Impact A.M. Awards: ESG excellence takes centre stage on glittering night
The great and the good of the City’s sustainability community joined Impact A.M. for our inaugural awards evening last week.
Impact A.M. was founded to celebrate the best and the brightest within the business community who are putting environmental, social and governance issues at the top of the agenda.
Compered by City grandee Julia Streets and held at The Skyline London in Tower Hill’s Blue Orchid Tower Suites, the evening saw 200 attendees gather for the dishing out of a dozen awards.
The ESG agenda continues to grow in importance in the Square Mile, with this year’s headline sponsor Aon hailing the work of the City’s sustainability heroes. Speaking at the event, Andy Silvester – editor of City A.M, hailed it “a worthwhile celebration of those who show that business can make an impact.”
“Creating a more sustainable world – across every one of the ESG metrics – is a team effort between the public and private sector. But in recent years it’s been so heartening to see the business community driving real change, not just within their own businesses but in how they do their business across the piece.
“This may be the first Impact AM awards but it certainly won’t be the last, and we must pay tribute to our headline sponsors Aon and our venue partners Blue Orchid for their support.”
View the full gallery from last week’s awards below!
A Night of Acknowledgement
The awards recognised innovation, commitment, and vision in sustainable business practices across 12 categories, symbolising the strides made in integrating ESG into the business mainstream.
The ESG Advisory Service of the Year, presented by Metrikus, saw ADDIDAT and CEO Nina Spencer emerge victorious, lauded for their transformative impact when working across AIM-listed businesses ESG Advisory.
But the Judges honourable mention did go to Andrew Hedley and Will Basnett from Novatus Global who came a very close second place.
Zumo’s Amelie Aras presented the award and sponsored the Employee Engagement and Well Being category, where Mastercard stood out for their initiatives in ensuring that every employee at every level continues to feel that their voice is heard, they work in a diverse and inclusive workplace that encourages it, employees, to enjoy their job while feeling their employee goes the extra mile.
This is one of many times Mastercard and second-place finalist Google have come head-to-head on an award of this nature.
Best ESG Education and Advocacy, supported by AI Forge, was claimed by Tide Bank, recognising their efforts in ESG advocacy and education. Tides Heather Cobb SVP for Member Engagement collected the award for the UK Bank that is making strides in delivering ESG changes across its entire organisation including initiatives like its Net Zero plan.
ESG Startup of the Year, sponsored by Innovate Finance, whose CEO Janine Hirt never fails to impress the crowd with stunning YSL dress had a great bit of banter with long-time friend Julia Streets, the award went to Omnevue the SaaS platform’s innovative approach in the sustainability sector to support smaller businesses in understanding their non-financial data.
Progress Together sponsored the ESG Business of the Year presented by CEO Sophie Hulm who also was one of the judges who were essential to the credibility of the awards. Hulm announced that it would be PwC taking the honours for integrating ESG seamlessly into their operations, client products and services as well as focus on governance and diversity and inclusion across its big employee survey it holds annually.
Zumo clinched the ESG SaaS Platform of the Year, presented by Volution VC’s Ed Bardos, for their innovative software solution that has driven a pilot program now in its later stages called Oxygen. The targeted solution combines the forecasting and calculation of crypto electricity consumption with standard industry data and uses renewable energy procurement in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs) to ensure crypto or blockchain activities are transparently and verifiably powered by renewables.
Metrikus, sponsored by LSEG, won Best Innovation in ESG Technology, marking their technological prowess in providing owners with their smart building data and large annual “Lights Off Campaign” to ensure that they bring the whole of the UK behind understanding smart building data. The award collected by CMO Charlotte Laing marked a string of award wins for the brand founded by Gary Cottell CEO.
The ESG Investor of the Year, sponsored by Clear Bank, honoured long-time ESG proactive investment firm Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM) won the Morning Wire ESG Award in 2022 and 2023 highlighting the firm’s continued and longstanding efforts in sustainable investment strategies.
Future Plus co-founder and presenter Alexandra Smith unfortunately not accompanied by her usual co-host of podcast “The Business of Sustainability” Mike Penrose, presented the ESG Waste Reduction and Minimisation award to Romco, recognising their efforts in innovative waste reduction across the globe and highlighted CEO Raymond Onawigun’s efforts to investment in circular economy initiatives and building schools in local areas across Africa to support the communities they operate in.
The ESG Entrepreneur of the Year, sponsored by Tide Bank, celebrated one of the UK’s biggest champions for inclusive finance Joel Blake OBE for his exceptional contributions in supporting local businesses, diversity of business agenda and pushing for a bigger focus on making financial inclusion and financial literacy essential topics to be discussed all the way to the House of Lords
Finally, the Industry Leader of the Year, sponsored by headline sponsor Aon, was awarded to Julia Hoggett CEO of the London Stock Exchange who has for years championed all diversity and inclusion topics to ensure that the LSE is no longer known for being a male-dominated environment and her witty comments about inclusion for all highlighted why she is such an inspirational leader in ESG.
Reflecting on a landmark evening
Each award underscored the collective dedication towards sustainability. Streets wove the evening into a narrative celebrating journeys towards sustainability.
The Impact AM ESG Awards, in its inaugural year, established itself as a significant event in the Morning Wire calendar – a night where stories of finance and sustainability were vividly brought to life. The awards not only celebrated individual and corporate achievements but also underscored the finance sector’s evolving role in driving sustainable change.
As the event concluded, the message was unequivocal: sustainability is more than a buzzword in finance; it’s a path being actively pursued and celebrated. The Impact AM ESG Awards stand as a testament to finance’s power to effect positive change, marking a night when ESG’s champions were rightfully honoured.
