The Northwest Business Environment Awards is one of the most prestigious celebrations of environmental business excellence in the UK.

The annual ceremony showcases the cream of the North West's most environmentally conscious and commercially astute businesses.

Companies, large and small, across Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, compete to be crowned as one of our 'Green Heroes'. The awards recognise and reward those companies that are taking the most significant steps to put environment concerns at the heart of their business successes.

By acknowledging excellence, our aim is to encourage other companies to consider the impact their business is having on the environment, to keep the environment squarely on the business agenda and to help embed environmental best practice throughout the North West business community.

In 2010 the Awards received official accreditation from the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), which recognises the leading best practice examples of environmental awards schemes in the UK. This means our North West award winners are now eligible to enter the bi-annual European Business Awards for the Environment, to compete at an international level.

ENWORKS, the North West's award-winning environmental business support programme, has hosted the awards since 2010. Now entering its ninth successive year, the awards continue to attract the highest calibre of applications from all sectors of industry, from multinationals with a presence in the North West to innovative business start-ups.

The strong reputation of the awards means that we attract a wealth of high profile sponsors from both the public and private sectors, including the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Business Link, C-Tech Innovation, Envirolink Northwest, Groundwork, the Institute of Directors, the Lancaster Environment Centre, Northwest Business Insider and the North West Eco-Innovations Programme.

In 2010 the awards attracted media attention at a local, regional, national and international level, with articles and interviews featuring on television, radio, online, and in a wide range of consumer and trade press titles and magazines, and the achievements of our winners continue to be promoted throughout the year.