Sustainable Wedding Awards
We founded the Sustainable Wedding Awards to recognise and reward businesses in the wedding industry for their commitment to sustainability. The 20024 Awards Ceremony took place on Thursday 1st February at BMA House, London.
About the Sustainable Wedding Awards
The Sustainable Wedding Awards recognise the sustainable initiatives, advocacy and sheer hard work taking place across the UK’s wedding industry.
The awards celebrate the work and impact that wedding businesses are doing across the UK to balance people, profit and planet. Championing those that are making progress in their sustainability journey and encouraging others around them to do the same.
As part of the awards, we highlighted the innovative ideas, stories and best practice shown by businesses and individuals, hoping to inspire other businesses to take action.
Finalists and Winners were recognised at our in person, Award Ceremony on Thursday 1st February 2024.
Award Category Winners
It’s been truly humbling to see the amazing sustainability focussed work going on in wedding businesses across the UK.
All our finalists and winners have shown what can be achieved by taking action to balance people, profit and planet. Showcasing the positive impacts on their own business, couples they work with and the wedding industry as a whole.
Recognising a business that is leading the way in reducing their carbon emissions, has a net zero target in place and can evidence positive progress towards their target. They should also be inspiring and influencing others to make a positive change, helping to reduce the industry’s overall emissions, both through business and wedding day carbon emissions.
Winner: The Wellbeing Farm
Recognising a business formed after October 2021, that has since made considerable progress in growing and developing with sustainability at their heart, balancing people, profit and planet.
Winner: Somerset Blooms
Recognising a business or individual that showcases sustainable, traditional techniques and design in their work. Being an advocate for quality products, designed with sustainability in mind. This is open to all businesses that provide a product, from flower farms, to jewellery makers and everything in between.
Winner: Featherstone’s English Flower Co.
Recognising a business or individual that has actively promoted biodiversity within the industry either directly on their own land, or indirectly by inspiring and impacting others.
Winner: Oxleaze Barn
Recognising a product or service that promotes sustainability – for example: reducing the carbon footprint of a wedding, replacing a single use product, or reducing wedding day waste.
Winner: Bore Place
Enhancing sustainability in the supply chain. Recognising a business that is proactively updating their supply chain to ensure that they are working with like-minded, ethical and sustainable businesses.
Winner: Treseren
Celebrating an individual leading the way, that stands out for their passion for change in the wedding industry. This award will be presented to someone that has gone above and beyond to drive sustainable change, progressing social and/or environmental action, either within their business or in the wider community.
Winner: Celia Gaze, The Wellbeing Farm
In addition to the main categories listed, the Judges will have the option of awarding a Judge’s Choice Award – A wild card award solely chosen by the Judges to a non-category winner whose business impressed the Judges so much that they felt recognition is deserved.
Winner: 4YaParty Weddings & Events
Thank you to our partners…
The Sustainable Wedding Awards is supported by businesses across the industry, without who this event just wouldn’t be possible.
Thank you to Better Business Network, Compare Your Footprint, Hostology, Krystal Hosting, Magpie Wedding and The Venue Experts for supporting the awards.
Meet the Judges
We’re in the process of finalising our judging panel for the Sustainable Wedding Awards. Our judges represent both the wedding industry and the world of sustainability.
Russ Avery
Avery & Brown
Russ is an eco entrepreneur, sustainable marketer, and CEO of purpose-driven brand consultancy Avery & Brown. Since launching in 2020, Avery & Brown is not only delivering impactful brand consultancy and creative marketing campaigns to sustainability-focused clients in the UK and Europe, but it is also making waves for the progress it has already made on its own regenerative business journey.
With over a decade’s experience of marketing sustainable brands, including six years in-house at two large corporate sustainability consultancies, Russ not only has a deep knowledge of sustainable and ethical marketing practices, but also of the sustainable and regenerative business movement as a whole. Russ regularly speaks at industry events, has been a guest on dozens of podcasts, and has written for publications including Director magazine.
Adam Bastock
Small99
Adam is the founder of Small99. Small99 breaks down the journey for micro and small businesses to net zero into a series of manageable, bite size steps to follow.
Having spent a decade working with and in small businesses, he understands the challenges owners have with limited resources and time. Most owners feel overwhelmed with the amount of information about net zero, and Small99 was founded to cut through all the noise. With 99% of the economy made up of small businesses, Small99 provides practical guidance on how they can reach net zero quickly and accelerate the transition to net zero. They have a goal to guide 1 million businesses to net zero by 2025.
Katherine Ann Byam
Where Ideas Launch
Katherine is a best-selling author, sustainability activist, coach and consultant for business resilience and sustainable change, partnering with leaders committed to a shared future.
A professional with 20+years change leadership experience in the FTSE Top 10, she started her consulting firm in 2019 to support sustainable development within SMEs. Katherine holds an MBA with distinction, specialising in innovation management as well as certificates in ESG, digital strategy, and sustainability management from established universities.
She’s the host of the internationally acclaimed Where Ideas Launch – Sustainable Innovation Podcast, ranked among the top 5% globally, achieving the top spot in 5 countries, and the top 10 in 19 separate charts.
Hannah Cox
Betternotstop
Stacey Ferguson-Czersovski
The Venue Experts
As founder of The Venue Experts, I have over 20 years’ experience of working with heritage properties, stately homes, country houses and estates. I work flexibly, meaning that for each venue, I provide exactly the service they require. There’s no cut-and-paste approach with my offering, instead you’ll receive a super motivated events professional.
Abena Fairweather
Legacy
Abena is a sustainable Event Manager, Consultant and the Founder of Legacy, a sustainable events agency and consultancy, helping companies and event professionals organise virtual and in-person events, as well as supporting them to run more sustainable events through training, workshops, audits and bespoke advice.
Jen Gale
Sustainable(ish)
In September 2012 I decided it would be a ‘fun’ challenge to spend a year buying nothing new and dragged the rest of the family along for the ride. That year changed my life (cliche klaxon!) – not only how and where I shop, but how I see my place in the world. I learned that all of my actions make a difference, positive or negative, and that through getting informed, I could make different choices, create new habits, and have a more positive impact.
Fast forward seven years and that simple blog that started life as My Make Do and Mend Year, is now Sustainable(ish), a CIC on a mission to make sustainable living the norm, break down the mung-bean eating, yoghurt weaving stereotypes of ‘green living’ and empower easy, simple actions for all. The ethos at Sustainable(ish) is that no change is too small, and the focus is on progress not ‘eco-perfection’.
Gwenda Jeffs
Green Union
Green Union is all about eco, ethical and sustainable advice and inspiration for life and love! I host two blogs on the site, one wedding-related (how we began), and the other lifestyle-focused (featuring home, health, fashion, beauty and travel topics).
We also have a directory exclusively for conscious wedding professionals. I took over GU 3 years ago and run it alongside my wedding floral design business, which I’ve had for over a decade.
Together, this experience makes me well aware of the real-life challenges of the wedding industry, especially where sustainability is concerned. For me, it’s all about balance and celebrating any and all positive steps, so I’m absolutely delighted to be working with the Sustainable Wedding Alliance on these awards!
Lynsey Penny
Hospitality and Food Service, WRAP
Lynsey is Sector Specialist within WRAP’s UK Hospitality and Food Service team delivering the bespoke campaign for the sector, Guardians of Grub part of the Courtauld Commitment 2030, and UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap encouraging sites to Target Measure and Act on reducing wasted food. Having worked in the Hospitality and Food Service sector for over twenty years in operational roles across the sector including hotels, restaurants and contract catering, Lynsey’s passion is to support the sector on food waste reduction through effective operational practises that can be delivered by teams to protect profits and the planet.
Guardians of Grub includes free tools and learning to develop skills and implement changes at site to improve financial and environmental performance; critical to achieve the UK’s journey to Net Zero. Find out more by emailing guardiansofgrub@wrap.org.uk or visiting guardiansofgrub.com
Georgina Wilson-Powell
Author
Having founded and run pebble, the sustainable living platform that spans a digital magazine, events and an online community, which reached over 5 million people, I’m the expert when it comes to spotting sustainable trends, consumer behaviour and brand strategies that avoid greenwashing and assisting brands in connecting with their employees and customers on shared values and issues, to build loyal and trusted relationships that deliver.
Georgina is also author of Is It Really Green? (DK Books), The Eco Conscious Travel Guide (Harper Collins) and 365 Ways To Save The Planet (DK Books) – Out April 2023.