Sustainability becomes meaningful only when it moves from statements and strategies into everyday decisions: how organisations operate, how communities protect their environment and how leaders redesign systems for the long term. Meet three women recognised by the Women Changing the World Awards Czech & Slovak Edition for turning sustainability into measurable action.
The Women Changing the World Awards Czech & Slovak Edition recognise women whose work creates measurable change in business, institutions, communities and society. In this week’s edition, we introduce three women whose leadership demonstrates a distinctive way of creating impact.
Gabriela Prachařová
Gabriela Prachařová manages a hotel in central Prague where she combines economic responsibility with environmental and social sustainability. She has introduced practical measures to reduce energy and water consumption, minimise waste and strengthen cooperation with local suppliers. At the same time, her understanding of sustainability goes beyond environmental metrics. She works to create a fair and safe workplace that supports women, foreigners and refugees in their professional development. Her approach demonstrates that responsible business is strongest when environmental performance and human opportunity are treated as parts of the same system.
Ilona Nezbedová
Ilona Nezbedová shows that sustainability is not only shaped in boardrooms or policy documents. As a citizen in Čáslav, she became a strong local voice against the planned expansion of a hazardous-waste landfill. What began as personal responsibility evolved into organised civic action capable of connecting people around the protection of the place they call home. Her persistence highlights an essential part of environmental change: communities need people willing to ask difficult questions, organise others and continue even when the issue appears larger than any individual.
Michaela Stachová
Michaela Stachová connects experience from humanitarian work, foundation leadership and strategic cooperation with business. At Business Leaders Forum, she develops and leads programmes that help companies move sustainability from intention to implementation — from organisational resilience to circular economy principles and leadership education. Her work is built on the idea that systemic change requires translation: ambitious goals must be turned into decisions, processes and competencies that organisations can actually use. She helps make that translation possible.
Discover all Women Changing the World Awards 2025 winners → https://thewomenchangingtheworld.cz/edice-2025/winners-profiles/