Commerce Decisions was proud to support the MOD Sanctuary Awards for a fourth consecutive year on 16 March. The awards ceremony was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and for the first time the event was held virtually. These awards play a key role in showcasing the achievements of teams and individuals working to preserve and protect the estate, both in the UK and overseas. The awards were presented by the Minister for Defence Procurement, Jeremy Quin MP and Lt Gen Richard Nugee, the MOD’s Climate Change and Sustainability Lead.
The judging of the Sanctuary Awards was once again supported by Commerce Decisions’ AWARD® solution which enables all submissions to be assessed online, in a robust, controlled and objective manner, ensuring absolute integrity and security of information. The process involved the entries for each category being assessed in AWARD® by a panel of judges, followed by a moderation process where a final score was recorded for each entry, enabling a winner to be identified.
Delivery of AWARD® via a secure hosted service enabled judges from across the MOD to access the nominations at any time, from any workstation with an internet connection. Electronic submission of the entries, alongside online judging, resulted in substantial time savings, reduced the cost of travel and subsistence and negated the need for printing multiple paper copies. By doing so, AWARD® helped support MOD’s sustainability targets, enabled effective and efficient remote working, and simplified the management of large volumes of information.
Samantha Bevan-Talbot, MOD Account Director for Commerce Decisions commented:
We are proud that AWARD® was chosen to support the judging of the Sanctuary Awards again this year. As AWARD® is a hosted service, accessed via a web browser, the judging process was successfully run remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, avoiding any delays.
The Sanctuary Awards have been recognising outstanding contributions to conservation across the MOD since 1991. To celebrate a new decade, and to further encourage support of the MOD’s sustainability ambitions, the 2020 Sanctuary Awards’ categories were modernised to include the following six new awards:
- Sustainable Procurement Award
- Individual Achievement Award
- Energy, Low Carbon & Resource Efficiency Award
- Environmental Protection & Enhancement Award
- Sustainable Construction Award
- Social Value, Community & Heritage Award
The number of entries this year was substantial, and the Sanctuary judges undertook much deliberation to determine the Winners and Highly Commended nominations.
About Commerce Decisions
AWARD® has been supporting the successful delivery of procurements across the MOD since 2001, with a corporate licence in place since 2013. Since February 2021, AWARD® is being delivered as part of the Defence Sourcing Portal in partnership with Jaggaer. Commerce Decisions works alongside the MOD to ensure that procurement processes are standardised and efficiencies are maximised, supporting the MOD to achieve significant savings.
For complex projects with a dispersed team, many stakeholders, fixed timescales and a large number of documents to manage, AWARD® ensures an efficient, robust, transparent and auditable process; whether it’s supporting judging for events like the Sanctuary Awards, or in its everyday use as a tender evaluation solution.
Find out more about how Commerce Decisions supports the effective planning, preparation and execution of complex procurements across the MOD here.
If you missed the ceremony or would like to view it again, its available here.
You can access a copy of the 2020 Sanctuary magazine, as well as previous editions at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sanctuary