Judges weed out the great from the good

Separating the great from the good is no easy task, but someone has to do it.

The 11 judges of the Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards have volunteered hours of their time to pore over the entries and decide who should be celebrated for their green efforts.

Awards co-ordinator and Marlborough District Council environmental scientist Nicky Eade says the job of judging is no small effort.

The judges are split into teams of three, which cover the seven categories of the awards. Some judges will work on more than one category.

Each judge has a particular expertise or experience in the field the category they are judging.

Previous awards winners are often invited back as judges, with five included on the panel this year, Nicky says.

Site visits are done and the lead judge writes a report for each of the entrants.

‘‘That’s one of the benefits of entering; you get a free audit or assessment of sorts, which entrants find really useful,’’ Nicky says.

The reports don’t give any clues though as to who may have won, she says.

Entries for the awards closed in October last year and the judges had hoped to have the site visits completed before Christmas. However, the November earthquake meant the timeline had to be pushed back, Nicky says. ‘‘For example [access to] Muller Station was blocked by a slip.’’ The various groups of judges meet separately to decide on the winner in each category before they all meet to decide on the supreme winner.

‘‘The judges put forward who from their category they think could be the supreme winner.

Usually there is a clear winner, but if we need to there is a points system they can refer to,’’ Nicky says.

PHOTO: SUPPLIED Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards farming category entrant Steve Satterthwaite, left, with judges Paul Newton and Pete Anderson at Muller Station.