2x Olympic Gold Medallist Sailor Hannah Mills Joins Team Panasonic Raising Awareness for Climate Action

Panasonic has announced that 2x Olympic Champion and 3x World Champion Hannah Mills OBE (Order of the British Empire) has become the latest world-class athlete to join the European Team Panasonic family, alongside fellow Olympian Malaika Mihambo and Paralympian Hannah Cockroft.

With a mutual unwavering commitment to raising sustainability awareness and driving change, Hannah and Panasonic will utilise the high-profile platform of sports to encourage climate action worldwide.

Hannah Mills is hugely passionate about the environment and gender equality and equity. She is determined to harness the power of sports and sporting passion to change behaviour and influence as many individuals, businesses, and governments as possible into delivering positive impact.  

Her passion has driven her to becoming a sustainability ambassador for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the ‘Global Purpose Ambassador’ for SailGP (an international sailing competition that features high-performance 50-foot foiling catamarans).

Hannah also launched the Big Plastic Pledge, with support from the IOC, a global campaign which calls on athletes and fans to reduce the use of single-use plastic in their daily lives. She is also the co-founder of Athletes of the World, an athlete group campaigning for positive impact around climate change.

On the water, Hannah has won both a silver medal for Team GB in the Olympic Games London 2012 and gold in the same event at Rio 2016. She became Olympian Champion again at Tokyo 2020.

Hannah’s accomplishments were recognised in 2021 when she was appointed OBE for her continued services to sailing and the environment.

As part of Team Panasonic, Hannah will be striving to further advance awareness for the need of everyone to take action in the fight against climate change and encourage collaboration between sport and business to drive change.

Speaking of partnering with Panasonic, Hannah comments, “We need the same passion and energy as we have for sports for sustainability – where we all back the planet as our Team.

“Working with a business the size and scale of Panasonic on sustainability is truly exciting. Panasonic’s GREEN IMPACT campaign is one of the few sustainability plans I’ve read from a company of such scale that is clear, understandable and looks at all areas of the business and the impact that can be achieved.

“Achieving net zero of its own operations by 2030 through reduction, avoidance and technological innovations is, in my opinion the responsibility which not only Panasonic should work for but for all business and industry. Seeing that from Panasonic along with a plan to back it up makes me excited to see what we can achieve together.”

Hannah Mills joins Malaika Mihambo and Hannah Cockroft as part of the European Team Panasonic family. Together with Panasonic they will encourage action for sustainability efforts towards the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Junichi Suzuki, Chairman and CEO of Panasonic Europe B.V. comments, “Hannah is not only the world’s most successful female Olympic sailing athlete, but her impressive sustainability credentials mark her out as a true leader in her field.

“Shining a light on not just what we should be doing for climate action, but how it is a fundamental requirement for any business, and by working with exceptional athletes like Hannah Mills as part of Team Panasonic, we extend our opportunity to do so.”