NSSGA Awards for Excellence Program
Competition Rules
All Awards
- All awards are for individual operations or mine sites. The Environmental Excellence, Safety Excellence, Excellence in Community Relations Award and Certificate of Achievement Awards will not be awarded to entire companies, regions, or divisions. The exception is the Sterling Award, which is for corporations or companies.
- Applications for all awards are to be considered property of NSSGA, and will not be returned to applicants after the competition is over.
Community Relations
Excellence in Community Relations Award
Scope The Community Relations awards program was begun in 1989 to recognize aggregate producers whose community involvement and support activities enhanced the public's perception of the aggregates industry in general and the public image of the individual producer's aggregate operation in particular.
NSSGA firmly believes that an active community relations program is the best way for an aggregate producer to demonstrate clearly that an operation can be a member of and, indeed is, an asset in any community; and that the individuals who manage and work at aggregate operations are both good neighbors and responsible corporate citizens.
The ultimate goal of the Community Relations award program is improvement of the public's perception of both local crushed stone, sand and gravel operations and the aggregates industry by generating positive media exposure. It is designed specifically to:
- Encourage Producers To Become Involved With And Support Their Local Communities. Aggregate operations are important to a community's overall economic strength, but the positive effect touches residents only indirectly. Yet, the minuses of an aggregate operation-improper truck operation, unsightly visual impacts, noise and dust-have a very personal and negative impact on our neighbors. Many companies manage potential negative issues very well. Community involvement and related support activities are a few of the means a producer has to create public awareness of its operation and its benefit to the community.
- Encourage Producers To Develop Support Activities That Emphasize The Personal Involvement Of Their Employees Working Together With People In The Community. The image of truck traffic, surface mining and all other aspects of construction aggregate production may never be very popular. As a public relations strategy, just handing out money can be ineffective. The producer who limits his local involvement to this method only reinforces the public's impression of an insensitive operation. The producer needs to show the public that his operation consists of people-individual men and women-who represent the community's values and concerns, just as much as they reflect the interests of aggregate production.
- Encourage Producers To Begin Working With Local Media To Develop Positive Coverage For All Aspects Of Their Community Activities. Positive media coverage must be a major criterion in evaluating the effectiveness of these public relations activities. The most difficult step in generating positive media coverage is getting producers to overcome an aversion to almost all forms of media. The industry used to be almost invisible, and some producers like to pretend that it still is-or should be. Therefore, some of the industry's best community involvement/support activities are structured to keep as low a public profile as possible. In other cases, producers have simply are not aware of how to develop their programs to maximize local media coverage.
Eligibility Any active NSSGA individual producer member operation is eligible for the award.
Awards Each application will be judged on several criteria (see judging for criteria). Each criteria will be scored from 1-10 points. The individual scores will be added together to achieve a total score for the application.
Gold: Those entries demonstrating superior performance in the criteria categories. This award is given to the top 10% of the facilities receiving the highest score from our independent judges. A facility that receives the Gold category designation will be automatically recertified for a period of 5 years from the time the facility first receives the Gold designation. After 5 years the facility is eligible to reapply for the Gold Award.
Silver: Those entries demonstrating substantial performance in the criteria categories. This award is given to the next 25% of facilities receiving the highest score.
Bronze: Those applicants demonstrating significant performance in the criteria categories. This award is given to the facilities receiving scores of at least 70% of the total available points from the award criteria.
Judging Criteria
Scoring Scoring summaries and individual judging sheets are confidential and will not be made public information.
Award Presentation Gold Awards will be presented at NSSGA's Annual Convention during AGG 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio, fEBRUARY 2010. Silver and Bronze Awards will be mailed to each winner.
Certificate of Achievement in Community Relations
Scope Certificates of Achievement will be awarded in the Community Participation, Donations and Service, Local and State Government Involvement, Communications and Media Relations, Educational Outreach, and Plant Appearance categories for companies wishing to submit one or more areas of a community relations program. Those entries that submit a completed self-certification entry form will receive this basic level of recognition.
Eligibility Any active NSSGA individual producer member operation is eligible for the award.
Awards Applicants will be recognized with a Certificate of Achievement.
Judging This award category is not judged.
Award Presentation This award is not presented at any NSSGA event. Certificates will be mailed to winners.
Environmental
Environmental Excellence Award
Scope Provide national recognition for NSSGA producer member's operations actively contributing to the maintenance of the environment in and around their operations as evidenced by a corporate commitment to the exemplary use of environmental controls and systems. This award is based, in part, on the extent to which an operation meets and exceeds technical environmental and regulatory requirements. It is not based on aesthetic or beautification criteria.
Eligibility Any active NSSGA individual producer member operation is eligible for the award. This operation must certify it is in compliance with all applicable governmental environmental regulatory requirements and does not have a pattern of violations during the time period of two full years prior to the date of application.
Awards Each application will be judged on six criteria (see judging for criteria). Each criteria will be scored from 1-10 points. The six individual scores will be added together to achieve a total score for the application.
Gold: Those entries demonstrating superior performance in the criteria categories. This award is given to the top 10% of the facilities receiving the highest score from our independent judges. A facility that receives the Gold category designation will be automatically recertified for a period of 5 years from the time the facility first receives the Gold designation. After 5 years the facility is eligible to reapply for the Gold Award.
Silver: Those entries demonstrating substantial performance in the criteria categories. This award is given to the next 25% of facilities receiving the highest score.
Bronze: Those applicants demonstrating significant performance in the criteria categories. This award is given to the facilities receiving scores of at least 70% of the total available points from the award criteria.
Judging Criteria
Scoring Scoring summaries and individual judging sheets are confidential and will not be made public information.
Award Presentation Gold Awards will be presented at NSSGA's Annual Convention during AGG 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 2010. Silver and Bronze Awards will be mailed to each winner.
Certificate of Achievement in Environment
Scope Those entries that submit a completed self-certification entry form will receive this basic level of recognition.
Eligibility Any active NSSGA individual producer member operation is eligible for the award. This operation must certify it is in compliance with all applicable governmental environmental regulatory requirements and does not have a pattern of violations during the time period of two full years prior to the date of application.
Awards Applicants will be recognized with a Certificate of Achievement.
Judging This award category is not judged. The operation must certify it is in compliance with all applicable governmental environmental regulatory requirements and does not have a pattern of violations during the time period two full years prior to the date of application.
Award Presentation This award is not presented at any NSSGA event. Certificates will be mailed to winners.
Environmental Leadership Award
Safety and Health
Safety Excellence Award
Scope The Safety Excellence Awards originated in 1987 and are currently based on the ability of an individual mine site to maintain a safe workplace, evidenced by its safety performance over a consecutive period of time without a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reportable injury. The term "reportable injury" (Degrees 1-6) as defined by MSHA, includes injuries resulting in death, permanent total or permanent partial disability, days away from work only, days away from work and days of restricted activity, days of restricted work activity only, and injuries that do not result in death, nor days away from work, nor days of restricted work activity.
Eligibility Any active NSSGA individual producer member operation with an MSHA identification number is eligible for the award.
Awards Mine sites are categorized by the number of work-hours reported and are grouped accordingly:
- Large category-greater than 55,000 work hours
- Medium category-greater than 25,000, but less than 55,000 work hours
- Small category-less than 25,000 work hours
The top three mine sites in each category, distinguished by having the most consecutive years without an MSHA reportable injury will receive plaque awards in their honor. Therefore, the top three award winners in each size category represent the best overall safety achievement among all entrants in that category.
Mine sites that do not demonstrate a sufficient amount of consecutive years without a reportable injury to qualify as one of the top three award recipients in a category, but exhibit more than twenty years but not less than ten years without a reportable injury, will receive a special plaque award in recognition of this requirement.
Mine sites that achieve no MSHA reportable injuries for a period between one and nine consecutive years are mailed a certificate of accomplishment upon request of the member company.
Judging Criteria To qualify for an award, an individual representing the mine site must complete and submit an application via the on-line application software before the deadline of October 16th. The form seeks the following information:
- General location and contact information concerning the operation.
- MSHA identification number.
Upon receipt of this information this will be sent to MSHA, who will provide the following information to NSSGA based on the applicant's MSHA identification number:
- Total number of calendar years since last injury (no fractions)
- Total work hours for the previous calendar year
- Total incidence rate for the previous calendar year
These figures will exclude office personnel and contract employees.
This information provided by MSHA will be used to determine the gold, silver, and bronze winners within each of the small, medium, and large operation categories.
Scoring Scoring summaries and individual judging sheets are confidential and will not be made public.
Award Presentation The awards will be presented at the awards ceremony at NSSGA's Annual Convention during AGG 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 2010.
Sterling Award
Scope The Sterling Safety Award was created in 1994 to recognize individual companies' safety performance. The individual producer company that exhibits the lowest total incidence rate for the previous calendar year in its respective category will receive top honors. In the event of a tie, competitors total incident rate in preceding consecutive years is compared until the best incident rate among the competitors is identified.
Eligibility Individual producer member companies are automatically enrolled into this award. No action is needed.
Awards Mine sites are categorized by the number of work-hours reported and are grouped accordingly:
- Large category-greater than 500,000 work hours
- Medium category-grater than 100,000, but less than 500,000 work hours
- Small category-less than 100,000 work hours
The top three individual producer companies in each category, distinguished by having the most consecutive years without an MSHA reportable injury will receive gold, silver, and bronze award within each of the small, medium, and large producer categories.
Judging Criteria Individual producer member companies are automatically enrolled into this award.
Scoring Scoring summaries and individual judging sheets are confidential and will not be made public information.
Award Presentation The awards will be presented at the awards ceremony at NSSGA's Annual Convention during AGG 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 2010.
James M. Christie Award
Scope The James M. Christie Safety and Health Professional award was created in 1987 to provide national recognition to one individual in the aggregates industry who has made superior and substantial contributions to his or her company's-and the industry's-effort toward proactive safe operating practices.
Eligibility Open to any member safety and health professional involved in the aggregates industry with direct responsibility for the establishment, administration, implementation and/or enforcement of corporate safety and health policy who has made significant contributions to the industry's safety and health responsiveness through his or her own personal efforts, is actively involved in either NSSGA's or a state safety and health program, and has direct day-to-day involvement in his or her own company's safety and health affairs.
Awards Each application will be judged on six criteria (see judging for criteria). Each criteria will be scored from 1-10 points. The six individual scores will be added together to achieve a total score for the application. The individual with the highest score wins the award.
If NSSGA only receives application for one nominee for this award, no award shall be given in that year. That application shall remain active until such time NSSGA receives more than one nominee in future year's programs and a legitimate competition can be arranged between at least two nominees.
Judging Criteria The nominee responsible for safety must demonstrate a significant decrease in the total case incidence (TCI) rate over the past three calendar years or maintain a significantly low TCI rate for their respective companies. Nominees responsible for health only will be judged on their success in implementing or aggressively managing health surveillance and wellness programs.
Each application must include three letters of recommendation, two of which must be from independent third parties.
A past winner of the award, ESH Division Chair, two members from the safety and health committee and one member of the trade press will judge the applications on the following criteria:
- Safety and health accomplishments within his/her own company.
- Professional contributions to safety and health progress of the aggregates industry.
- Nominee's participation in professional safety and health societies and associations.
- Nominee's participation and leadership in local, state or regional industry association safety and health activities and programs.
- Other awards and recognition received by nominee.
- Other personal or professional atributes of the nominee
Scoring Scoring summaries and individual judging sheets are confidential and will not be made public information.
Award Presentation The award will be presented at the awards ceremony at NSSGA's Annual Convention during AGG 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 2010.
Stars of Excellence Awards
Scope Each year a special award will be presented to those operations earning two or more of any of the following awards in a five year period: Community Relations Gold Award (formerly the Showplace Award); Environmental Excellence Gold Award; and Large, Medium or Small Operation Safety Excellence Gold Award. Each operation will be awarded a number of stars corresponding to the number of awards won and be identified as a Two-, Three-, or Four- Star Award winner.
Eligibility Winners of the Community Relations Gold Award (prior Showplace Award); Environmental Excellence Gold Award; Large, Medium or Small Operation Safety Excellence Gold Award.
Award Presentation Stars of Excellence Awards will be presented at the awards ceremony at NSSGA's Annual Convention during AGG 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 2010. Silver and Bronze Awards will be mailed to each winner.
New NSSGA Excellence in Sustainability Award
In keeping with NSSGA’s emphasis on sustainability, the Environmental and CCR committees agreed at the 2009 Annual Convention that it is important to recognize members that achieve the goals of NSSGA’s Sustainability Guiding Principles. Starting in 2009, those operations that achieve Gold Awards in all three categories — Safety, Environmental and Community Relations — over a five-year-period will receive the highest Three-Stars of Excellence award: the NSSGA Excellence in Sustainability Award.
Note: Some companies may still receive a Three-Stars of Excellence Award until 2011 — having won Gold for the obsolete “About Face” Award in 2006 —but only those companies winning a Gold Award in each of the three categories of safety, environment and community relations will receive the Excellence in Sustainability Award.
© 2010 National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association
1605 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.525.8788
Anti-Trust Statement & Web Site Disclaimer
|