How we judge
We publish the scoring method before the winners, and we say for each criterion what it does not cover.
An award is only worth as much as the way it is given. Here are the three criteria, what each one looks at, and — this matters most — what it does not.
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CO₂ avoided
What it measures
The greenhouse gases the solution avoids, compared with the most common way of doing the same thing: buying refurbished rather than new, taking the night train rather than the plane, eating something grown nearby rather than far away.
Based on what
The gap between two ways of doing something, not the organisation’s total footprint. The figure used is the one the organisation publishes, or one from an independent publication. The source is printed next to the name.
What it does not cover
Rebound: a cheaper solution may end up being used more, and part of the gain goes back. The organisation’s own emissions when it does not publish them. And a declared figure is not an audited figure — we say where it comes from, we do not certify it.
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People reached
What it measures
How many people actually use the solution, over the last twelve months.
Based on what
Users, members, customers, beneficiaries — counted the way the organisation counts them, and we say how it counts them.
What it does not cover
Intensity: someone who comes once counts as much as someone who comes every week. And duration: we do not measure whether the change lasts.
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Ability to be reproduced
What it measures
How well the solution can exist elsewhere: a documented model, one that can be handed on, already taken up — or capable of being taken up — outside the place it was born.
Based on what
What already exists: sites in several cities or countries, public instructions, an open licence, training, a spread.
What it does not cover
The economic viability of the model, and local rules that may block it elsewhere. A solution that can be reproduced is not necessarily a profitable one.
TIMELINE
In this order. A step without a date is written without one.
- Under way Candidates are documented against the method
- Date to come The weights of the four areas are published
- Date to come The finalists are announced
- Done The jury is formed and published
- The ceremony
The detail, area by area
The three criteria apply in the same order to all four areas. Food goes further: the dossier weights each item.
Food
- #1 CO₂ avoided
- #2 People reached
- #3 Ability to be reproduced
- CO₂ avoided 30 %
- Scaling up 20 %
- Repeatability 20 %
- Economic activity 10 %
- Local and in season 5 %
- Agroecology 5 %
- Solidarity 5 %
- Governance 5 %
Housing
- #1 CO₂ avoided
- #2 People reached
- #3 Ability to be reproduced
Goods & Shopping
- #1 CO₂ avoided
- #2 People reached
- #3 Ability to be reproduced
Transport
- #1 CO₂ avoided
- #2 People reached
- #3 Ability to be reproduced
What this method does not do
- It does not rank organisations in the absolute. It compares solutions within one area, for one edition.
- It does not reward size. A large organisation reaches more people; a small one is often easier to reproduce. The criteria exist so that neither wins by default.
- It is not an audit, a certification or a label. A DecaPrize guarantees nothing about what an organisation does elsewhere.
- It only keeps what can be checked. A solution whose figures exist nowhere cannot be compared — that is a limit of the method, not a judgement on it.