Impact is the word that matters here. Cartier follows this perfectly. In its Cartier Women’s Initiative program, an entrepreneurial fellowship program that has been around since 2006, it exercises impact in the key business leaders it selects and awards. For this year in 2025, The Cartier Women’s Initiative is holding its Impact Awards Ceremony in May 22. To be held in Osaka, Kansai, Japan as part of the initiation of the Women’s Pavilion at World Expo 2025, the ceremony will award nine entrepreneurs – whom are former fellows of the program – across three Impact Awards Categories: Improving Lives, Preserving the Planet, and Creating Opportunities. The categories highlight all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Meet the winners of this year’s awards in more detail.

Preserving the Planet Category Winners

Tracy O’Rourke, a 2019 fellow:

Awarded for Vivid Edge, which provides medium and large corporations energy efficiency services that help achieve climate-saving goals and preserve the planet in many ways. In addition to installing energy efficiency assets such as rooftop solar panels in commercial properties, the business – according to Cartier – also “rents them out to the occupiers under a full-service model”.

Kresse Wesling, a 2011 fellow: 

Awarded for Elvis & Kresse, which transforms commercial and industrial waste into luxury designer goods and accessories. According to Cartier, in addition to donating 50% of its profits to charity, the company has – with its partnership with The Firefighters Charity – also “covered the cost of over 29,000 therapy sessions for firefighters”.

Kristin Kagetsu, a 2018 fellow:

Awarded for Saathi, which improves the lives of women in India by creating environmentally-friendly, natural and biodegradable sanitary pads made of locally-sourced banana fiber. Because Saathi uses sustainable material, the pads can also be converted into materials such as compost and biogas. According to Cartier, this could potentially “reduce even more [carbon] emissions in the future”.

Improving Lives Category Winners

Caitlin Dolkart, a 2019 fellow:

Awarded for Flare, a company which provides Kenyans subscription-based, life-saving and emergency-response services via the platform Rescue.co. Prior to the company’s launch in 2017, Kenyans struggled with receiving urgent access to ambulance transportation support. Now, however, Flare has helped immensely and – according to Cartier –  by the end of 2024, it “completed over 40,000 life-saving rescues and transfers”.

Namita Banka, a 2013 fellow:

Awarded for Banka Bioloo, a company which provides sustainable and water sanitation solutions throughout India, solutions which include biotoilets, biodigesters, and sewage treatment plants. In addition to installing 3,000 toilets for Indian Railways which –  according to Cartier – serve 10 million people who travel on these trains daily, the company also produced a biodigester technology that turns human waste into beneficial material such as compost.

Yvette Ishimwe, a 2023 fellow:

Awarded for IRIBA Water Group, which provides accessible, clean and affordable water for low-income communities in Africa. According to Cartier, “IRIBA has provided 517,412 people with safe drinking water and expanded across the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.” It also has a “core product” called Tap&Drink that is a smart water ATM which, when connected to sources of impure water, can purify and waive them “at a low cost”.

Creating Opportunities Category Winners

Rama Kayyali, a 2014 fellow:

Awarded for Little Thinking Minds, an edtech company that provides Arabic language-learning and reading platforms to make the language experience impactful for K-12 students across the MENA region. According to Cartier, in addition to the company’s impressive digital learning sites and personalized forms of learning, it also partners with notable Arab children’s book publishers “to offer high-quality, culturally relevant material”.

Mariam Torosyan, a 2023 fellow:

Awarded for Safe YOU, a mobile application and AI platform that provides emergency assistance, online resources and support for women suffering from gender-based violence. According to Cartier, Safe YOU now has 40,000 users and has addressed 18,000 alerts of violence. In addition to “enhancing existing solutions” to gender-based violence, the platform is also a “virtual safe space” for women, showing them they are not alone.

Jackie Stenson, a 2014 fellow: 

Awarded for Essmart, which connects and provides life-improving technologies and products to rural retail shops, FPOs, and farmer households in India. According to Cartier, Essmart “has positively impacted over 1.4 million lives” and “enabled over 125 million additional hours of productivity”.

These incredible women are paving the way for a better and brighter world, and their businesses are a beacon of hope for improved lives and a great sustainable future.

In addition to receiving a $100,000 grant, enhanced media visibility and enrollment in a year-long Impact Fellowship, the awardees will receive lifelong support from and access to the CWI community, showcasing the passion, dedication and unwavering support The Cartier Women’s Initiative has for its business leaders. The 2025 Awards Ceremony towards the end of this month is going to portray this hope, dedication and support when it honors the nine awardees, inviting more individuals to create with the honor and value of sustainability in mind.

Conversations with nature by Julian Charrière

In his artworks, Charrière introduces the mediums of performance, video, sculpture and photography. He travels to remote locations – from volcanoes to ice fields and radioactive sites – and questions the relationship between humans and nature.

“My work revolves around the concept of encounter – an intimate dialogue with places, biomes, and the environment. These moments are more than mere observations – they are a living exchange in which landscape and the present intertwine.” – Julian Charrière.

In his works, Charrière developed a series of photolithographs that depict coral reefs, a tribute to the Lutetian Sea which covered Champagne 45 million years ago. The photolithographs were colored with pigments from local limestone and ground color to intrinsically blend the past and the present. In another installation which will be on display at the Galerie 4 Rue Des Crayères in Reims in the summer of 2025, Charrière produced a work that reflects the early geological history of Champagne up to the threat of today’s coral reefs.

Between art and nature

Ruinart is addressing climate change challenges with novel approaches to viticulture and oenology. Their new Cuvée Ruinart Blanc Singulier is an example of this change, a sustainable expression of the Blanc de Blancs, a wine which combines tradition and modernity. The Champagne House is also committed to sustainability by building on the introduction of resource-friendly and second-skin packaging in 2020. Since then, Ruinart has dispensed with traditional gift packaging, using significantly less material.

Ruinart’s close connection to art also remains an integral theme. It collaborated with artists such as Tomás Saraceno, Nils Udo, and Eva Jospin to portray the relationship between humans and nature. Additionally, with the new Ruinart Brand Home that opened last year in Reims, France, located at 4 Rue des Crayères, visitors can also experience tradition, art and innovation up close.

The artworks created for Ruinart by Julian Charrière will be on display for the first time during the Berlin Gallery Weekend from May 1 – 4 of 2025 at the Ruinart Champagne & Art Bar in the PalaisPopulaire (Unter den Linden 5, Berlin). It will then displayed at Art Basel and Frieze Seoul.

At the opening night of the Ruinart Champagne & Art Bar, around 200 guests – many of whom were renowned actors and figures from the art world – experienced the unique combination of art and champagne culture. In this dazzling culinary scene, in addition to the impressive works of Julian Charrière, guests can also expect exclusive champagne masterclasses that bring the savoir-faire of Maison Ruinart to life.

“Develop a sustainability strategy to enable potential and actual Olympics games organizers to integrate and implement sustainability measures that encompass the economic, social and environmental sphere in all stages of their project.”

This was one of the earliest recommendations enclosed in the closing report for the Olympic Agenda 2020, and one which has become the building block for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Aligning with the prior statements, the organizers of the 2024 Olympics have laid out a cutting-edge plan to halve the games-related carbon footprint compared to previous games, with innovative solutions for energy, food, venues, transport and digital services.

50 PER CENT REDUCTION IN CARBON EMISSION

In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Tokyo had planned to offset 4.38 million tons of CO2 but exceeded this, by only producing 1.96 million tons. This was mostly due to the coronavirus pandemic that prevented visitors from attending.

Interestingly enough, Paris has their carbon budget to a total of 1.58 million tons of CO2. Paris 2024 has proactively calculated its “material footprint”- a detailed map of required resources before, during and after the games. It takes into account everything from spectator seating, travel, furniture for Olympics village and even sports equipment.

Some of the measures for a carbon-neutral Olympics include that most of the venues are already in place, having short distances between venues, encouraging visitors to use public transport, catering local products and using an innovative energy model that uses 100% renewable energy.

SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND TRAVEL

13 million meals will be catered during the Olympics and paralympic games. The creation of these meals involved some 120 organizations including farmers, producers, caterers and nutritionists as well as 200 athletes. These meals will maintain the carbon-neutral responsibility as with all other aspects of the event. This means that the meals will double the proportion of plant-based ingredients. 80% of ingredients will be sourced from local agriculture. All unconsumed food will be redistributed or composted.

To cut single-use plastic in catering by half, Coca Cola will install 700 water and soda fountains across all Paris 2024 sites and organizers will install free drinking water points. Spectators will be allowed to enter venues with their own reusable bottles.

Furthermore, the Olympics organizers are taking every measure necessary to cut down CO2 emissions through travel. More than 80% of the Olympic venues are situated within 10km of the Olympic village minimizing travel time for athletes. Vehicle fleets catering to athletes are set to include electric, hybrid and hydrogen-powered vehicles provided by Toyota. All venues are also accessible by public transport . Public transport plants to expand its services in the Paris region by 15%. The Paris tourist office also says that 3000 city bikes are being made for use by guests in Paris.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

by Elizabeth Kolbert

“The current extinction has its own novel cause: not an asteroid or a massive volcanic eruption but “one weedy species.”

Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Sixth Extinction, is a riveting collective history about mass extinctions. Included among the rhetoric is a sixth extinction currently unfolding – a mass extinction for which the cataclysm is our own “weedy” selves. Pulling from the works of botanists, geologists, marine biologists, and other diverse scientists, Kolbert introduces a wide body of research to suggest her case. Throughout the novel, she alludes to dozens of species which have already gone extinct or which, like the Sumatran Rhino and like the Panamanian Gold Frog, are threatened by near extinction. A fascinating read, this book will make you question the fundamentals about being a human and our relationship to the Earth around us.

Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet

by George Monbiot

“Our loyalties are to the aesthetics, not the evidence. We are seduced by the way things look, and overlook the way they function. But beauty is seldom truth, and truth is seldom beauty.”

Agriculture is often considered one of the most environmentally destructive industries. Occupying over 30 times more land than urban developments, farms – the creation and ploughing thereof – are a root cause of deforestation, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Despite all of this, we still live in a world riddled with hunger.

Monbiot, in his Regenesis, reimagines the food system entirely, proposing a way that we can simultaneously feed the world without devouring the planet itself. Drawing on recent advancements in soil ecology, Mobiot reveals the ways in which our changing understanding of the world around – and, especially, beneath – us might influence the way we farm. Specifically, he believes these advancements will allow us to grow more food on less land, thus restoring natural resources and revolutionizing our relationship with the planet and its inhabitants.

Highlight Image: © Alex Lvrs via Unsplash

 +  Words:
Tori Palone
Luxiders Magazine

“TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU SAW”

The most infamous examples of queerbaiting include interactions between Dean and Castiel in Supernatural (2005-2020), Sherlock and Watson in Sherlock (2010-2017), Rizzoli and Isles in Rizzoli & Isles (2010-2016), and Beca and Chloe in Pitch Perfect (franchise 2012, 2015, 2017).

In the cases of queerbaiting, not only do queer audiences not receive representation, but they often feel used and ridiculed. Since sometimes even the content creators and the cast refuse to acknowledge that their characters share romantic interest, queer audiences are left unsure in their own understanding of what is happening around them  (is it real or is it in my head?).

While some people might not understand the problem, queerbaiting has a harmful impact on the mental health of LGBTQ+ audiences, increasing the levels of anxiety and depression. Queerbaiting promotes isolation and perpetuates the stigma surrounding queer communities, as it prevents society from seeing LGBTQ+ people as normal people who can live happy and healthy lives.

Slowly, storytellers are coming to the recognition of detrimental effects of erasing queer characters. Over the past decade, we can see some positive changes in terms of queer representation. More and more often, TV shows and films delight us with queer leading characters such as Eric in Sex Education (2019-2023), Villanelle in Killing Eve (2018-2022), Jules in Euphoria (2019-…). Even Disney has finally presented the first out gay teen hero, Ethan Clade, in Strange World (2022).

Highlight Image: © daniel james via Unsplash

+ Words:
Kseniia Gavrilova
Luxiders Magazine

Highlight Image: ©  Pablo Heimplatz via Unsplash
Interview Images: Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Interview:
Kseniia Gavrilova
Luxiders Magazine

Highlight Image: © Daiga Ellaby via Unsplash

+ Words: Roberta Fabbrocino

Roberta Fabbrocino is a writer and an environmentalist who loves sharing stories about all things sustainability. She runs @mosclothingsubscription, an eco-friendly personal styling service, and creates content for green brands.

Instagram:  @naturallybree