Cartier Women's Initiative Honors Vivid Edge Founder with 2025 Impact Award
Tracy O'Rourke, CEO of Vivid Edge, an Irish firm specializing in climate action impact, has been honored with a 2025 Impact Award from the Cartier Women's Initiative. Vivid Edge, established in 2015, is based at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin.
The company offers a groundbreaking "Energy Efficiency as a Service" model, enabling medium and large organizations to transition towards low-carbon operations without incurring upfront capital costs. Vivid Edge finances these energy upgrades, subsequently covering expenses through a service fee that is offset by the achieved energy savings.
This innovative approach eliminates traditional financial and operational barriers, delivering rapid carbon reductions without requiring initial investment.
The Cartier Women's Initiative, founded in 2006 by Cartier, is an international entrepreneurship program with the mission to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs.
At the Expo 2025 event in Osaka, Japan, O'Rourke received the Impact Award, one of nine granted to female entrepreneurs and business leaders worldwide. She is the only Irish representative in this prestigious group.
These awards, presented sparingly since 2020, honor former CWI fellows whose ventures have demonstrated "extraordinary" long-term impact, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Tracy O'Rourke was recognized in the Preserving the Planet category, which celebrates innovations promoting climate action and environmental sustainability.
Upon receiving the award, O'Rourke expressed her pride at being included among such a group of transformative female entrepreneurs. She emphasized Vivid Edge's mission to make it financially viable for large energy consumers to decarbonize, providing expertise, execution capability, and capital resources.
To date, Vivid Edge projects have succeeded in avoiding over 36,000 tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to planting over 100,000 trees and saving more than 119 GWh of energy. This work is substantially contributing to global climate objectives, says O'Rourke, and Vivid Edge is committed to materializing impactful improvements for a better future for people and the planet.
Each awardee receives a $100,000 grant, human capital support, and global media visibility to support their ongoing ventures.
- Tracy O'Rourke's recognition from the Cartier Women's Initiative, a program focused on driving change through empowering women in health-and-wellness, climate-change, and environmental-science, is a testament to the financial and operational innovations in her company, Vivid Edge, which specializes in business and technology by offering an energy-efficiency model that promotes low-carbon operations in the environment.
- Vivid Edge, a pioneering firm in Ireland, has received a $100,000 grant as part of the Cartier Women's Initiative awards, which also includes human capital support and global media visibility, to further their mission in science, specifically women's health, and finance, by making it financially viable for large energy consumers to decarbonize and contribute to global climate objectives.
- The Energy Efficiency as a Service model, developed by Vivid Edge, bridges the gap between technology and finance for medium and large organizations, providing them with the necessary resources to transition towards low-carbon operations, while also promoting health-and-wellness and environmental-science through reduced carbon emissions.
- The work of Vivid Edge, under the leadership of CEO Tracy O'Rourke, has been recognized by the Cartier Women's Initiative in the Preserving the Planet category, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) by avoiding over 36,000 tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to planting 100,000 trees, and saving more than 119 GWh of energy, thereby contributing significantly to climate change mitigation efforts.
