For The Changing Planet

The Rolex awards for enterprise has a mission: to create a more sustainable future. In order to do so, the swiss watchmaker supports and accelerates ongoing or new projects led by determined individuals — no matter where they are. This is how it works

- Caroline Suganda

They say we can all help to save the earth — even if it’s one straw at a time. Technically speaking, small changes do accumulate to make a big difference, but how many people need to adopt this mindset in order to really make a significant change? Individual lifestyle changes, unfortunately, can have very little impact on a global scale. A relook at the system suggests that change could be more impactful if effected at a corporate level.

With this in mind, corporate support of activists and environmentalists can boost green projects, along with their results and consequences, to a whole new level. And this is exactly what the Rolex Awards for Enterprise does. In the last 45 years, this corporate initiative has helped individuals to make their projects a successful reality on a grand scale — 21 million trees have been planted; 34 endangered species and 27 major ecosystems have been protected (including 57,600 km2 of Amazon rainforest); hundreds of new species have been discovered; 17 challenging expeditions have been completed; and 48 innovative technologies have been developed for a whole range of applications.

The Rolex Awards were set up in 1976 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rolex Oyster, the world’s first waterproof wristwatch. What was intended as a one-off celebration drew so much international interest that Rolex transformed them into an ongoing programme that evolved and changed with the passage of time, and moved from championing exploration to protecting the planet. The latter goal has now become part of a bigger commitment reinforced by Rolex in 2019 — the Perpetual Planet initiative — which is dedicated to supporting the people who contribute toward a better world.