To celebrate outstanding work in ethical and sustainable business practices, the 2014 Excellence in Corporate Responsibility Awards (ECR Awards) were recently handed out at Toronto’s Daniels Spectrum to eleven individuals and teams across Canada.

Categories of the fourth annual ECR Awards ranged from employee engagement and waste diversion to community engagement and water conservation.

Deemed as leaders in corporate social responsibility, the winners included professionals from small to large companies, from various industries.

Shari Austin, vice-president of corporate citizenship and executive director of the RBC Foundation, won the 2014 Outstanding Achievement Award for her efforts advocating for social and environmental causes.

Austin led the company to launch three of the most powerful environmental programs in RBC’s history, including RBC Environmental Blueprint, RBC Blue Water Project and RBC Social Finance Initiative.

“Highlighting the efforts of such a distinguished group of award recipients is not only an honour, but our responsibility,” said Laurie Simmonds, president and chief executive officer of Green Living Enterprises.

Some 2014 winners included Sherrit International Corporation, which won the Social Enterprise Creation award, RBC, which won the Greenhouse Gas Reduction award, and Bentall Kennedy, which won an Employee Engagement award.

Any industry is eligible to apply. A final judging panel bases its decisions on innovation, performance, process and results.

A complete list of winners can be found here.