Teemill, The Works, Rights & Brands and Girlguiding and Wayne Hemingway Designs have all been honoured today (11 November) at the POC Conference, as part of the organisation’s SDG Awards.
Founded in partnership with the United Nations and launched by the UN’s Caroline Petit, the awards are aligned with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a universal collection of objectives towards the protection of the planet, eradication of poverty, reduced inequality and peaceful societies.
The awards celebrate companies that are going above and beyond in reducing their environmental impact and positively affecting industry. They are sowing the seeds of how industry will operate in the future and experiencing both the ups and downs of this along the way.
This year, POC welcomed internationally award-winning climate comedian and speaker, Stuart Goldsmith, to host the awards as well as open the Conference.
The POC SDG Awards highlight four key SDGs most relevant to the brand and licensing industry: SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals, SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 – Climate Action, SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
For the first time, Products of Change has partnered with Dorset-based Brothers Make – two brothers, Matt and Jonny, who collect discarded plastic from local communities, businesses and beyond, transforming it into high-quality, practical and thoughtfully designed products.
Brothers Make strives to shift perceptions on plastic waste, encourage people to ditch single-use and move towards a truly circular economy. So, this year’s trophies, made by Brothers Make, will be continuing this story, and feels like an apt way to celebrate the individuals and companies that are working towards the same mission.
The 2026 award winners are:
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure – Teemill
This award goes to a company that has been challenging the operational infrastructure of industry, then open-sourcing that technology for the global industry to benefit from. Teemill has not only extended this outside its own platform, but has enabled competing businesses to use its infrastructure to enable further environmental impact reduction.
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – The Works
Retail is at the heart of true sustainable transformation. The Works has been creating the systems to enable progress and showcased to industry how much progress can be made earlier during the Conference.
SDG 13: Climate Action – Girlguiding and Wayne Hemingway Designs
Another speaker from earlier in the day, this company has pushed the boundaries of what is commercially and creatively possible.
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals – Thomas Saurén, sustainability and content director, Rights & Brands
Thomas has quietly been building the infrastructure, working across the supply chain and supporting Rights & Brands’ licensees to reduce their impact. He has recently expanded the team to have further impact.
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