The Earth Prize

The Earth Prize
Awarded forSolutions to environmental issues
CountrySwitzerland
Presented byThe Earth Foundation
RewardUSD 100,000
First award2022
Websitetheearthprize.org

The Earth Prize is the world's largest environmental sustainability competition for young people that empowers students aged 13-19 with mentorship and $100,000 funding to develop creative and actionable solutions addressing critical environmental issues.[1][2]

Born out of the global climate movement of 2019, when thousands of students rallied for climate action, It is the first and flagship initiative of The Earth Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, founded by Peter McGarry. The competition was first launched in September 2021, and first awarded in March 2022.[3][4][5]

Since then, The Earth Prize has empowered over 15,000 young people from over 160 countries and territories to solve environmental sustainability problems. Having started with the 2025 edition, there are seven regional winners selected by an expert jury to represent Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania & Southeast Asia. Each regional winner receives $12,500 to implement their solution, before a public vote decides the global winner.[6]

Furthermore, each regional winner becomes the custodian of a special Earth Prize flag: hand-embroidered from recycled sailboat cloth - which they look after for one year, passing from one generation of change-makers to the next.[7][8]

Three mentors are also recognised as “The Earth Prize Mentor of the Year” and will be awarded with a $2,500 prize each. Furthermore, $10,000 is also allocated to the new project, Educators Hub, coming for the 2026 competition, to award teachers and educators registered to The Earth Prize competition.

2025 award winners

In the 2025 edition, The Earth Prize awarded 7 regional winners chosen by the adjudicating panel, with team PURA from Europe achieving the Global Winner title following a public vote. The finalists created pioneering, never-seen-before solutions spanning physical inventions, digital platforms, and community-focused solutions.[9]

The Earth Prize 2025 Awards
Global Winner: Team PURA, Slovakia & Czechia (Gymnázium Jura Hronca & Gymnázium Hradec Králové) for A pioneering water purification solution that uses the power of light and plasma to remove harmful pollutants and combat antibiotic resistance.[10]
North America Winner: Team StuyBigCompGroup, United States (Stuyvesant High School) for an origami-inspired and eco-friendly alternative to styrofoam packaging.[11]
Africa Winner: Team Preserve Our Roots, Nigeria (Greensprings School Lekki) for a project turning underserved urban sites into green community hubs.[12]
Middle East Winner: Team Sustainability Heroes, United Arab Emirates (Ghayathi Common School) for an AI-powered platform that integrates sustainability into school subjects.[13]
Oceania & Southeast Asia Winner: Team Kultibado, Philippines (International School Manila) for an innovative web app that connects farmers, consumers, and cooperatives directly.[14]
Asia Winner: Team Thermavault, India (The Shishukunj International School Indore) for a first-of-its-kind electricity-free refrigeration unit for medical supply transport in remote areas, using reusable salt-based reactions.[15][16]
Central & South America Winner: Team EcoAction, Brazil (Instituto Federal do Tocantins - Campus Palmas) for a tech-driven solution using AI, satellites & data analysis to plan strategic greenery and cool overheated cities.[17]
The Earth Prize Educators of the Year: Joseph Abbey Ogundlade (Greensprings School, Nigeria) and Soniya Jadhav (International School Hannover Region - ISHR).
The Earth Prize Mentors of the Year: Fransisca Majala (Kenya), Irine Odera (Kenya), and Chloe Luzar (Australia).

2024 award winners and finalists

The Earth Prize 2024 Awards
Winner: Team FloodGate (North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, USA), for "a flood prediction and warning technology to protect communities worldwide".[18]
Runner-up 1: Team CocoMellow (i-IVY, Vietnam), for "their design for eco-diapers made from coconut coir and banana fiber".[18][19]
Runner-up 2: Team Ceres (Diyarbakır Bahçeşehir College Science and Technology High School, Türkiye), for "a system that leverages plasma technology to enhance seed germination and plant health, combating environmental stressors to increase crop yield sustainably and reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers".[18][20]
Runner-up 3: Team Pebble (Eton College, United Kingdom), for "a system that hamesses idle GPUs to create a shared computing network, optimizing resource use, reducing carbon emissions, and democratizing access to high-powered computing while promoting environmental sustainability in the tech industry".[18][21]
The Earth Prize Educator of the Year: Aashna Saraf, Founder and CEO of CreatED, an innovation hub in Mumbai, India.
The Earth Prize Mentor of the Year: Elham Ashrafizadeh (University of Toronto, Canada), Francisca Majala Mwaila (Kenyatta University, Kenya), and Yoong Sze Yeong (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore).

2023 Award Winners and Finalists

Team Delavo, a group of four teenage girls from Diyarbakır Bahçeşehir College Science and Technology High School in Turkey secured the top position as winners of the second edition of The Earth Prize on April 25th, 2023 for their “e-Caundry” invention, a filtration device that can be installed in washing machines to recycle approximately 8,200 liters of wastewater per year.[22][23]

The Earth Prize 2023 Awards
Winner: Team Delavo (Diyarbakır Bahçeşehir College Science and Technology High School, Turkey), for their washing machine filtration device that allows for the recycling of laundry wastewater.
Runner-up 1: Runner-up 1: Team AgriVision (Polytechnic School, USA), for a hyperspectral imagery system to measure agricultural plant health during early, treatable stages.[24]
Runner-up 2: Team AgriPod (Leicester Grammar School, United Kingdom), for a high-tech advisory system that can reduce fertilizer waste in farming.[25]
Runner-up 3: Team Bactoplastics (Winchester College, United Kingdom), for a new cost-effective method of producing PHA plastic to substitute petroleum-based plastics for packaging.[26]
The Earth Prize Educator of the Year: Kathy Dada from Collège des Sœurs des Saints Cœurs Ain Najm in Lebanon.[27]
The Earth Prize Mentor of the Year: Pierfrancesco Merico (St. Gallen University, Switzerland), Stephen Okoth (Oberlin College, USA) and Chloe Luzar (Macquarie University, Australia).[28]

2022 Award Winners and Finalists

In the 2022 edition of The Earth Prize, ten teams of teenage students from Armenia, Great Britain, Vietnam, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Jamaica, and Kenya advanced to the final phase of the competition, including students from Eton College (Great Britain).[29][30][31][32][33]

The Earth Prize 2022 Awards Ceremony took place virtually on March 25, 2022.[34] Team Adorbsies, a team of three teenage girls from Vietnam who proposed the idea for a biodegradable sanitary pad made out of dragon fruit waste, was announced as the first-ever winner of the competition.[35]

The Earth Prize 2022 Awards
Winner: Team Adorbsies (Summit Education, Vietnam), for a biodegradable sanitary pad made out of dragon fruit peels.[35][36][37][38]
Runner-up 1: Team Big GEMS (GEMS Academy, Taiwan), for a filtering kit that uses enzymes to degrade dye wastewater produced by the textile industry.[38]
Runner-up 2: Team CIECO (Chadwick International School, South Korea), for a reusable cup circulation system that replaced plastic cups at their school.[39]
Runner-up 3: Team Viridis (Campion College, Jamaica), for a mobile app that helps fight food waste from supermarkets.[40]
The Earth Prize Educator of the Year: Safa’ Obeid from Sweileh Preparatory Coeducational School (UNRWA) in Amman, Jordan.[41][42]
The Earth Prize Mentor of the Year: Annamaria Szelics, student at the University of Glasgow.[43]

References

  1. ↑ Stankova, Theodora. "The Earth Prize Opens Call For 2025 Edition, Offers $100K For Environmental Solutions". Carbon Herald. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  2. ↑ Kobayashi-Solomon, Erik. "High Schoolers Offer Hope For A Post-Climate Future". Forbes. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
  3. ↑ "Climate strike: thousands take to streets in Switzerland". The Local CH. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  4. ↑ Donnelly, Katherine. "Swiss-based Irish father returns to former school to encourage students to compete for €200,000 Earth Prize". Irish Independent. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  5. ↑ McCarthy, John. "The Earth Prize: A New Ally for UNEP and UNRWA". UN Today. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  6. ↑ Lawrence, Cate. "Teen entrepreneurs PURA win European Earth Prize for superbug-fighting water tech". Tech EU. Retrieved 7 April 2025.
  7. ↑ "Slovakia and Czechia Teens Win 2025 Earth Prize". Impact Entrepreneur. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
  8. ↑ "Teen duo from Slovakia and Czechia named Global Winner for clean water solution". Czech Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  9. ↑ "Meet the 7 Regional Winners of The Earth Prize 2025 and their powerful ideas!". The Earth Prize. Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  10. ↑ Bailey, Joanna. "Meet the teen duo that won this year's Earth Prize Europe with their groundbreaking clean water tech". Euronews. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
  11. ↑ "The Earth Prize 2025: Meet the 7 Winning Teams". Kids Earth. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
  12. ↑ Okafor, Chinedu. "17-year-old Nigerian girl turns climate dreams into $12.5K reality as she bags the Earth Prize". Business Insider Africa. 10 April 2025.
  13. ↑ Kumar, Ashwani. "Abu Dhabi girls win $12,500 Earth Prize from ME region for AI-powered sustainability app". Gulf News. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  14. ↑ "The Earth Prize 2025: Meet the 7 Winning Teams". Kids Earth. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
  15. ↑ McFall-Johnsen, Morgan. "3 teens invented a salt-powered refrigerator that doesn't need electricity. They're building 200 of them for hospitals to use". Business Insider. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
  16. ↑ Carroll, Tobias. "Teen Scientists Win Earth Prize for Electricity-Free Refrigerator". Inside Hook. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  17. ↑ Tucker, Charlotte. "The Earth Prize 2025: Vote for the Global Winner by 22 April!". Happy Eco News. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "The Earth Prize - 2024". www.theearthprize.org. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  19. ↑ "Vietnamese student team makes final round of The Earth Prize". Viet Nam News. 27 May 2024.
  20. ↑ "The Earth Prize 2024 Winners: Meet the Inspiring Teenage Climate Activists Predicting Floods, Saving Energy, Creating Eco-Diapers & Protecting Crops". Earth.org. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  21. ↑ "The Earth Prize 2024 Winners: Meet the Inspiring Teenage Climate Activists Predicting Floods, Saving Energy, Creating Eco-Diapers & Protecting Crops". Earth.org. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  22. ↑ "Diyarbakırlı Lise Öğrencileri, The Earth Prize 2023 Yarışmasında Dünya Şampiyonu Oldu". Once Vatan. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  23. ↑ "Çevre filtresine 100 bin dolar ödül". Diyar Bakir Soz. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  24. ↑ "Sabrina Z. '23 Wins The Earth Prize for AgriVision". Polytechnic School. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  25. ↑ "Turkish Teens Create Innovative Device to Treat and Reuse 90% of Laundry Wastewater, Win $100,000 in Global Sustainability Competition". The Planetary Press. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  26. ↑ "Winchester College awarded runners-up in global Earth Prize contest". Hampshire Chronicle. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  27. ↑ "Kathy Dada, première Libanaise primée du Prix de la Terre". ICI Beyrouth. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  28. ↑ "Stephen Omukoko Okoth, Oberlin Bonner Scholar Class of 2025, was selected as one of three Earth Prize Mentors of the Year". Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  29. ↑ "Students representing Armenia make finals at The Earth Prize International Competition". Asbarez. 15 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  30. ↑ "Yerevan's Ayb School makes it to the final of International Earth Prize Competition". The Armenian Mirror-Spectator. 17 February 2022.
  31. ↑ Kimutai, Cyprian (23 March 2022). "Kibra based students to compete for Sh11 million cash prize". Pulse Africa. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  32. ↑ Eton College Press Office (24 February 2022). "Solar Panel Project Propels Eton Into Earth Prize Finals". Eton College. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  33. ↑ Ghazanchyan, S. (15 February 2022). "Armenian students make it to the final of The Earth Prize international competition". Public Radio of Armenia. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  34. ↑ McCarthy, John G. (11 April 2022). "The Earth Prize: A New Ally for UNEP and UNRWA". UN Today.
  35. 1 2 Saigoneer (15 June 2022). "Vietnamese Students Win Earth Prize for Dragon Fruit Peel Biodegradable Sanitary Pads". Saigoneer. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  36. ↑ Pham, L. (28 April 2022). "[Efforts against pollution] Adorbsies: Pioneers in changing mindset on sanitary pads in Vietnam". Hanoi Times. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  37. ↑ Nguyen, Z. (28 April 2022). "Vietnamese Students Won the 'Earth Prize 2022' with Dragonfruit Peel Project". Vietnam Times. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  38. 1 2 "Pad made of dragon fruit peels by Vietnamese girls wins The Earth Prize 2022". VietnamPlus. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  39. ↑ Kwon Mee-Yoo (23 March 2022). "Korean students selected as Earth Prize finalists". Korea Times. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  40. ↑ "Meet Team Viridis". Jamaica Observer (All Woman). 8 August 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  41. ↑ "UNRWA school teacher wins Earth Prize Educator of the Year". Jordan Times. 30 March 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  42. ↑ Rawashdeh, S. (7 May 2022). "UNRWA schoolteacher on mission to instil environmental values in children". Jordan Times. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  43. ↑ Ahn, N. (23 April 2022). "Unique project from dragon fruit peels win 100,000 USD of The Earth Prize 2022". The World and Vietnam. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
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