DTEK’s driving the change to renewables in Europe while ensuring 5million+ homes and Ukrainian hospitals have light, even in the darkest times. Set up 19-years ago, DTEK was the first Ukrainian investor in renewables.

Following 2022’s invasion, Maxim Timchenko, DTEK’s CEO, recognised Ukraine’s dependence on russian energy. He ensured this was cut in days, a connection via ENTSO-E made to the European grid, positioning DTEK to import from, and, sell excess renewables back to, Europe. A vital step against russian energy blackmail.

In 2021, DTEK adopted EU Standards, reducing 2022-23 CO2e by 25% (32minT-24minT). Despite ongoing invasion, it commissioned Central Eastern Europe’s largest windfarm. It’s modernising the sector, improving efficiency to mitigate climate change, catalysing opportunities in key blocked markets, creating jobs and stimulating economic growth Europe-wide.

DTEK prioritises employees, and you cannot get more engaged: engineers completing the latest windfarm miles from the frontline must wear body armour, supported by DTEK, they do this with pride.

You can’t get further from ‘business-as-usual’ operating in a warzone. DTEK’s an ethical business, its Western group-level Advisory Council an example for anti-corruption for the whole country. It’s persuaded government to maintain competitive tension in the market, resisting degeneration to a communist state.

Octopus Energy has made exemplary progress in trailblazing purpose-led sustainability. Last year, our 3.2 UK customers saved 7m metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, the equivalent to planting 918m trees. Now with 6.8m customers, that impact will more than double this year.

We have also invested heavily to make sustainable living more accessible and affordable than ever. Half a million Octopus customers and counting, are benefitting from our super smart Agile, Go, Cosy, Outgoing and Intelligent Octopus tariffs which unlock energy at its cheapest and greenest. Thousands more have chosen our smart home solutions, including market-leading heat pumps, solar, battery and EVs, with 10,000s more signed up.

Championing game-changing people-powered flexibility, our turbocharged Octoplus Saving Sessions paid 1.5m customers £5m+ in lower energy bills to shift almost 2GWh out of peak times for our grid during winter 23/24 saving 437 metric tonnes of CO2 from polluting the air. Not least, via expanding global licensing partnerships, we’ve tripled contracted accounts on our Kraken technology platform, from 17m to reach 54m, over halfway to our 100m target for 2027. Thanks to our ever-growing £7bn renewables portfolio, the largest in Europe, we’re set to supply 50m homes by 2027!

E-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream on the planet. When it stems from the IT industry, we can’t talk about the future of technology without addressing the issue.

We took responsibility in 2010 and opened an IT Asset Disposal (ITAD) facility to recycle without landfill – a way to reduce the e-waste output of organisations across the UK.

We’re still the only UK-based IT reseller and manufacturer with an on-site facility. In 2020, we launched the award-winning Stone 360 app, which helps customers book and manage recycling collections — another innovation that keeps us at the forefront of IT recycling in the UK.

We refurbish and repair IT to sell affordably, extending device lifespans and further eliminating e-waste. If there’s anything we can’t recycle or refurbish, we work with downstream suppliers to still ensure responsible recycling.

In 2022 we launched our “Making a Digital Difference” Sustainability Framework, which drives environmental and social responsibility by aligning with the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals. Our Carbon Reduction Plan is guiding us to Net Zero operations by 2030.

We have made changes across the entire business, from energy use to packaging. We’ve also worked with supply chain partners to help them become more sustainable.

2/3 of direct and indirect global emissions can be traced back to household purchasing decisions and consumer behaviours. Though most individuals want to, many face emotional, behavioural, or capacity-related barriers to consuming sustainably. ecolytiq bridges this intention-action gap by educating and empowering consumers using principles in behavioural science at massive scale. Through our products, consumers and small businesses can see the category-specific emissions associated with their transactions directly on their banking channels, supplemented with personalised educational content and accessible climate-driven actions. To these ends, we developed the first open-source Transaction-to-Carbon (TtC) methodology to be ISAE 3000 certified. Ours is also the only publicly available TtC methodology available for anyone to use and test. Today, we reach millions of consumers across the world.

Historically, oil spill cleanup has mainly been done with polypropylene-based absorbents, aka single-use plastic, made using traditional manufacturing processes that cause land and water pollution. Each competitor’s 10lb. boom is the equivalent of 3,000 plastic straws. Though seldom talked about, this creates a plastic waste issue, generating 8,000 tons of oil-soaked plastics annually that end up in toxic and hazardous landfills around the world and take years to break into harmful microplastics.

Green Boom is the oil absorbent industry’s leading manufacturer of zero polypropylene, biomass-only, completely hydrophobic, oil-only absorbents. Its patented line of eco-friendly absorbent products works for oil spill prevention, response, and remediation, whether they are long- or short-term, on land or water. Green Boom absorbents have high absorption capacity, heat resistance and are easy to reuse.

It is the only EPA and USDA-approved boom in the U.S. It is also TUV-approved in Europe. These certifications help develop and expand biobased product markets and support the farms in Green Boom’s communities where they make their products.

Green Boom also has technical approvals, like EPA and NOSDRA, that allow the use of its sorbents in the critical application of oil spill cleanup.

Only 9% of plastic gets recycled globally, and there are more than 86 million tonnes of plastics in our oceans. More than 99% of plastics are currently produced from chemicals derived from oil, natural gas, and coal – all of which are non-renewable resources.

Kelpi is on a mission to tackle plastic pollution through the development of biomaterials made from seaweed and other natural and renewable resources, that can not only match but even exceed the performance of fossil fuel plastic alternatives. Kelpi’s material has an excellent long-term water and acid barrier, achieved through sustainable and novel chemical functionalisation. Kelpi’s material is applied as a coating to paper, card, and other fibre substrates, meaning it is certified recyclable, compostable, and marine-safe at end of life, and is adaptable to address specific product requirements defined by our clients, for example to package a range of commercial products, including dry, wet, liquid, acidic and greasy products.

Kelpi is targeting large FMCGs in food & drink, home & personal care, who’s ambitious sustainability targets for packaging can be resolved through Kelpi’s solutions.

The Sustainable Recruitment Alliance was founded in 2020 by Laura Yeates to address the wasteful and high-emitting practices in early talent recruitment.

From her research and experience, traditional recruitment had a major environmental impact through its use of merchandise, travel, catering, and more. The financial cost to attract in the legal sector alone is around £10,200 per graduate– a jarring cost that doesn’t begin to reflect its corresponding environmental impact.

To face this, the Alliance:
* Creates an ecosystem of early talent stakeholders committed to reducing emissions and embedding sustainability into their recruitment practices.

How do we do this?
* Members pledge to review, reduce, and report emissions.
* We share and promote best practice and keys learnings
* Education and collaboration
* Create expansion on sustainable practices and engagement strategies.

Achievements:
* Measurable reductions in emissions from recruitment events and merchandise
* Driving behavioural change through research insights
* Grew from 0 to nearly 100 member organisations by 2023

Communication strategies include impact reports, case studies, awards, roundtables, podcasts, student advisory board engagement.

Challenges faced:
* Establishing sustainable funding model
* Ensuring credible emissions data reporting
* Building credible external partnerships
* Maintaining long-term member commitment for lasting change.

We are nominating Kathryn Baddeley, Head of CSR at Cisco UK and Ireland, as someone who shows outstanding leadership in promoting responsible and ethical practices within the IT and technology sector.

Kathryn’s been at the helm of major initiatives in purpose-driven sustainability; award-winning DEI education programme ‘Cisco Pathways’ and the ‘Cisco UK and Ireland Inclusion Summit 2023’.

Pathways has impacted 5619 students, 55% reporting increased likelihood of pursuing a career in the industry. Under Kathryn’s leadership Pathways achieves its aim of engaging students from underrepresented backgrounds and increasing workforce diversity. The past 5 years we have hired 21 apprentices from Pathways, of which 81% identify as female or non-binary, and 67% were from an ethnic minority background. 46% of current female apprentices have come through Pathways.

During her time as Cisco’s Head of CSR, volunteer numbers have gone up from 12% to 85% participation. Volunteer hours increased from 4369 to 42,572!

Kathryn represents Cisco on the ‘Tech UK Skills and Diversity Council’, which brings together industry networks/people to champion tech diversity, demonstrating her commitment to embedding best practice at Cisco and beyond. She champions DEI at every turn; it’s a pleasure to work with and learn from her.

For environmental innovation to have impact and scale, true leadership is essential.
In her role as Vice President and Global Head of a mature sustainability program in one of the world’s leading forwarders, Kathrin Brost drives impactful change achieving global influence. Her success is largely due to her skills in strategic development, rigorous analysis, and phenomenal level of personal commitment.
Widely known, trusted, and respected in the forwarding industry and in the world’s sustainability community, Kathrin has both inspired and realized many innovative projects aimed at industry decarbonization in the last decade.
In recent years, she has spearheaded sustainability innovations including a global GoGreen sustainability program and portfolio of customer solutions – widely seen as industry benchmarks – and a highly successful worldwide GoGreen employee certification program.
One of her most impactful projects to date is the co-creation of an entirely new concept – a paradigm shift from carbon offsetting to insetting within the forwarding industry.
Kathrin was instrumental in developing and driving adoption of the insetting concept within the industry and DHL Global Forwarding.

Elevate Global’s mission is to create human connections with purposes in the live events space whilst having a positive impact on people at events and the planet.

Since joining the business in 2009, Carina Filek, Elevate Global’s Chief Operations Officer, has been the driving force behind not only the operations and expansion of the business, but of ‘Elevating Purpose’. This is Elevate’s award winning ESG strategy to use our position in the events industry to positively impact people, local communities, and the environment globally. With 5 offices globally and a network of well over 40,000 event staff – we want to do our part to move towards a more sustainable future.

Carina’s inspiring leadership and commitment towards sustainability and inclusivity is demonstrated through a variety of initiatives she’s introduced such as #ElevatingPeople – our award-winning training programme for all staff which covers modules in sustainability and diversity and inclusion. Her dedication to these areas has notably contributed to the UK office winning Campaign’s Best Place to Work Award in 2023, an EcoVadis silver medal, her being shortlisted for “Visionary Business Leader” at Campaign’s Inspiring Women Awards, and a spot on the micebook Power 50 Green Champions 2024 list.

With about one billion individuals being classified as neurodivergents and most lacking education conditions, Henrique created the first Brazilian network about neurodiversity with over 3000 individuals to democratize neuroscience knowledge and produced the first Brazilian Olympiad of Neurodiversity with 158 recipients. Alongside, conducted research and wrote 2 articles about the topic – one published in an international science journal and the other in one of the best neuroscientific journals in Brazil. For his achievements, he was nominated one the fifty most prominent social entrepreneurs by the Global Student Prize – “award presented to an exceptional student, making a real impact on learning, the lives of their peers and on society beyond” – , evaluated among a pool of students from high school to PHD from 122 different nations.

Partnering with organizations in Argentina, India, and Tanzania, Henrique pioneered the process of writing and translating a series of ebooks about neurodiversity across these countries – in Tanzania, the books will be published at a national public library for low income public school children. Along with the NGO Athenas, organized a project with thirty volunteers nationwide that produced educational content about neurodiversity for the school community and impacted 600 neurodiverse students.

Elevating women’s rights, supporting foster youth, combatting the fentanyl drug crisis, and advocating for cleaner environmental practices – these are just some of the causes that Aimee Kilmer has supported through her 100% purpose-driven brand growth agency, Good Stuff Partners. With their commitment to the betterment of people, animals, and the planet, Aimee has led her team to achieve a B-Corp score of 108 (compared to a 50.9 median score for ordinary businesses), taken on Pledge 1%, and the Clean Creatives Pledge – all a testament to the values and ethos that embody her leadership approach. She and her team have donated more than $250K in services to worthy causes and executed nonprofit branding campaigns that have resulted in one organization growing 155% in fundraising, and another receiving $750K in donations. All while, implementing a four-day workweek, installing solar tariffs on their office building, and volunteering for animal rights organizations such as the Marin Humane Advocacy Committee and When Pigs Fly Ranch. With a commitment to bettering the world locally and globally, both at work and at home, Aimee is a leader that warrants celebrating.

Energy leader and national hero Maxim Timchenko continues to be unbreakable. Delivering his bold vision, driving change to renewables in Ukraine and Europe while ensuring Ukrainian homes and hospitals have light, even in the darkest times. He set up DTEK 19-years ago, the first Ukrainian investor in renewables in 2012.

Following 2022’s invasion, Maxim recognised Ukraine’s dependence on russian energy. He’d cut this in days, a connection via ENTSO-E made to the European grid, positioning DTEK to import energy from, and, sell excess renewables back to, Europe.

After devastating attacks on DTEK’s thermal generating capacity between Oct-2022 and Jan-2023, DTEK rebuilt. It’s had further attacks to 6GW+ of thermal capacity in March and April. It’s doing everything possible to rebuild pre-winter, targeting ‘build-back-greener’ capacity of 3GW.

DTEK’s green portfolio is 1.1GW, solar and wind, it’s developed European projects totalling 1GW+ in under 12-months, commissioning Central Eastern Europe’s largest windfarm.

You can’t get further from ‘business-as-usual’ operating in a warzone. DTEK’s providing humanitarian assistance and essential supplies. Maxim runs DTEK ethically, appointing the Western Advisory Council, an example for anti-corruption for the whole country. He’s persuaded government to maintain competitive tension in the market, resisting degeneration to a communist state.

The Sustainable Recruitment Alliance, founded by Laura Yeates in 2020, aims to reduce the carbon footprint of early talent recruitment practices. Inspired by her extensive research and industry experience, Laura recognized the wasteful and high-emitting practices in this sector and knew she had to take action.

Her innovative “Reduce, Review, and Report” framework encourages members, including employers, universities, and suppliers, to continuously review their practices, reduce carbon emissions, and report their impact. This collaborative approach fosters knowledge sharing, education, and creative problem-solving across the recruitment ecosystem.

Laura’s efforts have led to measurable environmental impact, driving behavioral change, and promoting sustainable values. The Alliance’s research revealed that 9 out of 10 students believe sustainability is important, providing a compelling business case for recruiters to adopt eco-friendly practices.

The Alliance’s success is evident in its growth, expanding to nearly 100 member organizations in 2023, transitioning to a paid membership model, and enabling groundbreaking initiatives like RMP Enterprise’s net-zero brand ambassador campaign. Laura’s passion for sustainability and community engagement is demonstrated by her dedication of personal time and resources to ensure the Alliance’s core business functions are aligned with its sustainability goals.

HERAglobal is an international 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is dedicated to destigmatizing women’s health on an international scale. We focus primarily on cervical cancer prevention and screening through educational awareness campaigns with major hospitals, access to free screening in rural communities, free HPV vaccination for young girls, and empowering women to take action of their health. So far we work primarily in Uganda, but are rapidly expanding to other countries. HERAglobal takes a unique, hands-on approach to women’s health advocacy and ensures that our method of communication and initiative is accessible, inclusive, and beneficial to the women we work to support.

Jahaan Arora was keen to help kids like himself to give back to society by creating passion projects.

$ocialCred$ – a kiddie time bank for 8240 children to launch 100+ projects – clocking in over 125000 goodwill hours

Jahaan co-founded of Trash Mafia Kids has upcycled 20 tonnes of dry waste

Hunger – Launched the 1 Million meals programs across 20 schools. 6,000 kids collected grain donating half a million meals to 1000 orphans in Bangalore for an everyday meal. Read more on how he raised funds for food for Snehagram a home for HIV+ young adults for a year.

“Safiya Speaks Up” is a children’s book and mentor’s guide co-created by me and my team of five girls, aged 15 to 21, from Malaysia, Kenya, the Philippines, and the United States. Through being a She’s the First Girl Activist Fellow, my aim is to empower young girls to respond to sexual and domestic violence, using art, illustration and storytelling as mediums of activism. Over 500+ copies of “Safiya Speaks Up” are now in the hands of young girls worldwide, in four different languages.

I am the founder of, For Every Child an Education, an international youth organization with over 40 young adults that support K-6 children in five countries, including Tanzania, Malaysia, Afghanistan, India and especially Cambodia, by providing them with access to quality education through quality resources. Through our seven partnerships with organizations globally, we have impacted over 1000 students worldwide, and around 400 in Cambodia.

“Beyond The Village” is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to clean air during the air pollution crisis in Northern Thailand. We offer affordable DIY air purifiers and PM2.5-free solutions for low-income individuals. Through fundraising efforts, we have supplied free equipment and installation, benefiting over 1,000 children and patients across 150 locations in remote mountain areas so far. Our initiative emphasizes community empowerment, providing a straightforward blueprint for anyone to assemble freely. With the support of volunteers and partners, we extend our impact nationwide.

With her organization, Enya raised over $7000 for environmental causes, published climate articles for viewers in 20 countries, interviewed UNICEF ambassadors and MPs for several webinars, organized community clean-ups, and served as a youth panelist at The Green Party of Canada’s Annual General Meeting. Since Evergreen’s inception in 2021, Enya has also expanded the organization into 2 international and 4 national chapters. Alongside Evergreen, Enya mentors youth environmental projects in Africa and Asia as 1 of 14 members of the Future Blue Youth Council.

I am the founder of a by-youth, for-youth NGO and Social Movement – Preserve Our Roots – engaging everyone involved in climate education and action. From producing award-winning documentaries and drafting climate policies in Enugu to rebuilding flood-damaged schools and building sustainable parks, we foster resilience and environmental stewardship. We engage youth through camps like “Making an Impact” and advocate through initiatives like “Our Voices Matter Too.” Our collaborative efforts transcend borders, empowering communities and shaping tomorrow’s leaders and through our Educational Hub, we provide vital resources and support that ignite passion, shape resilient communities and foster sustainable practices worldwide.

When Chelsea was sad about losing her grandfather, her mimi told her to draw a picture at his funeral & then she put it in his suit pocket before they closed the casket & that helped her process her sadness. She realized that everyone should have access to art whenever they need it, so in lieu of presents for her 10th birthday, she asked for art supplies to start her charity. 5 years later & she’s donated over 34,000 art kits to kids in shelters, foster care & other places in almost every state & 4 different countries.

With the negative effects of climate change such as pollution and drought increasing, people are struggling to adapt to the changes. Rural or agricultural communities are unequipped with the means to support or sustain themselves financially. I witnessed these problems first-hand with the recent heatwave in Thailand decimating many crops. Moreover, rural communities also need the means to sustain themselves as they are typically off the radar and far away from assistance. So, I created a network where I aim to improve sustainability in communities around me through the use of environmental innovations, including biogas balloons and biochar.

“When they went to that Indian school… they were molested. Justin, you need to have the courage to tell this story, not just mine” – Mechelle Pierre, residential school survivor. Justin is an award winning cultural photographer and water-chemist featured on TeenVogue and Canada Geographic, advocating for indigenous rights in Canada. He’s the founder/CEO of Acimona, an international indigenous photo-journal, funded by the UN SDG backed Festival of Hope. With over 70 photographers and journalists from 5 nations, he aims to capture the effects of cultural genocide.

CEO Fuad Mahamed founded ACH (Ashley Community Housing) based on his personal experience with the refugee system in the UK. Recognising gaps in the system, we’ve developed a game-changing five-stage business model to support refugees and vulnerable individuals from resettlement to integration. Under the innovative business model, we’ve introduced a host of initiatives/strategies/activities, including providing secure housing, vocational training through our training arm Himilo, support for migrant entrepreneurs via the Migrant Business Support project, career guidance, and advocacy for systemic change.

Innovations over the past 18 months include campaigning for Ukrainian refugees, organising weekly football matches for community bonding, repurposing buildings for housing, and offering various training programmes.

Collaborations with local councils and organisations have facilitated access to green business opportunities, and resources like laptops. We’ve also invested in digital learning platforms for building resilience.

Our communication efforts have challenged negative stereotypes about refugees through the #rethinkingrefugee campaign.

Measured outcomes from our work have included housing over 1,200 people, supporting hundreds of businesses, and achieving high resident satisfaction.

Looking ahead, we plan to expand our reach by opening new offices, and continuing to replicate our model internationally, focusing on preventing migration by addressing root causes in countries like Somalia.

ADFA’s amplified aid efforts bolster public/media awareness of social justice issues through collaborations with global celebrities and influencers. Cultivated awareness has enduring resonance. ADFA’s founder’s (former award-winning investigative journalist) regular editorials in Newsweek magazine on social justice issues—and its members/former journalists, skillful securing of aid campaigns’ media coverage far outweighs distributed aid. Its reports fundamentally influence legislation and government aid budgets in Sweden and elsewhere. ADFA also advises other charities to gain similar momentum.

When a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, ADFA mobilized its Rapid Response strategy, raised $30,000, and coordinated the collection and shipment of aid containers from Sweden–arriving in Syria on February 7th as one of the first aid responders. The aid included:
• 200 thermal blankets, 200 tons of tents, and winter clothes.
• Food supplies for 625 in Qamishli, and 300 displaced families in three Aleppo shelters.
• Water supplies to 2,500 water-deprived households in Hassakeh.
Once on the ground in Syria, in partnership with the Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Aleppo, Butrus Qasis, ADFA mobilized additional volunteers, expediting aid distribution.
Across Turkey’s earthquake zone, it distributed:
• 200 boxes of hygiene articles
• Eggs, food, and sweets to 550 families.

You can’t get further from ‘business-as-usual’ operating in a warzone. Energy leader and national hero Maxim Timchenko continues to be unbreakable. Delivering his bold vision, driving change to renewables in Ukraine and Europe while ensuring Ukrainian homes and hospitals have light, even in the darkest times.

He set up DTEK 19-years ago, the first Ukrainian investor in renewables in 2012. DTEK’s modernising the sector, improving efficiency to combat climate change, catalysing opportunities in key blocked markets, Europe-wide.

DTEK’s an ethical business, an example for anti-corruption for the whole country. It’s persuaded government to maintain competitive tension in the market, resisting degeneration to a communist state.

Following 2022’s invasion, Maxim, recognised Ukraine’s dependence on russian energy. He ensured this was cut within days, establishing a connection via ENTSO-E to the European grid, positioning DTEK to import energy from, and sell excess renewables back to, Europe. A vital step against russian energy blackmail.

Spending $158 million on humanitarian aid in 2022, DTEK’s helped restore electricity supplies destroyed by shelling to 5million+ homes, reinforcing Ukraine’s independence and keeping people connected.

Engineers completing the latest windfarm miles from the frontline must wear body armour; supported by DTEK, they do this with pride.

The Ferrexpo Humanitarian Fund was established in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aiming to provide aid to employees, local communities, and displaced civilians. Led by Yurii Khymych, the project initially focused on offering shelter, food, and medical assistance, with long-term goals of employment and housing support. It has achieved significant impact, aiding over 5 million Ukrainians across 12 regions, in addition to sending provisions to the 669 employees currently mobilised. Innovative initiatives such as free childcare and animal rescue efforts have been implemented. The project showcases Ferrexpo’s commitment to social responsibility and solidarity with Ukraine during challenging times: the initial US$15m deployed for the Fund came entirely from Ferrexpo’s own finances, and the project has grown to draw on the Company’s facilities and social schemes including kitchens, childcare, and camp accommodation.

Healing Venezuela is a UK-registered charity founded in 2016 to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. As per reports from the UN, UNICEF and other international bodies, there are more than 8 million Venezuelan refugees mainly in Latin and North America. This massive exodus can be explained by numbers: 70% of Venezuelans live on less than $2 a day. Malnutrition in children skyrocketed reaching 26%, the worst levels in Latin America. Basic medicines like antibiotics couldn’t be found leading to unnecessarily premature deaths. More sophisticated treatments for cancer or organ transplants are unavailable. At the beginning, Healing Venezuela collected medical supplies discarded but still usable from health centres in the UK and other European countries. We shipped more than 12 tons of medical supplies. Other programmes we run are: 1. sponsoring junior doctors as they are at the forefront of medical care in hospitals but earn $50 per month, 2. Installing and maintaining water treatment plants, as water quality is very poor 3. Feeding children at risk of malnutrition 4. Donating or repairing medical equipment. Because we focus on high impact projects with a multiplying effect, to date more than 1,500,000 have benefited directly and indirectly from our programmes.

In February 2022, as the war broke out in Ukraine, the lives of more than 14.6 million Ukrainian people were disrupted, forcing many to move to neighbouring countries.
As the conflict lasted, forcing young people to leave the country, a whole generation was at risk of losing their education and opportunities for the future.
JA Europe and UNICEF came together to devise and launch UPLIFT – a bespoke education programme which equips vulnerable adolescents from Ukraine and neighbouring countries with the skills, mindset, and confidence needed to foster successful integration and build prosperous future communities.
The skills project was run on the ground across 11 neighboring countries of Ukraine with youth and adolescents.With the ambition to leave no-one behind, the project included innovation camps, social cohesion, skills-based workshops support, and a digital educational platform that was delivered through compelling, relevant influencers that could reach displaced young people on the move.

JA Europe’s objective has always been to help young people feel a sense of ownership over their own future. For a generation impacted by war, securing that future is all the more important and this skills programme was designed to be accessible, with equitable access regardless of location.

Dentsply Sirona (DS) has committed to enabling 25 million smiles by 2025. Progress is evident with 11.2 million smiles delivered since 2021 across communities, dental professionals, and employees. Amongst other actions and with a desire to constantly increase access to oral health globally, DS entered a five-year partnership with Smile Train (ST) in 2021. ST is the world’s largest cleft-focused organization providing training, funding, and resources to local medical professionals in more than 75 countries, empowering them to provide cleft surgery and other essential care to children in their own communities. To support the partnership with ST, DS started a chain of strong internal and external communication campaigns as well as fundraising activities, for example during Cleft Awareness Month in July. In all, DS has committed US$5 million to its ST partnership, and from the start of the project in 2021 to the end of 2023, the company has donated more than US$2 million.

Just a Drop is nominating its partnership with PPHE Hotel Group in recognition for their extremely successful and impactful Green Housekeeping initiative.

The partnership between Just a Drop and PPHE Hotel Group achieves considerable environmental benefit. The partnership has raised over £120,000, helping Just a Drop bring sustainable safe water and sanitation to over 6,000 people. It’s thanks to PPHE Hotel Group’s wonderful guests that the initiative is able to make such a difference. The guests opt to forgo housekeeping in return for bottles of wine, loyalty points or money-off for PPHE Hotel Group’s restaurants.

Every time PPHE Hotel Group’s guests opt in, the Group donates £1 per night to Just a Drop. Less cleaning and washing also reduces water and energy usage, helping to minimise the recourses each  hotel needs. It’s a fantastic example of how such small donations can have a massive social impact, whilst achieving environmental aims.

Morsbags provides a ‘help yourself’ pattern for volunteers anywhere to turn waste fabric into free, reusable bags. In 2023 over 10,000 volunteers in 49 countries made and gave away 41,987 labelled morsbags, preventing the use of 21 million plastic bags and preventing 5 tonnes of textile waste (equivalent to 5 football pitches in m sq) from going to landfill. Since we began: 540,000 morsbags made, preventing 281 million plastic bags and over 100 tonnes of textile waste from going to landfill.

Friends, colleagues and strangers have joined forces and resources to help solve this dual environmental problem in their local areas, with the additional benefits of providing support with loneliness and mental health challenges, inclusivity via hosting pods in places of worship (churches, methodist chapels, mosques and temples) and breakaway ideas using our original ethos (to cut down on plastic use and textile waste) to make morsbags for food banks, IV, blood pressure monitors and bereavement morsbags (for hospitals), foster relocation morsbags – all of which are heartwarming, vital and totally organic ideas to have sprung from the original morsbags concept.

She Feeds the World is a partnership between the PepsiCo Foundation and CARE, aimed at addressing gender inequality in farming. Working directly with small-scale women farmers, the program connects women with markets, improves family nutrition and builds confidence in sustainable agricultural practices. Over the six-year partnership, the program will provide resources and training to women farmers and members of their communities across the participating countries, all ultimately driving progress against PepsiCo’s goal of improving the livelihoods of 250,000 people by 2030. As a result of the program, women leaders have been elected to public office, created supply chains within their communities and negotiated with key stakeholders for better trade agreements. To date (as of April 2024), the program has been activated in Uganda, Egypt, Peru, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and Colombia with future expansions planned.

ReSpace is a non-profit which turns empty buildings into thriving community projects; no project is the same, as each is determined by local community needs, but each project is created using surplus and wasted resources. Our ethos is to reuse waste, to reduce inequality and rebuild communities. For example, one project, Zero LDN, which lasted six months saved around £10,000 worth of resources from reaching landfill, including construction materials, food, textiles, electrical goods and furniture. These resources were instead given for free to local people, or used in the creation of the project itself. This project also saved local people over £100,000 in the cost of hiring space, whilst also delivering free workshops and activities for local people. The value of these free and accessible spaces cannot be overestimated, and we had several regular visitors to Zero LDN tell us this project saved their lives, as it gave them a sense of purpose and belonging, or a route to access formal support. We have created ten projects in nearly ten years and resourced or advised hundreds more. Although temporary in nature, these projects have a lasting impact, with better resourced and more connected communities as a result.

Sanofi’s “A Million Conversations” is a new global health equity initiative, launched with a commitment of €50M over 8 years to rebuild trust in healthcare with underrepresented communities. Announced at the World Economic Forum in January 2023, our initiative has:

– Interviewed over 24,100 people in 10 countries, uncovering profound trust deficits in healthcare from women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ and disabled people
– Hosted and participated in 37 dialogue events and conferences across five countries, facilitating candid conversations with thousands of patients and healthcare representatives.
– Collaborated with 14 academic partners to onboard 100 young people from diverse backgrounds into a first-of-its-kind Scholarship. Together we are improving representation by supporting young people on their journey to becoming healthcare leaders.
– Brought the initiative to global events, such as One Young World in Belfast. And hosted our own Trust, Inclusion and Equity (TIE) Summit in Boston, where Sanofi awarded 10 advocacy organisations $50,000 to power innovative solutions to help marginalised communities.
– Shaped healthcare policy recommendations, guided by an Advisory Group of 10 inspirational leaders from diverse backgrounds.

According to Lloyds Consumer Digital Index, as of 2023, 11.2 million UK people left behind by the mobile digital technology revolution, which has been completely transforming everyday lives for the vast majority of us. The elderly, young and disabled in particular. But who’s responsibility is it to help them keep up?

Since 2014, Three UK (Hutchison 3G) has taken on this mantle, voluntarily, and did what no other telecommunications company has done: provide free digital skills training workshops throughout the UK.
The ‘Three Discovery’ programme, led by Three UK employees (Discovery specialists), has delivered 132,000 adult & community workshops to date, and a further 87,000 sessions delivered in our Three stores. OK, we haven’t yet fixed the whole national problem single-handedly, but we have upskilled over 280,000 people since Discovery’s inception – mostly the young, elderly and vulnerable people being left behind.
To quantify Discovery’s substantial impact within the UK community, we commissioned an independent 2023 survey, shows that children increased their digital creativity from 6 to 8 (out of 10) according to their teachers. Our positive aging community has increased confidence in using mobile technology from 5 to 6 and helped 11% spot fraud attempts using the skills learnt.

Transgender – how did this community go from revered to living on the fringes of society? That is the plight of India’s estimated 5 lakh “hijras.” Respected by the Mughals, but considered criminals by British colonisers, today many live as sex workers and beggars. The Villoo Poonawalla Foundation is committed towards giving back to the society. Out of all the projects run towards creating a better world by VPCF, we wish to showcase project Trans-formation which is working towards mainstreaming the marginalized and often forgotten Transgender community in India. The VPCF along with their implementation partners Kineer have created bench marks in ensuring this often unseen community is not left behind. We boast of over 500 successful job placements, over 12000 free vaccination doses and over 5 lakh members being assisted with rations during covid.

The Enactus UK NextGenLeaders Programme is a youth leadership initiative aimed at empowering young individuals to become responsible leaders through project-based learning and youth participatory action. The programme focusses on social mobility cold-spots and involves students as young as Year 7; fostering qualities of curiosity, creativity, and empathy as they collaborate to address real-world challenges head-on.
Partnering with schools with significant numbers of pupil premium students, the programme equips these Changemakers with a deep understanding of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through tailored tasks, research, and seminars conducted in collaboration with partner organisations. Guided by mentors, the students design their own community projects. Past initiatives have targeted diverse groups as Changemakers decide who they identify as their ‘community’ and what their community needs, so the ‘communities’ have included ‘young neurodivergent individuals’, ‘youth at risk of knife crime in S2 and S9 postcode areas’, ‘homeless people who have periods’ and ‘young carers’.
Over the last year, over 300 Changemakers have worked on their own projects in NextGenLeader schools. In 2022-23, almost 6000 people benefitted directly from the impact of the NextGenLeader projects, all designed and implemented by Changemakers as young as 11 years old.

In 2020 CBRE uncovered a startling statistic- 100% of employees intended to learn more about sustainability (gain green skills) and 98% wanted to get more involved with their sustainability strategy.

The question was how to meet this demand. Webinars proved time-intensive and ineffective, and the existing long-form Learning was underused (only 48 people completed a sustainability course in 2020).

The scope was clear – provide colleagues with a platform they would voluntarily use with content that met their demand for on-the-job green skills.

CBRE partnered with Stickerbook to pilot a programme that converted their sustainability strategy and green skills for the real-estate sector into an online sticker book – making it simple, quick and social for colleagues to get involved. As sticker collecting is a concept we understand from school, the idea was to make sustainability education child’s play!

Since 2021, the project has expanded to 28 European and Asia-Pacific countries, with over 6,390 voluntary users and 188,797 stickers collected – equating to over 10,732 hours of voluntary sustainability training and 53,000 sustainability actions taken.

Returning to their goals, 98% of users recommend Stickerbook for sustainability learning (meeting their demand) and 96% now feel more involved with their sustainability strategy.

E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Reports suggest by 2040 the production and use of electronics will make up 14% of global carbon emissions. Many of earth’s most valuable minerals aren’t in the ground but are sitting unused in people’s homes or landfill. Phones and tech are integral to Gen-Z living; 40% of 18-24 year-olds replace their smartphone within two years. Less than half (47%) realise that phones thrown in the general waste bin will end up in landfill or incinerated. But e-waste – waste from electronic items – isn’t on the cultural radar in the same way as second-hand fashion is for young people.
Re-Fuse is a hands-on workshop engaging 9-11 year olds in conversations about electrical and tech waste. Challenging upgrade cultures, demonstrating how devices are global products by separating appliances into components and exploring where they come from and how they are mined. Children learn through practical activities; testing and sorting donations for repairs, learning basic repair skills, removing copper from obsolete cables for recycling, and dismantling waste for recycling and repurposing. 1859 pupils from 67 schools attended with 37 opting to continue action back at school reaching a further 10,381 people.

The Opentree Foundation (TOF), through its flagship project Toybank — Development through Play, uses Play as an integral tool to educate and empower children and youth to become well-rounded and contributing citizens of the world. TOF’s play programmes help at-risk children who typically have poor learning outcomes and skills; lack self-confidence, self-esteem and are unable to make informed life decisions for themselves. Our play programmes cater to 77,000+ children across nine districts in Maharashtra through 623 play centres and 339 government schools. We have trained 5,000+ teachers and caretakers to transform them into skilled Play Practitioners, who understand play and use it to address students’ developmental needs. Our unique Conscious Play™ approach has led to 10x increase in curiosity levels of children, 5x increase in honesty levels, and 2x increase in attention span. Our play programmes have resulted in increased education access for vulnerable children by creating safe spaces, complementing the education system with board games and teaching tools, ensuring gender equality through equal access and participation, reducing dropout rates, increasing school enrolments, imparting life skills, and fostering a love for learning.

Tutor Trust is a tutoring charity whose mission is to transform lives through tutoring. Since 2012 we have partnered with more than 700 schools to support more than 30,000 young people across Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Merseyside. We are the only tutoring organisation with two positive Randomised Control Trials. Alongside our core offer of small group tutoring in English, Maths and Science (secondary only), Tutoring Plus is our specialist tutoring service. This was created to support young people with additional needs, including Looked After Children, young people in Alternative Provision, persistent absentees and those who are at risk of exclusion. A recent report commissioned by ImpactEd found that young people that had been supported by Tutoring Plus saw a notable increase in academic achievement of around half a grade, an increase in average wellbeing and a decrease in psychological distress. There was also a strong relationship between session attendance and outcomes, with consistent attendance to the first few sessions proving a stronger predictor of subsequent programme success. This academic year has been the most successful yet forTutoring Plus, with more than 300 pupils supported against a target of 187 and double the number of referrals year on year.

CGI partnered with Local London Careers Hub to host Sustainability Careers Fest, the UK’s largest sustainability-themed careers festival for students, inspired by the Mayor of London’s Climate Kick-Start. The event aimed to educate students and teachers about the work taking place to combat the climate crisis and to enhance their understanding of green pathways and careers. Schools were given the opportunity to engage directly with industry experts and course providers offering quality, up-to-date information to help integrate green skills into school career programmes and improvement plans.

Over 1500 Year 9 students and 60 exhibitors attended the event at the iconic London Stadium. Priority was given to schools with high percentages of disadvantaged and minority ethnic students. Exhibitors were encouraged to be as creative as possible, developing interactive and innovative stands, workshops, and presentations. High-tech virtual reality and team-based problem-solving tasks were used to explore diverse topics, including the UN and climate change, technology as a force for green change, and urban green street planning.

“The harmful use of alcohol causes an estimated 2.5 million deaths every year, of which a significant proportion occur in the young. Alcohol use is the third leading risk factor for poor health globally.” World Health Organisation, Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol.
Smashed is owned and developed by Collingwood Learning. Designed to target Key Stage 3 students in England, it links with the PSHE curriculum and aims to reduce underage alcohol consumption. Smashed is sponsored by Diageo Plc and our shared mission is to educate 10m students globally. The project is quality assured by PwC.
By 2023, Smashed has developed into two programmes based upon the same content. Its original programme, Smashed Live (https://collingwoodlearning.com/portfolio-items/smashed-live-case-study/) is an educational theatre and interactive workshop in schools, delivered as a tour. Smashed Online (https://collingwoodlearning.com/portfolio-items/smashed-online-case-study/), developed in response to Covid, is a cinematic e-learning version of the programme.
After years of development in the UK, the project went international in 2016, and Diageo joined as our global sponsor in 2020. Smashed was delivered in 38 countries in the 2022-2023 academic year, educating 1.985m students. In the 2023-2024 academic year Smashed will educate over 2m students, with a total of 5.3m reached.

Children living in more disadvantaged households often have very limited access to the opportunities they need to realise their full potential.  Their worlds can be limited to home and school which in turn affects what they imagine their future could hold.

That’s where Coventry Counts comes in – by supporting local primary age children in schools serving some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country, we help to build basic literacy and numeracy skills, and raise aspirations.

Since September 2021, it has supported over 13,000 children with everything from school trips, to immersive offsite sessions at aspirational workplaces, to storytelling and providing reading books and sessions on managing money and staying safe online.

All children from Reception to Year 6 engage in two to three activities each year, targeting specific needs identified by teachers, with an emphasis on opportunities that the Society can uniquely gain access to, either directly or via its partners.  Sessions are delivered by colleague volunteers, and so far, 293 of them have delivered 113 sessions logging 2,375 hours of volunteering time.

As a result, 87% of children surveyed reported improved career aspirations and 90% reported improved knowledge of maths and money in real life.

• Building on a pioneering and long-running programme that has supported over 16,000 young people in the UK from areas of low social mobility since 2017, The Code’s latest innovation is to bring ‘Educational Excellence’ to green skills education, ensuring that students from disadvantaged and diverse backgrounds can have equal share of the opportunity that the green revolution presents.
• Outcomes include:
o Awareness: 91% of students said lessons helped them learn about climate change, 88% said the lessons helped them understand sustainable consumption, 73% said the lessons helped them learn about green careers.
o Increased Interest from Students: 72% of students expressed interest in additional sustainability lessons, indicating a significant rise in engagement with the topic.
o Effective Business Link: 6 out of 7 teachers agreed the program effectively linked climate change with business/industry.
o Improved Skills: 100% of teachers reported positive impacts on student skills like investigation and discussion.
o Alignment with the Early Careers team to create employability pathways, leading to hiring 400+ apprentices. Winning recognition from the UK Social Mobility Awards two years running.
o Collaborating generously by openly sharing the research and business case for green skills investment.

Launched in Europe in 1994, Eco-Schools is the largest environmental education programme on the planet.

Eco-Schools England is the most successful national programme with 13,000+ settings registered, accounting for more than 20% of all Eco-Schools registered globally. More than 1.4 million pupils in England attended a school taking part in the programme last year.

Here are just a few of the incredible things that Eco-Schools achieved collectively last year:

– 1.65m m² of natural habitats were created or maintained
– More than 6.2m kwh were saved on gas – equivalent to the usage of almost 540 homes each year (based on Ofgem figures)
– More than 3.8m kgs of waste was diverted from landfill.

Our goal is to bring together our people, partners and technology to empower over 1 million young people in the UK with the skills to succeed by 2030. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow provides future generations with the most holistic package of education support that uses technology to achieve social good.

Co-created with young people, educators, NGOs and experts across the tech industry, Solve for Tomorrow is a unique, creative and multi-dimensional learning experience, inspiring young innovators across the UK to explore how technology can solve some of the biggest problems society faces, whilst developing essential STEM and digital skills to equip young people for the future.

Delivered through free-to-access learning inside and outside of schools, and differentiated to cater all abilities and ages (11-25): from inspiring young people to explore STEM learning at a key intervention point to giving them the skills and confidence to take their tech-for-good innovations to market.

Evidenced through deep impact measurement, Solve for Tomorrow has directly impacted over 384,000 young people aged 11-25 from 2021-2023, whilst building the capacity of our brilliant partners who we work with tirelessly to defy barriers for more young people and fully benefit from the opportunities technology provides.

Thales EmpowerED is an innovative, programme of education outreach activities that are designed to inspire, inform and engage young people and provide them, their teachers and guardians with the skills and knowledge to be able to make decisions about educational choices and careers.
It is powered through an army of volunteers, who give time to support activities in Schools, in the community and on our virtual work experience. We are supported by partner organisations, who help with digital platforms, networking, frameworks and events.
The programme supports Stem activities, employability workshops, virtual work experience, Stemettes and Teacher CPD. We partnered with fifteen Schools in areas local to our sites and all schools engaged with multiple opportunities.
In 2023 Thales UK delivered 161 STEM and Employability events reaching 26,442 young people, The Virtual Work Experience ran four times with 127 participants and volunteering hours increased from 700 in 2021 to 19,500.

We review annually and quality of interactions, materials and outputs are measured and improved. We also work with other organisations in the industry to support their development of outreach activities.

We at Thales are 100% committed to the future of Thales EmpowerEd and its impact on young people across the UK.

In November 2023, Generate Capital supported esVolta, LP, a leading developer, owner and operator of utility-scale battery story projects in North America in closing a tax equity investment with U.S. Bankcorp Impact Finance, a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, to finance its Santa Paula Energy Storage project.

The new tax equity financing structure will support the completion of a 30 MW/60 MWh battery project currently being built in Santa Paula, California, which will contribute to a cleaner, more reliable, and faster electric grid in California. The capacity addition to California’s grid will improve the state’s ability to respond to changes in energy demand －ultimately making the grid more resilient.

Generate’s work with esVolta sets the standard for a new and powerful financing model for more battery storage and clean energy projects, and are among the first partners to structure tax equity taking advantage of the tax credits for standalone energy storage enabled by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

In 2023 the world lost an area of tropical forest the size of Switzerland. Not only does deforestation destroy biodiversity and vital ecosystems, it’s also behind 11% of annual global emissions – more than twice that of the aviation and shipping industries combined. There is no way to reach our net-zero targets without ending deforestation. World leaders have set a 2030 deadline to make that happen.

Forest IQ is a game-changing innovation that allows financial institutions to lead the way in tackling deforestation in their portfolios and meet net-zero targets in the process.

Created by three leading not-for-profit data providers in this space, Global Canopy, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and ZSL, Forest IQ brings together in one platform the best available data on how more than 2,000 major companies are addressing their links to deforestation. Three core metrics align the data, providing financial institutions with actionable information so they can screen portfolios, engage with the most relevant companies and ultimately drive change.

The collaboration transforms the deforestation data landscape and was developed in consultation with 40 leading financial institutions to ensure it meets their needs. And it’s designed to continue to grow and evolve as the data landscape improves.

Here at Octopus Electric Vehicles, we’re using sustainable financing to accelerate the EV revolution, one car at a time.

We finance EVs for UK employees up and down the country through their workplaces, giving drivers quicker and easier access to a broader range of EVs than ever before, all while saving up to 40% in tax.

We only finance 100% green, clean EVs (no hybrids). As well as our flagship salary sacrifice scheme, we’ve diversified our financing portfolio to include personal leasing and business contract hire, helping to put more and more EVs on UK roads than ever before.

As the only EV salary sacrifice scheme provider rated 4.8* on Trustpilot, our clever blend of green tech and no-nonsense customer experience has already helped 10,000 drivers get behind the wheel of an EV, taking 28K tonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

And we’re using our commercial success to bring more sustainable initiatives to life, investing in EV technologies that drive forward our mission of creating a greener future. From our EV charging network ‘Electroverse’ to cutting-edge Vehicle-to-Grid technology, we’re constantly working to make EV ownership as accessible, attractive and forward-thinking as possible.

The Women in Safe Homes fund is a social impact investment fund addressing the need for safe and secure housing for women facing homelessness, domestic abuse, and other complex challenges.
> Safe housing: The fund aims to create 130 homes, benefiting over 1,500 women. So far, it has acquired 68 properties, with a further c. 55 target properties in the pipeline. It currently houses 206 women and children (January 2024).
> Housing partners: The fund works alongside its housing partners to select suitable properties, before refurbishing them; properties are then leased to the partners, which, in turn, provide homes to vulnerable women with a secure tenancy.
> Environment: The fund mainly acquires existing properties and aims to improve the EPC rating from D/E level to a range of A-C ratings, reducing energy usage through refurbishment; 93% of the fund’s properties are now at EPC C and above.
> Investment landscape: To date, the fund has attracted 20 impact investors, raising over £29m. The fund works to reframe investment as a means of addressing complex societal problems – consequently, the Church of England made its first ever social impact investment to the fund, through its new social impact investment programme.

Triodos Bank is unique in the banking landscape – a retail bank that only provides finance and tailored support to progressive companies and social enterprises making a positive impact, both from an environmental and social perspective, and offering 100% transparency on how the money entrusted by savers and investors is used.

In 2023 Triodos was ranked #1 globally for the most active clean energy deals, financing 640 renewable energy projects and avoiding 996 ktonne CO2e emissions; alongside financing regenerative agriculture, social housing, care homes and cultural institutions.

Triodos also applies some of the strictest minimum standards in the industry, for example never funding fossil fuels, fast fashion, weapons, tobacco or deforestation.

We have recently pioneered new business models of nature-based investment, and challenged the financial sector to commit to real action on climate change by becoming the first bank in the world to support the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative.

In 2023 we proved that positive impact and financial stability go hand in hand, achieving our best financial result ever, recording a EUR 77.2 million net profit.

Cenit’s “Empowering Employee Wellness and Equity” program is designed to transform corporate culture in the historically masculine oil and gas sector, with over 54 stations in remote areas across Colombia. The initiative integrates wellness and inclusion into Cenit’s strategy, aiming to empower employees through innovative programs like the Talent League, Conexion Rout, and the ‘Equity Tour’. The strategy has improved well-being, physical and mental health, and enhanced inclusivity and diversity within the organization. With over 250 DEI volunteers and all 153 leaders trained in diversity and inclusivity, Cenit is paving the way for systemic cultural change. These initiatives have not only impacted internal metrics like engagement and well-being but have also influenced the broader industry through partnerships with local communities and NGOs. By fostering collaborative leadership, Cenit demonstrates a holistic approach to employee engagement, wellness, and equity, cementing its role as a leader in Colombia’s oil and gas sector.

At Commercial, our ambitious target to achieve carbon net zero by 2028 will only be successful if we can embed the mission into the very core of our organisation.

For more than 20 years, sustainability has been at the heart of our operations and since 2009, our employee engagement programme, Change Champions, has played a vital role in achieving this.

In total, more than 170 employees have taken part, delivering 25 business transformational projects. Highlights include, but are not limited to:

-Being the first company in our sector to achieve zero waste to landfill
-Producing a guide to help our team, their friends and families create a net zero home
-Introducing a personal carbon offsetting scheme that has seen 24,000 trees planted
-Two projects to champion Women in Technology and inspire girls to take STEM careers
-Driving down emissions with ‘cycle to work’ and electric car schemes
-A ‘branching out’ volunteering initiative which sees around 150 hours donated each year
-Collaborating with clients and suppliers to initiate their own Change Champions programme.

But more than that, it has helped to unify our teams, bringing people from across the business together, developed communication and collaboration skills to help create future leaders.

Every eighth Israeli is a person with a disability, and 50% of Israeli people with disabilities are unemployed. A sub-group where the gap between employment potential and fulfillment is particularly prominent is persons with autism (PwA). Many PwA possess skills making them suitable for high-level positions, but often end up unemployed or in jobs below their potential due to the lack of appropriate models. High-Enter, launched by the eBay Israel R&D Center in collaboration with Shekulo Tov Group, aims to address this, fostering PwA inclusion in Israeli high-tech while providing them the unique support they need. Starting with 4 employees in 2019, our program has since grown to 8, with plans to expand further. Employees are guided by a Job Coach, helping them develop both professional and interpersonal skills, and are managed by an eBay Team Manager, ensuring optimal conditions for them to thrive. This includes creating tailored work protocols and offering career development paths. From data taggers to QA testers, PwA are an organic part of eBay Israel’s activities and culture. Annual assessments demonstrate high satisfaction, development, and growth in personal independence. Following High-Enter’s success, Shekulo Tov has implemented similar programs in four other Israeli high-tech companies.

Genuine Solution’s mission is simple! And that is for everyone to enjoy technology without it costing the earth… literally! We operate a circular business model where we recover, refurbish and reuse technology products reducing e-waste and making technology accessible to all.

As a certified B Corp, we take our commitment to having equal focus on people, planet and profit very seriously and for us to be able to lead by example to inspire others to do the same. Therefore, employee engagement and their wellbeing is absolutely fundamental in helping us to deliver on our mission.

To ensure engagement is embedded within our business, we use the Investors In People framework designed to make “work better” which uses evidence direct from our employees to measure the level of engagement within the business which ensures we are accountable to deliver on the promise made to our team.

In January 2024, we were reassessed by IIP and we were granted Platinum accreditation. Our overall score was 814 compared to the “We Invest In People” average of 731 and 722 in our industry sector. Only 7% of the 50,000 businesses assessed by IIP achieve this level of accreditation.

Despite 83% of employees at HSBC reporting positive mental health, 1 in 4 still do not know where to get mental health support and self-identification of a mental health condition varies across our global population.

Cutting-through the strong headline figure, we acknowledged that there was still much to do to improve mental health culture at HSBC and we utilised World Mental Health Day 2023 to:
• Alleviate stigma by cultivating an open and inclusive mental health culture
• Educate colleagues on the importance of proactively investing in mental health
• Increase awareness of the existing services HSBC offers which can support mental health

Our World Mental Health Day campaign resulted in an award-winning film, which is now being utilised by our careers team to attract new recruits, increased traffic to the mental health page on our Global Wellbeing Hub by 36%, increased use of our mental health app by over 900% in Latin America, increased membership of our Global Wellbeing community on Workplace by 167% and culminated in 96% of employees polled reporting satisfaction in the mental health support on offer at HSBC.

Created and launched by Bantam Materials UK Ltd. in 2019, the Prevented Ocean Plastic programme provides an innovative solution for coastal communities that lack formal waste management infrastructure and are at risk of ocean plastic pollution. By working with local recyclers and developing new collection centres, we give value to what would otherwise be discarded waste, which can then be turned into new products for the UK and European markets. We are currently working with over 30 brands to help them achieve their 2025 and 2030 sustainability goals.

2023 was a big year, with over 300 SKUs across 31 brands and 13 product categories, and we crossed the 500 SKU threshold in Q1 of 2024. The programme saw the first ‘bottle into bottle’ application of the solution, with Lidl GB using Prevented Ocean Plastic in its San Celestino sparkling water range, and Lush recently announced integration into their product lines as well. We were recognised by a number of prestigious organisations, including: the Earthshot Prize, as an official nominee for both 2023 and 2024; the British Plastics Federation as their Top Innovation of 2023; and as an award-winner at the Green World Awards in the Houses of Parliament last year.

The Circular Future Fund sought trail-blazing ideas for new circular products and services to accelerate the transition towards a more circular economy. The £1-million fund supported by John Lewis Partnership’s 10p plastic bag charge, received 245 applications. Four were successful:

DAME are mainstreaming use of menstrual cups. Their innovative self-sanitising menstrual cup is predicted to contribute 99x less carbon (vs boiling traditional cups), saving 2,860 disposable period-products over a cup’s lifetime.

Pip & Henry are redesigning children’s shoes for sustainability given the average child replaces shoes every four months e.g. an expandable shoe that grows with the child, and designs that enable easier sorting into their separate materials for recycling.

University of Leeds’s research lays the foundations for a circular economy for polyester, as dyes in polyester prevent easy recycling. A revolutionary new dying process enables recycling, with huge potential environmental benefits – needing less water, energy and polluting ‘auxiliary’ chemicals.

SLIC established nine ‘lend-and-mend’ hubs in Scottish Libraries making every day circular economy actions more accessible, creating a model for libraries to follow.

By pioneering innovation, sharing learnings and leaving best practice legacy for each sector, these inspiring projects show that a circular future is possible.

ReSpace is a non-profit which turns empty buildings into thriving community projects; no project is the same, as each is determined by local community needs, but each project is created using surplus and wasted resources. We reuse waste, to reduce inequality and rebuild communities. For example, one 6-month project, Zero LDN, saved around £10,000 worth of resources from reaching landfill, including construction materials, food, textiles, electrical goods and furniture. These resources were instead given for free to local people, or used in the creation of the project itself. This project also saved local people over £100,000 in the cost of hiring space, whilst also delivering free workshops and activities for locals. The value of these free and accessible spaces cannot be overestimated, and we had several regular visitors to Zero LDN tell us this project saved their lives, as it gave them a sense of purpose and belonging, or a route to access formal support. Projects all promote reduction of waste, and the reuse and repair of resources, even down to screws, fittings and fixtures which get ring-fenced for distribution across local communities, charitable groups and other respaced projects.

Simba started with a mission: to help solve the word’s sleep crisis; we’re determined to bring a great night’s sleep to everyone who needs it – but we don’t want it to come at a cost to our environment. That’s why we’ve launched a variety of initiatives to make our circular economy more, well, circular.

It started when the National Bed Federation discovered the UK sends 76% of mattresses to landfill every year – over 5 million mattresses. We weren’t just shocked, we were spurred. When the mattress industry was asked to take recycling rates from 24% to 76%, we took the lead by launching a Mattress Recycling Service and a Return and Refurb programme. In 2023 alone, they saved 4,929,822 kilograms of CO2 reaching the atmosphere from a total of 23,342 refurbished and recycled mattresses. And we want to go higher.

We’re also designing our mattresses with their end of life in mind, so easier to take apart at their end-of-life via recycling. We’re also innovating for more recycled content in our mattresses, like surplus manufacturing foam in our ReGen™ bases. Until we can make mattresses entirely from recycled materials, we’re using more mindful virgin materials wherever we can.

Since its launch in 2021, ECO-BLOC® has been a game-changer in the construction industry. Annually, we produce three million blocks, utilising 50,000 tonnes of recycled aggregates, processed via our very own recycling plants. This innovative approach has allowed us to divert significant amounts of waste from landfill, instead incorporating it into our block production. By creating ECO-BLOC® products, we are not only recycling but also reducing the strain on our planet’s natural resources traditionally used in construction. This sustainable practice has a dual benefit: it aids in waste management and contributes to the preservation of our environment. The production of ECO-BLOC® has also led to a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions. For every tonne of material used, we avoid emitting a significant amount of CO2, contributing to the fight against climate change. ECO-BLOC® is more than just a product; it’s a testament to our commitment to a circular economy, where waste is not waste but a valuable resource. We are proud to be part of the solution, not the problem, in turn making a positive impact on our planet.

At August Race Worldwide Ltd we haven’t just adjusted or reduced our carbon footprint we have turned our entire commercial production on it’s head in order to achieve the most ambitious of targets to slash our manufacturing waste by 90%. To achieve this we have invested heavily in our infrastructure and processes certain that this commitment to the natural world is no longer optional as essentially a PR exercise but an essential company-wide conscience to off-set our commercial production. We now have 100% of our production in-house so we can track in minute detail our plastic waste and continue to work on reducing it. This is in stark contrast to the greenwashing ‘eco’ marine cleaning brands who do not have their production in-house and consequently have no idea or concept of their products true carbon footprint. In addition the August Race products themselves boast market-leading honest eco stats and we have gone further still as a company and partnered with Clean-Hub to help set up recycling plants in Indonesia pledging a huge 2 tonne target for August Race for 2024.

Clean the World’s Global Hospitality Recycling Programme has diverted over 12.1million kilograms of bottled amenities and soap waste in 8,300+ hotels from going to landfill. This waste has simultaneously been recycled and used to form 84 million new bars of soap which have been donated to children and families around the world with no access to basic hygiene.

The concept seeks to help two growing problems at the same time – the huge amount of waste generated through hospitality (289,700 tonnes each year from UK hotels alone), and the devastating number of unnecessary child deaths caused by poor sanitation (around 400,000 a year under the age of five).

Grounds for Recycling (GfR) accomplished the collection of 4.7 tonnes of used coffee grounds, used as compost material and soil improver in the Glasgow Botanic Gardens’ outside beds, in just 20 days.
The total distance cycled by bikers was 960.22 km. This represents a 98.5% reduction in CO2 emissions when compared to traditional collection of waste using vans and is the equivalent volume of CO2 captured by roughly 111 trees a month. E-cargo cycling also removed 184 hours (or 21 days) of van traffic from the streets of Glasgow during the month, which decreased congestion, noise, and air pollution.
The campaign reached 29.4K customer Instagram accounts and secured over 2 million opportunities to see through press (18 articles), media and PR.
60 hospitality venues across the city of Glasgow participated.
93% of businesses thought the campaign had a positive impact on food waste management and its average weight and cost.
70% felt the campaign increased their sustainability credentials.
100% of businesses stated that the coffee collection process was easy and straightforward for their team.
100% of businesses said they would stay involved in a similar long-term project to recycle used coffee grounds if given the opportunity.

Every year, usable products are wasted and sent to landfill by companies, due to factors such as manufacturing errors, supply chain issues and surplus stock. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of families are going without essentials to help them keep clean and well. In Kind Direct was formed to fill that gap, and be the bridge between corporates with usable surplus products, and the charitable organisations who need them to support their communities. Since inception, In Kind Direct have diverted 37,500 tonnes of usable products from landfill and in doing so, simultaneously supporting 445,000 people each week. Today, In Kind Direct have strategies in place to help tackle environmental issues, resulting in 78,000kg of Co2e saved in less than a year with a refurbished tech scheme, 20,000 deliveries using a carbon-neutral logistics partner and the charity becoming a voice for circular economy and educating its stakeholders, including its charitable network of over 6000 organisations. In Kind Direct are fostering a zero-waste culture, believing no usable product should go to waste, and improving lives shouldn’t cost the Earth.

E-waste has become a significant and growing concern today. The surge in discarded electronics poses serious environmental and health hazards. The manufacturing of new products using additional energy and materials not only hinders sustainable development but also impacts the regeneration of global resources and the recycling of waste. Clearly, there is a pressing need for a more sustainable business model that transforms discarded products and materials into valuable resources, thereby reducing the extraction, processing, and transportation of virgin resources. Currently, only 7.2% of materials are recycled and reused at the end of their lifecycle, and this percentage is unfortunately decreasing each year.
To address this challenge, Motorola Wuhan Mobile Communication & Technology Company (Motorola Wuhan Factory), a refurbishment factory located in Wuhan, China, consistently recognizes the importance of sustainable development for society and the environment. As a leading company in the IT manufacturing industry, Motorola Wuhan Factory has introduced remanufacturing and buyback services to reuse or recycle IT products and components. Not only does this contribute to reducing e-waste and supporting sustainable development, but it also generates mutual profits for the business and its partners.

Recorra works with the National Theatre (NT) to enhance their waste management practices, contributing to the NT’s net zero emissions strategy. Founded by Friends of the Earth in 1988, Recorra was built with sustainability at its core; we thereby help our customers reduce their impact on the planet through proper waste management and recycling practices.
Through comprehensive waste audits and analyses, Recorra identified opportunities for improvement at the NT, designing a waste reduction solution tailored specifically to their needs.
Our engagement work provided educational sessions and facility tours to raise awareness and promote recycling initiatives among NT staff. Improved internal communications and efficient help desk services have addressed logistical challenges. Additionally, Recorra’s successes with NT serves as a model for scalability and replicability, with plans to advise NT on implementing similar strategies at their new site in Bermondsey.

The project consists of reusing industrial waste to create a product that helps restore degraded areas, promoting reforestation.
Pharmaceutical waste from medicine capsules, made from collagen and that have not passed the quality process, whether due to color, size or expiration date, are reused to place a soil conditioner (organic fertilizer) made from paper waste inside. and cellulose (cellulosic pulp, wood bark, chips, biomass), and also seeds from native trees, forming Sustainable Biocapsules. The seeds used can be from any biome such as Atlantic Forest, Amazon Forest, Cerrado, Caatinga, Pampa, among other more specific ones as well.
Through autonomous drones, the biocapsules are launched in areas that have suffered deforestation, fires, etc., and in contact with water, they dissolve releasing the capsule’s nutrients such as macro (Phosphorus, Nitrogen and Potassium) and micronutrients (Boron, Zinc , Manganese, Copper) and seeds for germination. The drones used are autonomous, that is, they do not require a pilot during the flight, programming the flight time, speed, altitude, and controlling the seed dispersion speed through a disperser that carries up to 20,000 biocapsules per flight.
Thus, the project transforms waste into trees.

Forest Holidays is a genuine example of how a sustainable rural business can successfully balance economic, social and environmental interests. Our product directly protects, restores and conserves the natural environment. Unlike many other holiday providers, nature conservation is an integral component of our business, from the way we design and build our locations, to our long-term biodiversity enhancement strategies and our day-to-day operations.

We’re stewards of 244.5 hectares of UK forests (80% of which is managed for conservation) and our business is designed to respect nature and benefit ecosystems. We go above and beyond other ‘holiday providers’. Working with ecologists; landscape architects and arboriculturists; and our partners Forestry England, Forestry and Land Scotland and Natural Resources Wales. Our public-private sector partnership was created to broaden experiences and extend the public benefits the nation’s forests deliver, whilst contributing a sustainable income to help preserve them for years to come.

Redrow’s Saxon Brook in Pinhoe, near Exeter, is the UK’s first ever pollinator friendly housing development, created with support from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BBCT).

Still ongoing, the nature-rich development was designed in 2016 with the aim to protect and enhance wildlife habitats at the same time as providing beautiful green spaces that actively promote health and wellbeing for residents. The early part of the development played a part in

Being built on former farmland on the edge of a city, Saxon Brook was an ideal location to provide improved, nectar rich habitats for bumblebees and other pollinators. We also wanted to extend our remit to educate and encourage new residents and the wider community to play a role in safeguarding bumblebee populations and reversing their decline.

Saxon Brook is forecast to achieve a biodiversity net gain of 15% over pre-development levels and informed the development of Redrow’s Nature for People Biodiversity Strategy, which was created in 2020 in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts. The strategy seeks to enhance and protect the natural environment of developments and enables us to work consistently to ensure we leave a positive environmental legacy and places where our homeowners are proud to live.

The South West Peatland Partnership ((Natural England, South West Water, Duchy of Cornwall, National Trust. Cornwall Council, Environment Agency) is working to restore 2,634 hectares of degrading peatland, preventing the emissions of 652,625 tonnes of CO2e. Over 20 businesses, landowners, charities, contractors and authorities are working together to tackle erosion and damage to peatlands and champion the role of this ecosystem in all our lives. As a result restored areas on the peatlands of Exmoor, Dartmoor and Cornwall are already holding back water, reducing peak storm flow by just under half in places, bringing back birds like dunlin, and are shown to reduce dissolved organic carbon runoff by a third. Innovation has been key in achieving this such as trialling the use of local wool and wood byproduct in restoration approaches, and investment in technology and training to have created over 60 roles underpinned by peatland restoration.

Green Boom, a pioneering Green-Tech company, is revolutionizing the way oil clean-ups are managed. Created to provide a clean and sustainable solution for oil spill cleanups, Green Boom’s patented products absorb any type of spilled oil and can be fully composted in weeks, completely eradicating the need for toxic landfills or products made from single-use plastics. Its line of high-quality oil-only absorbents are better preforming than polypropylene equivalents in terms of durability and heat-resistance and together with the company’s OilyTM, a naturally occurring, hydrocarbon-eating microbe that “eats” oil, it is the only company providing a complete zero-waste cleanup. This means that the 50,000 pounds of plastic waste that is generated every day due to oil spill cleanups can be avoided with Green Boom’s full circle solution.

The company has the only EPA and USDA-approved absorbents in the U.S. It is also TUV-approved in Europe. Compared to traditional oil spill absorbents, which rely on non-biodegradable materials like polypropylene that have detrimental long-term effects on ecosystems, Green Boom utilizes natural materials for its products, ensuring they degrade over time. This approach reduces environmental impact and aligns with the circular economy principles of reducing waste and promoting resource efficiency.

Global warming is among the world’s biggest challenges. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy use for space cooling worldwide tripled between 1990 and 2020 to 2,520 TWh and is set to soar as global economies expand against a backdrop of warming temperatures. HT Materials Science (HTMS), headquartered in Ireland with manufacturing facilities in Italy and sales and operations in the USA and the UAE, secured several patents for its flagship heat transfer fluid Maxwell. Maxwell is designed to reduce energy consumption and carbon emission for commercial and industrial heating and cooling (HVAC) systems. Maxwell is the only product of its kind on the market. We estimate that with only 15% market penetration Maxwell would reduce energy consumption in the USA by 30,000 megawatts of electricity per annum.

In 2023 HTMS demonstrated the efficacy of Maxwell through a successful deployment in a district cooling plant in Abu Dhabi operated by Tabreed. Maxwell was used in the system’s dual-centrifugal water-cooled chiller with two compressors with a total cooling capacity of 2,500 tons and achieved an improvement in efficiency (COP) of +13.6% over 2,250 EFLHs. This is the equivalent of an annual CO2 savings of 218.3 tons.

Toilets account for 30% of water usage in homes. Niagara’s Phantom One Piece is a fresh blend of design, and innovative, award-winning technology offering industry leading performance and water efficiency that helps customers reduce water consumption and alleviate high utility bills.

The Phantom One Piece toilet includes Niagara’s patented Stealth Technology®, which has won more than 15 industry and EPA WaterSense® awards for re-engineering the flush into a high-power, low-maintenance, virtually clog-free, water-efficient solution that has saved billions of gallons of the world’s water. This innovative technology has a vacuum-assist pull and a noise-cancelling tank for a whisper-quiet flush. At an efficient 0.8 GPF, the new Phantom One Piece is powerful enough to flush 1,000g of miso, is MaP Premium rated, WaterSense certified and impressively surpasses all industry drain line carry standards.

The Phantom One Piece displays a modern, sleek design that is ideal for residential, multifamily and hospitality properties. It also offers a comfortable elongated bowl and ADA height. Its design offers a concealed trapway that’s aesthetically pleasing and makes it one of the easiest toilets to clean. And, builders and plumbers will find the convenience of a pre-assembled tank easy to install leaving little room for error.

Only 9% of plastic gets recycled globally, and there are more than 86 million tonnes of plastics in our oceans. More than 99% of plastics are currently produced from chemicals derived from oil, natural gas, and coal – all of which are non-renewable resources.
Kelpi is on a mission to tackle plastic pollution through the development of biomaterials made from seaweed and other natural and renewable resources, that can not only match but even exceed the performance of fossil fuel plastic alternatives. Kelpi’s material has an excellent long-term water and acid barrier, achieved through sustainable and novel chemical functionalisation. Kelpi’s material is applied as a coating to paper, card, and other fibre substrates, meaning it is certified recyclable, compostable, and marine-safe at end of life, and is adaptable to address specific product requirements defined by our clients, for example to package a range of commercial products, including dry, wet, liquid, acidic and greasy products.

Kelpi is targeting large FMCGs in food & drink, home & personal care, who’s ambitious sustainability targets for packaging can be resolved through Kelpi’s solutions.

Many of the big drinks companies simply aren’t doing enough to address the waste their products create – with the top three plastic polluters in the world being large soft drinks corporations.
In recent years, many bottled water brands have launched alternatives to plastic packaging, but these differing materials such as aluminium or Tetra Pak fall short environmentally. Recycling Tetra Pak isn’t a closed loop: it cannot be made into a carton again and instead leads to a mix of recycling and downcycling, which simply perpetuates the cycle of waste.
We wanted to be part of an alternative solution: one where we provided customers with a credible answer to their need for a bottled water drink, but which had added environmental benefits. A new kind of water: NEO WTR.
We discovered that 80% of the world’s ocean plastics enter the ocean via rivers and coastlines (ourworldindata.org/ocean-plastics).
It became clear that any product we developed needed to address the issue of marine pollution, but it needed to be more than just a recyclable product, we needed to create something that helped tackle the issue of waste plastic already out there and make consumers feel good about the product they are choosing.

We are located in the Circum-Pacific Belt, where thousands of earthquakes occur on average every year. In addition, there are also numerous disasters such as heavy rains and storm surges caused by typhoons. Our population density averages more than 700 people per square kilometer, which is among the highest in the world. When a disaster occurs, it will cause a huge impact. Facing the risk of extreme climate, environmental education and disaster prevention self-rescue capabilities are very important. Therefore, we integrate environmental protection concepts into promotional activities, and integrate online digital learning to communicate and promote concepts with different age groups through education and training, talent cultivation, parent-child practical experience, mobile exhibitions, etc. The content of the initiative has reached more than 850,000 people.

Cats or Dogs? Barbie or Oppenheimer? Liam or Noel? These might not sound like environmental questions, but it turns out they can have a real environmental impact if you stick them on a voting bin.

Our #PickYourSide campaign was a collaboration with KFC, Manchester City Council, Southampton City Council, Instrument Industries and Ellipsis Earth, testing whether new, solar-powered voting bins could tackle litter and get people talking rubbish.

Through an 8-week campaign in Manchester and Southampton last summer, we saw how a creative approach to litter could cut through the noise and change behaviours around a usually mundane topic. We made waste management cool (well, almost…).

After our bins went viral online, nationally representative polling in October 2023 showed 15% of people in the UK alone (10 million people!) had seen them, but they weren’t just a gimmick – they were 2.5x more effective at reducing litter than normal bins according to independent surveying by Ellipsis Earth.

So, now what? We’re refining the design and looking to spark more debates on streets near you as we look to scale up, big.

Keep Britain Tidy’s inaugural Buy Nothing New Month campaign encouraged consumers aged 18-44 to buy nothing new during January 2023, inspiring them to consider alternatives to buying new, sowing the seed that buying less is positive in many ways.

Barley Communications developed and implemented a highly successful integrated communication campaign that aimed to shift the public narrative from the environmental impact of what people throw away to that of what people buy.

The campaign led to:
• almost 120,000 impressions and over 750 new followers for the organic social media campaign
• almost 4 million impressions and 27,000 clicks for the paid social media campaign
• >700,000 impressions and almost 465,000 video views generated by influencer content
• opportunities to see/hear of 2.6 million from the trade and consumer media campaign.

This resulted in 65% of those who took part buying nothing new during the month and 70% reporting they will think more about what they buy in future.

BNNM is now Keep Britain Tidy’s annual consumer waste prevention campaign and the first of its kind from a mainstream, consumer-facing organisation in the UK.
The 2024 campaign ran in January and saw participation increase by 6000%.

Most people don’t think anything of putting a few batteries in the bin, not realising the dangers or even that they should be recycled. On average, over 3.2 million batteries in are thrown away in Cumbria alone.

3.2 million is a huge number of batteries but unless you can visualise the scale of the problem it means nothing. 3.2 million batteries equal the weight of over 3650 Herdwick sheep. What is more Cumbrian than a sheep to represent the scale of our problem!

Introducing ‘The Baa-ttery Campaign’; a creative solution to encourage more battery recycling across Cumbria. Baa-ttery Boxes were delivered to every school in Cumbria and asked to help us ‘save baa-tteries from the bin’.

By highlighting the importance of battery recycling, Renewi aims to increase the number of battery recycling points across Cumbria and make it more convenient to recycle household batteries and reduce the environmental impact of battery waste.

Within a year of SPEN’s campaign launch to promote internal behavioural change toward sustainability, notable achievements include:

• A 37% increase in staff registrations with the Supply Chain Sustainability School
• Diverting 98% of waste from landfill across its business
• Tripling the number of employees upgrading to electric vehicles
• The introduction of its own Sustainability Awards and implementing environmental personal goals for all employees
• Embarking on an ambitious collaborative biodiversity enhancement program across non-operational land
• Volunteer days have increased by over 5%, with further growth expected

This initiative was designed not only to encourage immediate change but also to leave a lasting legacy of sustainability within SPEN and aligns with SPEN’s Sustainable Business Strategy – the first of its kind for a UK electricity network company – aiming for Net Zero by 2035. It represents a ground-breaking approach to internal communication, targeting all employees and emphasising individual contributions. Leveraging all communication channels, including standalone emails and workshops, SPEN effectively promoted behaviour change.

The campaign’s success, achievements, and delivery mechanisms have been shared with SPEN’s parent company Scottish Power, other transmission operators, and at external events, solidifying SPEN’s commitment to sustainability and inspiring broader industry engagement.

In 2021-2022, 28% of recycling was rejected across Suffolk. Residents adding recycling to bins in plastic bags is a common issue, causing up to 100 tonnes of recycling a month to be rejected.

Barley worked with Suffolk Waste Partnership to develop an integrated behaviour change campaign that would engage Suffolk households and raise awareness of the need to recycle rubbish items clean, dry and loose instead of bagged.

We named the campaign #ShakeItOut and created a piece of hero content – a playful and engaging animation accompanied by a jingle to the soundtrack of the ‘Hokey Cokey’. We chose a catchy and nostalgic tune that would be easy to remember.

Communications channels included social media (paid and organic), a traditional media campaign and out-of-home adverts in bus shelters and supermarkets. The animation was also broadcast in cinemas.

The digital campaign ran for eight weeks with two two-week bursts of paid social media advertising at the beginning and end to maximise impact among digitally engaged audiences.

The campaign performed strongly across all channels, with 4.8m opportunities to see and hear. Most importantly we hit the target of 15% less recycling contamination due to plastic bags.

The Learning Hub is a public good that opens the doors of opportunity to everyone.

As an online learning platform, The Learning Hub offers hundreds of high-quality localised learning resources, including video-based and blended learning courses, for free to anyone, at any time – in 29 different languages.

All learning resources are based on the Aga Khan Foundation practitioners’ and its countless partners’ expertise in the areas of Agriculture and Food Security, Civil Society Strengthening, Climate Resilience, Early Childhood Development, Education, Health and Nutrition, and Work and Enterprise.

Content is made available offline to ensure connectivity is not a barrier to learning. Our content development model is cost-effective: to give one example, the production of 12 instructional videos in seven languages titled “12 Tips for Families to Help Children Learn and Develop during A Pandemic” was completed in under two weeks for less than 2,000 euros.

Launched in 2022 (and hitting 1 million views in 2023), The Learning Hub is a transformative technology for the global good. Whether training Village Council Leaders in India to serve their communities more inclusively or supporting Diversity Charters across hundreds of European organisations, The Learning Hub opens the doors of opportunity to everyone.

The UK spends £1 billion every year on cleaning up litter. Roadside litter is especially tough to clear and damaging: packaging harms wildlife and plastic fragments get into waterways, eventually joining the 80% of all ocean plastics coming from land.

Tidy Roadsides set out to navigate a better way to drive down litter. We partnered with Ellipsis Earth, who use AI and image-capturing technology to conduct surveys in Glasgow and around Cardiff. The surveys covered 9,800,000 sqm, identified 192,436 items and revealed detailed insights into litter distribution, type, material, weight, and volume. We found roadside litter mostly concentrated at slow-speed locations like junctions.

So, we targeted the litter hotspots with behaviour change interventions, making it easier for road users to bin rubbish and more people willing to do so. A second litter mapping showed that data-driven interventions are four to five times more effective in reducing litter than untargeted interventions. The combination of bins and signs boosted the performance of each by 25%.

We summarised our learnings into four principles to help tackle litter more effectively and efficiently. These insights help inform the roadside litter approaches of local authorities, businesses and highway authorities, leaving a strong legacy.

LRQA work with clients across our chosen sectors and markets to support them in their journey to become more sustainable, responsible businesses. Our differentiator and key enabler for our clients is our EiQ Platform, a data rich analytical tool which covers five ESG pillars: issues associated with labor, health and safety, environment, business ethics, and management systems. EiQ brings together our own audit data from over 100,000+ days a year on-the-ground at factories, farms and other facilities in over 110 countries. It combines this insight with public domain data, media screening and incident reporting and performance benchmarking to support our clients as they look to identify and mitigate ESG risk and build more responsible supply chains.

The end result is a platform which gives a holistic view of ESG risks relevant to the individual user’s supply network. We use EiQ to support clients and their suppliers to lift people out of poverty, improve working conditions and environmental footprints and deliver on ESG commitments. EiQ gives an unmatched view of country, commodity and site-level performance and risks so that users can make informed decisions and drive positive impact – leaving people and planet in a better place..

In a bid to advance research and explore how an individual’s reaction to the Covid-19 virus might be affected by their genes, Sano Genetics launched its Genetics of Long Covid (GOLD) study in August 2021. It built a robust dataset of genetic information from a diverse group of people impacted by Long Covid, recruiting UK adults with symptoms and inviting them to anonymously share their DNA data with a world-wide consortium of Covid-19 researchers. The programme – led by Sano Genetics, and supported by Government funding body Innovate UK – aimed to aid the development of treatments and the identification of vulnerable groups.

The study drew ~3,750 participants and results are now freely available to researchers around the world. The data has helped techbio company PrecisionLife to identify 73 genes associated with Long Covid, including 42 genes with the potential for novel drug discovery approaches. These were the first detailed genetic insights into the condition and its commonalities with diseases like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome, and they have paved the way for new precision diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

SkootEco has undergone a transformative pivot, evolving from a green carpooling app to a comprehensive sustainability SAAS platform in 2023. Focused on the hospitality and leisure sector, we address the urgent need for sustainability initiatives among suppliers, venues, and consumers. Considering that food production alone accounts for over a quarter (26 percent) of global greenhouse gas emissions (OurWorldinData.org, 2024), SkootEco choose to concentrate primarily on this sector. Research indicates that food-related emissions could escalate almost 40 percent by 2050, potentially reaching 30 GtCO₂e (Statista, 2024).

Our platform offers a range of impactful products, including a scope 3 Carbon Calculator for rapid carbon footprint assessment, menu and event carbon calculator, an Impact Dashboard for real-time purchase, and a Live Public Profile for showcasing sustainability efforts together with API integrations for enabling software and online businesses to implement sustainability initiatives in their consumer facing products. Our achievements to date include: over 1.4 million trees planted globally, 120,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles removed, and 60,000 tonnes of CO2 countered. With our clients’ commitment, we’re poised to counteract another 150,000 tonnes by 2026 through partnering with innovative project developers to transition woodburners to biogas stoves in rural and less privileged parts of India and Kenya.

Bebbo is a self-paced, digital parenting support programme by UNICEF. It is packaged in the form of a mobile parenting app and seeks to inform and help parents support their child’s development from birth to the first day of school with high-quality evidence-based information and numerous interactive tools. Bebbo grows with the child, providing age-appropriate information and activities that align with their developmental milestones. The app is implemented jointly with governments and integrated and promoted through key health and education services. By December 2023, UNICEF’s Bebbo parenting app had been downloaded over 1.1 million times in Southern Europe and Central Asia, with 100,000 to 300,000 monthly active users.
A global review revealed that nearly three-quarters of countries lack comprehensive parental support systems that reach all parents. Recognized as a global Digital Public Good, with open-source technology, local language support, and a strong focus on privacy, Bebbo delivers personalized support to parents free of charge, online and offline.
Feedback from over 20,000 Bebbo users showed significant improvements in knowledge and parenting skills after using the app. Most respondents gained new insights into child development phases and found the app helpful for tracking their child’s developmental milestones.

YuLife’s app, nominated for the “Technology for Good” award, exemplifies a commitment to enhancing individual wellbeing and sustainability. Integrating gamification, rewards, and insurance, it incentivises healthy behaviours while fostering a supportive community. Overcoming challenges such as designing engaging features and ensuring data security, the app stands out for its originality and impact.

Evidence of success is clear, with the app positively impacting communities, society, and the environment. By incentivizing activities like walking and mindfulness, it improves physical and mental wellbeing while fostering camaraderie and support. Furthermore, it promotes sustainable practices and eco-friendly activities.

Through targeted marketing campaigns and community outreach, YuLife effectively raises awareness about its benefits, receiving positive press coverage and awards. With its user-friendly interface and modular design, the app holds significant potential for scalability and replicability, allowing for global expansion.

In conclusion, YuLife’s app showcases technology’s transformative potential for promoting wellbeing and sustainability, serving as a beacon of positive change for individuals and the planet. Supported by case studies like Bruntwood, where it increased employee wellbeing scores by 10% in just four months, its impact is undeniable.

In 2020, share of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) rose to 23.3% – a level not seen in 15 years. Women were worse off than men. In 2022, 27.4% of young women globally were in employment, compared to 40.3% of young men. Hope arises in the form of 24 million green jobs the International Labor Organization forecasts will be created by 2030. But, without intervention, NEET youth are also likely to miss out on this opportunity. In 2023, EY and Microsoft collaborated to create the Green Skills Passport to give NEET youth new employable skills. Delivered through the Microsoft Community Training platform, participants receive 10-12 hours of free, on-demand EY-curated micro-learnings to better understand sustainability, green jobs and skills for employment, while also being connected to job search resources. In 2023, the course launched in five countries/ regions: the United States, India, Bangladesh, China Mainland, Hong Kong and Italy. By March 2024, of the 35,500+ initial user registrations, 24,600+ courses have been completed. Pilots show that 61% of those completing the course plan to apply for green jobs and 43% plan to enroll in a university degree in sustainability or take more related courses. Global rollout continues.

First Mile’s electric cargo bike recycling collection and consolidation initiative is the latest innovation in our strategy to decarbonize our entire operation.
Our custom-built electric cargo bikes can each carry 200kg of recycling, while working silently across the capital with zero emissions. Each bike operates on one small battery charge, covering 25 miles daily – an ideal operational urban-collection range.
Each bike has the same capacity as a 3.5tonne van-sized vehicle, while saving 20.26 kg of CO2 emissions daily. The fleet is ULEZ-compliant and congestion charge exempt. To date, by using our cargo bikes with our 6,300 collections every week, we have avoided over 500,000 kg of CO2 emissions.
Waste consolidation is the process of combining smaller amounts into larger loads in order to improve recycling rates and make waste both easier to handle, and more cost and environmentally-effective to transport.
The move responds to the changing focus within cites on initiatives such as reduced traffic and pedestrianization, often combined with an emphasis on low/zero emission zones. These changes mean that delivery and collection operators increasingly need to transform operations, both in terms of emissions and road miles. In this respect, First Mile is an industry-leader within the waste sector.

There are over a billion people worldwide who have enormous talent but never have the opportunity to realize their potential. That’s a tragedy, and it’s only going to get worse over time. This begs the question, how can we finance high-quality education and healthcare to disadvantaged populations at the insane scale required. No existing approach works. However there is a better way.

FORTE, which stands for Financing Of Return To Employment, is a way to finance education and healthcare at no cost or risk to individuals or governments, and without needing philanthropy. Private capital (from foundations, impact investors, superannuation funds, and others) is used to cover the costs of human capital investments in individuals, such as retraining for the jobs of the future. These investments, by their nature, lead to greater employment, incomes and therefore government income tax revenue. Governments, as part of the agreement, simply pass back a percentage of the increase in the income tax revenue they receive that’s attributable to the retrained individuals. They just pass back what they otherwise would not have had. This is a true win-win for individuals, investments, governments, and great education/healthcare providers. It’s trickle-up economics, and it’s what the world desperately needs.

The oil cleanup industry is known for removing waste with polypropylene-based, single-use plastic absorbents. Instead of removing waste, solutions providers are using products that cause more harm by contributing to plastic waste that ends up in toxic and hazardous landfills globally.

Enter Green Boom. Green Boom, a pioneering Green-Tech company, is revolutionizing the way oil clean-ups are managed. It created a holistic Oil to Soil solution that no other company can offer. Its patented eco-friendly Sorbents, Oil-Eating Microbes, and Composting process not only solve oil waste cleanups but actively contribute to the planet’s health. While the competition relies on polypropylene for oil cleanup, this method is one-sided and non-sustainable, as it merely relocates oil waste to toxic landfills.

Green Boom’s full end to end solution sets the company apart as it takes all the oil absorbed by the sorbents and transforms the waste back to soil. This innovative process ensures complete cleanup and environmental preservation, avoiding the perpetual burden of harmful waste on landfills, embodying a true commitment to sustainability. By addressing oil waste at its source, Green Boom champions customers’ green initiatives, making it the preferred choice for businesses committed to environmental stewardship.

In August 2023, Hyster Company, a global provider of container handling solutions, developed and shipped a hydrogen fuel cell-powered ReachStacker for a pilot at the Port of Valencia. This is the first ReachStacker application in Europe using HFC technologies for port handling equipment in real operating conditions. The Hyster® ReachStacker is an innovative zero-emission solution that uses a Nuvera® Fuel Cell Engine to convert hydrogen into electricity. Hydrogen is stored on board in high-pressure tanks and can be refilled in 10-15 minutes. The onboard hydrogen fuel cell charges the batteries, which power the electric motors and hydraulic systems enabling the ReachStacker to lift laden containers with similar performance to diesel-powered equipment.

This application explores advantages of the HFC ReachStacker compared to conventional diesel-powered machines, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution and operating costs through the elimination of a diesel engine, transmission and other mechanically-driven components.

The Hyster ReachStacker is currently being tested in live operation at MSC Terminal Valencia (MSCTV), one of the largest container terminals in Europe. The H2Ports project, funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH-JU) and coordinated by the Fundación Valenciaport, involves the port community, industry and academia.

Our Octoplus Saving Sessions is going bigger and better to help tackle key social and environmental issues by delivering a turbocharged energy saving experience to empower our customers and ease congestion on our grid when they need help the most. Our game-changer innovation works by alerting opted-in customers ahead of ‘Demand Service Flexibility’ sessions run by National Grid and allocating 1800 Octopoints (worth £2.25) for every 1Kw not used compared to normal consumption, with points redeemable as bill credits, cashback, days out and more. Of the 48 schemes, none have been as successful as ours. Results over 15 sessions to date demonstrate that we put £5.1m back into the pockets of 1.5m participating customers for saving 2GWh grid load – even with 3/6 hours notice – whilst saving 437 metric tonnes of Co2 emissions. For over 300.000 customers, savings made were enough to beat the Jan 24 Price Cap. Our results have eclipsed last years’ in terms of uptake, engagement and overall performance: 114% more customers taking part 1.5m vs 700k, 13.8% higher peak power reduction achieved: 214MW vs 188MW, and overall higher 60% market share up from 56% last year – with more to come.

International real estate development, investment and management firm Quadrum invested significantly into creating one of the UK’s most sustainable buildings in London’s Victoria, redeveloping a redundant 1950s structure that was a concrete haven with high levels of anti-social behaviour in its grounds.

Now a biophilia-inspired ‘living landmark’, 11 Belgrave is a 150,000 sq ft workplace that is net zero in design, construction and operation, addressing the urgent need to decarbonise the built environment to meet climate targets. Setting the blueprint for sustainable and people-centric workplaces, the project delivers tangible environmental, user and community benefits:

– UK’s first building to achieve a NABERS UK 5.5 Star design-reviewed target rating
– BREEAM Outstanding
– Retaining 35% of the existing structure, and materials choices, extend the building’s life by 10+ years
– Modelling based on RICS whole life carbon analysis and the UKGBC net zero carbon buildings framework highlights that 11 Belgrave will achieve 466 kgCO2e/m2 whole life carbon, 38% better than the RIBA 2030 Challenge
– 99.5% of waste successfully recycled and diverted from landfill
– Residents, businesses, local Councillors and school involved throughout the planning and development phases
– One of only six in the country to gain WELL Platinum pre-certification

The global weight loss market is growing, and in 2023, TCI adopted Bio-Resource Data Mining technology to develop the natural TCI GLP-1 Formula, derived from natural plant extracts, prebiotics and probiotics, rapidly boosts human GLP-1 secretion by modulating gut bacteria and specific mechanisms. It stabilizes blood sugar levels, controls appetite, enhances satiety, and effectively reduces weight, fat, hip circumference, and improves metabolic parameters. By the end of 2023, TCI GLP-1 Formula had helped 560 individuals lose over 2730 kilograms collectively, with each participant averagely reducing body fat by 2.3%, enabling them to embrace healthier lifestyles.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) estimates that only 0.4% of the 18600 companies reporting globally on its platform have a credible plan to reduce their carbon footprint to deliver their Science Based Targets and/or Net Zero goals.

One of the key delivery challenges these companies face is the lack of accurate, detailed and timely data to help them measure, track and report transparently on the carbon/resource footprints of trillions of items sold annually across the economy to billions of people, produced in millions of locations from 10000s of components.

TCS’ End-to-End Sustainability Platform (E2ESP) is the innovative solution to this challenge. An AI enabled data integrator for Scope 1/2/3 GHG emissions and resource use. We have trialled E2ESP with a global car company. E2ESP has help identify substantial energy, cost and carbon savings