Kavalan’s Green Leader Awards make the case for sustainability at the start of the print journey
Speaking to Nova Abbott on the FuturePrint Podcast, one point came through clearly. The real test is not whether sustainability is mentioned at the end of a project, but whether it has shaped the thinking behind it. That thinking runs through Kavalan’s Green Leader Awards for 2026.
Kavalan’s Green Leader Awards are back for 2026, but the most striking point to come out of my conversation with Nova Abbott was not just about the awards themselves. It was about timing.
For all the talk around sustainable materials and responsible production, sustainability in print is still too often treated as a late-stage decision. Something considered once the job is already designed and the substrate is being chosen. What came through clearly in speaking to Abbott was that this misses the point. If sustainability is going to be meaningful, it needs to start at the beginning of the journey, not somewhere near the end.
That thinking sits behind this year’s Green Leader Awards. Yes, they are there to recognise strong, well-executed projects. But they are also pointing to something broader. Good sustainable print is not just about selecting a better material at the final stage. It starts much earlier, with the choices made at concept stage around format, scale, lifespan, purpose and reuse.
That gives the awards more substance than a standard industry competition. Kavalan is not simply rewarding visually strong work or neat case studies. It is asking what good looks like when creativity, execution and environmental responsibility are considered together. Speaking on the FuturePrint Podcast, Abbott explained that the awards are designed to recognise real-world projects that combine strong delivery with measurable environmental responsibility. Not just ideas. Not just intentions. Actual projects that have been produced and can show their thinking in practice.
The awards are now in their second year, and Kavalan has used that first round of experience to sharpen the format for 2026. Categories have expanded from five to six, the judging criteria have been clarified, and there is now a stronger emphasis on measurable impact and storytelling. Abbott said one of the big lessons from year one was that while there is plenty of interest in sustainability, there is still a clear gap between intention and execution. That is where the awards start to become more useful. They are not just celebrating the fact that sustainability matters. Most people in the market would agree with that already. They are trying to highlight the projects, processes and decisions that show what sustainability looks like when it is actually carried through properly.
One of the most interesting additions this year is the Green Spark Award, aimed at students, apprentices and early-career creatives. It may be a smaller category, but it speaks to a larger issue. If the industry wants sustainability to become normal practice, it has to start earlier. Not once people are already deep into production, but right at the point where creative and commercial decisions are first being made.
That is an important distinction. Too often, sustainable print is framed as a materials conversation alone. Abbott’s point was wider than that. Material choice matters, of course, but by the time a substrate is being specified, many of the most important decisions have already been taken. The size of the job, the intended lifespan, the application, the reuse potential, the broader purpose of the piece. All of those choices shape environmental impact long before the final print specification is signed off.
This also helps explain the gap Kavalan believes the awards are filling. Many industry awards still focus on visual impact or technical quality. Few ask the harder question of what environmental cost sat behind the work. Abbott was direct on that point. If sustainability is treated as optional, it remains peripheral. If it becomes part of how good work is judged, standards start to shift.
That is especially relevant in large format, where the sustainability conversation has moved on from broad statements of intent. Abbott described a market that is changing, though unevenly. Some players are moving quickly. Others are still waiting for regulation, pressure or clearer customer demand. But the tone of the conversation is changing. People are no longer just asking why sustainability matters. More are now asking how to do it properly. That may be the clearest sign of progress.
The same theme runs through Clean Slate, the documentary Kavalan helped create around waste in the events sector. Abbott spoke about the film as a project born out of a simple but uncomfortable question: how much waste are events actually generating, and are people being honest about it? It is a fair question. Events are visual, short-lived and material-heavy. Print is central to that world, but so is waste. For Kavalan, the film was another way of pushing the industry to look harder at systems, not just surfaces.
That wider systems view also came through in Abbott’s comments on PVC-free materials. She identified three misconceptions that still persist in the market. The first is that PVC-free options do not perform well enough. The second is that they are too expensive. The third is that they are only suitable for limited applications. Her view was that these objections now rest more on old assumptions than current reality. The materials are proven, commercially viable and suitable for most mainstream use cases. In her words, the barriers today are more about perception than performance.
That matters because it shifts the debate. If the alternatives are already workable, the question becomes less about whether the market can change and more about whether it is willing to change.
The awards, then, are doing two things at once. On one level, they are recognising projects that show what sustainable print can look like in practice. On another, they are helping make those examples visible to the rest of the market. Abbott was clear that visibility matters. People do not change because of theory alone. They change because they can see what is possible.
The winners will be announced live at FESPA in May, which is exactly where this conversation belongs. If sustainability is becoming part of mainstream large format print, it should be visible there. That is what gives the Green Leader Awards their value. They do not just reward finished projects. They point to how those projects should be approached in the first place.
Speaking to Nova, that was the point that resonated with me. Sustainable print cannot be an afterthought. If it matters, it has to be there at the start.
Clean Slate | Rethinking Events
Listen to the full podcast here
“If sustainability is going to be meaningful, it needs to start at the beginning of the journey, not somewhere near the end.’’
Nova Abbott, Kavalan