From a palm oil alternative and a handheld x-ray to an animal-free egg white and a repurposed airport, the seventh annual awards honour creative solutions to issues facing us today. 

The winners of Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced today, 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. 

Pandora won the Consumer Products award for Diamonds by Pandora, its collection of lab-created diamonds that make low-carbon diamond jewellery available to more people for more wearing occasions. Each Diamonds by Pandora piece is crafted with 100% recycled silver or gold, and pieces are set with lab-created diamonds grown in the U.S. with 100% renewable energy. 

Pandora’s lab-created diamonds are optically, chemically, thermally and physically identical to mined diamonds. If all diamonds could reach the same low footprint, this would cut six million tons of CO2 – the same as shifting all cars in New York City to electric vehicles. 

This year’s World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 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. The 2023 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Italy to Singapore to New Zealand.

“Our lab-created Diamonds by Pandora are a stunning reflection of craftmanship, quality and innovation, with the added benefits of being thoughtfully created and relatively affordable.  Grown using renewable energy sources and set in jewellery crafted from recycled silver and gold, our aim is to expand the overall diamond category by bringing new wearing occasions to more consumers while minimizing costs for the planet,” says Joshua Braman, SVP, Diamonds at Pandora.

Pandora also received two honourable mentions in the categories Enduring Impact: 15+ Years in Business and Energy and Sustainability.

“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.”

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About the World Changing Ideas Awards

World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honourable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.

About Pandora 

Pandora is the world’s largest jewellery brand. The company designs, manufactures and markets hand-finished jewellery made from high-quality materials at affordable prices. Pandora jewellery is sold in more than 100 countries through more than 6,500 points of sale, including more than 2,500 concept stores.

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Pandora employs 32,000 people worldwide and crafts its jewellery at two LEED-certified facilities in Thailand. Pandora is committed to leadership in sustainability and will purchase only recycled silver and gold for crafting its jewellery by 2025 and halve greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2030. Pandora is listed on the Nasdaq Copenhagen stock exchange and generated sales of DKK 26.5 billion (EUR 3.6 billion) in 2022.

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