Guidance

Ministry of Defence Sanctuary Awards

The annual Sanctuary Awards recognise the outstanding conservation and sustainability efforts across the Ministry of Defence (MOD) estate.

From:
Ministry of Defence and Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Published
19 February 2021
Last updated
9 August 2024 — See all updates

33rd Sanctuary Awards 2023

The Ministry of Defence’s 33rd annual Sanctuary Awards 2023 took place on Tuesday 19 March 2024 and is available to watch in full on YouTube.

Overview

The Sanctuary Awards have been recognising outstanding conservation and sustainability efforts across the MOD estate since 1991.

The Awards celebrate and encourage group and individual efforts that benefit sustainable development, environmental and heritage conservation, utilities and resource saving measures, sustainable construction and procurement or community awareness on land or property that the MOD owns or uses in the UK and overseas.

Sanctuary magazine celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, so we are pausing delivery of the Sanctuary programme to develop content for this special edition.

The 34th Sanctuary Awards nomination process will launch in Autumn 2024, and if you wish to be added to the calling notice, please email dio-sanctuary@mod.gov.uk

34th Sanctuary Awards 2024 Categories

When nominations open, entries will be sought for the following categories:

  • Environmental Enhancement Award - projects focused on wildlife and biodiversity, environmental research, or tackling pollution and contamination issues.

  • Heritage Award - projects focused on archaeology, historic buildings, historic parks and gardens, historic landscape preservation, museum collections, heritage education and public engagement.

  • Net Zero and Resource Efficiency Award - projects that contribute to the MOD’s Net Zero Carbon ambition, reduce energy, water or resource consumption, renewable energy or recycling.

  • Individual Achievement Award - for those who have made a significant personal contribution to MOD sustainability or conservation as a volunteer, MOD employee or contractor.

  • Climate Change Resilience Award - projects or activities focused on taking action to enhance climate resilience through mitigation or adaption.

  • Sustainable Delivery Award - projects that deliver against a MOD priority area, objective or commitment to improve or innovate sustainability e.g. of equipment or services, management of supply chains or product life cycles, digitalisation, or new build construction and refurbishment projects.

  • Early Career Award - for individuals in the first 5 years of their sustainability or conservation career, who have made a significant personal contribution to MOD sustainability or conservation.

Winners from the above categories were further considered for one of the following:

  • Silver Otter Trophy: awarded to the best Establishment, Conservation Group or community-led project or individual conservation effort on the MOD estate.

  • Sustainable Business Award: awarded to the best larger scale or commercial project which delivers sustainable solutions to enable the Armed Forces to live, work or train.

Placed nominations will be put forward for the:

  • Innovation Award: judged by the Defence Innovation Unit, this is awarded to those who have exemplified innovative by championing the adoption of new ideas, innovative ways of working and continuous improvement. This might include taking appropriate risk and early termination of work where relevant.

Sanctuary Award Judging

  • Nominees are MOD personnel, conservation groups, industry partners or other MOD stakeholders.
  • Entries relate to MOD land, property, activities or equipment, either in the UK or overseas.

The judging panel used an online portal to review all the long-listed nominations, including a range of unique projects from across defence. Each judge allocated a maximum of 30 points to each nomination, before the panel met in person to reach a group consensus on the winners and runners up.

The panel also decided which of the category winners would be taking home our very special Silver Otter Trophy, and the coveted Sustainable Business Award.

Related content

Updates to this page

Published 19 February 2021
Last updated 9 August 2024 + show all updates

  1. Added video link for the 33rd Sanctuary Awards and announced categories for the 34th Sanctuary Awards.

  2. Updated information on the 33rd Sanctuary Awards 2024.

  3. Nominations for the 33rd Sanctuary Awards 2023 will open 12 June 2023 9am.

  4. Notification that nominations for Sanctuary 2022 are now closed.

  5. Addition of note on how to submit an entry via the new portal for 2022.

  6. Attachment removed as this is no longer required for submission of awards 2022. Last paragraph removed as the information is now out of date.

  7. Updating website with Sanctuary Award results 2021

  8. Launch of Sanctuary Award nominations 2022

  9. Added: 2021 Sanctuary Awards Winners section

  10. Updated content under 'Selecting a winner' heading.

  11. Page updated as nominations for Sanctuary Awards 2021 are now closed.

  12. Updated content on sustainable procurement and construction award under heading 'Award Categories'.

  13. Updated the page for 2021 applications and entries.

  14. Added a link to the live streaming of the awards ceremony.

  15. First published.

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