McGill Now Accepting Expressions of Interest For 2024 Earthshot Prize

McGill University is once again proud to be an Official Nominator of the Earthshot Prize. As an Official Nominator, we are part of a global community invited to submit nominations, selected for our ability to identify the most impactful solutions across all sectors worldwide.

The Earthshot Prize is a global environmental prize and platform for impact, dedicated to finding and growing solutions that will repair our planet this decade, in five categories or Earthshots.

The Earthshot Prize will consider solutions which make tangible progress towards one of the five Earthshots. They should:

• address at least one of the five Earthshots.
• be beyond idea stage.
• have tested their solution in-field or with target audiences.
• are at a ‘tipping point’ for scaling their impact within the next five years.

The Prize

One prize of £1 million will be awarded in each of the five Earthshots. The funding is to be used to scale the impact of the work with the ambition that solutions will lead to mass adoption, replication, and scaling. Winners and finalists will receive personalized support from the Earthshot Prize network of NGOs, businesses, governments, and expert mentors.

The Earthshots

The prize focusses on five “Earthshots” or themes, plus a “Wildcard” category that address areas in which the planet is experiencing environmental devastation on a catastrophe scale:

1. Protect and Restore Nature
   • Protecting areas of high biodiversity such as forests, wetland, peatlands and wildlife corridors
   • Restoring damaged ecosystems
   • Feeding people while protecting nature
2. Clean Our Air
   • Engaging citizens in data collection and clean air policies
   • Preventing the burning of fields, forests and waste
   • Transitioning to clean transportation for all
3. Revive Our Oceans
   • Protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems
   • Replenishing fish populations
   • Reducing demand for fishmeal
4. Build a Waste-free World
   • Reducing food loss from farm to fork
   • Phasing out single use and non-recycled plastics
   • High-value circularity in fashion and electronics
5. Fix Our Climate
   • Reducing food loss from farm to fork
   • Phasing out single use and non-recycled plastics
   • High-value circularity in fashion and electronics

“Wildcard” nominations outside the scope of the five Earthshots, yet still potentially transformative on a global scale, will also be considered.

The Submission

We are looking for inspiring, impactful, and inclusive solutions to submit to the 2024 Earthshot Prize.

Competitive solutions will have the following characteristics:

1. Potential for Global Impact

Solutions must 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.
• Make a positive social impact, such as improving lives or creating green jobs, alongside the essential environmental impact.

2. Diversity of Solution Types

Nominees may 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 organization
• A team or small group of individuals

3. Stage of Solution

Finalists’ stage of development should fit the following criteria:

• They are well-developed beyond the idea stage. They may still have development requirements to address before they can scale but will, for instance, have working prototypes, programmes and initiatives, or completed pilots that demonstrate their effectiveness. They will have tested their solution with their target users or recipients and seen early positive impact. They will already be active in the field or their market with customers, partners or audiences.
• They are not limited solely by access to financials and funds but require additional support to be scaled or replicated at scale. Solutions that have already 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.
• They have made significant progress in the past year with clear organisational or solution-based breakthroughs, examples of which 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.

4. Organizational Foundations

Solutions should have the following criteria:

• Quality of Leadership: a dedicated team and a founder committed to scaling or replicating the solution.
• Inclusive Leadership: a team that demonstrates inclusivity and representation because of the well-documented effect this has on performance. Teams that represent their community, including female, indigenous and local community-led solutions are of particular interest.
• Organizational Maturity: the nominee should have 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.
• Scale Model: nominees should have a credible model by which their solution could be replicated or scaled to have transformative impact. The model should include what partnerships would accelerate it, and what resources or skills they may need. Localized 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.
• Competitive solutions have at least one of the following characteristics:

• Use technology, AI or data to enable transformative change.
• Create or leverage nature and carbon markets, novel financial mechanisms and essential legal solutions.
• Are led and informed by indigenous and local communities.
• Promote shared economic opportunity.
• Enable policy change.