||||
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EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year and Sustained Excellence - Retailer Category |
Products offered in store |
Any retailer of ENERGY STAR certified products that is already a Partner and in good standing Sustained Excellence winners must have also won in a previous year |
Type: Application Deadline: Winter Cost: Free |
In 2020, Partner of the Year - 1 awardee (1 retailer) Sustained Excellence - 2 awardees (1 retailers) |
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Safe chemicals and products |
Any retailer who demonstrates leadership in furthering safer chemistry and products through the Safer Choice Program or use of the Label |
Type: Submission Deadline: May Cost: Free |
In 2019, 14 awardees (2 retailers) |
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Packaging design |
Any individual who works for a retailer with leading practices relating to packaging: design, partnership outcome, personal commitment, breakthrough process. Only SPC members may submit nominations |
Type: Application Deadline: July Cost: Free |
In 2019, Innovation in Responsible Sourcing - 1 awardee (0 retailers) Innovation in Design Optimization - 1 awardee (0 retailer) Innovation in Recovery - 1 awardee (0 retailers) Outstanding Person or Team - 1 awardee (0 retailers) 13 finalists (0 retailers) |
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| Supply Chain | ||||
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Supplier engagement - environmental |
Any retailer who is among the highest scoring companies reporting information to CDP on its supplier engagement |
Type: Highest Grade - based on CDP Supply Chain or Climate Change disclosure Deadline: Summer - for overall CDP supply chain or climate disclosure Cost: $975 minimum contribution |
In 2019, 129 organizations achieved an A grade Supplier Engagement Rating (2 retailers) |
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Shipping practices and performanceShipping practices and performance - air pollution, energy efficiency, and climate change |
Any retailer who is a top performing SmartWay partner in good standing may be selected as a semi-finalist |
Type: Application, if selected as a semi-finalist Deadline: Supplemental materials from semi-finalists are due in Spring Cost: Free |
In 2019, 72 awardees (3 retailers) |
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| Waste – Operations | ||||
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Waste management |
Existing WasteWise Partners who can submit prior years' waste data to qualify for Partner of the Year or Honorable Mention for one of four business sizes:
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Type: Application Deadline: March Cost: Free |
In 2019, 6 National business award winners (1 Retailer) 17 Regional award winners (1 Retailer) |
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EPA Sustainable Material Management (SMM) Electronics Challenge |
Recycling and waste management |
Any retailers in the electronics sector |
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Food waste management |
Any retailer can join the voluntary incentive program if they implement targeted strategies to reduce food waster in their operations and report results to compete for annual recognition from the EPA. |
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| Water – Operations | ||||
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Water management |
Any retailer who earns an"A" on its CDP water disclosure |
Type: Grade - based on CDP water disclosure response Deadline: Summer - for overall CDP water disclosure Cost: $975 minimum contribution |
In 2019, 72 companies made the Water Security A list |
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Energy Management |
Any retailer may become a partner. Partners are asked to:
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Type: Application Deadline: Summer Cost: Free |
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