Small Cap Awards 2026: ESG Company Of The Year

Inaugurated in 2013, the Small Cap Awards is an annual event celebrating and rewarding the finest in the sub-£350m market cap quoted company sector.

The Awards celebrates those professionals and companies that work within the AIM and Aquis communities and is attended by listed companies, institutions, fund managers, brokers and advisors.

The 2026 Awards will be held on Thursday 11th June 2026 at Merchant Taylors Hall in London.

The nominees for ESG Company of the Year are as follows:

Sylvania Platinum

Sylvania Platinum is a lower-cost producer of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) and chrome, with operations in South Africa. The Sylvania Dump Operations (SDOs) are comprised of six chrome beneficiation and PGM processing Plants focusing on the retreatment of PGM-rich chrome tailings. The 2025 financial year (FY25) saw record production from the SDOs of 49,164 4E PGM ounces. Sylvania has recently diversified its production profile through the Thaba JV which adds a full margin chrome concentrate revenue stream to the company’s portfolio.

Sustainable and responsible mining are at the core of Sylvania’s business, with safety, environmental stewardship, social responsibility and strong governance remaining central to Sylvania’s business ethos. The process by which Sylvania recovers metals – reprocessing tailings from historical mining activity – is in itself inherently sustainable, unlocking critical minerals whilst reducing the ‘waste’ from active mining operations.

Sylvania achieved the best full-year safety performance in its history in FY25, with its Doornbosch operation remaining LTI-free for 13 years. Additionally, FY25’s LTIFR of 0.18 per 200,000 hours worked is far below the industry average. These outstanding performances were achieved through Sylvania’s safety-first culture which is reinforced through training, awareness programmes, such as the ‘Silly Season’ campaign which underscores the importance of maintaining a hazard-free and injury-free environment over the festive period, and robust risk management systems. Each of Sylvania’s operations has its own site-specific safety management plan, which is put together to reflect the unique needs and characteristics of that site, aligning with international best practice and providing a tailored safety protocol for each environment.

Turning to environmental initiatives, Sylvania has achieved enhanced water utilisation measurement capabilities, enabling more reliable tracking of water flows and losses, improving water use and operational efficiencies. The company’s approach to tailings storage aligns with international best practice to mitigate risks to workers, communities and the environment. Significant progress has been made on more sustainable and efficient ways to rehabilitate tailings storage, with two new facilities designed and constructed in 2025. Furthermore, early biodiversity conservation and rehabilitation efforts have shown signs of success, and will be expanded in the second half of the 2026 financial year (FY2026).

Sylvania places great emphasis on the wellbeing and development of its workforce and surrounding communities. It runs awareness campaigns of gender-based violence, an issue faced by over half of women in South Africa, aiming to provide education to deter instances and empower the community to become ambassadors for change.

Sylvania invests heavily in training initiatives, running nearly 3,000 internal and external training sessions in the first half of FY26 to uplift the skillset of the local community and ensure that Sylanvia’s operations are operated at the highest standard. These run alongside internships, bursaries and learnerships. Sylvania spent over 70 million Rand with community suppliers during that period, and now employees over 800 people, many of which are from the local area building a trusted logistical network. Meaningful progress is being made in diversity and inclusion, with women representing 29% of the workforce and 40% of the Board.

H-Power plc (AIM: HPOW) (formerly known as AFC Energy Plc)

H-Power plc (AIM: HPOW) (formerly known as AFC Energy Plc) is a leading provider of ammonia-based low carbon hydrogen production and hydrogen-to-power solutions. Our market-leading decentralised ammonia cracker and fuel cell generator products are engineered to unlock the low carbon hydrogen market by meeting customers’ needs with scalable, reliable supplies of low carbon hydrogen and power. H-Power is enabling customers to decarbonise at a price that is commercially viable.

We are focused on the successful commercial rollout of our core product suite and on creating significant shareholder value by converting our growing opportunity pipeline into contracted orders and delivering sustained revenue growth.

Our core strategy is to develop and deploy products that enable the production of scalable, reliable supplies of clean hydrogen at commercially viable prices and without reliance on government subsidies or incentives. H-Power achieves this through our proprietary, decentralised and modular ammonia cracker technology, and providing low carbon, offgrid power solutions with our fuel cell generators that are competitive with, and capable of displacing, diesel generators on a total cost of ownership basis.

The Company’s modular, decentralised ammonia cracker systems have production capacities of approximately 0.5 and 4 tonnes of hydrogen per day respectively. These enable the generation of scaled volumes of low carbon hydrogen at the point of use within a highly compact footprint. Our systems have the potential to drive substantial revenue growth across a wide range of addressable markets, including hardtoabate industrial facilities, transportation and power generation applications.

H-Power’s fuel cell generator systems are currently offered with generation capacities of 30 kW and 200 kW. They are well-suited to offgrid, decentralised and temporary power applications, including the displacement of diesel generators on construction and infrastructure sites. Further use cases include electric vehicle charging for cars, buses and trucks, as well as charging of batterypowered nonroad machinery, with additional emerging opportunities in maritime, data centre and rail applications.

H-Power is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM Market and headquartered in Dunsfold, Surrey, UK.

Please read more on our website https://h-power.co.uk and follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/h-power/

Anpario Plc

Anpario plc is an independent, international manufacturer and distributor of natural feed additives for animal health, nutrition and biosecurity. Our solutions are designed to support efficient, profitable livestock production while working in harmony with animals’ biology and the wider environment.

Operating in over 80 countries through established sales and distribution networks, which includes a number of wholly owned subsidiaries in key markets around the world.

Anpario combines more than 30 years of expertise with ongoing collaboration with research institutes and universities to develop innovative, science-led feed technologies. Our main focusisunderstanding animals’ intestinal health and nutrition, so we can help our customers achieve optimum animal performance, with good return on investment, boosting profitability in today’s modern livestock production systems.

The Group’s portfolio spans five key areas: Health & Performance, Toxin Management, Feed Quality, Nutritional Support and Hygiene & Insect Control. The acquisition of Bio-Vet in 2024, a US-based animal nutrition business focused on dairy markets, not only strengthened our global footprint; it enhances Anpario’s product offering with complementary capabilities in natural, science-led solutions that align with the Group’s sustainability and innovation strategy.

Our technologies are developed, produced, and dispatched directly from our pioneering quality assured manufacturing plants, ensuring consistency, shelf life, and performance.

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability is embedded at the core of Anpario’s strategy, guided by its three pillars: People, Planet and Promise. These pillars underpin a commitment to operating in a socially, ethically and environmentally responsible manner.

Anpario’s products represent its most significant sustainability contribution—enabling livestock producers to improve animal health and productivity naturally, reducing reliance on traditional interventions such as antibiotic use, thus supporting more sustainable food production systems.

The Group continues to strengthen its environmental performance through ISO 14001-certified management systems and a focus on protecting resources, maintaining high governance standards, and ensuring health and safety across operations.

Recognition through the King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development highlights Anpario’s leadership in this area and reinforces our commitment to ongoing innovation and responsible growth.