THE PRIZED dragonfly award for Green firms that care about Kent is up for grabs once again.

After an absence of a year, the Environment Awards for Kent Business -- slogan: Who Cares Wins -- have been launched with new sponsors and a new format.

Categories have been scrapped in a bid to boost entries from smaller enterprises across Kent and Medway. Any business with Green credentials will be considered for a place among the top 10 finalists invited to a presentation ceremony in December.

Each will win an award, with the dragonfly going to the organisation with the greenest achievements.

Richard King, Kent County Council's cabinet member for environment and transport, launched the 2004 awards.

Holding up the dragonfly award, created by craftsman James Milborrow, from Benenden, he said: "This prestigious award has become much coveted and sought after by members of the business community.

"The tenacious dragonfly emblem is now very much a corporate brand and symbol of the Environment Awards for Kent Business."

He explained that categories had gone because "many companies felt they were simply unable to enter because they did not fit into a category or had achieved something outside a category altogether."

All that was necessary was a simple entry saying what they had done which "helps to improve the environment or quality of life in Kent and Medway”.

An adviser from the Kent Sustainable Business Partnership (KSBP) will visit entrants before they are put forward for a full site visit by judges. Businesses entering the awards will be given a free environmental review and free access to best practice workshops.

"Each company large or small will be treated on merit," Mr King said. "We're looking forward to entries from every size of company, every area of Kent and Medway and every sector of the economy."

Past winners Kent Art Printers, Chatham, and Hillreed Homes, from Maidstone, told their stories.

Paul Anderson, KAP sales and marketing director, outlined his 70-year-old firm's trailblazing reduction in harmful emissions by eliminating alcohol from the printing process. "Almost without trying, you can achieve stunning results," he said.

Tony Hillier, managing director of Hillreed, said its five-year old sustainable strategy had worked wonders for the firm, raising its profile and making its houses more desirable.

"I can assure you it's going to make a significant difference to your company and the way you go about your business activities," he said.

KSBP chairman Peter Darby had this final Green message for the county's businesses: "There are business reasons, cost-reduction reasons, environmental reasons, reputational reasons, employee relations reasons. It's going to help your bottom line and it's going to help customers and Kent."

The awards were set up in 1986, with Aylesford Newsprint sponsoring them for eight years from 1993.

The 2004 awards are sponsored by Balfour Beatty Rail Infrastructure Services, Business Link Kent, Carbon Trust, Environment Agency, Hillreed Homes, Kent County Council, Kent Messenger Group (Kent Business), KSBP and Pfizer.

More details on 01622 221859 or email EnvironmentAwards@kent.gov.uk.