TechRadar Sustainability Hero 2024 winners: the brands leading the way in tech

Acer

Hailed by our judges for its strong social and community giving practices, clear targets for water, waste and energy reduction and embedded sustainability in product design, Acer’s entry was a fantastic read that really exemplified how we can drive forward conversations about sustainability in tech.

Marc McLaren, our Global Editor in Chief, says: "We were already big fans of Acer’s laptops at TechRadar, with its devices sitting high up in our best laptops and best Chromebooks lists, plus plenty of others. And now we’re also big fans of its sustainability efforts. Our panel noted that it ‘has an impressive track record in terms of sustainability and is ahead of its peers’, and we think it’s great that a truly big company is taking the lead on this issue. A well-deserved award.”

The company is clear and transparent about its goals, timelines and current progress, all of which align well with genuine and impactful sustainability efforts. It also involves all participants in the supply chain, via programmes such as Acer Earthion.

While only Acer’s Vero product line is explicitly sustainability-focused, the brand has been heavily involved in sustainability as far back as 2008, when it joined the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) supply chain.

Bang & Olufsen

Known best for its audiovisual prowess, Bang & Olufsen scored highly for its commitment to sustainability across the board. It was praised for everything from its strong community engagement and support for STEM education to its focus on longevity in the consumer electronics sector. Its ambitious standards for a more circular future, meanwhile, demonstrate how desirable second-life products can be.

TechRadar's Marc McLaren adds: "We were already well aware of B&O’s Recreated Classics collection – it’s a subject we wrote about earlier this year when we saw the Beosound 9000 CD player. And while our heads were initially turned by the device’s retro style and smart upgrades, it was its commitment to sustainability that really won us over. One of tech’s biggest problems is the limited lifespan of many products, but B&O is cleverly showing that there are innovative ways around it.”

With bold carbon-reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Bang & Olufsen has already achieved significant results on this front. Its Beosound Theatre soundbar has been assessed for Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) certification – which focuses on the circular economy – and it has plans to extend the assessment across its entire range of products.

EcoSend

EcoSend’s mission is to tackle what it calls "the silent sustainability problem": namely the impact email has on the climate. It says that it “reduces and offsets the emissions generated from every email marketing campaign sent through us”, as well as reducing its own carbon footprint, primarily through efficient server usage. It also donates 1% of profits into climate-related causes. To cap it all off, EcoSend offers ample consumer education on their site, including a free email campaign carbon calculator.

Of this commendation, EcoSend's CEO James Gill says: "We are delighted to have been announced as winner of the TechRadar Sustainability Hero award! At EcoSend, our mission is to make email a force for good, and eliminate email’s considerable carbon footprint. Our journey is just beginning, and we are excited to see what the future will bring. A big thank you to TechRadar for recognising us for this award!”

As noted by our judges, “like many email marketing platforms, EcoSend does not account for the energy used by recipients' devices when sending/receiving emails on computers and smartphones. This is a common challenge across the industry since tracking the footprint of individual user devices is complex and not typically part of the scope of most companies' carbon reduction efforts.” However, EcoSend offsets its own carbon footprint through Treeapp, a B Corp-certified organization focused on reforestation and ecosystem restoration, and thus far has planted 9,000+ trees, reduced 1,518 tonnes of CO2, and reforested 3.5 hectares.

TechRadar's Marc McLaren adds: “We don’t tend to think too much of the environmental impact of sending an email, but there is one – and EcoSend certainly thinks about it. I will do too, now, after reading EcoSend’s statement that sending even one message can “generate up to 26g of CO₂ emissions”, and considering quite how many pass through my inbox each day. It might seem like a small thing, but every extra emission adds up, and EcoSend’s mission to make email more sustainable is one I applaud.”