2007

Adnams
www.adnams.co.uk
A local brewer in Suffolk, England, Adnams is recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development, and regularly features in the UK list of top 50 places to work. In October, 2006, they unveiled the UK’s greenest warehouse, the first commercial building built from sustainable hemp blocks, with the UK’s largest sedum roof, drawing 80% of its hot water needs from solar panels. An energy efficient brewhouse is slated for completion in March ‘07. Adnams has been brewing in Suffolk since 1872, today employs 280, has a charity arm, and focuses on sustainability because it wants to.

Ecover
www.ecover.com
Ecover is the world’s largest producer of ecological detergents and cleansing products, a pioneering, innovative company founded in 1980 in Belgium. Their progressive environmental and social policy is at the heart of their business success. In their vision statement they say: “Ecover is a company that strives to optimise economic value. We regard the environment as an inseparable part of the economy… job performance as a means to foster the social wellbeing and personal development of its direct and indirect employees.” The Medinge Group also recognizes Ecover’s visual identity which combines a strong brand mark with appropriate environmental signals like transparent packaging.

Fetzer Vineyards
www.fetzer.com
The sixth-largest seller of prize-winning premium wines in the US — and the largest grower of organic grapes in Northern California, committed to going all-organic by 2010. Fetzer uses nothing but renewable power and water treated without chlorine; has reduced its waste by 94% since 1990; earns Salmon-Safe and Fish-Friendly certificates for its vineyard practices; is a charter member of Climate Leaders, an industry-government partnership; and has helped influence its parent company, Brown-Forman, towards sustainable business practices.

Freeplay
www.freeplayenergy.com
An established South Africa-based sustainability business whose products have wide- reaching positive ramifications. Freeplay’s vanguard appliance solutions for portable energy enable rural communities to deploy otherwise inaccessible basic technologies.

IKEA
www.ikea.com
Highly ambitious and detailed work is being done by this huge concern with some 150 retail stores around the globe. Especially interesting is IKEA’s firm stance against corruption, perhaps the most serious obstacle for a better world in developing countries. In Russia an invited group of 350 VIPs including the Swedish ambassador returned home after IKEA refused to pay bribes to the local government needed to obtain the permit to open a new Moscow store, an incident later reported in the Financial Times. The Medinge Group further acknowledges IKEA’s extensive programs for ecology and social responsibility.

RED
www.joinred.com
A brand which demonstrates the power of collective action and a simple idea that everyone can get. It’s a business model (not a charity) that works for both people and business, and for the image of ubiquitous founder Bono. As their manifesto says: “If you buy a RED product or service, at no cost to you a RED company will give some of its profit to buy and distribute anti-retroviral medicine to people dying of AIDS in Africa.” A modern, inclusive brand, RED has a distinctive and attractive identity that is shared by like-minded brands. It’s a brand that partners personalise and promote on their own sites. And it is a brand where you can easily see the results of your actions. As MySpace, one its sponsors says, ‘Collectively, we can do good in a big way’.

Virgin Group/Virgin Fuels
www.virgin.com
On 10 September 2006, Virgin Group announced that they will apportion 100% of all of their transport related profits over the next three years into a new enterprise called Virgin Fuels. This equates to approximately $400m in renewable initiatives over three years. Virgin Group and Richard Branson have the brand strength, voice and financial muscle to make a massive difference in this high polluting and otherwise lethargic sector. Virgin Group and its companies already have an enormously healthy and well-recognised position as an innovative, exciting employer with a humane focus on its staff and customers. Virgin Fuels has taken a thought-leading position that only a handful of organisations can occupy.

Whole Foods
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Among its many laudable initiatives, the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods recently committed to ongoing contractual relationships with local farmers to help supply each of its stores, thus truly supporting sustainable (and energy/transport-efficient) agriculture.

2007 Colin Morley award

Shakespeare’s Globe
www.shakespeares-globe.org
Shakespeare’s Globe is an educational charity whose founding purpose is dedicated to the study of Shakespeare in performance. Aspects of interpretation and the attainment of
personal relevance are central to its activities. At its home on London’s Bankside, the Globe manifests its purpose in three main operational areas: Theatre, Education and Exhibition. The theatre space itself is the most celebrated and architecturally sensitive Elizabethan re-construction in existence; an inextricable linkage to London past and present. The Globe functions without Arts Council funding, thus, it is a business model for the arts. It explores the humanity of Shakespeare – himself a timeless commentator of the human condition – on the only site that can ever be the home of his performances. A genuine concept, it is wholly inclusive in how it tries to involve the world (e.g. Zulu Macbeth, a touring Tent for Peace made from love-or peace-themed Ophelia handkerchiefs) – perhaps the UK’s most underutilised, but potentially potent brand.

2007 judging panel

Malcolm Allan
Paulina Borsook
Pierre D’Huy
Ava Maria Hakim
Thomas Gad
Sicco van Gelder
Patrick Harris
Nicholas Ind
Tim Kitchin
Johnnie Moore
Stanley Moss (chairman)
Simon Paterson
Tony Quinlan
Anette Rosencreutz
Ian Ryder
Jack Yan