CIWM’s member-only magazine, Circular, has been named Best Association Magazine (circulation up to 10,000) by the Association Excellence Awards 2019.
The ceremony took place last Friday (11 October) and saw CIWM, with its publishing partners CPL, pick up the award.
CIWM beat 6 other magazine finalists to the award, including the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ magazine, Influence.
Founded in 2014, the Association Excellence Awards are a prestigious accolade to recognise and reward the hard-won achievements of trade bodies, professionals membership organisations and associations.
The Circular brand is one that will continue to go from strength to strength and will only grow in its relevance to spearheading the resources agenda
CIWM’s CEO, Sarah Poulter, said: “This is such an amazing accomplishment for all the teams involved in the creation of our new member magazine and recognition for the hard work and dedication it takes to bring you, our members, the relevant and engaging content that makes Circular the success it is.
“But this is just the beginning for Circular; since its creation, we’ve launched Circular Online, which also includes the member-only CIWM knowledge centre, and the printed Circular Solutions supplement, where we focus on sectors and issues most important to our members.
“The Circular brand is one that will continue to go from strength to strength and will only grow in its relevance to spearheading the resources agenda.”
The finalists were:
• Association of Corporate Treasurers – The Treasurer
• Chartered Institute of Environmental Health – Environmental Health News
• Chartered Institute of Public Relations – Influence
• Chartered Institute of Waste Management – Circular
• Institute of Internal Communication – Voice
• National Association of Funeral Directors – Funeral Director Monthly
• Pensions Management Institute – Pensions Aspects
We’re also pleased to announce that Circular has been shortlisted for the CMA International Content Marketing Awards, in the Best Use of Print category.
Not only that, but Circular has also been awarded a Certificate of Excellence at the recent Institute of Internal Communication Awards.
The story of Circular
As competition for resources intensifies, the economic and social consequences of poor resource management become ever more serious. The safe and professional management of resources throughout their life cycle is therefore an increasingly urgent priority. CIWM exists to help industry professionals make better decisions about how these resources are managed.
CIWM’s content strategy needed to reflect these changes, and to meet members needs and aspirations in this fast-changing world.
With this in mind, CIWM launched Circular magazine.
The new Circular brand includes a printed bi-monthly magazine, a daily news website and an online knowledge centre.
It aims to excite and challenge a professional audience, setting the agenda for the resources sector debate, while engaging CIWM members in a way that is valuable, informative and enjoyable.
The name Circular was chosen to, firstly, reflect the direction of the resources and waste sector, in that waste can no longer simply be thought about separately from the life cycle of any given material. It has to be considered at every aspect, from design to end-of-life.
Secondly, Circular reflects where CIWM is heading as a membership organisation, in that waste and resources now affect a greater number of professions, not just those directly involved with waste – for example product designers have to think more and more about how their materials will be reused at its end of life.
Blue Planet effect
Circular is also reflective of CIWM’s core ethos. We support the move towards a circular economy – transitioning from a linear, take-make-dispose extractive industrial model towards a circular system that keeps resources in use for as long as possible, extracting the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recovering and regenerating products and materials at the end of each service life.
This is why Circular is printed on 100% recycled paper to help feed into those vital remanufacturing markets that sustain the business case for recycling.
Its vision is to help make the best and safest use of resources to protect and enrich life on our planet.
Its work continues at a time of increased public interest in environmental issues – with “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” advice helping to change domestic habits, and the ‘Blue Planeteffect’ creating a dramatic impact on opinions about plastics and environmental issues across the globe.
Reducing plastic
With this in mind, Circular went “naked” to reduce its footprint and the use of single-use plastic.
CIWM undertook a consultation with our members on how this reduction should be approached and it was clear that the preferred option should be to firstly “reduce” – meaning that if we could go naked, then we should.
We set this up as a trial to assess the condition our members received their issues and we received fantastic feedback, with our members taking to social media to declare they received their issue in good condition.
