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
Lattice to Showcase Industry-Leading FPGA Innovations at FPGA Conference Europe 202616.6.2026 23:00:00 EEST | Press release
Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ: LSCC), the low power programmable leader, today announced its exhibition plan for the upcoming FPGA Conference Europe. Lattice will participate in various speaker sessions to showcase how low power FPGAs are driving innovation across multiple sectors. The company will also demonstrate its latest FPGA technology advancements in physical AI, advanced connectivity, security, and more. Who: Lattice Semiconductor What / When (GMT+2): June 30 – July 2: Lattice Presentations & Demo Showcase Speaker sessions: Day 1 – 3 Speaker Sessions: Lattice FPGA deep dive sessions spanning physical AI, advanced connectivity, security, and design tools Date Time Session June 30 9:45 a.m. FPGA Verification and Testing by Arrow 11:15 a.m. Trusted Resilience Edge: Unified FPGA-TPM for Post-Quantum Cryptography RED & Cyber Resilience Act 12 p.m. SIPHashIP for Embedded Security: Enabling RED Compliance and CRA Readiness in Smart AR/VR Systems 2:15 p.m. Foundations of FPGA Security
IQM Deploys Its First U.S. Quantum Computer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory16.6.2026 21:53:00 EEST | Press release
The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) today launched Pathfinder, the first commercially procured quantum computer at ORNL, built and deployed by IQM Quantum Computers. The 20-qubit IQM Radiance system marks IQM's first quantum computer installation in the United States. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260616373175/en/ IQM's first U.S. quantum computer is live — at DoE Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The deployment comes ahead of IQM's planned listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market through its business combination with Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: RAAQ), expected to close in mid-2026. ORNL is home to Frontier, the world's most powerful supercomputer for open science, and to one of the most consequential high-performance computing environments anywhere. Pathfinder now sits inside that environment, connected to HPC systems in the National Center for Computational Sciences Tec
Hologic Secures Significant Patent Victory Against Siemens Over Breast Cancer Detection Technology16.6.2026 20:00:00 EEST | Press release
Hologic, Inc. today announced a significant and far-reaching victory in the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in Germany, which ruled that Siemens* infringed upon a critical Hologic mammography technology patent in Siemens’ latest mammography system. The court imposed a sweeping injunction, immediately prohibiting Siemens from making, offering, placing on the market, using or importing or storing for those purposes its MAMMOMAT B.brilliant systems across Germany, France and the Netherlands, as well as monetary damages and penalties for non-compliance. The court also required Siemens to execute a mandatory recall and destruction of all affected systems in those countries. On June 10, 2026, the UPC determined that Siemens infringed upon European Patent EP 2 352 431, Hologic’s Focusing Technology on the Envision™ Platform, the first FDA-approved mammography innovation of its kind.1 In addition to the broad injunction against Siemens, recall and destruction of infringing systems, Hologic will rec
RealTime Reservation Acquires STAY to Create Leading Global Guest Experience Platform Serving 2,000+ Properties Across 75+ Countries16.6.2026 19:30:00 EEST | Press release
RealTime Reservation (RTR), the industry leader in dynamic hospitality booking technology for onsite activities, amenities, and ancillary revenue management, today announced its acquisition of STAY, creating a global end-to-end guest experience platform for the hospitality industry. The combined company will serve more than 2,000 hospitality properties across 75+ countries throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. The combination significantly expands RTR's international footprint and strengthens its position as a leading provider of guest engagement, ancillary revenue, and guest experience technology. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260616258776/en/ Pictured: RealTime Reservation's dynamic booking interface allows hotel guests to select and reserve pool and beach amenities by location, date, and availability, streamlining ancillary revenue management for properties of any size. Courte
Happy Holidays S.A. and JTA Investment Holding Announce €65 Million Investment for SARTIMARE Tourism Development in Greece16.6.2026 18:42:00 EEST | Press release
Happy Holidays S.A. today announced the signing of an Investment Agreement with Qatar-based JTA Investment Holding for the development of the sustainable SARTIMARE Beach Resort & Spa project in Sarti, Halkidiki, Greece. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260616892834/en/ Dr. Amir Ali Salemi Zadeh, CEO of JTA Investment Holding and Georgios Iosifidis, Founder & Owner of Happy Holidays S.A. Under the agreement, JTA Investment Holding will invest €65 million into the development. The project will be built on a site of approximately 120,900 square meters, with construction scheduled between 2027 and 2030. Designed with a strong commitment to environmental responsibility, the SARTIMARE project will feature luxury hospitality facilities, premium residences and villas, wellness amenities, retail, food & beverage outlets, and marina infrastructure. The project's valuation is expected to exceed €100 million as key develop
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