The benefits of winning a Green Flag Award®
Winning a Green Flag Award® brings with it a wealth of benefits, from the status of being affiliated with a prestigious awards programme through to tangible benefits such as boosting tourism and opening up revenue opportunities.
Showcasing your award
Each year, winners receive a Green Flag or Green Flag Community Award (formally Green Pennant), a personalised A4 certificate and an A3 poster to display at their site. Those with Green Heritage Site Accreditation and Special Innovation winners also receive a specially engraved beech wood plaque.
Enhanced pride and reputation
As the national standard for parks and green spaces, holding a Green Flag Award® brings with it a vast amount of prestige. It is also an excellent example of civic achievement and provides communities with a great sense of civic pride.
Best value and service improvement
Winning a Green Flag Award® visibly demonstrates to the local community and councillors that a clear improvement has been made to a site.
The more Green Flag Awards® a local authority has, the more it demonstrates best value for the council and the local community.
Improving regeneration
Improving facilities at a park/green space and engaging more with the local community can have a knock on effect on the regeneration of an area.
Upgrading a site to achieve Green Flag status could, for example, bring about improvements to health and education, reduce crime and improve the general cleanliness of an area, whilst at the same time providing a boost to its profile.
Increasing tourism
Having a Green Flag Award® is an excellent attraction for tourism.
Research shows that people will make special trips to award-winning sites. What’s more, by holding popular events at your site, you will guarantee yourself repeat visits.
The new Green Flag Award® website features an excellent tool where users can search for sites with specific facilities and events, helping to increase footfall at your site.
Boosting funding
Having a Green Flag Award® is an excellent lever for obtaining external funding through improvement grants and is a means of maximising revenue opportunities from within the site. An example of a national funding scheme to which winners can apply is the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Beacon Status
The Beacon Scheme was introduced in 1999 to identify excellence in local government from which others can learn.
Many winners of the Beacon Council status for green spaces hold Green Flag Awards®, showing that affiliation with the programme can provide a boost to achieving Beacon Status.
PR and marketing
Award winners have the opportunity to use the Green Flag Award® logos on all of their publicity and marketing materials, such as stationery, promotional literature, vehicles and uniforms.
Winners are also provided with template press releases throughout the year that they can use as they wish.
Green Flag Award website
Every winner has their own dedicated page on the new Green Flag Award® website. This is fully customisable and a whole range of content can be included, such as a description of the park/green space, contact information, telephone number and website address.
What’s more, the individual park’s page will be highly interactive, offering users the ability to vote for a site to win the ‘People’s Choice Award’, become a friend of the park and to comment on a site.