Earthshot 2025 Assessment criteria

• Solutions should clearly articulate their impact to date, and their potential to make a difference in the future based on one or more of the following environmental metrics:  
  • Hectares of land, ocean or freshwater systems protected or restored  
  • Biodiversity increases on land, freshwater systems or in oceans  
  • Reduction in concentrations of particulate matter (PM2.5/ PM10)  
  • Tonnes of waste saved, reduced, recycled or avoided  
  • Tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions saved, captured or avoided
• Solutions should also make a positive social impact, such as improving lives or creating green jobs, alongside the essential environmental impact.
• Solutions should be transformative. They should have the potential not only to have an impact but revolutionise their fields.
• Transformation could be achieved by growing their solution to a global scale, or changing the incentives or rules of a sector, or local radical disruption of the norm that inspires others to replicate that radical improvement.
• A solution is among the most advanced of its type. It may have the most field tests, market-leading traction in customer partnerships, or the greatest independent validation of its effectiveness.  
• The solution has presented a strong case that it has a special and unique position among its peers, with quantification to back this up. 

• Finalists will have solutions that can be scaled or replicated quickly with financial, communications or organisational support. Finalists’ stage of development will likely fit the following criteria:
  • Well-developed beyond the idea stage. May still have development requirements to address before they can scale but will have working prototypes, programmes and initiatives, or completed pilots that demonstrate their effectiveness. Tested their solution with their target users or recipients and seen early positive impact. Already be active in the field or their market with customers, partners or audiences.
  • Not limited solely by access to financials and funds but require additional support to be scaled or replicated at scale. Solution that has achieved a level of maturity where they only need access to funding will benefit less from the Earthshot Prize support and are, therefore, less of a focus for the Finalist podium.
  • Made significant progress in the past year with clear organisational or solution-based breakthroughs, examples include completion of a major field impact evaluation, the launch of an in-market pilot programme, acquisition of a first customer or contract, successful fundraising, launch in a new geography or sector, or important hires made. 

• Finalists will encounter many opportunities to scale their solution and inspire replication through the Earthshot Prize so they are seek solutions that are mature enough to maximise the support they receive. In particular they are looking for solutions that have:
  • A dedicated team and a founder committed to scaling or replicating the solution. Does not require a complete team; might be one dedicated person ready to execute the tasks required to scale a solution. These people/ person will bring knowledge of the solution and the problem it addresses. Solutions that can be replicated will have leaders keen to share it.  
  • Team demonstrates inclusivity and representation because of the well-documented effect this has on performance. Looking for teams that represent their community, including female, indigenous and local community-led solutions.  
  • The solutions has solid governance and financial arrangements. A Board of Directors or Trustees, or an advisory board of some kind is a good indicator of an institution with sufficient maturity to benefit from the Prize. Established partnerships and investor or funder relationships, meanwhile, demonstrate that others believe in the solution.  
  • Must have a credible model by which their solution could be replicated or scaled to have transformative impact. The Earthshot Prize is model agnostic, achieving the Earthshots will take a range of for-profit, not-for-profit and public sector solutions. It is essential for Finalists to have a clear route to transformative. This should include what partnerships would accelerate it, and what resources or skills they may need. Localised solutions, such as those created by cities or NGOs, who aim to inspire change far and wide, will preferably identify partners and activities that can support replication elsewhere, alongside pushing the boundaries and overcoming challenging barriers in their location.
• The Earthshot Prize places a particular emphasis on geographic representation, gender and indigenous representation and actively source innovations from these communities. Nominees, therefore, could be:  
  • An organisation (not-for-profit or for-profit)  
  • Government institution, local or national (including a country or city)  
  • A partnership of more than one organisation  
  • A team or small group of individuals
  • Past finalists included grassroots not-for-profits, tech start-ups, global data monitoring systems, cities and countries. 

In total there are five ‘Earthshots’ and each has three areas of interested that innovation can apply to. In many instances, the areas of interest converge due to the interdependencies across the Earthshots. Solutions that span multiple categories should, for the purpose of the Prize, be assessed against the single category that best represents the solution and its impact. The five focus areas ‘Earthshots’ and their areas of interest are:

1. Protect and restore nature
   1. Protecting areas of high biodiversity such as forests, wetland, peatlands and wildlife corridors.
   2. Restoring damaged ecosystems.
   3. Feeding people while protecting nature.
2. Clean our air 
   
   1. Engaging citizens in data collection and clean air policies.
   2. Preventing the burning of fields, forests and waste.
   3. Transitioning to clean transportation for all.
3. Revive our oceans  
   1. Protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems.
   2. Replenishing fish populations.
   3. Reducing demand for fishmeal.
4. Build a waste free world  
   1. Reducing food loss from farm to fork.
   2. Phasing out single-use and non-recycled plastics.
   3. High-value circularity in fashion and electronics.
5. Fix our climate
   1. Creating an equitable clean energy future.
   2. Addressing non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions.
   3. Decarbonising hard to abate sectors. 

The cross-cutting enablers are approaches and tools identified that can accelerate environmental improvements, as well as the growth and impact of innovations. The deployment of these enablers is considered as part of the selection of Finalists, but not as a tick-box exercise. The Earthshot Prize is interested in how innovators embrace these enablers to achieve change and build a credible scale model, not necessarily how many of these enablers they use in some incidental way. The enablers are shared as inspiration for innovators and those supporting them, because it may be that considering how to use these approaches or tools could unlock a new rapid path to scale. 

1. Solutions that use technology, ai or data to enable transformative change
   1. Restor 
   2. The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs 
2. Solutions that create or leverage nature and carbon markets, novel financial mechanisms and essential legal solutions
   1. Minae 
   2. Solshare 
3. Solutions led and informed by indigenous and local communities 
   
   1. Minae 
   2. Queensland Indigenous Womens Ranger Network (QIWRN) 
4. Solutions that promote shared economic opportunity 
   
   1. Mukuru Clean Stoves (MCS) 
   2. Kheyti  
5. Solutions that enable policy change 
   
   1. City of Amsterdam