In order to maintain independent and unbiased judging of the Eco-Logic Awards, The Enviropaedia appoints a panel of 13 independent, highly respected, environmentally conscious executives from a diverse range of occupations and professions to judge the Eco-Logic Award entries using 7 criteria that are the ‘V.I.R.T.U.E.S’ of Eco-Logic.
In 2024, the Judging panel consisted of:
Craig Foster
Filmmaker, Naturalist, Author
Craig Foster is an Oscar and BAFTA-winning filmmaker, naturalist, author, and ocean explorer. His internationally acclaimed films, including My Octopus Teacher, have won over 150 awards. His latest book, Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World, has received global accolades.
Foster co-founded the Sea Change Project, a non-profit dedicated to the conservation and regeneration of the Great African Seaforest. Through his books, films, and podcasts, his work has reached over 300 million people across 190 countries, contributing to the seaforest being recognised as a global icon.
With roots in anthropology and filmmaking, Craig and his brother Damon have created numerous documentary films, including The Great Dance. Other notable films include My Hunter’s Heart, Cosmic Africa, and Touching the Dragon, the latter being selected by National Geographic as one of its top films of all time. In the 1990s, they became the first team to dive with Nile crocodiles in underwater cave systems.
Foster’s work has always focused on indigenous knowledge, with a decade-long commitment to recording practices and skylore in deep rural Africa. His collaboration with archaeologist Dr. Janette Deacon resulted in a book on /Xam rock art, drawing from the Bleek and Lloyd records, one of the most extensive oral history collections. In addition, together with his brother, they produced a coffee table book, Africa Speaking with the Earth and Sky.
However, after years spent in remote landlocked areas, Foster returned to the coast to recover from chronic burnout. The Great African Seaforest became his healing refuge, leading him to make a pact to dive every day for ten years. During this time, he developed an underwater tracking method, which allowed him to discover the lives of countless marine species, including the shrimp Heteromysis fosteri, named after him. This journey also led to the octopus featured in My Octopus Teacher, a film that narrates his profound connection with this extraordinary creature. Foster calls the octopus and her seaforest kin his "greatest teachers," and many of their stories are featured in his memoir, Amphibious Soul. The book is paired with 27 short films accessible via QR code, creating a unique immersive storytelling experience. Like tracking an animal, the films seem random at first, but when combined with the book, a tracking story emerges.
Foster’s passion for coastal and underwater tracking, led to collaborations with the !Khwa ttu Cultural San Heritage Centre, Shark Spotters marine biology graduate training programme, and the ongoing mentoring of young people in deep nature connection. His commitment to inspiring a deeper connection with nature has also seen him co-create an award-winning exhibition on Middle Stone Age human origins, which promotes Africa as the origin of science and art.
Selected as a member of the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation Council for Hope, Foster's advocacy for biodiversity continues to inspire, and he is working on new projects, including the 1001 Seaforest Species initiative and the Yo-Yo Ma Seaforest Anthem film.
Foster believes that the greatest threat we face is the cooling of the human heart towards nature, and all his work is about inspiring a change or heart.
Dr Don Pinnock
I’m an investigative journalist, photographer, and travel writer who, some time back, realised I knew little about the natural world. So I set out to discover it. This took me to five continents – including Antarctica – and resulted in six books on natural history and hundreds of articles. I have degrees in criminology, political science, and African history.
My focus with regards to human-induced climate crisis is its impact on the living world and the fabric that connects it. Essentially biodiversity. We are losing wild rangelands, the ocean’s life systems, and avian species. My core focus is animal/human interaction, welfare, and the impact of issues like trophy hunting, range limitation, animal wellbeing, and governance of wild biomes.
What very often drives me is anger at the damage we do to the planet and its species. And compassion for those who do not have a voice. Where I can be, I am that voice.
Gamelihle ‘Gama’ Sibanda
Gamelihle is a systems thinker, futurist, rapid ideator, and visual storyteller who fuses his multidisciplinary skills towards the creation of a regenerative planet; where there is enough for all forever. As a certified Biomimicry Professional, he also uses his diverse skills to teach, research, and innovate nature-inspired solutions to human challenges, whilst complying with ecological performance standards.
He has over 32 years of international professional experience mainly in infrastructure investment and development in 13 countries. 26 years have been spent working with the United Nations in Africa and the rest in Government, Consulting, and Applied Research. He has worked in various capacities; liaising with Governments, Universities, Infrastructure Authorities, Employers’ Organizations, Unions, Donors, United Nations Agencies, Consultants, Contractors, and Communities on the policy, financing, feasibility, research, design, training, employment creation, Just Transition to a greener economy and implementation of infrastructure and environmental projects in both rural and urban environments.
His academic background includes a Master of Science in Biomimicry (Arizona State University, USA) an MBA (Luton Business School, UK), BSc Civil Engineering Honours (UZ), and Post Graduate Diploma in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (Emeritus, Singapore in collaboration with Columbia Engineering. USA.). He is currently seconded by the UN to the South African Government as Chief Technical Adviser to the EPWP and is in
the Advisory Board of Biomimicry South Africa.
Georgina Smit
Georgina Smit is an Executive Director and leads the Technical team at the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA), responsible for all certifications, training, research and key strategic initiatives. She identifies and implements collaborations and benchmarks that drive market transformation within the property sector, towards more sustainable outcomes. She oversees all things related to green building certification and research – always looking for ways to demonstrate the value of going green. Georgina is passionate about green design, particularly when it is about delivering solutions that are practical, locally appropriate and ambitiously driving change.
Gillian Hutchings
NBI Head: Membership and Communications | Company Secretary
From January 1982 to November 1991, Gillian worked in a variety of organisations including publishing, advertising, technical press, promotional gifts, engineering and mining. In November 1991, Gillian joined the Consultative Business Movement (CBM) and was seconded to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and to the Multi-Party Negotiation Process (MPNP) as secretary to the Management Committee and the Daily Management Committee.
When the MPNP had completed its work and the Transitional Executive Council (TEC) was appointed to oversee the transition to and preparations for the elections of April 1994, Gillian was appointed as Managing Secretary of the TEC itself, as well as the Management Committee. Gillian joined the National Business Initiative (NBI) in March 1995 as taking responsibility for NBI’s membership relationships which includes both growth and retention of the NBI’s valued member companies. Her role has evolved over the years and she continues to lead on all aspects of the NBI Membership Relationships and funding, the NBI Communications and Events portfolio, and is the NBI’s Company Secretary.
Gillian has a management diploma from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Julie Wells
Julie Wells is a communication and business management specialist with almost 30 years of experience. She has been involved in driving the green industry agenda since 2012, as the communication and business support manager at the National Cleaner Production Centre, South Africa (NCPC-SA).
The NCPC is a national support programme that assists companies to adopt more sustainable business practices, saving valuable resources and promoting inclusive economic growth. As part of the NCPC’s leadership team, Julie works with national and international partners to transform the way industry produces in South Africa.
Julie’s professional mission is to promote clarity of purpose and messaging around the sustainable development agenda – ensuring economic, social and environmental sustainability are included in the conversation, and practical action-driven projects.
Kate Stubbs
Kate Stubbs is the current Group Business Development and Marketing Director for the Interwaste Group which forms part Séché Environnement, a leading international environmental solutions business. She has held various executive positions in marketing, sales, strategy, and communications over the last 20 years, predominantly working for Supply Chain, Logistics, and Waste Management companies serving a broad range of industries. Her experience has enabled her to work with diverse local and international teams and she thrives in complex, intellectually stimulating environments. Some of her successes have been in creating and building new brands, achieving growth strategies, and assisting with the integration of many acquisitions. She is passionate about developing sustainable solutions for businesses that are not only economically viable but which are socially conscious and protect our environment for future generations. Kate holds a BCom Business Management degree and has completed Leadership and Executive Development programmes through the GIBS business school.
Matthew Rosmarin
Matthew is a creative director and executive producer with an insatiable thirst for strategic and innovative thinking. He co-founded four businesses, ranging from event and television production to media and wellbeing. He has a passion for storytelling, biomimicry, the art of depth psychology, and the power of nature to initiate, impact, and influence a human life. He now heads up the marketing and communication department at GCX - a renowned sustainability consultancy.
Misha Teasdale
Misha Teasdale is a South African-born environment and social change activist who is the current director of the Greenpop Foundation. Teasdale co-founded Greenpop, a tree-planting organization on a mission to restore degraded ecosystems and reconnect people with the planet. They collaborate with passionate individuals and organizations to run contextually relevant environmental projects across Sub-Saharan Africa. Since its inception, Greenpop has planted over 200,000 trees.
In 2008 Misha was part of Doing it For Africa, an overland expedition from Cape Town to London overland, profiling NGO's and community-based projects through 16 African Countries.
In 2011 he landed Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail and Guardian and in 2013 was nominated by Mail and Guardian and The Department of Environmental Affairs as one of SA's top climate change leaders. He has been included in Legacy Project Hall of Fame for those out to make a difference in the world. Inspired by the power of creativity, mass participation, and nature-based solutions.
When not planting trees, you can find him inspiring entrepreneurs as a YALI Africa Fellow or sprinting up Table Mountain. Misha is invited to speak at conferences, workshops, and gatherings regularly, from TEDx, United Nations, and Universities globally.
Stephan le Roux
Stephan le Roux is a cross-media communication specialist with a focus on ideation, positioning and design of creative content offerings. With a special focus on the positioning, content strategy and launching of TV channels. Notable achievements include the Oscar Pistorius “Pop-up” channel, Via, Moja love, Honey and the Boksquad 2023 content platform for the Springboks.
But his real passion lies with the People's Planet channel that he co-owns on Openview Channel 115. People's Planet is the definitive destination for nature, adventure, eco sport, wildlife, science and sustainability enthusiasts. The channel's tagline "We're on it" embodies a commitment to actively engaging in preserving and celebrating the outdoors.
Stefano Simprini
Stefano is always doing his best to follow Life’s example, in everything that he does. He celebrates that his efforts are successes even when they are failures because he learns from and through these. Some of Life’s Principles are easier to emulate than others. Biomimicry is a philosophy with which he chooses to explore life and to question the deepest assumptions of the anthropological project that is humanity’s progress.
His initial academic training was in mechatronic engineering (BEng). Thereafter, he spent half a decade working in mechanical design/engineering (in the deep sea mining, oil and gas industry), and business development and project management (in the solar energy industry).
Thereafter, he began traveling continuously and extensively for another five years (and counting), while undertaking an intuitive yet rigorous, self-directed curriculum comprising online courses, prolific reading, workshops, and more. In the process, he encountered a diversity of perspectives and solutions being brought forth in service of life, and experimented with creating a few of his own.
Stefano has been a member of the Board of Trustees for the Sustainability Institute, with their campus-based outside of Stellenbosch, since 2021; the SI engages in transformative learning towards just and generative futures.
Swati Thiyagarajan
Swati Thiyagarajan is a multi-award-winning conservation journalist, environment storyteller, author and filmmaker.
She is passionate about informing audiences about the wonder, intricacy, resilience, and fragility of natural ecosystems and their species. She was the environment editor at NEW DELHI TELEVISION for over a decade and presented and directed her own show BORN WILD which was the first of its kind of environment magazine show on Asian Television. She was also the content editor for environmental special campaigns on NDTV. She won the Carl Zeiss award for her reportage on tigers and tiger conservation in India. She directed a series WILDWALK for the natural history section of ETV in South Africa and the film, The Animal Communicator. She is the author of the book BORN WILD, journeys into the wild of Africa and India.
She now lives and works in Cape Town South Africa for the Sea Change Project, an NPO dedicated to the long-term protection of the Great African Seaforest and raising awareness on the importance of oceans in the climate dialogues. Sea Change Project is concerned with science-based storytelling featuring species from the Great African Seaforest as Biodiversity loss is a great threat and nearly 91% of marine species are unknown.
Swati was the Associate Producer on the Academy and BAFTA award-winning My Octopus Teacher. She also serves as an advisory board member for the Sustainable Oceans Species Alliance or SOSA at the Senkenberg Biodiversity Institute in Frankfurt. She believes that the loss of biodiversity is our greatest threat and that storytelling is the most effective tool to inform and engage people to bring about greater nature connection and action.
Yolan Friedmann
Yolan Friedmann is currently the CEO of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT www.ewt.org.za), one of the largest conservation NGOs in southern Africa. The EWT currently employs ~110 staff members working across 70 projects throughout the sub-region. Yolan is also a Board member of the South African National Parks (SANParks), chairs the SANParks Conservation and Socio-Economic Transformation Committee and sits on the Tourism and Land Claims Committees. In 2024 Yolan was appointed to the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund (UK Government) Advisory Group.
Yolan has an academic background in Veterinary Nursing (Onderstepoort Veterinary Faculty, University of Pretoria), a BA in English and Communications, an MSc in Environmental Studies (WITS), and an MDP from the Gordon Institute for Business Science (University of Pretoria). Yolan is a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and is a Certified Director by the Institute of Directors South Africa. Yolan was the first female recipient of the SAB Nick Steele Environmentalist of the Year award in 2011. She was also the winner of the CEO Most Influential Woman in Business and Environment award in 2012 in the Environmental category; the recipient of the 2012 Green Globe award. Yolan was a finalist in the 2015 South Africa of the Year Award in the Conservationist of the Year category; was awarded a WESSA Lifetime Achiever Award in for Conservation 2016 and won the Eco Intelligence Award at the 2021 Ecologic Awards.
Yolan is involved in many levels of conservation leadership and development and chaired the IUCN South African National Member’s Committee and the Regional Advisory Committee of the IUCN’s Regional Office for Southern Africa for 2 terms. She was the first South African to serve as a Regional Councillor on the Council of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and co-chaired the IUCN’s Constituency Committee for four years. She is an Advisory Board member of the Ford Wildlife Foundation and of the Global Change Institute (Wits University); and served on the Board of the Institute of Directors South Africa (IoDSA) for 2 terms. Yolan served on
the Board of the Tourism Conservation Fund and is a long-term judge of the Ecologic Awards, having previously judged the Green Trust Awards for several years. Yolan was a member of the Committee of Inquiry tasked with investigating the possibility of a legal trade in rhino horn, reporting to the Minister of Environmental Affairs.
A key focus of Yolan’s career has been leadership development and strategy facilitation, and she has participated in programmes such as the Gordon Institute for Business Science Nexus Development Programme (2006), the Leadership for Conservation in Africa Council, the African Leadership Seminar and is a Fellow of the Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship (2007). Yolan was invited to participate in the Crans Montana Forum in 2015 and was selected as a GreenMatter Senior Fellow in 2014.
Yolan is an avid long-distance runner and competes with her dogs and horses in agility and dressage, respectively.
Enter the Awards
You are invited to enter your organisation, project or product if you believe it has been making contribution towards creating an eco-logical society and environment.
