Smile honoured at World Changing Ideas Awards for its compostable coffee pods
Image: Smile Beverage Works
The winners of Fast Company‘s 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced, honouring sustainable designs, innovative products, bold social initiatives, and other creative projects that are changing the way we work, live, and interact with the world.
Smile Compostable Solutions is an honouree under the energy and sustainability category for its compostable coffee pods. The company’s main mission is to to bridge sustainability and convenience. Whether for consumers or companies, Smile is bringing patented, plant-based innovations to link the almost-hard-to-believe pair. The honouree sells compostable solutions to counter the plastic pollution building up in landfills from our make-take-waste society. Smile offers compostable alternatives to two of the top three most polluting single-use plastics – straws and coffee pods.
Smile’s CEO, Michael Sands, stated, “We are honoured to be included in this remarkable list of innovative solutions. Sustainability is imperative – and we are proud to be recognised for our materials that are helping to reduce single-use plastic.”
This year’s World Changing Ideas Awards showcased 45 winners, 216 finalists, and more than 300 honourable mentions—with health, climate, energy, and AI among the most popular categories. A panel of Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,200 entries across urban design, education, nature, politics, technology, corporate social responsibility, and more. Several new categories were added this year including rapid response, crypto and blockchain, agriculture, and workplace. The 2023 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Italy to Singapore to New Zealand.
“It’s thrilling to see the creativity and innovation that are so abundant among this year’s honourees,” says Fast Company editor-in-chief, Brendan Vaughan. “While it’s easy to feel discouraged by the state of the world, the entrepreneurs, companies, and nonprofits featured in this package show the limitless potential to address society’s most urgent problems. Our journalists have highlighted some of the most exciting and impactful work being done today—from housing to equity to sustainability—and we look forward to seeing not only how these projects evolve but how they inspire others to develop solutions of their own.”
