Frequently asked questions
Awards
1. What are the Talent in Sustainability Awards?
It is an award competition created to recognize the work of Votorantim employees, interns and contractors
who conduct innovative projects and initiatives that demonstrate the companies’ commitment to sustainability.
2. What is the objective of this competition?
The objective is to recognize people, from all levels, who contribute to the implementation of practices that
generate benefits to the business and to society, mobilize partners, create networks and make a difference,
contributing towards excellence in management and sustainability.
3. Is the competition linked to any type of promotion?
No. The competition is not tied to any kind of professional promotion or financial bonus.
Projects
4. What kind of project can participate?
Projects that are formally linked to Votorantim, have generated benefits to the business, to society and/or
to the environment, and that are based on the sustainability principles. In addition, the projects must be
aligned with the categories that are considered of relevance to Votorantim: Environment, Social Engagement,
Productivity and Efficiency, and Health and Safety.
5. Does the project need be in progress in order to participate?
Yes, the project must be in progress or have been concluded after 2015.
Projects completed prior to 2015 are not eligible to participate.
6. Are winning projects from previous years eligible to participate?
Only winning projects of the Votorantim Phase (formerly known as the Group Phase) in previous years are not
entitled to participate. Winning projects of the Company Phase (as long as they did not win the Votorantim Phase)
and participants in previous years can apply again, provided they meet all the selection criteria of the current competition.
Participants
7. Who is eligible to participate in the competition?
Employees, contractors and interns of the following companies: Votorantim Cimentos, Nexa, Votorantim Energia, Votorantim Siderurgia,
Fibria, Citrosuco, Banco Votorantim, Centro de Excelência, Reservas Votorantim, CBA and Votorantim S.A., regardless of function,
hierarchical level, years of employment with the company, or region, are eligible to participate in the competition, provided they
have conducted or participated in initiatives related to the theme of the contest.
8. Can I submit a team project?
Yes, submissions can be made by teams or individually. In the case of team entries, members can
belong to different units; however, they must be from the same company.
9. Can I submit more than one project?
Yes. There is no limit to the number of submissions per participant, as long as the projects are different.
However, you can only be the leader (representative) of one of the projects you submitted.
10. Can all countries participate in the competition?
Yes, provided one of the following companies operates in that country: Votorantim Cimentos, Nexa, Votorantim Energia,
Votorantim Siderurgia, Fibria, Citrosuco, Banco Votorantim, Centro de Excelência, Reservas Votorantim, CBA and Votorantim S.A.
11. What happens if an employee leaves the company?
Employees who leave any Votorantim company before the date of the award (even if by their own will) will be automatically disqualified.
12. What happens to a team project if one of the team members leaves the company?
The team may continue to participate; however, that employee will not be considered part of it. If the employee leaving the company
is the team representative, the team must name another team representative from among its members.
13. Is anyone who works at Votorantim not eligible to participate in the awards competition?
Yes. Employees, contractors and interns of the Votorantim Institute are ineligible to participate in the competition. In addition,
members of the Judging Committee of any of the phases of the Talent in Sustainability Awards are not allowed to submit projects.
Submissions
14. What is the deadline to submit applications?
The Applications for the award were initially scheduled to held between July 29 and August 31, 2019. They have
been extended until September 16, 2019, until 6:00 pm, Brasilia Time (-3 GMT).
15. How do I submit a project?
In order to submit an application, participants must complete the registration form available at www.talentoemsustentabilidade.com.br
16. Can I start an application and finish it later?
No. Submissions for the Talent in Sustainability Awards will be made through the SurveyMonkey platform. The registration form
must be completed in a single session, since the system will not store information of unfinished registrations.
17. What information is needed to complete the form?
To submit a project, participants must have the contact information of the project representative, including country, state,
town/city, company and unit where he/she works, number of team members and name of the project. The representative must also
indicate the category in which the project falls and the sustainability principle(s) to which the project relates, and fill
out the fields with information about the project.
18. What kind of information will be asked about the project?
You’ll be asked to provide information on project presentation, characterization and contextualization; characteristics of
innovation; motivation and roles of the people involved; mobilization of strategic stakeholders; monitoring targets; results;
and entrepreneurial attitude towards long-term project support.
19. Is there a character limit in the registration form?
Yes. There is a limit of 2,000 characters for each descriptive question.
20. In addition to the registration form, can I submit documentation of activities?
Yes. In addition to the form, you can also submit documentation of activities. The analysis will consider materials that illustrate
or attest to the carrying out of initiatives, such as pictures, videos, testimonials, communication materials, and results, among others.
21. How should these materials be submitted?
The materials must be sent in a single .PDF or .DOC file of up to 16MB, upon submission of the application form.
22. Can I submit the documentation via e-mail?
No. The submission must be done exclusively through the online application form, along with the other information about the project.
Files sent by email will not be considered for evaluation.
23. How will I know if my application has been successfully submitted?
After you complete the submission form, a confirmation message will appear on the screen.
24. How can I clarify questions I may have regarding the registration from?
You can access the Awards rules, and if you still have questions you can send an e-mail to contato@institutovotorantim.org.br
25. Can I make changes to my submission?
Changes can only be made to the contact information of participants. If needed, changes must be sent, together with the
name of the project, via e-mail to contato@institutovotorantim.org.br
26. What happens if the same project is submitted twice?
If the same project is submitted more than once, only the last entry will be considered.
Evaluation
27. What are the evaluation criteria?
The evaluation process will consider: alignment with the sustainability principles and the categories of the awards,
innovation and differentiation, potential for mobilization, benefits to the business and society, commitment to goals
and monitoring results, entrepreneurial attitude, and leadership and proactivity.
28. How will the evaluation process work?
The evaluation process will have two stages: Company Phase and Votorantim Phase.
29. What is the evaluation period?
The evaluation period for the Company Phase is between September and October 2019, and the Votorantim Phase takes place in November 2019.
30. What happens in the Company Phase?
In this phase, the submitted projects will compete only among those from the same company. All projects will be
reviewed by Evaluation Committees, formed by employees of that company, who will verify compliance with the Rules.
After the analysis from the Evaluation Committee of each company, one winning project in each category (Social
Engagement, Environment, Productivity and Efficiency, and Health and Safety) will be selected to compete in the Votorantim Phase.
31. What happens at the Votorantim Phase?
Winning projects from the Company Phase will be considered finalists of the Votorantim Phase and will compete among
themselves within each of the categories. They will be evaluated in the Final Jury and People’s Choice categories.
32. Do the finalists in the Votorantim Phase need to submit any new information?
Yes. In this phase, representatives of qualified projects (winners in the Company Phase) must submit a video of up to three
minutes about the project, based on a guide that will be sent to finalist by the Organizing Committee at the time they are
notified of their qualification for the Votorantim Phase.
33. What is the deadline for submitting this video?
The video must be submitted between October 23 and 11:59pm Brasília time (-3 GMT) on November 6, 2019, via e-mail to contato@institutovotorantim.org.br.
34. How should I send the video if the video file is too large?
If the file is larger than 5MB, it must be sent via WeTransfer (https://wetransfer.com/) or similar services
(Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.), or uploaded to YouTube with the link shared by e-mail with the Talent in
Sustainability Awards Organizing Committee, respecting the deadline.
35. How will the Final Jury work?
The Final Jury will be formed by the Talent in Sustainability Awards Organizing Committee and sustainability experts,
who will review the project and the video against the evaluation criteria and select the four best projects (one from
each category: Environment, Social Engagement, Productivity and Efficiency, and Health and Safety), which will be
considered winners of the Votorantim Phase, in no specified order.
36. How will the People’s Choice work?
Finalist of the Votorantim Phase will be featured on the Talent in Sustainability Awards website, and any employee, trainee
and contractor has a right to vote for the project of his/her choice, regardless of the category. To ensure fairness, scoring
will be based on the ratio between the number of votes and the number of company employees. The project with the highest vote
ratio will be considered winner of the Votorantim Phase – People’s Choice.
37. How can people vote?
People can vote on the competition’s website. To vote, the person will need to indicate his/her company, name and ID.
Only one vote per person will be considered. In case of duplicate votes, the last one will be considered.
Awards
38. What are the prizes for the winners of the Company Phase?
All members of the winning team will receive a certificate of recognition, in an event to be defined by
each company, and a recognition plaque with the words “Company Phase”.
39. What is the prize for the winners of the Group Phase?
Representatives of the winning projects will receive a one-day training course on Sustainability,
to be held in São Paulo, in addition to a certificate of recognition and a trophy.
40. What will winners receive in case they cannot or will not receive the prizes that are offered?
If the team members of the winning projects cannot or will not receive the prizes offered, they will not be
entitled to any other prize as a replacement or compensation.
41. When will the award ceremony for the Votorantim Phase take place?
The formal award ceremony of the Votorantim Phase will take place in December 2019.
42. Who will cover the logistical expenses of the representative of the winning project?
Travel, lodging and meal expenses of the project representative will be paid by the company where he/she works.
