forPrince William and Princess Kate of Wales hosted the Earthshot Prize Awards at the MGM Music Hall in Boston, MA, on December 2, 2022. The award show honored the following organizations for environmentalism in five categories of sustainable initiatives:
Kheyti, winner of Protect and Restore Nature
Kheyti is an Indian sustainable initiative that provides small-hold farms throughout India with the Greenhouse-In-A-Box, which protects vital crops from the unprecedented pollution and heatwaves that have suffocated Indian agriculture for years. Not only is the Greenhouse-In-A-Box cheaper to build than a traditional greenhouse, but it doubles farmers’ income because it gives plants a seven-times higher yield with a 98% less water requirement than other farms that are exposed to pesticides, drought, and pollution.
Kheyti has sheltered over 1,000 farms in India with the Greenhouse-In-A-Box. By 2027, they hope to have supplied 50,000 farms.
Mukuru Clean Stoves, winner of Clean Our Air
Charlot Magayi founded Mukuru Clean Stoves in 2017 after growing up in Mukuru, a Nairobi slum heavily relying on respiratory-infection-causing charcoal to power open cookfires for food. Instead, Mukuru Clean Stoves provides 200,000 people in Kenya with clean stoves that don’t clog their lungs with disease-causing smoke.
With processed biomass from charcoal, wood, and sugarcane, Mukuru Clean Stoves are cleaner with 90% less pollution from open cookfires and 70% less than cookstoves. They also diminish fuel costs by half, costing only $10.
Magayi employs an all-women team for this sustainable initiative and saves valuable time that young girls would usually take collecting firewood. Magayi has much in store for the future; in three years she aims to deliver clean stoves to one million people, and within 10 years, she hopes to deliver the service to 10 million people across Africa.
Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef, winner of Revive Our Oceans
Larissa Hale, managing director of Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef, works with an all-women team to employ indigenous women in Australia as rangers working toward the conservation of the Great Barrier Reef. The resulting Women Rangers Network is a sustainable initiative that utilizes data and training to preserve and restore damaged ocean life around the world.
Notpla, winner of Build A Waste-Free World
Founded by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Notplo aims to make the world plastic-free by promoting global awareness of biodegradable, recyclable, and compostable packaging throughout all categories of uses in order to eliminate plastic pollution from landfills.
Notplo utilizes seaweed instead of trees and provides groups with their packaging alternatives in order to minimize waste. In 2019, Notplo provided London Marathon runners 36,000 single-use plastic Oohos filled with Locozade. Notplo also provided one million takeaway boxes to Just Eat Takeaway.com in order to replace traditional plastic items with sustainable solutions.
44.01, winner of Fix Our Climate
44.01 is the group that directly tackles climate disasters by targeting CO2 emissions and turning them into minerals. By pumping carbonated water into the ground, 44.01 mineralizes carbon emissions into peridotite, a rock found in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. By 2024, 44.01 will mineralize 1,000 tonnes of carbon and expand internationally to eventually carbonize one billion tonnes by 2040.
This year marks the 2nd annual Earthshot Prize Awards, which selects winners from around the globe based on innovative solutions that have yielded quantifiable results in climate action. Each of the five winners is awarded £1 million.
Not only did the Prince and Princess of Wales host this year’s Eartshot Prize Awards, but Prince William was responsible for the birth of this event, which demonstrates his commitment to climate activism that sees results. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “Moonshot” mission, the then-seemingly impossible goal of sending a man to the moon, Prince William partnered with the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation to establish “Earthshot” –today’s own version of a seemingly impossible goal: achieving worldwide zero-waste, low carbon emissions, and much of the earth-centered ambitions of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to Earthshot’s website, repairing our planet will require us to channel the same will, determination, and spirit that landed a man on the moon in 1969. Other environment-focused celebs presented awards at this year’s show, including Billie Eilish, Sir David Attenborough, Rami Malek, and Shailene Woodley. With an A-list lineup and major global partners like the BBC, PBS, and Bank of America, the Earthshot Prize Awards showcases society’s growing need to address, advocate for, and achieve overall sustainability in all categories of life.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Featured Photo: The Prince and Princess of Wales attend the Earthshot Prize Awards on the green carpet. Featured Photo Credit: The Earthshot Prize/Pip Cowley
