Trends Impact Awards 2024:
​Here are the winners !

This evening, Trends, in collaboration with PwC Belgium and Antwerp Management School (AMS), honoured twelve companies that excelled in translating their sustainability strategies into projects with a positive impact on society and/or the climate over the past year. The festive ceremony and gala dinner at Brussels Expo brought together 350 guests from the world of sustainability and business.

Eight Categories, twelve winners

More than 120 companies applied for one of the eight categories, based on the work of Dr Wayne Visser of AMS. In half of these categories, a distinction was made between large companies and SMEs. Due to the broad scope of ESG and SDG objectives, a company cannot excel in all categories, but a large number of Belgian companies are inspiring in one or more aspects of sustainability.

The jury consisted of journalists from Trends, experts from PwC Belgium and AMS, and professionals in sustainable development from renowned Belgian companies. These jury members analysed each of the dossiers per category. Companies that had a social impact through large-scale or far-reaching initiatives, or distinguished themselves in an unprecedented way in their category, took home an award:

Global impact

In addition to the Trends Impact Awards, a Trends Global Impact Award was also given to an SME and a large company for the project with the greatest impact across all categories. BOSAQ and BioFirst Group (Biobest) received this prestigious award.

Reactions from the Organisers

Stijn Fockedey, Editor-in-Chief of Trends Kanaal Z:

“There are many initiatives around sustainability, but with the Trends Impact Awards, we want to be the most relevant, objective, and credible competition. That’s why we work with two partners: (1) an academic partner to write the methodological framework, and (2) a consultant with expertise in performing a reliable assessment of the submitted projects. The result is impressive. More than120 applications, more than 80 nominees who passed a rigorous selection process during oral defences before the jury members, and ultimately 12 winners. Everyone makes a difference for nature or society. We want to highlight all these efforts with the Trends Impact Awards. The winners and nominees are the best antidote to pessimism.”

Jochen Vincke, Partner at PwC:

“At PwC, we believe in a pragmatic approach to climate challenges; ‘rational sustainability.’ The Trends Impact Awards demonstrate that companies can indeed remain profitable and competitive while having a positive impact on our world and society. Today, we are awarding prizes to the best in class, some even with international credentials. But we hope that all other companies, large and small, will be inspired by these laureates to act themselves. Every step in the right direction counts.”

Wayne Visser, Professor of Sustainable Transition (AMS):

“The model I developed is an example of backcasting, the opposite of forecasting. With backcasting, you determine a point in the future, for example, 2050, and try to imagine as detailed as possible what the ideal world would look like. You can divide the 17 SDGs of the United Nations into the 6 transitions in my model. However, the SDGs are a bit peculiar. When 190 countries have to agree on something, you get a mix. Some SDGs are problems; others are solutions, but you do find the triple bottom line of environment, social component, and economy in the SDGs, just like in my model.”

Jean-Marc Vandoorne & Pieter Derboven

^{Copyright pictures Leyla Hesna}

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