Rule (Ontario builder/renovator sites): display the current-year award badge prominently; archive past-year badges (dated) on the Awards or About page once the next year's program closes

rule · Scope: business · Status: current

Created 2026-05-24

On Ontario builder and renovator client websites that hold HBA awards:

Current-year badge gets the top spot. Above-the-fold on the homepage and/or in the page hero of relevant project pages.
Past-year badges move to a dated archive on the Awards or About page once the next year's program closes (typically September for OHBA AoD; May for CHBA Nationals).
Always include the year text alongside the badge — e.g., "2025 CHBA National Marketing Excellence Award." Year as plain text, not embedded in the image.
Use the official downloadable emblems from each program (e.g., the "2024 OHBA AoD Winners Emblem" on ohbaaod.ca).

Why:

Industry convention is to display current-year prominently and keep past wins dated. A page showing a 2017 award badge with no year context looks stale.
Specific written rules limiting how long a winner can display a current-year emblem are not publicly published — best practice is to move past-year wins to an archive after the next year's program closes.
This matches the year-text discipline applied to credentials elsewhere — see Rule (renovator client sites): link the RenoMark logo to the contractor's renomark.ca profile AND show "RenoMark Verified 20YY" beside it — the highest-leverage tweaks almost nobody does ("RenoMark Verified 2026" as plain text).

How to apply:

Calendar a January refresh for HBA + RenoMark badges (year rollover) and a September refresh for OHBA AoD badges (winners announced).
The Awards / About page is the dated archive — list past wins chronologically with the program, year, category, and project name. Don't delete past wins; archive them so the body of work compounds.
For multi-tier wins (same campaign winning at local + provincial + national), display the highest tier above-the-fold and reference the lower-tier wins in the archive — see the Devron 101 Spadina worked example at CHBA National Awards for Housing Excellence 2025–2026: 48 categories / 1,000+ entries (2025 record) → 49 categories / 900 entries (2026); ~300 judges; three best-overall trophies (Design / Renovation / Marketing Excellence).