Elopack secured the top gong earlier this month for its Pure-Pak Imagine carton, which uses less than half the plastic of comparable screw-cap cartons.

“The award is welcome recognition of the hard work and dedication of our staff, partners and suppliers who continue to innovate and push the boundaries of what we do so that we can provide ever more sustainable packaging solutions for brands and consumers,” said Elopak chief marketing officer Patrick Verhelst.

“The award will spur us on in our quest to become even more sustainable as we look to play our part in the global shift towards a low carbon circular economy.”

The Delta Group, meanwhile, received a high commendation for its Delta Zero programme, which the judging panel said “demonstrated how they are turning their words into action”.

“We are naturally thrilled to receive recognition on such an important initiative for our Group,” said chief sales and marketing officer Dean Smith.

“Delta Zeros aligns to nine of the UN’s sustainability goals, which we are actively tracking, but equally has a customer focused approach to engage through our Delta Collaborate pillar, delivering long-term measurable value against our client’s sustainability goals.”

CarbonQuota consists of specialist carbon management scientists working alongside industry veterans from the world’s of production and print buying.

It offers carbon certification, reduction strategy support and offsetting for print and packaging organisations as well as brand owners, including some of the largest consumers of print and packaging.

Dominic Harris, who co-founded CarbonQuota with fellow director Nathan Tiller two years ago, prior to launching the business last year, said the awards came about as a result of the impact of the pandemic on large scale programmes.

“We just felt that while the usual events couldn’t take place, it was still important to celebrate some of the great initiatives out there,” said Harris.

“For example Elopack and Delta do amazing work on sustainability and that and the work of so many others deserved to be recognised.”

The awards were open to any company, not just CarbonQuota clients and more than a dozen firms entered last year, with their submissions judged by CarbonQuota’s scientific lead and LCA practitioner Matt Fishwick along with supply chain expert Tiller.

Harris said he hoped the awards would become an annual scheme, with more details to follow later in the year.