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Green awards, also known as environmental awards, are events organized in most fields in order to reward the participants for making exceptional efforts in favor of environment. These awards are available in many countries and are generally open to anybody, whether corporations, small businesses or even citizens. Green awards have been launched to foster corporations around the globe to be minded about and respectful to the environment in which they run their operations on a daily basis. Green awards originated from the global awareness on climate change issues. Indeed, since the occurrence of the European Industrial Revolution, our planet has been experiencing dramatic changes, which tend to take the form of extreme temperature variations, abnormal periods of drought in some regions, and increased frequency of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis. In an effort to reduce these issues, many climate experts, scientists, naturalist and environmental activists released a large number of findings concluding that much needed to be done quickly against these phenomena. Among these people were included John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club, one of the oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organizations in the United States; Former United States President Woodrow Wilson, founder of the National Park Service; Rudolf Hess, a deputy Nazi Party leader under Adolf Hitler; Mohandas Gandhi, who influenced the Chipko Movement, and many others. During the 70's the environmental movement gained in importance as more and more people were starting to pay attention to the impacts of human action on the planet. In 1986, the WorldWide Fund for Nature successfully managed to gather representatives from the five major world religions, i.e. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. The outcome of this meeting was the release of the Assisi Declarations that were in fact those leaders' expectations from their religious followers on how to behave towards the environment. More recently the multiplication of natural disasters has forced global political leaders to agree on how to tackle those issues caused by the globalization. Effectively, the removal of trade barriers has encouraged firms to relocate to areas where cheap labor was available. However some of these companies, primarily interested in minimizing their costs thus enhancing their profits, have contributed to the deterioration of the nearby ecosystems, causing the local population to suffer physical and economical damages. For example such companies are used to dispose their industrial waste into water sources, polluting the sole source of beverage for all surrounding villages. In regards of these facts, global leaders have decided to impose on all countries and companies strict controls over the quantity of pollution emitted. Local governments allocate a specific amount of pollution allowance to each business and charge a determined fee on every company that pollutes more than it is permitted to. This solution has pushed companies to invest in new ways of producing goods in an ecological way and thus to be more environmentally responsible. The introduction of such controls has really impacted on world nations. A good illustration is the decision of Japan and Germany to shut down all their nuclear plants to develop alternative ways of delivering electricity to their citizens. Green awards are simply the coronation of the awareness of global citizens with regard to planet issues. Even though climate experts know that it is not going to be easy for humans to transition from their accustomed standard of living to more environmentally responsible ones, they are also positive that this change of habits is more than feasible. Human beings, though unconsciously, contributed to what is happening to them and they now know what is needed to arrange it. All it takes is a little bit of strong will and self-deprivation.
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