What are the Sword and Globe of Honour awards?
These awards celebrate the best of the best in health, safety and environmental management, giving great companies the recognition that they deserve.
Each year, those that have achieved a five-star result in one of the following audits are invited to apply:
- Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit
- Five Star Environmental Audit
- Five Star Integrated Health, Safety and Environmental Audit
- Combined Audit.
With a direct link to the Five Star Audit report, these awards require a detailed and objective evaluation of occupational health, safety and environmental management system(s) and associated arrangements.
What is the Shield of Honour award?
Introduced in 2023, the Shield of Honour award recognises excellence in wellbeing. To be eligible for the Shield of Honour, applicants must have achieved five-stars in one of the following audits:
- Five Star Wellbeing Audit
- Five Star Wellbeing Supplementary Audit.
Getting the five-star audit is just the start though, like the Sword and Globe awards, applicants need to demonstrate to an independent adjudication panel that they have a proven track record and culture of best practice for excellence in wellbeing, that runs throughout the organisation, from the shop floor to the boardroom.
What is the Guardian of Honour award?
Introduced in 2025, the Guardian of Honour award recognises organisations that demonstrate exceptional leadership, commitment, and competency in the field of process safety management, applicants must have achieved five-stars in the following audits
- Five Star Process Safety Management (PSM) Audit
A sample number of applicants will be randomly selected to validate the responses given on their application in a virtual interview. This selection will be made following the application submission deadline on 14 September 2026, and the selected applicants will be notified with a Microsoft Teams placeholder invite for the week beginning on 28 September 2026
The health, safety and wellbeing event of the year
The Honour Awards will culminate in the health, safety, wellbeing and environmental event of the year at the prestigious Drapers’ Hall in London on 27 November 2026. The ceremony will bring together hundreds of like-minded international leaders across sectors.
The cost of the luncheon options are as follows:
Additional Awards
For 2026, we will again be running 2 additional award types, with the winners announced at the Honour Awards Luncheon on 27 November 2026.
Innovation and Development Award
Organisations that apply for one of the Honour Awards have the option to answer two further questions about an innovative project that they have adopted, describing the impact this innovation had across the business.
The questions will be marked by a panel, and shortlisted organisations will be put forward to be awarded at the luncheon event in November 2026. Please note that organisations wanting to be considered for this new award are agreeing to the possibility of a self-funded site visit by a British Safety Council representative to validate the application.
More information about the Innovation and Development award can be found on the FAQ’s page .
Sector Award
In 2024 we introduced the new Sector Awards. Sector Awards will recognise overall 'best in class' submissions by industry sector under the 3 categories: Health & Safety, Environmental Management, and Wellbeing. These awards do not require a separate submission. This is a great way to stand out among peers and encourages best practice. The Sector Award categories are:
- Construction and property activities
- Consultancy and advisory
- Education
- Financial, IT, legal, scientific and technical services, media
- Health and social care
- Leisure, sports clubs, hospitality and catering
- Local government, defence and public services
- Manufacturing
- Not for profit
- Oil, gas, mining and quarrying
- Onshore major hazard
- Power and utilities
- Transportation, distribution and storage
- Wholesale and retail services.
New trophies
We are conscious that organisations are recognised for winning the Sword, Globe or Shield of Honour but it is individuals who make this happen. For 2026, in recognition of this, we will again have team member trophies (designed to sit on someone’s desk) available to purchase. These individual trophies must be purchased at the same time as a main, full-size trophy.
Why apply?
Successful Sword, Globe, Shield and Guardian applicants demonstrate that they are among the 'best of the best' by submitting a written application and achieving the highest level in their Five Star Audit. The awards give winners the opportunity to:
- Promote their success with the winners' trophy, logo, certificate and press coverage
- Add this achievement to tenders and corporate literature
- Showcase your commitment to excellent health, safety, wellbeing and environmental management standards
- Motivate your workforce to strive for higher standards
- Benchmark yourself against others in your field.
How to apply?
India clients will initially be contacted by their account manager, who will deal with any queries and organise for our Indian operations team to take payment and set up application licenses. Once payment has been made you will receive a link to access the application form via the Learning Zone.
If you have any queries or would like more information, please contact: [email protected]
Key dates
Supporting Resources
Eligibility
Click here to read the full eligibility criteria for the Sword, Globe and Shield of Honour awards.
Application process and results
The written applications are marked by an independent panel of adjudicators appointed, trained and monitored by British Safety Council. The adjudicators are all senior level health, safety, wellbeing and environmental practitioners. A rigorous standardisation process ensures that each adjudicator applies the marking scheme in exactly the same way so that all applications are marked consistently to the same standard.
Click here to view the full criteria for the adjudication process and results.
Application questions and marking criteria
Case studies/mentoring
From 2024, we are looking to offer case studies and/or mentoring services to Sword, Globe and Shield of Honour applicants. To progress this, we are keen to hear from winning organisations that would be willing to take part in sharing how they achieved their success in the awards. Full details need to be worked out but this maybe via webinars, videos etc. An additional unmarked question has been added to the award application system in this regard.
Reports and winners list from 2025
Reports and winners list from 2024
Reports and winners list from 2023
Reports and winners list from 2022
FAQs
To understand the scheme better, you might find it useful to read our frequently asked questions - complied for you here