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^st April 2025 to the 31^st March 2026. 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 everyday expectations 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!

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 this creativity helps us to work smarter then it definitely fits under this category!

We want all of our people, and our partners, to go home safe every day.

Health, safety and wellbeing 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.

We work together as ‘One team’ to achieve our outcomes.

We place great importance on working together while promoting co-operation to achieve our objectives. By working well as 'One 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 collaborative performance while living our values to achieve an excellent outcome.

Together with our supply chain, we take pride in achieving excellent business results.

This award is for a supplier that has delivered exceptional results to NWG 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.

CSR activities play a vital role in making sure we achieve our vision.

NWG is committed to working with ethical, forward thinking suppliers who can demonstrate a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility, in turn helping deliver positive outcomes for employees, customers and / or the communities which we serve. 

We are looking for suppliers who can demonstrate a responsible approach to their business through some, or all, of the following initiatives: social value in our communities, ethical and responsible practices or leading approaches to diversity and inclusion.

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

These projects or programmes may originate from any area of our business activity from IS programmes and investment projects, to water efficiency initiatives or working smarter improvements. We are looking for suppliers who can demonstrate how their delivery has made a positive, enduring impact that enhances our brand and reputation within the communities we serve.

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 NWG.

We 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.