Valentina Di Lernia

A 99.5% waste diversion rate is a figure that commands attention, but Valentina Di Lernia's case for Impact Champion of the Year runs far deeper than a standout statistic. In a role that sits outside of formal sustainability leadership, the Brands at Work senior project coordinator has engineered a business-wide shift in how ESG is understood, measured and acted on across the agency's London and New York teams. The judges were particularly struck by the fact that this "wasn't a top-down ask" but the work of a relatively junior team member who galvanised colleagues, freelancers, suppliers and clients around a shared agenda.

Di Lernia’s influence is visible in flagship project outcomes as well as the systems that now sit behind them. For instance, on a complex 1,000-delegate outdoor event staged on a protected triple-SSSI site, Di Lernia helped shape a tailored sustainability strategy spanning design, communications and audience activation, with no environmental incidents reported and the estate manager praising the care shown to the land. She was also instrumental in overhauling Brands at Work's sustainability infrastructure: redesigning the Project Sustainability Action Plan into a more usable app, embedding TRACE carbon measurement across live projects, and helping train more than 40 staff and long-standing freelancers.

Crucially, she has moved the agency’s sustainability agenda forward, taking it from policy to real-world operating excellence. Di Lernia advocated for sustainability to be written into job descriptions, onboarding processes and performance reviews, for example, and project budgets too, including a dedicated sustainability coordinator line. Her client work is equally tangible, from steering Brands at Work's first certified zero waste event to creating baseline reporting for clients at an earlier stage of their journey. Her achievement is multifaceted and it will have lasting cultural change through its robust framework, better data insights, stronger governance and a more confident events business that now treats responsible delivery as part of whole-company culture.