Latest news with #CWIImpactAwards
Elle
3 days ago
- Business
- Elle
Inside Cartier's Global Mission to Empower Women
Cartier is more than a storied house of the finest jewelry, it's a brand dedicated to platforming women in philanthropy. Since 2006, the Cartier Women's Initiative (CWI) has nurtured women-run and -owned businesses across social, economic, and environmental fields. In its nearly 20 years, the program has championed 330 entrepreneurs and awarded $12.2 million in financial support. CWI is open to any applicant across the globe, offering successful candidates a $100,000 grant for their initiative. In 2020, the house took its mission one step further by honoring former fellows with the CWI Impact Awards. For its second installment, Cartier transported guests and honorees to the World Expo in Osaka, Japan earlier this week to present the 'Women's Pavilion,' the first of which was staged five years ago at the Expo in Dubai. At the pavilion, the nine former fellows shared stories about their inspiring and impressive work. 2013 fellow Nabita Banka has radically transformed India's access to public bathrooms with her Biotoilet. 'We had an idea for a solution, then we proved it worked. However, I knew I couldn't tackle open defecation and lack of access to sanitation facilities by myself,' Banka says in a statement. While living in Nairobi, 2019 fellow Caitlin Dolkart noticed ambulance sirens were rare and that residents rarely called them because of slow response times. 'The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 50 percent of emergency-related mortality and morbidity could be avoided in low-income countries if ambulance response times were faster,' she explains. Through her app Flare, ambulance drivers are now able to have a direct line of communication with local hospitals, filling a crucial gap in the emergency medical system. The winners of the 2025 Impact Awards will receive an additional $100,000, mentorship, and media visibility to continue to expand their work. Applications for the Cartier Women's Initiative are open now through June 24, 2025 at 8:00 A.M. EDT (2:00 P.M. CEST).
RTÉ News
26-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Vivid Edge founder wins 2025 Impact Award from Cartier Women's Initiative
Tracy O'Rourke, the founder and CEO of Vivid Edge, an Irish climate action impact company, has been presented with a 2025 Impact Award by the Cartier Women's Initiative. Vivid Edge helps medium and large organisations transition to low-carbon operations through its "efficiency-as-a-service" model. The company provides fully funded, turnkey energy upgrades, removing traditional financial and operational barriers for customers, while its approach delivers fast-track carbon reductions without upfront capital investment. Vivid Edge is headquartered at NexusUCD in Dublin and is supported by Enterprise Ireland as a client company. The Cartier Women's Initiative (CWI), founded by Cartier in 2006, is an international entrepreneurship programme that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs. Ms O'Rourke is one of nine international female entrepreneurs and business leaders and the only Irish entrepreneur, who were presented with their Impact Awards during an event held at Expo 2025 in Osaka in Japan. The CWI Impact Awards, presented only for the second time since 2020, are dedicated to former CWI fellows whose ventures have demonstrated "extraordinary" long-term impact aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Tracy was one of three awardees in the Preserving the Planet category, which recognises innovations advancing climate action and environmental sustainability. Tracy O'Rourke, founder and CEO of Vivid Edge, said it was a great privilege to be included among this group of inspirational female entrepreneurs who are driving social and environmental change around the world through their companies. "At Vivid Edge we are on a mission to make it easy and financially rewarding for large energy users to decarbonise, bringing energy expertise, delivery capability and capital," she said. "In terms of impact, we estimate that the projects we have delivered to date for clients have avoided over 36,000 tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to planting over 100,000 trees and saved over 119 GWh of energy," she said. "Vivid Edge's work is making measurable contributions to global climate goals, and we are proud to be delivering measurable impact contributing to a better future for people and the planet," she added.
