Community engagement can prove key to business success, and the Positive Impact in the Community award at the EDP Business Awards 2024 looks to spotlight the businesses that exemplify this. Denise Hone, senior stakeholder and community engagement manager at award sponsor RWE, explains more about her involvement in the awards.
Can you tell us a bit about your business journey?
I have worked in the region in the energy sector for over 15 years, in a variety of roles and organisations. For the past two years, I have been the senior stakeholder engagement manager on the Norfolk Offshore Wind projects. I am also the vice chair of the East Wind offshore cluster.
Why were you keen to get involved in the Business Awards?
Community engagement is hugely important in our projects. Therefore, we wish to recognise how other businesses are having positive, long-lasting impacts in communities across Norfolk.
What have your previous experiences of judging been like?
I have been on judging panels for the past two years in my current role, having sponsored these awards, Broadland District Council’s Community at Heart Awards and the Stars of Norfolk & Waveney Awards, to name a couple.
Why is it important for businesses to consider and support their wider community?
We believe it is very important for businesses to support and engage with their local communities, deepening relationships with customers, suppliers and local residents who may experience your activities/services.
This helps you as a business become a good neighbour in this community, ultimately leading to more opportunities for everyone involved.
What will you be looking for in the winner?
An organisation whose team or product go above and beyond in bettering the lives of those it employs, serves or in the communities it operates in.
Achieving this in a sustainable way that protects the environment for generations to come, and inspiring others to do so, is also hugely important.
What advice would you give to a business that’s considering entering?
Put yourself forward and apply! Even just an application will help you evaluate your business and the positive impacts you’re having on staff, customers, and communities.
It may also help you recognise where you can do more, or what other organisations are also doing.
Entries for the EDP Business Awards close on July 28. To enter, please visit edpbusinessawards.co.uk
Award criteria
The Positive Impact in the Community award will recognise businesses that have changed their products or services to benefit a crisis, or are lending their team to assist elsewhere.
The judges will not only be looking at how businesses plan to create a positive impact, but what they are currently doing or have done in the last six months to put this in place.
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