Junior Achievement Launches New Award with HP to Encourage
Social and Environmental Responsibility in Business
Innovative young entrepreneurs will vie for the HP Responsible Business Award.
Colorado Springs, Colo. — JA Worldwide® (Junior Achievement) has launched a new award with HP to encourage young entrepreneurs to engage in responsible business practices. The HP Responsible Business Award focuses on inspiring future business leaders to be socially and environmentally conscious. The award is an extension of the existing 2009 North American JA Company of the Year Competition, which will be held July 16-19, 2009, in Boston, Massachusetts, and which provides students (ages 15-18) with the opportunity to gain work-readiness skills through the experience of running their own company.
Successful companies nowadays are measured not just against their quarterly earnings reports, but also against their ability to balance the economic, environmental and social aspects of running a business, including actively managing operations to minimize negative consequences and optimize positive ones. In the same way, this award is designed to spotlight student companies that excel at integrating specific criteria into their business plans and operations. The companies must demonstrate strong financial performance,social responsibility to all stakeholders,environmental excellence (including preventing pollution, optimizing resource efficiency and developing products with minimal environmental impacts), andinnovative strategies and solutions.
A special jury at the North American JA Company of the Year Competition will judge the student companies within the award criteria. In addition, each team member must possess a Responsible Business Certificate, earned online at the Responsible Business Competition 2009 website (www.responsible-business.org/north-america ) prior to the event. The winning student company will receive an HP product for each member (five maximum).
“This award not only encourages the development of business and work-readiness skills, but also teaches the value of corporate social responsibility,” said Sean Rush, president and chief executive officer of JA Worldwide. “We are grateful to HP for its commitment to educating youth about entrepreneurship, good business practices, and global citizenship, and to supporting Junior Achievement’s mission to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.”
"Innovation in education is vital to developing the next generation of high-tech innovators and entrepreneurs," said Yvonne Hunt, executive director of the HP Company Foundation and leader of the Global Social Investment team at HP. "Junior Achievement and HP's Responsible Business Competition, in particular, are vehicles in which we can pair HP volunteers with students who will become leaders in many fields, including technology."
About Junior Achievement® (JA)
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Today, 137 individual area operations reach more than four million students in the United States, with an additional five million students served by operations in 123 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org .
