Eligibility Requirements
To qualify for Local Content Rating, a development project must meet the following criteria:
- Privately Held: The project must be led by a privately held company.
- Headquartered in the U.S.: The company leading the project must be based in the United States.
- Independent: The company must operate independently and not be a subsidiary of another organization.
Application Process
Step 1: Basic Information
Companies applying for Local Content Rating must complete an online application. This includes:
- Headquarters Address: Providing the location of the company’s headquarters.
- Employee Count: Indicating the total number of employees.
- Industry Category Selection: Choosing the relevant industry category, such as Renewable Energy, Infrastructure, or Community Development.
- Additional Categories: Optionally selecting additional categories, such as General Excellence, revenue brackets, years in business, company size, and region. Each additional category carries an entry fee.
Step 2: Describe Your Accomplishments
In this critical step, applicants must detail their significant positive contributions over the past 12 months in response to the following prompts:
- Community, Environment, or Society Impact: Describe one or two initiatives or actions taken in the past year that made a measurably positive impact on the community, environment, or society at large.
- Industry Impact: Provide one or two examples of how the company has positively impacted its industry over the past year.
Evaluation Process
Editorial Judging Process
A panel of experienced editors evaluates each application, divided into three teams. Each team assigns a letter grade based on the following criteria:
- Evidence of Positive Impact: The extent to which the company’s initiatives have made a positive impact on the community, environment, or society, relative to the size of the company. For example, a larger enterprise with over 500 employees is expected to demonstrate a greater impact than a smaller startup with 10 employees.
- Industry Contributions: How the company’s actions have positively influenced its industry.
Scoring and Ranking
- Averaging Scores: The Data Team averages the grades assigned by the judging teams.
- Ranking: Companies are ranked based on their average scores.
- Cut-off Determination: Variability in individual scoring is accounted for in the final ranking, with a clear cut-off point determined by the divergence in scores.
This rigorous process ensures that the Local Content Rating highlights companies that not only excel in their business operations but also make substantial contributions to their communities and industries.
