Prince William announces 15 Finalists for inaugural year of the £50 million Earthshot Prize
17.9.2021 20:01:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
The Earthshot Prize announces today its first-ever shortlist of 15 Finalists, each with a chance of winning £1million to support their innovative environmental solutions to the greatest challenges facing the planet.
Prince William said: "Over half a century ago, President Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ programme united millions of people around the goal of reaching the moon. Inspired by this, The Earthshot Prize aims to mobilise collective action around our unique ability to innovate, problem solve and repair our planet.
“I am honoured to introduce the 15 innovators, leaders, and visionaries who are the first ever Finalists for The Earthshot Prize. They are working with the urgency required in this decisive decade for life on Earth and will inspire all of us with their optimism in our ability to rise to the greatest challenges in human history.”
Launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in October 2020, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history. Like President John F. Kennedy’s ‘Moonshot’ did almost 60 years ago, the Prize aims to unleash an unprecedented wave of innovation and leadership to tackle our greatest environmental challenges. The Earthshot Prize will be awarded every year for the next decade, discovering a total of 50 Winners.
Five of these 15 Finalists will be awarded The Earthshot Prize and will win £1million in Prize funding for the best solutions of the five Earthshot goals: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-free World; and Fix our Climate. The Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony on 17th October from London’s Alexandra Palace, broadcast in the UK on BBC One and globally on Discovery+.
The Earthshot Prize Finalists for 2021 are:
Protect and Restore Nature:
- Pole Pole Foundation, Democratic Republic of Congo
An inspiring community-led model of conservation that protects gorillas and local livelihoods.
- The Republic of Costa Rica
A pioneering scheme paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems that has led to a revival of the rainforest.
- Restor, Switzerland
A ground-breaking online platform connecting and empowering local conservation projects.
Clean our Air:
- The Blue Map App, China
China’s first public environmental database enabling citizens to hold polluters to account.
- Takachar, India
A pioneering technology to create profitable products from agricultural waste and put a stop to the burning of crops.
- Vinisha Umashankar, India
A 14-year-old innovator and activist who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart with the potential to improve air quality across India.
Revive our Oceans:
- Coral Vita, Bahamas
A truly cutting-edge breakthrough in coral farming that can restore our world’s dying coral reefs.
- Living Seawalls, Australia
Innovative and replicable seawall panels bringing marine life back to coastal sea defences.
- Pristine Seas, USA
An unprecedented global conservation programme protecting 6.5 million square km of the world’s ocean.
Build a Waste-Free World:
- The City of Milan Food Waste Hubs, Italy
A city-wide initiative that has dramatically cut waste while tackling hunger.
- Sanergy, Kenya
A circular sanitation solution that converts human waste into safe products for local farmers.
- WOTA BOX, Japan
A tiny water treatment plant that turns 98% of wastewater into clean water.
Fix our Climate:
- AEM Electrolyser, Thailand/Germany/Italy
An ingenious green hydrogen technology developed to transform how we power our homes and buildings.
- Reeddi Capsules, Nigeria
Solar-powered energy capsules making electricity affordable and accessible in energy-poor communities.
- SOLbazaar, Bangladesh
The world’s first peer-to-peer energy exchange network in a country on the front-line of climate change.
All 15 Finalists will receive support from The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance Members, an unprecedented network of global businesses, who will help scale their solutions for even greater impact.
Of these 15 Finalists, the five Winners will be selected by The Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse team of influential individuals which includes: HRH Prince William, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Sir David Attenborough, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Indra Nooyi, Shakira Mebarak, Christiana Figueres, Luisa Neubauer, Cate Blanchett, Yao Ming, Daniel Alves Da Silva, Ernest Gibson, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Jack Ma, and Naoko Yamazaki.
In the run-up to the prize-giving ceremony on 17 October, BBC and Discovery will release a 5-part documentary series THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE: REPAIRING OUR PLANET, featuring Earthshot Prize Council Members including Prince William, Shakira Mebarak, Daniel Alves Da Silva and Sir David Attenborough.
For more information about the Finalists and The Earthshot Prize, visit: www.earthshotprize.org, email Claire Straw: TEPmedia@freuds.com, download media pack here.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005454/en/
Contact information
Claire Straw:
TEPmedia@freuds.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
MSCI Launches a Consultation on a Proposal to Reclassify Indonesia from Emerging Market to Standalone Market Status16.10.2026 00:47:00 EEST | Press release
MSCI announced the launch of a consultation on a proposal to reclassify the MSCI Indonesia Indexes from Emerging Market to Standalone Market status. MSCI will announce its final decision by the end of June 2027 and may provide an interim update on market participant feedback during the consultation period. As part of the June 2026 Market Classification Review, MSCI reported that market participants had raised significant concerns regarding the investability of the Indonesian equity market, including persistent opacity in shareholding structures and suspected coordinated trading behavior. While the Indonesian authorities have announced reforms, including enhanced disclosure of shareholders with ownership above 1%, more granular investor classification disclosure, High Shareholding Concentration (HSC) reporting, and a roadmap towards a minimum free float requirement of 15%, institutional investors have emphasized the need for consistent implementation and evidence of sustained material i
Nekome: Nazi Hunter Unmasks Hitler’s Hyenas in New Trailer Ahead of Steam Next Fest Demo15.10.2026 22:38:00 EEST | Press release
ProbablyMonsters, an independent video game company creating original AA games with AAA sensibilities, today unveiled a new trailer for Nekome: Nazi Hunterat the Galaxies Autumn Showcase, pulling back the curtain on the game’s villains, Hitler’s Hyenas. Alongside the new trailer, ProbablyMonsters announced that Nekome: Nazi Hunter will participate in October’s Steam Next Fest, giving players their first opportunity to experience this violent odyssey of revenge with a free PC demo available on Steam from October 19 through 26. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261014661905/en/ “Nekome is Vano’s story: an exploration of a young Romani man who has had everything taken away from him, and who decides to pick up a knife and exact revenge on his family’s murderers,” said Jeronimo Barrera, ProbablyMonsters’ General Manager and Game Director. “Each of Hitler’s Hyenas brandishes their own form of evil and presents a new a
The Estée Lauder Companies Announces BEAUTY&YOU India 2026 Winners and Marks Five Years of Advancing Indian Beauty Entrepreneurship15.10.2026 18:58:00 EEST | Press release
The Estée Lauder Companies, in partnership with Nykaa and Startup India, an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) within India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, announced the winners of BEAUTY&YOU India 2026, the country’s leading beauty entrepreneurship program. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261015612324/en/ (L to R) BEAUTY&YOU India 2026 Winners Ajaykumar Mehta, Shriya Rambhia, and Dheer Rambhia, Directors, Goyam Green Tech (BREAKTHROUGH), Nirja Bhatt, Founder & CEO, Laani (GROW), Khatija Shabana, CEO, and Syed Mohammad Fouzan, Director, Boldpurity (IMAGINE), Rinzing Choden Bhutia, Founder, Agapi Sikkim (Visionary Women’s Award), and Pankti Sheth, Founder & Creative Director, De Icebreaker Creative Studio (DESIGN). For five years, BEAUTY&YOU India has discovered, supported, and accelerated India’s next generation of beauty entrepreneurs. Since launching in 202
BioLab Holdings Launches EmeraNova™ to Advance the Future of Tissue Restoration15.10.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
BioLab Holdings announced today a new, larger mission with the launch of EmeraNova™, a new corporate identity that reflects a broader ambition to advance tissue restoration across specialties, healing phases, and care settings. The launch marks the company’s efforts to build a global platform focused on identifying promising technologies and accelerating their path into clinical practice. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261015721831/en/ EmeraNova seeks partners around the world to bring promising technologies to market quickly and equip clinicians with advanced, effective solutions. EmeraNova represents a vision to pursue emerging (Emer) and new (Nova) technologies by building an expanding toolbox of tissue restoration solutions, world-class support, and ways to bring together expert voices and clinical insights that will help shape what comes next. The company’s roots in chronic wound care will inform its fut
Body of Waves , a New Artwork Only at teamLab Planets TOKYO, Unveiled15.10.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
teamLab Planets TOKYO (hereinafter referred to as “teamLab Planets”) has unveiled Body of Waves, a new artwork in which visitors enter a soft sculpture with their entire bodies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261014474897/en/ teamLab, Body of Waves, 2026, from the series Soft Black Hole - Your Body Becomes a Space that Influences Another Body, 2016-© teamLab *Shot in real space. No AI or CGI. In addition, Existence in the Flow Creates Vortices—where vortices are created behind people as they climb against the flow—and Waterfall of Ephemeral Crystals—where shining particles cascade down to create a waterfall of light particles—have also evolved, further expanding the experience at teamLab Planets. New Artwork Body of Waves As you walk, your feet sink. This force is transmitted to the large, soft and flexible sculpture spreading across the floor, causing the sculpture to physically deform. The force generated b
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom