Guidance

Ministry of Defence Sanctuary Awards

The annual Sanctuary Awards recognise the outstanding conservation and sustainability efforts across the Ministry of Defence (MOD) estate.

From:: Ministry of Defence and Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Published: 19 February 2021
Last updated: 29 March 2022 — See all updates

Nominations for Sanctuary Awards 2021 are now closed.

Overview

The Sanctuary Awards have been recognising outstanding conservation and sustainability efforts across the MOD estate since 1991.

The Awards celebrate and encourage group and individual efforts that benefit sustainable development, environmental and heritage conservation, utilities and resource saving measures, sustainable construction and procurement or community awareness on land or property that the MOD owns or uses in the UK and overseas.

2021 Sanctuary Awards Winners

The results of Sanctuary Awards 2021 nominations were sent out to nominators in the autumn. The winners and highly commended entries are featured in the 2021 edition of the MOD’s Sanctuary magazine, which has been showcasing conservation and sustainability across the estate since 1975. The winners and highly commended nominations were presented with their award at the Sanctuary Awards 2021 virtual ceremony held on 22 March 2022, with the Minister for Defence Procurement (whose remit includes estate, environment and sustainability) attending as a special guest presenter.

Virtual Ceremony

Award Categories

The award categories are:

Environmental Enhancement Award - projects focused on wildlife and biodiversity, environmental research, or tackling pollution and contamination issues.
Heritage Award - projects focused on archaeology, historic buildings, historic parks and gardens, historic landscape preservation, museum collections, heritage education and public engagement.
Social Value Award - projects focused on any of the social aspects of sustainability, including heritage, public access, community engagement and education.
Net Zero and Resource Efficiency Award - projects that contribute to the MOD’s Net Zero Carbon ambition, reduce energy, water or resource consumption, renewable energy or recycling.
Sustainable Procurement and Construction Award - projects to improve sustainability of equipment or services, management of supply chains or product life cycles or new build construction and refurbishment projects that innovate in fields such as new materials or design.
Individual Achievement Award - for those who have made a significant personal contribution to MOD sustainability or conservation as a volunteer, MOD employee or contractor.

Winners from the above categories will be further considered for one of the following:

Silver Otter Trophy: awarded to the best Establishment, Conservation Group or community led project or individual conservation effort on the MOD estate.
Sustainable Business Award: awarded to the best larger scale or commercial project which delivers sustainable solutions to enable the Armed Forces to live, work or train.

Please note that if your nomination focuses on the work of one individual it should not be entered for a project award category, but rather into the Individual Achievement Award category. Equally, entries made to the Individual Achievement Award category should only focus on the work of one individual, not of project teams. If you are unsure of the category that best fits your project, please contact the Sanctuary Team via email DIO-Sanctuary@mod.gov.uk who will be able to assist. The Award Board reserves the right to move a nomination into a different category if they feel it better suits the criteria of that category.

How to submit an award

Nominees can be MOD personnel, Conservation Groups, Industry Partners and other MOD stakeholders.

Entries must relate to defence land, property, activities or equipment, either in the UK or overseas. All entries must be approved by the Head of Establishment.

Selecting a winner

The Sanctuary Team will review the nominations and depending on the volume of applications in each category, a longlisting selection exercise may take place. A panel of internal and external subject matter experts will then judge the entries through the sponsored use of Commerce Decisions’ AWARD® Tool evaluation solution, which enables all submissions to be assessed in a robust, controlled and objective manner, ensuring absolute integrity.

The judges individually review each category in AWARD® and can award a maximum score of 50 points to each nomination. In order to maximise your potential overall score, you must provide full answers to each section. Once each judge has completed their assessment, the judges meet to conduct a moderation exercise, whereby they discuss the reasons for their individual decisions and make a group decision as to the final scores awarded. Once the winners of each category have been determined, the judges select from these winners the overall winners of the Sustainable Business Award and Silver Otter Trophy.