GEM Awards

Entries can be submitted by any NWG colleague and anyone within our supply chain.

To be eligible for a nomination, the supplier must have provided a product or service for Northumbrian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water or one of our commercial businesses between 1 April 23 to 31 March 24. The supplier can be working with us directly or indirectly e.g. a Tier 2 contractor working with an NWG framework or contracted supplier.

The information you provide is used when judging this entry for the award ceremony, so it's important that you include as much information as possible. You need to assume that the person reading this nomination has no idea what we do as a business.

The judges will be looking to see what the nominee did that was above and beyond their every day expectations in delivering products and services for NWG and what the outcome of their actions was.

Here's some tips on what makes a good nomination . . . 

A great GEM Award submission tells us what the nominee has done and why it's something special - really demonstrating our values in action above and beyond the everyday.

We also need to know what impact their actions have had, have they made a significant difference within a community, gone over and above on a project, introduced an exciting innovation, resolved a long standing issue, reduced costs, or something else?

There needs to be enough information to explain it to someone unfamiliar with that area of the business. The best nominations tell a story; imagine how you'd describe that story to friends or family - that's the story we want to hear!

To be shortlisted a nomination needs to stand out from a very competitive crowd.

Please see Frequently Asked Questions below for more information on the 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, where excellent health, safety and wellbeing has been displayed.

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.

Responsible Procurement plays a vital role in ensuring NWG can achieve its vision.

We are committed to ethically procuring goods, works and services in a way that generates maximum value not only to our organisation but also to the society and economy, while enhancing the environment and complying with all the relevant laws.

NWG have committed to working with ethical suppliers who help to achieve our 7 Impact Initiatives as part of our Responsible Procurement Strategy. We are looking for a supplier who has demonstrated an outstanding responsible approach as part of working with NWG and who has ethics embedded firmly within their organisation.

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.

Any of NWG’s suppliers can submit an entry for the awards. The suppliers can work for Northumbrian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water or our commercial businesses. The suppliers do not need to work directly for NWG and can be a sub-contractor working for one of NWG’s Tier 1 partners or other contracted suppliers (although they must be working on NWG schemes).

Yes, suppliers can submit entries for as many awards as they like if they feel they can meet the criteria stated for each award.

Please limit your nominations to a single entry per category and pick your best one!

Please follow this link to the nomination form and complete in accordance with the guidance.

Please ensure you submit your nominations before the deadline.

Yes you can. While the award entry should be led by the Supplier, you can include any other stakeholders that played a part in the success.

Please follow the instructions in the nomination form. All details including word counts and acceptable supporting information is included within the form. Any additional information not requested will not be considered.

These awards are focussed on NWG and we want to see responses that are specific to NWG.

Through our procurement processes we already know about your company policies and procedures so these award categories are aimed at celebrating the great work you do when working for NWG and how your practices and procedures have added value to NWG.

We would recommend that your responses are specific to us and not generic to your business or work you have done with other clients.

All award entries need to be received by midnight on Friday 28^th June 2024.

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 will aim to notify the suppliers on whether they have been shortlisted by

w/c 12^th August 2024.

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.