Finance for the Future Awards reward financial leadership in driving sustainability

Financial leadership which drives sustainable organisations was recognised at the Finance for the Future Awards. Six winners were announced on Thursday last week following a record number of entrants for 2015. The awards celebrate organisations that are embedding sustainability with leadership and support from their finance teams.

The Finance for the Future Awards, founded by ICAEW and HRH The Prince of Wales’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S), and sponsored by Deloitte, are in their fourth year and recognise organisations which are transforming the way traditional business is done, using financial leadership to create more resilient business models. The winners, with the judges’ citations, are:

Large Business Award – Sponsored by: Deloitte – Winner: Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission: “Their holistic approach to measuring the total social, environmental and economic impacts of major capital projects impressed the judges, along with the visible leadership from both the Finance Director and Sustainability Accountant. They were also able to demonstrate how the process had influenced decisions in practice to drive better outcomes for the business, environment and their local communities.”

SME Award – Winner: FRC Group: “FRC stood out for the judges, as not only have the finance team helped to developed new approaches to measure social impact, but these are being used in practice to analyse their performance and make decisions at Board level that maximise social capital.”

Highly commended: Adnams

Public Sector and Third Sector Award – Winner: Sussex Community NHS Trust: “It was clear that the leadership from the Finance Director and his team in driving the project was key to its success. The judges particularly liked how they used the link between improved environmental performance and improved care outcomes for patients to get staff buy-in for the programme within the Trust.”

Driving Change in Others Award – Winner: Carbon Tracker Initiative: “The growing impact of Carbon Tracker’s work on both market participants and the regulatory community was easy to see. The judges felt that its work is making a significant contribution towards catalysing the transition to a more sustainable economy.”

Innovative New Idea Award – Winner: bio-bean: “The judges were impressed by the ethos of Bio-bean, driving us all to view waste as resource, along with their innovative go-to-market sourcing strategy, often turning suppliers into users of their product.”

Richard Spencer, ICAEW’s Head of Sustainability, said: “When we set up Finance for the Future our aim was simple: to recognise the work of finance in driving sustainability. The winners of the awards have shown us that there are many new models which can achieve sustainable businesses. They have highlighted that we need to change our thinking, and what we do, to make a difference. All of our finalists, and especially our winners, are examples that business can learn from. We are already looking forward to expanding the finance for the future community and the innovative solutions that will arise.

Jessica Fries, Executive Chairman, A4S, said: “The award winners have earned their place as members of the finance for the future community. They have gone through a rigorous judging process and have successfully demonstrated how finance can lead the way to create sustainable organisations. Those recognised today successfully highlight how using finance skills to embed social and environmental issues within key decisions drives improved performance, demonstrating why all finance leaders should be considering these issues.“