Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability
In late 2003, Alcan adopted sustainability as the focus for its community investment programme, supporting initiatives and projects that aligned with its commitment to environmental, social and economic sustainability. The US$1M Alcan Prize for Sustainability was created as a flagship project within the overall community investment programme to showcase outstanding contributions to sustainability by not-for-profit, civil society and non-government organisations. In addition to the US$1M Prize, nine training grants worth US$15,000 each, were awarded to the other short listed organisations to invest in agreed capacity building, and training and development opportunities. In 2007, Rio Tinto acquired Alcan and in doing so, adopted the US$1M Prize for Sustainability.
Rio Tinto and the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) will work together to review the Prize for Sustainability over the next 18 months until December 2010. This reflection period will focus on documenting the impact of the Prize over its life, and exploring its future direction.
No Prizes will be awarded during the Reflection Period.
Prize objectives
The US$1M Rio Tinto Prize for Sustainability aims to:
- Recognise and reward not-for-profit, civil society and non-governmental organisations that make a significant contribution to addressing economic, environmental and social sustainability.
- Raise awareness of local, regional, national and international not-for-profit, civil society and non-government organisations engaged in sustainable development related activities.
- Foster a legacy of sustainability by supporting the work of Prize and grant recipients and enhancing their ability to build capacity and have further impact.
- Communicate sustainability practices and programmes by promoting examples provided in Prize entries.
Impact to date
The impact of the Prize for Sustainability is summarised here.