UCRF Earthshot Prize Nominations

Earthshot's official badge and forests seen from above — *Justin Wolfert/Pixels*

We present our nominations for the 2024 Earthshot Prize and share some of the work leading up to deciding on the two nominations.

Many UCRF members will be familiar with the Earthshot Prize, an umbrella term for a group of awards that aim to recognize, incentivize and support people and projects that offer innovative solutions to some of the enormous environmental challenges we face today. The Earthshot Prize has received enormous publicity due to the support of David Attenborough and Prince William. The award was founded in 2021 by a group of organisations and philanthropists calling themselves The Global Alliance, that is made up of some big international players such as Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, as well as partners such as Greenpeace, Fauna & Flora International, One Earth and other non-profits. There are 5 award categories for an Earthshot: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean Our Air; Revive Our Oceans; Build a Waste-Free World; and Fix Our Climate, with specific criteria that must be met for each award.

For the 2022 Earthshots, the UCRF was invited to nominate organisations for an Earthshot Prize that we felt aligned with our values. It was important that our process be as democratic as possible, so a call went out to UCRF members for expressions of interest in joining an Earthshot Working Group, as well as an invitation for all members to put forward worthy projects or small organisations they knew of. Lynda Grose, Karishma Kelsey, Alice Payne, Tone Tobiasson, Kirsten Scott, and Luis Quijano formed this first Earthshot Working Group, meeting regularly to discuss and approve procedure, nominations and to offer support to nominees where required. A google form was set up for members to complete with information about their nominees.

New criteria

A key criterion for the awards was that any organisations nominated should be beyond the idea stage, having tested their solution in-field or with target audiences and be at a ‘tipping point’ for scaling their impact within the next five years. After review against the Earthshot criteria, OR Foundation and the Bukomansimbi Organic Tree Farmers Association were put forward for the 2022 Earthshots after final approval by the UCRF Board. Sadly neither organisation got through to the finals, but we gained valuable experience from the process that we hope will support future nominations. Kirsten Scott represented the UCRF at an event for UK finalists hosted by Arup in London, where Earthshot prizewinners from NotPla were interviewed.

The timeline for nominations for 2023 Earthshot Prizes was moved forward to January 2023, taking us by surprise and did not allow us sufficient time to operate in the democratic way that is central to our Union values and our manifesto. We were therefore unable to nominate this time but were keen to begin early for the 2024 Earthshots so that we are well prepared for the next deadline. It is important to keep in mind that the focus of the Earthshots is much more on environmental solutions rather than on social solutions.

More information about the Earthshot criteria can be found on their website.

This year we received 9 different nominations from our members that the working group then weighed against the Earthshot criteria and our manifesto, downsizing to our final two nominations.

Delighted to announce

We are delighted to announce that after careful deliberation, the first nomination selected to be submitted to Earthshot is IXO Protocol, a social enterprise from South Africa.

The ixo Internet of Impacts is a global public goods digital and AI infrastructure for coordinating, financing and verifying sustainable development and climate impacts. For more information on them please check out their website.

Our second nomination is The Kingston Farm, a social enterprise run by Simon and his Partner Ann Louise Cameron, where they work as custodians of the land in the heart of Tasmania.

For more about the Kingston Farm and the work on Simon, check out this episode on the Wardrobe crisis podcast.

Watch our socials for more information on our amazing Earthshot 2024 Nominees in the weeks to follow.

In solidarity

UCRF Earthshot Working team 2023