To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Innovators Magazine in 2025, every month this year we will publish some of our milestone moments: the stories, podcasts, initiatives, projects and partners that have shaped our journey so far. Here’s a 2018 story on a first-of-its-kind event, the Global Game Changers awards.
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(this article was first published in 2018):
Keynote and finalists named for Game Changers
Innovators Magazine and Newsquest International joined forces in 2017 to launch the Global Game Changers awards, the world’s first cross-sector event of its type to celebrate the innovations, practices and initiatives advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
And this year Marc Buckley will present the keynote speech at the awards in Glasgow. A member of the Expert Network for the World Economic Forum, Buckley also works with the World Food Programme, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and is the Germany and Austria Country Coordinator for Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. Speaking at events worldwide about a planet in polycrisis, Buckley’s message is one of hope, of the solutions that can create a better future.
“Businesses that want to be around in the future need to make sure they have dynamic systems-based business models, and include the UN SDGs as the foundation that provides the resilience to hold their business together well beyond the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” he said.
Global Game Changers 2018 has categories covering gender equality, STEM, circular economy, the future of food, collaboration and intrapreneurship.
One of the new titles this year is the Moonshot Award, for innovations that move us beyond today’s paradigms, to shape a future that younger generations can get inspired by. It champions the type of thinking that serial pioneer Bertrand Piccard described to Innovators Magazine in 2017, when he said: “you don’t innovate with a new idea, you innovate when you understand the paradigm that prevents you from moving ahead, and you get rid of this paradigm.”
There is also a planned new edition this year, Sustainability Street – where people will have the chance to experience and sample some of the pioneering products supporting the growth of a fair and sustainable world for all.
Global Game Changers 2018 is supported by the Bayer Cares Foundation, the Centre for Work-based Learning, Circular Glasgow, City of Glasgow College, BAE Systems and ScottishPower. The awards ceremony will be held at Glasgow’s iconic Grand Central Hotel on 12 September – with a London event slated to happen before the 2030 target date for the SDGs.
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And read our Q&A with keynote, Marc Buckley, in the spring launch edition of Impact Innovators, produced in collaboration with Knowledge4Innovation.
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Entries this year came in from a dozen plus countries, and were up more than 100% on the inaugural 2017 event, held the year after the #GlobalGoals officially came into effect, indicating the growing importance innovators are giving to impacting the SDGs.
The Finalists
Food for Thought – sponsored by Bayer Foundation
Desolenator
KRIKET
LeanPath
The Good Food Institute
ANJA – ALOHAS ECO-Center
Women in Innovation – sponsored by BAE Systems
2BY3
Cerys Jenkins – Strathclyde University and CanSense Ltd
Eco Wave Power
Twenty – Mirjam de Bruijn
T30 Fitness Training
Corporates for Good
Budweiser
Barclays, in partnership with Unreasonable Group
BRAIN AG – Engineering Biology
Moonshot Award
Solar Roadways Incorporated
ClinSpec Dx
Phytoponics
Barclays, in partnership with Unreasonable Group
McCormack Innovation
Circular Breakthrough
BRAIN AG – Engineering Biology
EGG lighting
Hydraloop Systems BV
IntelliDigest Ltd
Quick Block Limited
Young Pioneers – sponsored by ScottishPower
2050 Climate Group
Altitude Thinking
Perlego
Revive Eco Ltd
The New Art
Start-Up and Share
Revive Eco
Alterwaste Ltd
Asperitas
bound4blue
Breeze Technologies
Collaboration for Change
ANJA – ALOHAS ECO-Center
Circular Economy Club
Fashion for Good
ReDock
Utilis
2025
As well as continuing to recognise innovators impacting the SDGs, Innovators Magazine is also working with Allied4Future and the World Future Forum on an awards event to celebrate the new Sustainable Finance Goals (SFGs), with the inaugural SFG Awards Ceremony planned for the World Future Forum in Portugal in 2026.
