GOLD
Laura Yeates: Founder, The Sustainable Recruitment Alliance
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.
GOLD
Maxim Timchenko: CEO, DTEK
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.
SILVER
Kathryn Baddeley: Head of CSR, Cisco UK & I
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.
SILVER
Kathrin Brost: VP Sustainability, DHL Global Forwarding
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.
ONE-TO-WATCH
Henrique Godoi: Founder, Merzenich Corporation
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.