Here, we go over the successful 2021 World Sustainability Awards and provide details about the afterparty.

2021 World Sustainability Awards

At MDPI, we were delighted to award the 2021 World Sustainability Awards and Emerging Sustainability Leader Awards in September 2021 to four researchers who have dedicated their lives to the safeguarding of all of our futures. Professor John Elkington, Dr Lela Mélon, Professor Jianguo “Jack” Liu and Professor Anet Režek Jambrak are all conducting fantastic research that will change the way we think, learn, eat, do business and much more besides.

They’re tackling the issue that will dominate the rest of our lives and dictate how the Anthropocene, and how the societies we have created, will be remembered. Following the COP26 conference in Glasgow, the Climate Action Tracker estimated that the pledges made by world leaders at the conference would bring us 9% closer to the 1.5 °C, and whilst there is a long, long way to go, the winners of the World Sustainability Awards are paving the way for this tangible progress.

Afterparty

We had a glittering award ceremony, but over here at the Insights from MDPI blog and as we continue the launch of the MDPI Podcast, Insight Faster, we’ve been given the job of hosting the afterparty. So, grab your coat, loosen your bowtie, kick off your heels, and get stuck into the real story. We’ll be sitting down with our award winners to understand what it’s like to push the boundaries of one of the most important and high-profile fields in the world. We’ll chart the growth of Sustainability from its inception as a concept to the one on everyone’s lips for all the right and wrong reasons, jumping from food science to corporate social responsibility, from academia to industry and beyond. I really enjoyed these interviews; they’re a refreshing window into the progress that is going on right now and will continue, whatever happens in the corridors of power.

We’re starting with Dr. Lela Mélon, Emerging Sustainability Leader Award winner and Executive Director of the Planetary Wellbeing Project at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. We caught up with her on the Insight Faster podcast to hear how she’s been transforming higher education to put sustainability at its centre. Now, as she sets her sights on business, we’ll discuss those who are leading the way, and how we all might follow. Episode 2 of Insight Faster with Dr. Lela Mélon comes out on January 26^th on the Insights from MDPI blog site. Watch. This. Space.

This is your invitation to the Word Sustainability Awards 2021 afterparty—I promise it’ll be the most interesting and inspiring one you’ve ever been to.