Eligible applications will be judged against the following general criteria:

1. Decarbonisation, material use reduction and environmental protection. Applicants in the UK will be contributing to real and rapid reductions in fossil fuel use, overall energy use and raw material consumption. Applicants in global south will be enabling people to achieve a decent standard of living while reducing fossil fuel use and raw material consumption over time. Applicants will also strive to protect or enhance the environment and follow the necessary environmental due diligence process when carrying out their work, including to ensure the sustainability of their supply chains.
2. Resilience and adaptation. Applicants will be building community resilience against climate change impacts and economic shocks, through the creation of livelihoods and adaptation efforts to enable people to live and work more sustainably, while contributing to a just and inclusive transition.
3. Boosting green skills and work. Applicants will be helping people make a decent, secure, dignified living, in line with the ILO definition. This may include enabling people to gain or improve skills that are useful in a future sustainable society and economy, supporting the creation of paid and voluntary work that contributes to a fair transition away from fossil fuels, or enabling people to have sustainable livelihoods. It should also include giving attention to the position of women, vulnerable or under-represented groups in the job market.
4. Reducing inequality. Applicants will be working proactively to reduce inequality within their own organisation, and aiming to reduce inequality in local communities, nationally or globally, including through their supply chains.
5. Participation and democratisation. Applicants will be promoting participation and democratisation, for example by involving local communities, customers, beneficiaries or employees/workers in decision-making, or by enabling shared ownership of their organisation or the equitable distribution of benefits.
6. Communications potential. Applicants will have developed an innovative solution that will inspire others to replicate, invest in or enable the work to be scaled. The solution will also have the potential to be effectively communicated to a broad audience using words, film and images to tell powerful, people-centred stories of change and impact. Applicants will be able to identify staff, customers or beneficiaries who have a story to tell about the impact of the applicant’s work on people’s lives.

Details of the judging panel will be released on our website. The assessment teams include Ashden staff, representatives from funders and knowledge partners, and freelance specialists in specific sectors

If your organisation is shortlisted, we will get in touch in early April to ask for the following, to better understand your work and assure ourselves of your financial viability: 

1. Answers to some additional questions about your work (via phone, video conference and/or email).
2. A copy of your financial accounts for the past two years.
3. A copy of your draft accounts for the current financial year.
4. A short informal video summarising the work you do, why it deserves an Ashden Award, and how the award would benefit you.
5. Contact details for two referees, who will be followed up if you are selected as a finalist.

If you are selected as a finalist, we will get in touch to arrange a visit to assess your work. For applicants based in the UK, the judging visit usually takes a whole day, and involves one or two people from Ashden and sometimes a representative from the funder of the award.  

For applicants with work based in other countries, the visit usually lasts one to three days, and involves one  assessor, who could be from the Ashden team or could be someone more local to your work who is a member of the Ashden network. We often also carry out interviews via Zoom in addition to a physical visit by an assessor.  

The visit will include meetings with key staff such as your chief executive, financial officer, the person in charge of the work submitted for an Award, and other employees. It will also include seeing the work submitted in operation, usually through site visits, and meeting customers or clients. Applicants that are chosen to be visited will be credited as runners-up if they do not become winners. We require you not to share news of your longlisting, shortlisting or award win until a certain date.