GEM Awards

A customer focused approach is a key pillar of our values.

We love our customers and we make sure they are at the heart of everything we do. We are looking for a supplier who delivers world class customer service and an unrivalled customer experience while delivering excellent outcomes for NWG.

Part of our plan is to be leading in innovation within the water sector and beyond.

As such we place a high value on creativity and innovation, and we encourage our suppliers to partner with us to find innovative solutions that drive efficiencies, improve customer experience or simply add value to what we do.

Creativity can come in many forms from new product development to the creative use of technology, and if it helps us to work smarter then it definitely fits under this category!

We place great importance on health, safety and wellbeing.

It is embedded in everything we do. We are looking for a project, organisation, initiative or simply an action that goes beyond standard practice - something that demonstrates exceptional commitment to health, safety and wellbeing.

One of our values is ‘we are one team’.

We place great importance on working together while promoting co-operation to achieve our objectives. By working well as a team we can come up with smarter ways of working and improved performance and outputs.

We are looking for a team who have demonstrated excellent team performance while living our values to achieve an excellent outcome.

NWL and its Supply Chain take pride in achieving excellent business results.

This award is for a supplier that has delivered exceptional results to NWL by going above and beyond the standard scope of their contract. We are looking for suppliers that have supported our corporate goals or wider business strategies in addition to completing their standard supplied goods or services.

Social Value plays a vital role in ensuring NWG can achieve its vision.

NWG have committed to working with ethical suppliers who help to achieve our 7 Impact Initiatives as part of our Responsible Procurement Strategy.

NWG prides itself on making a positive impact in the communities in which we operate. Social Value delivery by our suppliers is a key part of the working relationship and a great way to benefit our communities. We are looking for suppliers who can demonstrate tangible social value outputs relating to the works on the contracts they have with NWG.

We place great importance on the legacy impact we create through the works and services we provide.

We are looking for suppliers who can demonstrate how they have created a positive lasting impact which has enhanced our brand and reputation within the wider communities which we serve.

One of the key drivers to delivering affordable, reliable and resilient services is to have high performing projects and programmes which deliver to agreed milestones while providing notable outputs, benefits or efficiencies.

The projects or programmes could come from any area of our business activity from IS programmes, investment projects, water efficiency projects or working smarter initiatives (to name a few!).

This Award specifically recognises the challenges and outstanding achievements of Small Enterprises who support us to achieve our vision of being national leader.

We are particularly looking for those who have made strides in improving their company through implementing best practice. To be considered for this category the supplier needs to have fewer than 50 employees and a turnover of less than £10m per annum.

We will achieve a net zero carbon emission position in 2027, three years ahead of the PIC ambition and will be the first water company in England to meet this ambition.

We are looking for suppliers who have contributed/supported our journey to net zero through reducing, replacing, removing, or offsetting carbon on capital projects/programmes or through the works/goods/services you provide to NWL.

Having recently launched our TIDE Strategy (Together for Inclusion, Diversity and Equity), NWL are committed to working towards a more diverse workforce which reflects all customers throughout our regions.

Diversity helps our success and ability to innovate, with different people bringing skills and thinking to improve what we do and how we do it. We are looking for suppliers who reflect NWL’s D&I commitments within their own company strategies and are actively working towards/on the way to achieving an equal, diverse and inclusive workforce.

NWL are committed to investing in our people and developing their skills by attracting the best people to come and work for us, helping them to develop their potential and in turn they help us to deliver the very best service for our customers.

This means we constantly invest in the skills, training and experience of our employees. Through apprenticeships, research partnerships, sponsored PhD placements, NGO relationships and much more we invest heavily in our greatest asset – our people.

It is important that together, we maximise the sector’s investment in skills and ensure we develop a sustainable and skilled workforce for the future. Therefore, we are looking for an outstanding, early careers, individual from our supply chain who you have identified is “one to watch” for the future.

The GEM awards are NWG’s supplier recognition initiative designed to help us create an environment where our suppliers feel valued and are driven to deliver outstanding service to NWG. We want to promote, highlight and celebrate the crucial role our suppliers play in the day-to-day success of our business.

A project team will be created to judge the award entries. This will include a wide range of stakeholders to ensure we have a range of people reviewing the entries.

We offer the shortlisted suppliers in each category two places free of charge for each award they are shortlisted for. Following initial allocation if there are still spaces available we may offer additional places to shortlisted suppliers but we do ask that a small donation is made to the charity ‘WaterAid’ for each additional place.

The awards are a way of NWG celebrating the role our suppliers play in our success and as such we don’t charge to enter or attend the event. Food and drink will be provided for those who attend. As an active partner of WaterAid we will be looking to partner with them for this event and there will be opportunities to donate to WaterAid throughout the evening.

The awards ceremony will be held on 10^th September 2024.

An event programme will be issued to shortlisted suppliers closer to the date with more information.

The venue for the awards will be The Fed, Lancaster Rd, Dunston, Gateshead NE11 9JR.