The E-I Award – a competition sets standards

What contribution should companies make to sustainable development above and beyond what is legally required of them? What does sustainable action mean for companies in Europe? How can companies integrate their sustainability measures into their core business? IFOK not only knows the answers, as a sustainability and CR expert, it has also helped set Europe-wide standards for business commitment through the E-I Award.

Across Europe, there are very different understandings of what exemplary commitment to sustainability means, and there is no single yardstick for measuring this. As a member of the E-I-Consulting Group, IFOK therefore launched the E-I Award in 2008. Its aim is to enable a comparison of business commitment at European level. At the same time, the Award aims to set Europe-wide standards and promote the exchange of successful examples. To position the competition as an important event for CR and ensure dissemination through the media, the E-I Group put together a high-class jury of experts and opinion leaders from across Europe. The international jury was presided over by Vladimír Špidla, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. IFOK was able to win former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Töpfer, as the German member of the jury. The success of the Award is underlined by the participation of numerous eminent private and public institutions and renowned companies. They include Allianz, BASF S.E., Coca Cola, Danone, Forum anders reisen, Henkel, Microsoft, and TNT. Exemplary, business-based approaches and new ways of involving employees and external partners in CR activities were honoured in the Award.