Sustainable Company Awards 2024

The Celestial Earth was named as the winner of this year's Net zero progression of the year, APAC award for its work in helping Indian states and cities to achieve their net-zero targets by 2050.

Before joining the sustainable finance space, Climate Asset Management's Varnika Chawla had already experienced some career highlights that don't often come at such an early stage of one's career.

UniCredit stood out as the judge's choice as winner of this year's Diversity and inclusion initiative of the year, EMEA category for its commitment to driving positive change and building a "safe, equitable and inclusive working environment".

Nedbank's integrated approach to climate across its business helped to secure the net zero progression of the year award, EMEA, with judges describing its entry as "highly comprehensive with a strong justification for winning the category".

Bupa's Healthy Cities initiative was chosen as the Community involvement programme of the year, Global as judges highlighted the programme's focus on living a "long and healthy life".

Partnering with non-profit educational organisation Barefoot College International, DP World is funding the training of women from rural Senegal as solar energy and maintenance technicians.

Targeting aspiring creators from underrepresented communities in Canada and the US, the Spin Master Future of Play Scholarship Program offer eight individuals access to post-secondary education within their fields.

Project STOP looks to create effective circular waste management systems with local governments in high-pollution areas of Southeast Asia that have high plastic leakage into the ocean and low waste collection coverage.

Aquila Group plans to avoid 1.5 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over its portfolio's lifetime by 2035.

Partnering with metals recycling company Urban Miners, telecommunications firm Colt Technology Services rolled out a pilot scheme to recycle decommissioned synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) equipment nodes, IT hardware used to transfer data.

Bringing together the food and energy industries in the US Midwest region, the Indiana Climate Summit (In-Climate) aims to have a dialogue and build practical, productive policy to guide agriculture as a sustainable solution to climate issues in Indiana.

Ekko has been named SME of the year for the EMEA region, with Environmental Finance judges praising its smart solution for the financial community to embark on sustainable journeys through ergonomic and educational tools.

Melissa Fifield has secured the Sustainability thought leader of the year, Americas award for her work leading ground-breaking climate-related finance research as the head of the BMO Climate Institute.

Using industrial by products as alternative raw materials, JSW Cement is replacing clinker in its cement and thereby reducing its greenhouse has (GHG) emissions.

S&P Global has won the Diversity and inclusion initiative of the year for the APAC region, for its employee-led diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in Australia.

Acciona chairman and chief executive Jose Manuel Entrecanales Domecq has secured the Net-zero champion of the year award for his ongoing innovations in transforming the Spanish industrial and infrastructure conglomerate into a ground-breaking net-zero leader.

MM Moulded Pulp is a fibre-based and plastic-free recyclable packaging introduced by board, paper, pulp and packaging manufacturer MM Group.

UBS has been recognised for its handling of the sustainability challenges the landmark merger with Credit Suisse posed and its strong history of sustainable finance innovations.

Environmental Finance judges singled out Ecotone as the winner of this year's large enterprise of the year award for the EMEA region, highlighting its commitment to profitable sustainability in the food industry.

FutureTracker says its innovation comes from combining consulting expertise, products that ensure compliance with regulations including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and deep research on its clients that helps them unlock sustainability-related opportunities.

Under the leadership of Brynn O'Brien, the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) continued its push for positive action on climate over the last year at some of the region's largest companies, including Nippon Steel and Rio Tinto.

Judges chose Carbon Neutral Technology Corporation as the winners of the Circular economy transition - Americas category this year, highlighting its unique approach to refurbishing of corporate IT sales for resale or remarketing and generating verified carbon credits.

Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation's innovative dual land-use initiative AgroSolar impressed this year's judges who chose it as the winning entry for the Community involvement programme of the year for the APAC region.

Jindal Stainless were recognised by judges in two categories: Energy efficiency initiative of the year, APAC and Sustainable business leader of the year, APAC.

For almost two decades, Mark Wishnie has been a leading player in sustainable forestry and overseen some of the world's largest restoration and reforestation strategies.

Tarek Hasan, head of ESG at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe and chair of trustees at The Movements Trust, has been named a sustainable business leader of the year for the EMEA region at Environmental Finance's Sustainable Company Awards 2024.

AllianceBernstein has been awarded Sustainability reporting of the year, Global for its first report of this kind.

Looking to address the carbon intensity of the semiconductor industry, Applied Material launched its Net Zero 2040 Playbook to reduce the sector's emissions.

Building on 17 years of sustainability reporting, Singaporean real estate firm City Developments Limited's (CDL) Integrated Sustainability Report 2024 Report focuses on impact and value as its two-pillar framework.

One of the major challenges for small nature-based project providers is the need for more access to finance in the early stages of project implementation.

Sustainable Carbon's Fuel Switching with Renewable Biomass Projects replaces non-renewable energy sources with locally sourced renewable biomasses in Brazil's ceramics industry, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and preventing illegal deforestation.

While India has been rapidly improving its forest cover and green spaces, there are stark regional disparities with areas such as Salem and Hyderabad lagging behind large cities.

EDP emerged as the winner of this year's Net zero progression of the year, Global award, as Sustainable Company Awards judges praised the energy company's detailed and comprehensive climate transition plan.

Iberdrola developed Advanced Smart Assistant to allow users to control their home energy consumption to be able to shift consumption to the cheapest tariff hours, when renewable energy is readily available.

Marcos Lima, a sustainability coordinator at Banco BV has been named a Rising Star under 30 for the Americas at Environmental Finance's Sustainable Company Awards 2024.

Mardi McBrien has long been a passionate advocate for the power of financial disclosures to improve management of climate-related risks and opportunities, particularly during her time as managing director of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB).

Efforts to reduce Chinese photovoltaics company Trinasolar's water consumption over the past year moved judges to name it as the winner of this year's APAC Water stewardship of the year category.

For the second year in a row, French data provider Iceberg Data Lab (IDL) has been named as the Nature-based initiative of the year for the EMEA region.

THG has won Supply chain initiative of the year for the EMEA region, as the ecommerce technology and brand owner has transformed its approach to decarbonisation efforts throughout its supply chain.