Connect to Sustainability. Connect to Success.

Since its launch in 2004, the HSBC Living Business Programme has been helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong become more competitive and productive by incorporating socially and environmentally sustainable practices into their business operations. The programme provides a learning platform for SMEs to understand the best practices in corporate sustainability (CS) and offers recognition to SMEs with outstanding performance.

Implementation of sustainability practices is imperative to the success of a business. Entering its tenth year, the 20144 programme aims to help SMEs to gauge their success and improve their performance in environmental protection, community engagement and employee caring. By incorporating these three aspects, SMEs can better shape their business strategies and directions, manage their business risks, create business opportunities and foster a sustainable and successful future.

HSBC Living Business Awards 2014

SME participants can enter for awards in any of three categories, including the Community Engagement Award, the Green Achievement Award and the People Caring Award.

HSBC Living Business Awards 2014
HSBC Living Business
Community Engagement Award / HSBC Living Business
Green Achievement Award / HSBC Living Business
People Caring Award
Gold Award* – one winner in each of the three categories
(Cash prize HK$60,000)
Silver Award* – one winner in each of the three categories
(Cash prize HK$30,000)
Bronze Award* – one winner in each of the three categories
(Cash prize HK$10,000)
Certificate of Excellence*
Certificate of Merit*

* Winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards in 2014 will be entitled to display the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014 logo for three years and will also have the opportunity to be featured in the programme’s media publicity and promotional materials. Winners of the Certificate of Excellence and Certificate of Merit will be entitled to display the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014 logo for one year. In addition, Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards winners of the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014 will be offered a one-year membership of being an Affiliate Member of the Business Environment Council (BEC). Details of the membership can be found in BEC’s website (www.bec.org.hk).

The “HSBC Living Business Long Term Achievement Award” will be awarded to companies who have attained Gold, Silver, Bronze, Certificate of Excellence or Certificate of Merit awards for five consecutive years or above (2014 inclusive) to recognise their support and improving performances in corporate sustainability.


HSBC Living Business Awards 2014

Eligibility / ·  Any SME that started business in Hong Kong no later than 1 January 2013 is eligible to participate in the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014.
·  For the purpose of these awards, an ‘SME’ is defined as an enterprise with no more than 250 employees in Hong Kong.
·  An ‘employee’ refers to a full-time employee who is working in Hong Kong.
·  The Gold Award winners in any given year will NOT be considered for any cash prize awards in the same categories for the next three years. However, the Gold Award winners are allowed to participate in other categories.
Judging process / 1.  Eligibility review – All applications will be screened for their eligibility, according to their number of employees and date of incorporation.
2.  Initial assessment – All eligible applications will be requested to provide information on their CS performance by filling in a checklist.
3.  Detailed assessment – Short-listed SMEs will be requested to host a half-day visit, during which a detailed assessment will be carried out.
4.  Final round judging – Finalists will be invited to deliver a presentation to the judging panel.
The first three stages of assessment will be conducted by partners of the respective award categories:
·  Community Engagement Award – The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS)
·  Green Achievement Award – Business Environment Council (BEC)
·  People Caring Award – Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM)
The final round of judging will be conducted by independent panels of experts for the Community Engagement Award, Green Achievement Award and People Caring Award, who will select winners in each award category. All decisions made by the judging panels will be final and binding.
How to participate / Applicants can be self-nominated or nominated by a non-profit organisation / business / HSBC Living Business Ambassador. Please complete the application form overleaf and submit it to BEC on or before 30 June 2014. For enquiries, please call the Living Business Hotline at (852) 2784 3948 or email .
Further details / Please refer to the HSBC Living Business website (www.hsbc.com.hk/livingbusiness) for more details about the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014 as well as other programme activities.
Judging criteria / Applications are evaluated with due consideration to the nature and scale of their businesses and will be judged based on the following criteria according to the category(ies) they have entered:
Community Engagement Award
·  Employment of the disadvantaged/unemployed
-  Employ or offer job opportunities to the disadvantaged or unemployed
-  Provide necessary facilities and arrangements for employees with special needs
·  Employee volunteering and corporate giving
-  Participate in voluntary services
-  Encourage employees to participate in voluntary services
-  Provide cash or in-kind donation/sponsorship to non-profit organisations
·  Transfer of skills to non-profit organisations
-  Share business expertise or skills with non-profit organisations
-  Support employees to sit on advisory committees or boards of other organisations
·  Partnership with non-profit organisations
-  Co-organise community partnership projects with non-profit organisations
Green Achievement Award
·  Overall environmental management approach
-  Monitor environmental performance regularly
-  Have environmental policy and environmental management system in place
·  Environmental communication, training and awareness
-  Communicate environmental policy and measures with employees regularly
-  Organise environmental training and programmes
·  Pollution control and reduction including waste, air, water and noise
-  Have pollution reduction procedures/guidelines in place
-  Implement pollution reduction programmes
·  Resources conservation including energy, water and materials
-  Have resource conservation procedures/guidelines in place
-  Implement resource conservation programmes
People Caring Award
·  Internal communication
-  Set up channels to promote open and transparent communication within the company
-  Encourage knowledge sharing within the company
·  Employee training and development
-  Provide training to employees
-  Encourage employee training and development, including offers of time-off and/or study leave and training subsidies
·  Equal opportunities
-  Provide equal opportunity for all in recruitment and promotions
-  Have a formal equal opportunity policy in place
·  Employee welfare
-  Recognise employees with good performance
-  Organise or subsidise employee recreational activities
·  Work-life balance and family-friendly practices
-  Implement a 5-day work week
-  Implement family-friendly practices such as paternity leave and compassionate leave
HSBC Living Business Awards 20144
Application Form

Please tick the box(es) for your company’s entry in the following category(ies) of the HSBC Living Business

Awards 2014. (You may tick more than one box.)

We would like to enter: HSBC Living Business Community Engagement Award 2014

HSBC Living Business Green Achievement Award 2014

HSBC Living Business People Caring Award 2014

(A)  Company Profile

Name of company / (Chinese)
(English)
Address
Telephone / Fax
Email
Date of incorporation / Company website
Name of person in charge
Title
Business registration number (Please attach a copy)
Nature of business / q Manufacturing / q Construction / q Retail / q Real estate
q Financing and insurance / q Import/export trade and wholesale / q Accommodation and food services / q Information and communications / q Professional and business services
q Transportation, storage and courier services / q Others

Name of holding company or head office* (if applicable)

(English) / (Chinese)

* Applicant with a holding company or head office must declare involvement of the holding company in its CS initiatives in initial assessment.

Facilities:

Offices / Factory / Retail shop floor / Other (Please specify)

Number of employees:

Hong Kong / Mainland China / Overseas
Full-time employees**
Part-time employees

** Only the number of full-time employees in Hong Kong will affect eligibility.

Contact details:

Name of contact person
Position
Telephone / Fax
Email

(B) Nomination

Self-nomination (Go to section C) Nomination by HSBC Living Business Ambassador

Nomination by non-profit organisation (eg charitable organisation*, chamber of commerce, trade association, etc)

Nomination by business (Please tick the box to indicate if the nominee is one of your suppliers or contractors.)

Yes No

Name of non-profit organisation/business/HSBC Living Business Ambassador

(Chinese)
(English)
Nature of business
Name of contact person / Position
Telephone / Fax / Email

* Charitable organisation is defined as organisation which is exempted from tax under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance.

(C) Declaration

I hereby declare that

• The information submitted in this award entry is accurate to the best of my knowledge and agree that the decisions made by the organiser and the judging panels are final and binding in all aspects relating to the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014.
• My company is an SME as defined herein for the purpose of the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014. I understand that if my company is found not to qualify as an SME, my entry will be disqualified immediately.
• In the past year, my company has been prosecuted of a criminal offence within and/or outside Hong Kong. / Yes** / No
• In the past year, my company has received warnings or been prosecuted for matters related to environmental performance, occupational health and safety, equal opportunity or business ethics by statutory bodies within and/or outside of Hong Kong. / Yes** / No

Applicants will be requested to provide a self-declaration statement on legal compliance, complaints and warnings received for matters related to their environmental performance, occupational health and safety, equal opportunity or business ethics in 2013/14 (from 1 January 2013 onwards) across all operations and sites.

** Please briefly describe the matter(s) concerned and the subsequent corrective/preventive measures taken, if any:

Note: Any record of warnings, prosecutions or convictions will be taken into account during the judging process, but will not necessarily lead to disqualification. A brief account of the matter(s) concerned and the corrective/preventive measures taken will help demonstrate your efforts to address the problem and constantly improve.

(D)  Signature

Signature with company chop / Date
Name of signatory / Position
Company name

Please submit the completed application form together with a copy of your company’s business registration and other supporting documents to:

HSBC Living Business Awards 2014, c/o Business Environment Council, 2/F., 77 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong on or before 30 June 2014. You may also fax the form to (852) 2784 6699 or email it to .

If you have any difficulties completing this application form, please call the Living Business Hotline at (852) 2784 3948 or email for assistance.

All information submitted will be used solely for the purpose of the HSBC Living Business Awards 2014.

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