Finder Green Awards: Sustainability winners revealed

• • • • Australia's sustainability leaders recognised in the Finder Green Awards
      • Winners announced across 14 industry and people categories
      • Winning brands include Brighte, Future Super, Australian Ethical and more

1 April 2020, Sydney, Australia – Sustainability leaders have this week received awards in the inaugural Finder Green Awards as judged by Finder, Australia's most visited comparison site.

The Australian companies and people leading the charge for sustainability have been announced across 14 categories in a virtual awards ceremony today. The event was live streamed via a Zoom Webinar, with over 80 users registered.

Winners were selected based on broad environmental metrics including greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy usage and waste avoiding landfill, while criteria for the people-based categories was based on key achievements and impact.

Australian fintech Brighte took out multiple categories including Best Green Lender of the Year and Best Green Leader of the Year.

Australian Ethical won Green Superannuation Fund of the Year while Bank Australia took home Green Bank of the Year.

Ben King, CSR & Public Affairs Manager at Finder, congratulated all the finalists and winners.

"Even in these difficult times, the climate crisis is very real and it's businesses like these that are helping to turn the tide. Even during this uncertain time, we felt it was important to celebrate Australian success stories.

"These products and services are boosting the environmental credentials of Australian companies and households and their impact needed to be recognised."

With entries from over 50 companies in categories ranging from banking to telecommunications to travel, many of the categories were tightly contested.

"We take our hats off to all the finalists this year, as we were truly blown away by the standard of submissions.

"These businesses are not only providing eco-friendly options for consumers, but they are also walking-the-talk when it comes to protecting our environment.

"With initiatives to reduce emissions, sustainable finance options and zero-waste approaches, it's exciting to see businesses creating real change in this space," he said.

Finder research of 1,033 respondents shows 47% of Aussies are actively looking for 'greener' products or services' while over three quarters (76%) believe it's hard to know which products or services are truly better for the environment.

King said there's a real need to educate Australians about how their decisions impact the environment.

"As the climate crisis becomes more prevalent, better decisions need to pay attention to protecting the planet that we live on.

"We see it as our responsibility to help Australians understand how each of their decisions impact the environment so they can opt for more sustainable options, and that's why we introduced the Finder Green Awards.

"Following this year's winner announcement, we will build this information into Finder's platform so we can help millions of Australians identify brands that are doing their bit to protect the planet. For us, this is really just step one," he said.

View the winner announcement slidedeck via this link, which includes comments from the assessment team about how winners were selected.

Finder Green Award 2020 winners:

Green Superannuation Fund of the Year

• Australian Ethical

Green Bank of the Year

• Bank Australia

Green Lender of the Year

• Brighte

Green Insurer of the Year

• QBE Insurance Group Limited

Green Telco of the Year

• Belong

Green Online Retailer of the Year

• Seed & Sprout

Green Hotel Chain of the Year

• InterContinental Hotels Group

Green Hotel of the Year

• Swell Lodge

Green Energy Retailer of the Year (Traditional)

• Powershop

Green Energy Retailer of the Year (Retail-Only):

• Energy Locals

Green Airline of the Year

• Air New Zealand

Winners (people-based categories)

Green Leader of the Year

• Katherine McConnell (CEO, Brighte)

Green Team of the Year

• Future Super team

Green Rising Star of the Year

• Lloyd Parker (Consultant, Edge Environment)