It’s judgement day. The Fast Growth Business Awards – Growing Business’ annual awards – are just over a month away now, but today is the day the final decisions are made.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have read through a huge number of the entries already, as in order to get to this point we had to shortlist four companies for each of the 14 categories.

Four category winners will then go into the mix for the T-Mobile Fast Growth Business of the Year. This process is something we take incredibly seriously as, believe me, the effort made by entrants has been immense.

The likes of Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones, Millionaires’ Mission’s Seb Bishop, business guru Rene Carayol and Nick Wheeler, the founder of Charles Tyrwhitt will be deliberating, cogitating and ruminating over who to name winners later this afternoon.

Each year I’m staggered by the quality of those seeking recognition in technology, international trade, innovation, those companies that have listed on either the PLUS or AIM market, as well as the best FD, one to watch, female entrepreneur, service, retail, online and product business.

We also have the green business of the year to decide on this year. Now, there’s a lot of talk about ‘greenwash’ and companies jumping on the bandwagon, but I had the tough task of narrowing the list down to four finalists.

We’re not just talking recycling some paper or introducing low energy lightbulbs. We’re talking true commitment. And there’s no doubt that if every company acted as some of the finalists do it could only have a positive effect and wider benefit. I can’t name names for obvious reasons, so I’ll talk briefly of one company that narrowly missed out.

Everything Office’s business is in advising companies on waste, so you’d expect it to be ahead of the herd. It is. It will soon have a plant-covered ‘green roof’ over its head, which puts CO2 back into the atmosphere and collects rainwater for hand washing and flushing loos. It uses company servers to generate hot water. And a wind turbine will be added soon for energy. This is in addition to all the more obvious ideas.

The example of Everything Office just serves to show that when the eventual winner is named – and that goes for all categories too – you can be sure we’re talking about the very best in their fields. 

You'll be able to find out more on the finalists soon on www.fgba.co.uk.