Industry news

PSI Sustainability Awards

PSI sustainability awards
PSI sustainability Awards ceremony at Kurhaus Wiesbaden

– 266 companies pre-nominated
– Award-giving gala at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus on 6 September 2019

The promotional products industry focuses ever more strongly on the three pillars of sustainability: economy, ecology and social matters. PSI, the international network of the promotional products industry, has documented and promoted this commitment with the PSI Sustainability Awards since 2015. This year sees the sustainability awards being presented for the fifth time now – but with an extended participation procedure and over 260 companies that were already pre-nominated as a result of this.

266 companies a nominated for their sustainability efforts

Promotional products manufacturers, importers and distributors as well as advertising agencies, users, upstream suppliers and designers qualify for participation in the awards. PSI membership is not a prerequisite for participation. Eligible for submission are products, campaigns, certified companies and entrepreneurial initiatives. Entries can be submitted in a total of seven categories: Economic Excellence, Environmental Excellence, Social Excellence, Environment Initiative, Social Initiative, Sustainable Product, Sustainable Campaign. The overall winner is awarded the title “Sustainable Company of the Year 2019”.

A total of 266 enterprises were already nominated as comprehensively sustainable companies by PSI in the run up. These nominations were based on previous initiatives, campaigns, products or corporate structures that are in line with the set of rules of the Awards. The nominees include members of the PSI Sustainable League and enterprises listed as sustainable in the PSI Supplier Finder, PSI’s official list of suppliers. “By actively nominating companies as part of this new procedure in the run up to the competition, we draw attention to the fact that sustainability has long been embraced in the production and use of promotional products,” explains Michael Freter, Managing Director of PSI, and goes on to say: “As a second step the nominees are now called upon to document the extent of their activities and to confirm their nomination by applying for the Awards.”

High-profile certificates pay off

The submissions made by all participants will have been assessed in a two-pronged system. The submitted certificates are automatically given a score via an online scoring system. The more high-profile a certificate is, the higher the score. In the categories Environment Initiative, Social Initiative, Sustainable Product and Sustainable Campaign the submission have been assessed by a jury. All finalists  have now entered the last round where the winners in the individual categories are judged.

About the jury

The jury is composed of sustainability, communications and marketing experts from the promotional products sector and the industry as well as representatives of the PSI Institute. Jury members include designer Lutz Gathmann, Ville Heimgartner, CO Manager at ImagineCargo GmbH, Melissa Streif, Risk Management Consultant at Warth & Klein Grant Thornton AG, Anja Heidbüchel, Head of Publishing at Reed Exhibitions Deutschland GmbH, Hugo W. Pettendrup, founder and CEO of HP-FundConsult, Julian Ekelhof, Director at CO2OL Climate Solutions and Clemens Arnold, partner at 2bdifferent.