On May 3rd leading businesses will converge on London to celebrate a year of responsible business at Ethical Corporation's Responsible Business Awards. It promises to both a rewarding and entertaining evening.

A year in responsible business is a long time, with a lot changing. Every business is facing an ever more complex set of challenges as it comes under increasing stakeholder pressure to move away from unsustainable business practices. And as result we have seen some of our household names disgraced and others continue excellent sustainable business practices we could all learn something from.

Wal-Mart continued to up its sustainability benchmarks by pledging to cut 20m tonnes of carbon from its supply chain by 2015. Unilever announced its ambitious new sustainability plans - Sustainable Living - in November. And UK retailer Marks & Spencer announced an ambitious target to become the world's most sustainable retailer by 2015. At the same time, various household names have failed to act as truly responsible businesses, and now know first-hand the risks of doing so.

After an interesting year, anticipation is building as to who will be rewarded for their strategy and implementation with an Ethical Corporation Award.

The widely-respected magazine and business intelligence company launched their awards ceremony last year - with huge amounts of interest from the CSR community. Winners like Timberland, PepsiCo, GlaxoSmithKline and Produce World all professed their elation at taking home a gong.

"It was a very honourable and proud moment and a real sense of achievement and satisfaction was felt by all. It was also extremely well received by other colleagues back in the business and helped with the continued communication of sustainability and CSR activities" - William Burgess, CEO of Produce World.

This year, Ethical Corporation has seen a jump in levels of interest, and are anticipating a closely fought battle in each of their 8 Award Categories.

Ethical Corporations Director Toby Webb says: "Our awards are about more than a flashy ceremony (although we do see this as the ideal way to celebrate a year of responsible business practice!). They are about delivering a long-standing legacy to the corporate sustainability community and Ethical Corporation’s global community."

The Awards are designed to recognise and reward the leading responsible businesses, and highlight to others best practice and key strategies that have worked in the real world. Potential entrants should visit the Awards Homepage at www.ethicalcorp.com/awards for more information on categories, entry process and the advent itself.

For more information on the Awards and how to enter please go to www.ethicalcorp.com/awards.

Reuters Events Sustainable Business

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