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PSI Sustainability Awards 2018 Winners

For the fourth time the PSI Sustainability Awards were presented during a gala at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus on the evening of 7 September. For the first time, the award ceremony was preceded by the PSI Sustainability Summit – an exchange between the promotional products industry and business representatives under the guiding theme “Future-Proof Supply Chains”. The event was attended by 50 delegates in total. Watch also the Photo Gallery.

Category 1: Economic Excellence

Winner: Karl Knauer KG. The Economic Excellence category of the PSI Sustainability Awards is about companies’ quality management. Karl Knauer took the lead here with the comprehensive documentation of what truly is a quality offensive. The foundation of this quality management simultaneously forms the basis for a top-class performance set in environmental and social management, as shown by the current and forward-looking sustainability report.

Category 2: Environmental Excellence

Winner: Karl Knauer KG. When it comes to Environmental Excellence Karl Knauer also accumulated the highest score with their environmental management certificates and have therefore taken home the Environmental Excellence trophy. The current certificates and audits for climate and environmental management as well as a responsible use of resources all point to a company at the cutting edge of ecological-entrepreneurial environmental policy.

Category 3: Social Excellence

Winner: Halfar System GmbH. Working conditions at production sites are at the centre of the category Social Excellence. Here, it was Halfar Systems that asserted itself.  Only a few companies have succeeded in merging family-friendliness, inclusion and integration with their corporate DNA over their company history. With its entries, Halfar has documented Social Excellence once more most impressively as a never-ending mission that always has to be made transparent. PSI WINNER Halfar

Category 4: Environment Initiative

Winner: CD Werbemittel Vertriebs GmbH. The Environmental Initiative category focuses on companies’ own environmental initiatives or standards developed in-house. As an ISO-certified commercial agency and climate-neutral company, CD Werbemittel has a meticulously documented track record of its ecologically responsible actions and consulting and was therefore chosen as the winner in this category. The initiative encompasses all steps from waste and resource management for customers to the re-use of carton empties and packaging materials in-house, even including the avoidance of unnecessary transport. The jury particularly recognises their “consistent implementation within the agency, the involvement of their own supply chain as well as their active CSR-based customer advice.”

Category 5: Social Initiative

Winner: BIC Graphic Europe S.A. The company has launched the “School Success” initiative with the aim of reducing the number of school drop-outs. The successful education promotion initiative focuses on vulnerable children in the Spanish province of Tarragona and provides support for a better quality of life, learning, food and personal development. The jury was impressed with the “extensive support programme on all relevant levels and their joined up, targeted approach” therefore opting in favour of BIC GRAPHIC in this category.

Category 6: Sustainable Product

Winner: Publishing House Verlag für Prävention Wilken Inh. Bettina Wilken. With its “Familienkochbuch” publishing house Verlag für Prävention Wilken is committed to more environmental protection on the part of the paper industry. The cookbook contains low-cost dishes for the whole family as well as advice pages, a harvest season calendar and tips for a varied diet. The winning product is made of 100% waste paper – certified with the Blue Angel symbol. Printing ink as well as manufacturing is also sustainable. The jury says: “A comprehensively certified product made with green power that combines responsible content with certified paper and printing inks to form a sustainable product that deserves an award.” kookboek

Category 6: Sustainable Product – Product Set

Winner: Zettler Kalender GmbH. A set of agendas made of paper consisting of 50% sun-dried grass: this is the award-winning product in the category Sustainable Product – Product Set. With the “Gras” agenda series comprising one desk-top, one pocket agenda and one agenda book, Zettler Kalender wins the third consecutive award at the PSI Sustainability Awards. The product is FSC-mix and ISEGA-certified, fully recyclable and compostable and ISO certified. The jury especially praises the use of a renewable energy and resource-saving raw material for a refreshingly innovative series of agendas.

Category 6: Sustainable Product – Product Line

Winner: werbegrün – Mappen | Verpackungen. Werbegrün wins with its packaging line “Faltschachtel Werbeartikel”. Still young, the company largely foregoes synthetic materials for producing its folding box line. The efforts range from the use of vegan adhesives to organic printing inks. This complex and thoroughly researched product line boasting many sophisticated ideas, standard sizes, custom-designs and small-run options met with the jury’s undivided approval and therefore received the award in the Sustainable Product – Product Line category.

Category 6: Sustainable Product – Writing Instruments

Winner: Senator GmbH. Senator triumphs in the category Sustainable Product – Writing Instrument with a ball pen made of sugar cane. The organic plastic used for “Skeye Bio” is based on PLA and, hence, on resource-saving sugar cane. The ballpoint pen is manufactured 100% at the Groß-Bieberau premises powered with green electricity. In terms of the tooling required, most tools are made in Germany or even by Senator’s in-house tool shop, and designers predominantly draw on existing tools. The jury specifically praises the consistent look and feel, the appealing touch, the long-life refill as well as the ecological overall concept that goes far beyond the material proper.

Category 6: Sustainable Product – Textile

Winner: Memo AG. Thanks to Memo’s award-winning product, shopping will become sustainable and plastic-bag free: become sustainable and plastic-bag free: the organic cotton bag for fruit and vegetables is made of GOTS and Fairtrade certified organic cotton. While one side is made of an airy mesh material, the smooth side makes for stability and provides room for the advertising message. As a textile promotional product the rugged bag therefore makes a particularly sustainable statement. “Plastic-bag free shopping is part of our future,” explains the jury and goes on to say: “An appealing design, a hard-wearing quality and finish as well as certified sustainability are the ingredients for a durable product.” textile

Category 6: Sustainable Product – Paper

Winner: Bags by Riedle. Carrier bags that smell of grass: this idea convinced the jury in the Sustainable Product – Paper category. The paper carrier bag “Riedle TopLuxe / Nature” consists of 50% sun-dried grass and 50% customary wood-free FSC pulp. Compared to waste-paper based materials the production of grass-based pulp consumes 1.5 times less energy. On top of this, emissions are reduced to 77%, 4,500 times less water is consumed and the acidification potential is five times lower. The bags are also rated as fully recyclable. “The outstanding ecological benefits of grass paper were documented very well and convincingly,” explains the jury awarding the prize to the company.

Category 7: Sustainable Campaign

Winner: Join The Pipe BV. The company wins in the Sustainable Campaign category with a reusable bottle produced and also filled with tap water locally. This first community of tap-water drinkers aims to distribute water more fairly and to reduce plastic waste by using reusable rather single-use bottles. The winning product is made of HDPE plastic. Thanks to the long service life of this plastic the bottles can be used life-long in developing countries without requiring waste management. “Think global – act local! The City-Bottle campaign has all it takes to become a global evergreen,” the jury finds.

Category 8: Sustainable Company of the Year

Winner: Karl Knauer KG. The award ceremony culminated in the selection of the overall winner arrived at by adding up the points scored in the 7 individual categories. As early as 2016, Karl Knauer concluded Category 8 as the overall winner of the PSI Sustainability Awards. And this year again sees the company as Sustainable Company of the Year 2018 “with its exemplary linking of the three pillars and its cutting edge documented operational excellence,” explains the jury.

Special Award Sustainable Distributor of the Year

Winner: CD Werbemittel Vertriebs GmbH. This year sees the debut of the Special Award for the Sustainable Distributor of the Year. CD Werbemittel managed to convince the jury not only with its award-winning performance in Category 4 – Environment Initiative – but also with its social commitment. With its entries, it achieved award-winning levels in the three fields of sustainability and therefore takes this Special Award.

Sustainable products recommended by PSI

Sustainable products recommended by PSI are products that the jury members would personally recommend. This year recommended products include the Green Coin, a trolley coin made of FSC-certified wood, by e+m Holzprodukte and the baza Kubusgarten by KW Open promotion consulting & trading. The latter is an organic plant system that contains organic soil, organic seeds and cultivation instructions. The granola cup made of brown cardboard by Jung Bonbonfabrik as well as the PowerCube Extended Monitor by PowerCubes are also recommended by the jury. The PowerCube Extended Monitor shows where energy is wasted unnecessarily and translates this consumption into a money value in order to impact consumer habits immediately.