January 12, 2023 | By Digiday Awards

The honorees of this year’s Greater Good Awards, presented by Digiday, Glossy, Modern Retail and WorkLife, recognized the importance of uplifting their local and global communities, wielding resources and platforms to address issues from sustainability to well-being and equality. Many of this year’s entrants and subsequent winners collaborated with other businesses, innovators, thought leaders and charities to maximize their positive impact across different areas.

Cosmetics company Aveda earned a win in the Sustainability category for its sustainability packaging push in partnership with woman-owned packaging supplier Xela Pack. The result of Aveda and Xela Pack’s years-long collaboration is prestige beauty’s first-ever paper-based, locally recyclable sachet. The new design elevates the customer experience, while a peer-reviewed life-cycle assessment calculated the sachets reduced water consumption by 36% to 68% and CO2e emissions by 37% to 64%. Additionally, Aveda’s primary facility manufactures products using 100% wind and solar power, and the brand pioneered using 100% post-consumer recycled PET bottles.

The judges also recognized Consumer Reports in the Local Community Betterment category for its investigation into PFAS (per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) in food packaging from restaurant and grocery chains.  These chemical compounds have been linked to health problems affecting the immune system, birth weight and cancer risks. Tests of more than 100 products found measurable levels of PFAS in more than half of them. Consumer Reports released its findings in an article co-published with The Guardian. It also launched a petition urging companies to end PFAS in food packaging and demand safe alternatives, which garnered more than 26,000 signatures. CR’s investigation led to legislative results at the state level and public pledges from major fast-food chains to eliminate PFAS from food wrappers.

For the Mental Health category, men’s shaving and personal care marketer Harry’s claimed the award for its ongoing partnership with The Trevor Project (TTP), an organization focused on mental healthcare for the LGBTQ community. Since 2017, Harry’s has helped TTP serve more than 221,000 LGBTQ individuals in crisis, 47% of which identified as men or non-binary. Throughout their partnership, Harry’s has donated more than $1.1 million to TTP, including Pride set sales and programmatic work. For its 2022 Pride set, Harry’s worked with Flamingo (its sister in shaving products) to offer customers a limited edition, genderless, Face & Body Pride Shave Set. The brands also provided an inclusive product for non-binary individuals who often feel excluded from the heavily gendered shaving space. In April 2022, Harry’s prioritized Pride and its Open Minds Initiative to provide equitable and holistic resources within the mental health space, awarding $5 million to Team: Changing Minds, an organization building a network of mental health responders dedicated to helping young men recognize and find assistance to emotional challenges.  

Explore all the 2022 Greater Goods Awards winners below — including a quick rundown of the programs and insights into why they won and what marketing teams can learn from them. 

Download the complete guide here.

Full GGA winners list below:

Animal Welfare

  • Ally & MKTG Sports + Entertainment – Ally Racing Best Friends Season Long Program

Anti-Violence

  • Merkle & Stop The Traffik – Using machine learning to prevent Human Trafficking

Arts and Culture

  • WeTransfer

Children

  • Epsilon’s Partnership with FIA

Education

  • Financial Times, Infosys, and WONGDOODY

Emergency Aid

  • On/Go by Intrivo – On/Go for Good
  • The Thomas Collective and Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission – Angels:  Lost + Found

Environment

  • OpenX Technologies, Inc.

Gender Equality

  • Chief “This Guy Means Business” Campaign
  • Hearts & Science, OLAY  & Harper’s BAZAAR: STEM Statue

LGBTQ+

  • Ally

Local Community Betterment

  • Consumer Reports’ Fight for Safe and Sustainable Food Packaging

Mental Health

  • Harry’s

Public Health

  • Critical Mass

Racial Equality

  • Digitas & Ascend

Social Justice

  • Ally

Sustainability

  • Aveda

Water

  • ZenWTR

World Hunger

  • Economist Impact and Corteva Agriscience

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