The awards recognise the local businesses, organisations, projects, and people having a positive environmental and social impact.
Together we’re building a passionate community and fostering a culture of collaboration and collective action to inspire others to be better.
Our focus is on ensuring everyone who enters gains value from taking part in The Circle Awards.
By entering, you’ll have the opportunity to:
With a total prize pool valued at over $100K, plus a wealth of money-can’t-buy opportunities up for grabs, winning The Circle Awards will enable you to make an even greater impact.
Check out the Entry Kit for full prize list
We’ve kept entry fees as low as possible to remain accessible and encourage a broad mix of companies, organisations and individuals to the part.
While we’d love to make entries free for everyone forever, the reality is there are a lot of out-of-pocket costs that go into making it happen each year.
These fees help us offset some of the costs and enable us to continue to grow the awards in future years.
Multi-category Entry
If you want to submit your entry into more than one category, we’ll give you a 25% discount on the fee for each additional category entered. Discount will be applied at Checkout.
We know how hard the past few years have been and don’t want to see worthy entrants go unrecognised just because they can’t afford to pay the entry fee.
If you have a project you believe is worthy of consideration but financial limitations are stopping you from entering, please get in touch with us to discuss (each request will be assessed on a case-by-case basis).
Entries are open to Australia or New Zealand registered businesses and organisations of all sizes; from startups and B Corps, through to not-for-profits and large corporations. Our unique judging criteria enables a wide range of different entry types to be evaluated on their own merit regardless of budget, size of project, or scale of resources.
The overall winner selected by the judges, across the category winners, as the entry they collectively feel best exemplifies the ethos of The Circle Awards.
Awarded to the entry that receives the most valid votes in the People’s Choice public vote.
Awarded to the entry that best captures our imagination and gets us excited us for their journey ahead.
Awarded to the individual making significant contributions to shaping a better future for everyone.
Our jury is composed of a diverse mix of representatives, each bringing a unique perspective and experience, all focused on creating a better tomorrow for everyone.
Each category will be judged by at least 3 judges, with only the Judges Choice award being judged by the full judging lineup.
We’re looking for entries that are making progress towards a better future, not just those who are doings things perfectly.
Entries are judged against the following six criteria:
Does it break conventions and unlock opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be possible?
Is it currently delivering a positive impact at a significant scale?
Is it delivering impact that’s disproportionate to the resources available to the team?
How effectively is it implementing circular/regenerative practices to achieve the positive outcome?
Have standards been verified by independent third-party accreditations or certifications?
Is there an ambition beyond the current manifestation and a clear plan for how it will be achieved?
Our unique judging criteria enables a wide range of different entry types to be evaluated on their own merit regardless of budget, size of project, or scale of resources.
Entries are open to individuals, businesses and organisations of all sizes, as long as they are registered in Australia or New Zealand*.
*Excluding the Research and Under 19 categories where there is no requirements for business registration. Entrants must be based in Australia or New Zealand to be eligible though.
The judges will be reviewing entries based on the following criteria: Innovation / Impact / Efficiency / Circularity / Accreditation / Vision.
To find out more about the Judging Criteria, check out the Entry Kit.
Entries are judged across three stages:
Stage 01: All entries are reviewed and scored by the judges assigned to each category. The top 3 - 4 scoring entries will be shortlisted and progress to Stage 02.
Stage 02: Category judges review the shortlisted entries and collectively determine the category winner.
Stage 03: The winning entries of all categories are shared across the entire judging panel and a vote is held to decide the Judge’s Choice winner.
To find out more about the judging process, check out the Entry Kit.
The category you choose should be based on the tangible output of your entry, rather than how that tangible output is created.
For example, a brand that creates a pair of jeans that are available for purchase via the public would be best suited in the Fashion category (even though there would be elements of Design and Materials & Processes involved within the creation of the jeans).Whereas a prototype for a pair of jeans that is circular by design would be best suited to the Research category.
If you are unsure on which category you should enter, feel free to getting touch with us [email protected] and we can advise.
You can enter in as many categories as you like, however an entry fee will apply for each Category.
The entry fee for each category beyond the first entry will be reduced by 25%. Discount will be applied at Checkout.
Early-bird Entry
(Until 23:59 AEST, 5th August ): $99 per category entry + GST
Standard Entry:
$199 per category entry + GST
Under 19s
FREE
Prizes include:
To find out more about the prizes, check out the Entry Kit.
Early-bird Entry Deadline: 23:59 AEST 5th August
Entries Close: 23:59 AEST 20th September
The People’s Choice Awards is a public vote that takes place after all entries have closed.
All valid entries are included in the vote (you have the option of opting-out as part of your entry) and we’ll get in touch with you before voting opens to share your unique voting link.
Unfortunately the judges will not be able to provide specific feedback on all
Once the winers are announced you can submit a request for feedback and we will attempt to get this for you but it can’t be guaranteed due to judges other commitments.
The winners will be announced in a live event in Sydney on the 18th of October as part of Purpose Conference.
We’ll be releasing more information about this event once entries close.
We’ll also be announcing the winners via our Instagram following the live announcement.
We’re always up for finding ways for brands that share our vision and values to help us make an even greater impact. Get in touch to chat about partnership opportunities.
TMRRW™ is a creative studio connecting businesses, organisations, government and consumers; inspiring and empowering everyone to make a positive impact on the world.
Polestar is a design-focused electric performance car brand. We’re determined to improve the society we live in by accelerating the change to a climate-neutral future.
Help us make the world go round: The Circle Awards exist to accelerate the adoption of better practices across businesses and organisations of all sizes, while increasing demand for better from consumers.
If you’re a brand who shares our vision and values and you want to help us make an even greater impact we’d love to chat about partnership opportunities.
After returning to Australia in 2020 following over a decade in the UK, I discovered so many exciting things happening locally that demonstrated the positive impact more conscious leadership practices can have, not only in terms of the environment and societal benefits, but also in driving commercial success.
I set out to find a way to celebrate those leading the way and share their stories as inspiration and education to empower others to adopt a more purpose-driven approach within their businesses and organisations. The goal was simple: create an annual awards program that grows a community of passionate individuals and fosters a culture of collaboration and collective action, not competition.
With the support of the Something™ team, the creative studio I’m a co-founder of, The Circle Awards were born.
As The Circle Awards AUS & NZ enter their second year I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieve so far, but also very much looking forward to the big plans we have for the future.
This is just the beginning – watch this space.
Nick Hoskin,
Founder of The Circle Awards
TMRRW™ acknowledges that the land we operate on is the traditional lands of the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present, as well as to all Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people & celebrate their enduring connections to Country, knowledge and stories.
