Sanlam became the first winner of the inaugural Sudley Adams Memorial Award. A first time entrant to the awards, Sanlam also won in the Water Care and Management category, against formidable co-finalists, Woolworths.

The annual Greening the Future Awards recognise and celebrate individuals and organisations that have contributed greatly to environmental sustainability.

The special Sudley Adams Memorial Award was introduced in honour of Sudley Adams, the newspaper’s brand manager and convener of the awards who died in May this year. According to the Mail&Guardian, the judges considered all the entries for the award and decided the one that best embodied Sudley’s forward-thinking vision and team spirit was the WWF Sanlam Living Waters Partnership.

Fiona Macleod, editor of the M&G Greening the Future supplement, said the partnership was an exemplary model for other conservation initiatives. "Sanlam's continued support for WWF SA's water programmes has been endorsed through the buy-in of other companies. The partnership presents win-win solutions for some of South Africa's most pressing natural resources problems, and as such is a deserving winner of Greening the Future's two top awards.”

Sanlam has invested over R30m in the five-year WWF Sanlam Living Waters Partnership and the successive Transformative Partnership.

Launched in 2007, the partnership seeks to better manage freshwater and marine resources in South Africa and focuses on using the resources of WWF and Sanlam to eliminate water scarcity. It also leverages participation of other stakeholders, including the government and other companies who have taken part in a variety of related initiatives including the Integrated Catchment Management Programme and the Marine Protected Area project.

Says Lulu Letlape, Sanlam Group’s executive head: corporate affairs: "We are humbled and excited by this honour and we believe it reaffirms the suitability of our strategic partnership with the WWF and the significance of our investment, which we hope ultimately benefits all South Africans. The project feeds well into our sustainability efforts by influencing positive policy decisions, while introducing innovative ways to preserve water and create jobs in some of the communities we work in.”

The Greening the Future Awards have been held since 2004, and other than the Water Care and Water Management category that the Living Waters Partnership has won, other categories include innovation in renewables, energy efficiency and carbon management, and biodiversity and resource management.