A. To create a fair and robust award scheme, each award is built up of smaller parts in the following levels:
1. Awards (Eg Low Waste award)
2. Achievements (Eg. Prevent, Re-use or Recycle)
3. Actions (eg. Sorting waste)
4. Evidence (eg. a picture of segregated waste bins)
5. Verifications (checked by an independent online volunteer who checks the picture and the claim being made)

EVIDENCE:
Any details submitted as evidence will only be seen by our Verifier Panel or an Auditor. Initially this will comprise of Future Friendly staff. In due course we will introduce a panel of accredited volunteers recruited from associated charities and also offer an option of paid consultants. The the information is destroyed when the Award Certificate expires. Only statistical information is available publicly.

YOUR PROFILE DETAILS:
These are made public on our listing and map. What you see there, is what others see.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Businesses can add 'announcements' for any length of time, and they are highlighted on the map and listing.

SUBMISSIONS FROM THE PUBLIC:
Where the public submits information to the platform, it is first seen by the business, who can decide to submit it towards an award, or to publish it or not.

Yes. Businesses can add 'announcements' for any length of time, and they are highlighted on the map and listing with a bell symbol.

These can be special events, discounts and special offers etc.

To add an announcement, go to  'premises' (top right of dashboard) and select the grey 'Manage' button.

You'll see your current announcement at the top of your dashboard when you log in - so you're reminded to up date it.

No. We only record and publish information about awards. If a member of the public wishes to draw a problem to the attention of a business, they can suggest that the business might try to achieve a relevant award. If they complain to us about a business, we will simply forward it to the business for them to deal with. 

Future Friendly is uniquely structured to gather information from the bottom up which avoids mis-information up the chain.

Every action is checked by our Verifier Panel based on photographic or other documentary evidence.

We are currently a project run by the charity Innovira (Charity Number 1182370). We intend to become a Community Interest Company. This means that any profit we make is given to charity.

To ensure rapid growth, Future Friendly will always be free to micro-businesses and non-profits. To maintain this free service, we will introduce fees for larger organisations starting at £9 a month, depending on size. We may also offer added value services in due course. 

Every claim comprises of one or more pieces of evidence.
The evidence we ask for needs to prove a claim.
- In the case of a business providing evidence, this can be a photo, pdf, or URL depending on what the Action is.
- In the case of a member of the public, this can be a photo, video, signature, url or text. The App captures location information that we can use to ensure data is collected locally on-site.

The verification process
When a business submit evidence, it is forwarded to the Verifier Panel. The number of verifiers varies for each action, and this is indicated to the business. They check the evidence against the requirements and each in turn approves or disapproves the evidence. If one verifier disapproves the evidence, the business will be notified. The business can re-submit additional or replacement information and start the process again, or if they do not re-supply information, it will resume the process where the next volunteer is asked to approve the evidence. This proceeds until the required number of approvals is achieved. If the number of disapprovals reaches the required number of verifications, the evidence is rejected.

Example (2 verifications needed)
Verifier 1: Approved
Verifier 2: Rejected
Verifier 3: Approved

Result: Approved

(Once the process is complete then the business will be able to re-claim the action if they want to restart it. They will only see feedback once the process is complete)

The scoring process
Each Action has 'outcome response options' associated with it, each earning a stated number of points.
Each verifier will choose one of the options which will have corresponding points. At the end of the process, the points you receive will be the average of what the different verifiers allocate.

Example (2 verifications needed)
Verifier 1: Approved - 200 points allocated
Verifier 2: Disapproved - 0 points allocated
Verifier 3: Approved - 100 points allocated

Result: Approved
Points awarded = (200+100)/2 = 150

The verification procedure is carefully designed to prevent malicious use.

1. There is more than one verifier/verification for every action
   • A single negative verification cannot cause an claim to be rejected. The verification process only requires a certain number of positive verifications. If there is a negative verification, a further verification is required, and only if there is at least a greater number of negative verifications, will the claim be rejected.
2. Verifiers are recruited from among charity supporters, and are monitored. 
3. The verifiers are from any location - not just local
4. Some verifiers are specialists in their fields
5. If the company wishes to engage their own independent verifier (ie an independent paid consultant), they can do so.

No. The evidence is only available to the selected verifiers and Auditor. The evidence remains available to the business to refer to. Once the certificate is expired the data is deleted.

Other businesses can only see what the public sees. This comprises of the information you enter on your "Premises Details" page.

NOTE:

• The EVIDENCE you submit will only be seen by a set number of verifiers - usually 2 or 3.
• The selection of multiple verifiers (see elsewhere) protects businesses from competitors who may want to game the system. 
• The public only see the points you have gained and the categories of your actions, achievements and awards. This is searchable, providing ranked listings in various categories. The public can view individual businesses at a time, or in a summary. It is illegal for the data to be used in targeted or systematic marketing. If you are approached and suspect this being done, please contact us immediately.

Yes, many awards allow you to enter details of your certifications or accreditations to professional or industry sector bodies. These will count towards your award, either in addition, or to replace the need for a separate claim and evidence.

Even though a business may have several sites, Future Friendly looks at each premises individually. Each premises has it's own awards. A business can add any number of premises to their account. Currently, these need to be managed using one log-in, but we will introduce multiple log-ins shortly.

Future Friendly Awards are offered as an entirely independent scheme. The awards merely indicate actions taken by businesses, and verified by our Volunteer Panel recruited from charities. They claim no other element of quality assurance of any kind.

The Awards may verify that the business holds certain certifications, or memberships of professional organisations which in themselves are assurances of quality.

The metrics are devised by Future Friendly, but verification is carried out by our Volunteer Panel.

The UN's 17 'Sustianable Development Goals' are not directly covered by Future Friendly Awards, as they refer to countries, and not organisations - and neither are they devised for small businesses.

We have, in places, drawn from material published by Future Fit Business under their Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license here. In doing so we have aimed to retain the integrity of the material, if not the same wording. No endorsement by Future Fit is implied. Our intention in using their material is that it is easier for users to migrate to the Future Fit as they progress.

The focus is in providing a low-cost or free tool for small and micro-businesses. 

Nevertheless, national organisations with multiple local premises will find this approach useful to supplement and improve on the data they hold centrally. The granularity and robust verification that Future Friendly provides through its bottom up approach enables larger organisations to get primary data from the furthest parts of their organisations. Future Friendly offers additional metrics that are local-focussed which are not covered in other sustainability platforms.

The business can submit a new claim.

When a business makes a claim towards an award, it is important to describe accurately what is being claimed, and to give evidence that supports that claim. If the verifiers judge that the claim and evidence do not march, the claim will be rejected.

A manual check is carried out when a business registers, involving phone number, website and against the records in Company's House or the Charity Commission.