This week marked an important moment for the Earthshot Prize, when The Prince of Wales travelled to New York for the Earthshot Innovation Summit.
The Summit saw the announcement of this year’s finalists. Take a look at the organisations who have been nominated in 2023’s awards.
The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (BBC Studios/James Watkins)
For the earthshot prize to protect and restore nature, the finalists are:
– Acción Andina, (Peru): Acción Andina is a grassroots, community-based initiative working across South America to protect native high Andean forest ecosystems for their invaluable benefits to nature and millions of people in the region.
– Freetown the Treetown, (Sierra Leone): Combining community stewardship and digital tools, the City of Freetown’s initiative, Freetown the Treetown, is galvanising a grassroots movement for tree preservation in Sierra Leone’s capital.
– Belterra, (Brazil): Belterra works with smallholder farmers in Brazil to restore forests through regenerative agricultural practices and to create market incentives for sustainably grown crops.
For the earthshot prize to clean our air, the finalists are:
– Polish Smog Alert, (Poland): One of the world’s most effective conservation campaign groups, Polish Smog Alert helps secure policy change and air quality improvements across Poland and has goals to do the same across Central and Eastern Europe.
– ENSO, (UK): ENSO creates tyres specially designed for electric vehicles that are more sustainable and reduce harmful tyre pollution, leading to cleaner air for everyone.
– GRST, (Hong Kong): With the development of a new way to build and recycle vital lithium-ion batteries, GRST’s solution offers a pathway to make the electric cars of the future even cleaner.
Prince William and Kate arriving at the Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony, held at Alexandra Palace in 2022
For the earthshot prize to revive our oceans, the finalists are:
– ABALOBI, (South Africa): Using easy-to-scale technology, ABALOBI works with small fishing communities to record their catch data and to ensure a fair and improved livelihood from sustainable fishing.
– Coastal 500, (Global – US HQ): A global network of mayors and local government leaders, Coastal 500 is restoring ocean habitats and advocating for coastal protection internationally.
– WildAid Marine Program, Global (US HQ): Global non-profit organisation WildAid uses partnership building and knowledge sharing to address the world’s ocean conservation needs.
We all have a role to play and the 2023 #EarthshotInnovationSummit shows us why.
With huge thanks to @EarthshotPrize partners @BloombergDotOrg for hosting us. pic.twitter.com/h4z9yzDp3f
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 19, 2023
For the earthshot prize to build a waste-free world, the finalists are:
– S4S Technologies, (India): S4S Technologies’ solar-powered dryers and processing equipment to combat food waste, enabling small-hold farmers to preserve crops and turn produce that might otherwise go to waste into valuable products.
– Circ, (USA): US based company Circ has created a ground-breaking solution to enable the recycling of polycotton fabrics, which make up half of all textile waste.
– Colorifix, (UK): Colorifix uses DNA sequencing and nature’s own colours to create sustainable dyes that reduce the fashion industry’s use of water and harmful chemicals.
For the earthshot prize to fix our climate, the finalists are:
– Sea Forest, (Australia): Sea Forest’s revolutionary seaweed-based livestock feed drastically reduces the planet-warming methane emissions from cattle and sheep and supports sustainable farming and healthy marine ecosystems.
– Aquacycl, (USA): Using microbial technology, Aquacycl are making the treatment of industrial wastewater more accessible, more efficient, and less polluting.
– Boomitra, (Global – US HQ): Boomitra are removing missions and boosting farmer profits by incentivising land restoration through a verified carbon-credit marketplace.
This year’s awards ceremony will take place in Singapore where another five winners will be chosen and will be awarded £1 million to help ‘scale their environmental solutions’ to tackle the climate emergency.
For the first time in the history of the awards, there will also be a series of events as part of ‘Earthshot Week’. Global leaders, businesses and investors will meet in Singapore to explore opportunities with prize winners and finalists to understand better how these solutions and projects could support their communities and the wider world.
