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2024’s P.E.A. Award winners
Jul
Main image: P.E.A. Awards found Jarvis Smith at the P.E.A. Awards ceremony 2024, The Savoy. Photo credit Radski Photography
This evening (25 June), the winners of 2024’s P.E.A. (People. Environment. Achievement.) Awards, in association with OMMM, were announced at a glamorous ceremony attended by leading lights in the sustainability sector.
The event, hosted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at London’s Savoy Hotel, was part of London Climate Week (22-30 June) – the world’s largest city-based climate change festival.
Celebrating achievement
Winner’s of this year’s P.E.A. Awards, now in their 14th year, were not restricted to London; pioneers from across the globe were recognised for their tireless and inspiring efforts to flip the script and demonstrate that sustainable business is good for bottom lines as well as the planet.
Winners were celebrated in sectors ranging from Arts and Energy to Influencers and Indigenous Communities.
A new Lifetime Achievement Award was launched this year to recognise an individual who has made it their life’s work to effect positive change for the planet, without waiting for traditional ‘leaders’ to smooth the way. The shortlist comprised Chris Packham, Professor David Hill and John Burton, who won the award.
‘John Burton was one of the most important figures in helping to save vast areas of land across the world in order to protect wildlife, nature and its communities’, explained P.E.A. Awards founder Jarvis Smith. ‘The single greatest act we can do is protect the land and the people who care for it. That is why we are raising money tonight for the Amazon rainforest in John Burton’s name. We do have time – but not much!’
The awards ceremony
For 14 years the P.E.A. Awards has provided a glamorous night of great food, inspirational company, first-class entertainment and free-flowing drinks. This year was no different, with an award-winning plant-based menu and vegan wines, plus zero-alcohol drinks, from The Savoy.
This year, a silent auction was held to raise money for the World Land Trust’s John Burton Memorial fund and Amazon for Life, to protect Indigenous communities and conserve wildlife in the Amazon rainforest.
Auction lots ranged from a two-night stay in The Savoy with afternoon tea to a signed and framed photo of David Attenborough (winner of 2020’s Eco-Hero of the Decade P.E.A. Award) and art by Lama Tashi Norbu, a contemporary Tibetan artist trained at the court of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, that was created live over the course of the evening.
Guests were also given an opportunity to sponsor baru and cashew nut trees in Bolivia to help support the Amazon for Life restoration project and balance guests’ personal or business carbon footprints. Each tree sequesters around 25kg of carbon each year, supports the growth of a superfood and generates an income for the local communities and Indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon Rainforest, all managed by Amazon for Life.
P.E.A. Award winners received handmade, bespoke trophies created by the extremely talented Katie Weiner, who is renowned for finding vintage treasures and combining them with upcycled materials to stunning aesthetic effect.
2024’s all-female judging panel comprised Cat Fletcher, Emily Cromwell, Jayn Sterland, Jo Wood, Jordan Brompton, Katie Hill, Ruth Easter and Stephanie Jordan.
2024’s P.E.A. Award winners
ARTS
Winner: Ben and Ciara, Going Green Media
This media company highlights green projects and solutions from across the globe, spotlighting incredible people, projects and innovations that are actively making our world a greener place, and sharing their journeys with their ever-growing audience of over 300,000 individuals.
Runners-up: Dewi in the Deep (team); Earth Minutes (team); Forest Without Frontiers (team); Janina Rossiter, 1, 2, 3, Who’s Cleaning The Sea?
CLIMATE PIONEER
Sponsored by Deloitte
Winner: Eleni Polychroniadou, Sintali
Sintali verifies the impact of the built environment around the world, acting as an independent third party to validate sustainability claims made about buildings and ensure companies, governments and financial institutions are genuinely making a positive difference.
Runners-up: Cathy Yitong Li; Fazeela Mubarak; Justin Sutton-Parker; Luke Howell, Hope Solutions; Zahra Biabani
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
Sponsored by Krystal
Winner: The Advanced Infrastructure team
The judges loved the LAEP+ (Local Area Energy Planner Plus) Platform – a planning tool for local authorities and their partners to create the infrastructure we need to supply energy across our country, in our journey towards a net zero world.
Runners-up: Citibeats (team); Earth Minutes (team); GreenInsight (team); Sam Tovey, North
DRINKS
Sponsored by Avallen
Winner: The Boatyard Distillery team
The judges were very impressed with this bin-free distillery, which transforms spent botanicals into chocolate, liquid waste into electricity and barrels into furniture and brewery tools. Leftover fruit is turned into compost and even condiments.
Runners-up: Feragaia (team); Papillon Gin (team); Sapling Spirits (team); Two Drifters (team)
ENERGY
Sponsored by Duracell
Winner: Lily Cairns Haylor, Advanced Infrastructure
The judges felt Advanced Infrastructure’s planning tool, which helps local authorities create the infrastructure we need in our journey towards a net zero world, identifies an important gap and offers a scalable solution to speed up the transition to a greener, more sustainable future.
Runners-up: Orsted (team); Pedra Wadstrom, Solvatten
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Sponsored by myenergi
Winner: The team at Paxster
The judges loved the electric light delivery vehicle developed by Paxter for city use as part of its range of last-mile vehicles with different volume capacities. They can be used for post, parcels and more.
Runners-up: Co-Charger (team); ENSO Tyres (team); Spark EV (team)
FOOD
Winner: Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Gorilla Conservation Coffee
The judges were bowled over by the way Dr Gladys is giving smallholder farmers on the outskirts of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) access to global agricultural commodity markets, increasing incomes and resilience while reducing threats to forest resources and mountain gorillas.
Runners-up: Kenneth Rimdahl, Forest Friendly Tea; Liberation Foods (team); Lou Palmer-Masterton, Stem & Glory; Marc Coloma, Heura Foods
GREEN PIONEER
Sponsored by Weleda
Winner: Jo-Anne Chidley, Reposit Scheme
Jo-Anne created the world’s first closed-loop solution for beauty packaging, putting an end to the single-use plastic commonly used in beauty products. Empties are returned to be washed and reused, with a goal to save up to 10 million empties from landfill within 18 months.
Runners-up: Avril Greenaway, Cleaner Seas Group; City to Sea (team); David Greenfield, Tech-Takeback; Luke Howell, Hope Solutions
HEALTH & WELLBEING
Sponsored by Rio-Vitalise
Winner: The incognito team
One of incognito’s key remits is to educate the public on the increased risks associated with insect bites on our shores as a result of climate change. Life-threatening diseases which for many years had been eradicated are reappearing in the UK and EU as global temperatures increase, allowing insects to flourish.
Runners-up: Carrie Cort, Sussex Green Living; Farmer Nick – Nick Cutsumpas; Joanna Maiden, Kujuwa Initiative
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
Sponsored by OMMM
Winner: The Sacred Headwaters team
The Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance (ASHA) unites 30 Indigenous nations working to permanently protect one of the most biodiverse rainforests on Earth in the Napo and Pastaza and Marañon river basins in the Amazon region of Ecuador and Peru. The Alliance is working to protect this 86 million acre bioregion (an area the size of Italy) from further industrial-scale resource extraction and to accelerate a just transition to a regenerative wellbeing bioeconomy.
Runners-up: Amazon Watch (team); Cheryl Pailzote, Highland Support Project; IWGIA (team); Landesa (team); Trees, Water & People (team)
INFLUENCER
Winner: Mikaela Loach
Mikaela, the bestselling author of It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action To Transform Our World, is a climate justice activist focusing on the intersections of the climate crisis with oppressive systems and making the climate movement a more accessible space. She was a claimant on the ‘Paid To Pollute’ case over the huge public payments given to fossil fuel companies.
Runners-up: Andy Orchard, Plantally; Deogracious Kalima; Going Green Media (team); Máximo Mazzocco; Rebecca Daniel
MONEY
Winner: The team at Ethex
The judges love the massive impact Ethex is making by helping to make money do good – since 2013, this direct impact investment platform has helped around 20,000 everyday people invest and raise over £100 million to back more than 200 pioneering projects that are taking real steps to tackle climate change.
Runners-up: Chris Fry, The Nature Finance Impact Hub (Accelar); Conrad Langridge, Sage Earth (was Spherics); Monika Martinsson, Deedster; Sustainable Futures Network (team)
NATURE
Sponsored by Yeo Valley
Winner: The team at Rewilding Britain
The judges had nothing but praise for Rewilding Britain, the first and only country-wide organisation in Britain focusing on rewilding and the amazing benefits it can bring for people, nature and climate.
Runners-up: Edwin Nyaguthii, Trees for Planet Profit and Future; Hannah Bourne-Taylor, The Feather Speech; Michael Kennard, Compost Club; Surfers Against Sewage (team)
PRODUCT
Winner: The Dayrize team
The judges really liked the way Dayrize is able to offers rapid impact assessments of consumer products, enabling business and consumers to bring consumption within planetary boundaries.The automated results are made available at a fraction of the cost of a traditional Life Cycle Analysis.
Runners-up: Human Milk CIC (team); Jeroo Doodhmal, Pip and Henry; Out of the Box Gifts (team); Smooth Edge (team)
TRAVEL
Sponsored by Delphina Hotels & Resorts
Winner 1: Mark Smith, Seat 61 (Getting from A to B Award)
Seat 61 is a travel site that originally started as a hobby. Mark’s detailed research makes it extremely easy to travel without flying; simply plug in your destination and you’ll get a route to pretty much anywhere in the world by train, boat or both.
Winner 2: Kieron Van Bosch, Camplight (Tourism Award)
Camplight has been tackling tent waste in the festival sector for almost ten years, picking up tents abandoned at festivals, cleaning and restoring them, then offering them back to festival goers at an affordable rental cost. The judges loved the concept and the driving force behind it.
Runners-up: Aradhye Ackshatt; COCO+ (team); incognito (team)
UPSHIFT
This is a new award, given to five organisations in the World Upshift Movement that are literally upshifting the world to a higher place.
Winners: Faggin foundation (team); Reboot the future (team); Retake Roma (team); The Global; Consciousness Project (team); Unify (team)
VEGAN
Winner: Lou Palmer-Masterton, Stem & Glory
Stem & Glory is a plant-based restaurant brand with three sites – two in London and one in Cambridge. It serves healthy and delicious vegan food in a contemporary setting, targeting those looking to lead healthier and more sustainable lives without compromising on taste or dining atmosphere.
Runners-up: Choose Liberation (team); Marc Coloma, Heura Foods
YOUTH
Winner 1: Máximo Mazzocco, founder of Eco House (Individual Award)
UNDP Youth Leader and co-founder of several environmental federations and local-national-international youth networks, Máximo has an impressive portfolio as a climate and ecological entrepreneur-activist and SDG promoter. He has shared panels with high-level authorities from around the world, and has written more than 20 laws. Author of bestselling Apuntes-de-un-ambientalista.
Winner 2: UK Youth Climate Coalition (Team Award)
The judges were all impressed by this voluntary, consensus led, non-hierarchical and non-profit organisation. Its organising members are based UK-wide, and share the common goal to achieve genuine global climate justice.
Runners-up: Angela Zhong; Free To Be Kids (team); Mikaela Loach; The Visionaries (team); The Young People’s Trust for the Environment (team)
THE P.E.A. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Winner: John Burton, World Land Trust
Runners-up: Chris Packham; Professor David Hill
A gallery of images from the night can be viewed here – please credit Radski Photography.