The Earth Awards is a global search for imaginative design ideas and cutting-edge innovations in sustainability. With the support of our partners and an esteemed Selection Committee, The Earth Awards has developed into a global gathering of the greatest thinkers, designers, inventors and innovators who are actively creating solutions to build a better, sustainable future for all. The Earth Awards will serve as a catalyst and showcase for new innovative ideas in sustainable design, but beyond that, The Earth Awards will be a connector, ensuring that these innovations will be brought to fruition, and ultimately to market.

The Earth Awards was founded by Nicole Yap. In a structured competition, submissions were invited for the six award categories – Built Environment, Fashion, Product, Social Justice, Systems and Future. At the outset, distinguished individuals in the fields of design, business and sustainability keenly supported the awards, and some of these notable figures endorsing The Earth Awards have now joined our internationally renowned Selection Committee. The 2009 awards also attracted key partners like the Financial Times and in 2010, The Earth Awards were invited to share a platform in London with HRH The Prince of Wales᠆s START initiative, which included an awards ceremony hosted at Marlborough House.

2011 sees The Earth Awards exhibiting in the grounds of Clarence House and Lancaster House Four more Earth Award Partners; Conran, The Commonwealth Foundation, WWF (UK) and Practical Action have now joined The Financial Times to help with the development of the Awards together with the support of the Selection Committee.

Today, The Earth Awards has grown into a global phenomenon and our team has a presence in Asia, Europe and North America working with centres of excellence, from institutions in London to Silicon Valley. The caliber of our applicants is also noteworthy, with groups from Ivy League universities like Harvard, Yale and the MIT as well as teams from Oxford and Cambridge. Our key tenet has been to search out creative minds, be they from elite institutions or the lone inventor working in his garage. This inclusive approach, together with our rigorous selection process, has produced exceptional award winners. And it is a testament to our founding aims and the strength of our awards programme that some of our winners have gone on to attract significant financial investment and are now thriving businesses, helping to build a new economy and contributing to our sustainable future.

Partners

	The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation set up almost fifty years ago to make civil society stronger. Working on behalf of the people of the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association today spanning 54 countries, six continents and almost a third of the world’s population.
	Conran & Company develops a range of Conran branded products which embody the core Conran philosophy; beautiful and functional design that creates value for all.
	The Financial Times (FT) is one of the world’s leading business news and information organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 605,402 and a combined print and online average daily readership of 2.1 million people worldwide.
	Practical Action uses technology to challenge poverty, working with poor women and men around the world. Founded more than 40 years ago by radical economist, philosopher and author of Small is Beautiful, Dr EF Schumacher. The charity’s ethos is the right idea – however small – can change lives, create jobs and improve health and livelihoods.
	The WWF addresses global threats to people and nature such as climate change, the peril to endangered species and habitats, and the unsustainable consumption of the world’s natural resources. WWF does this by influencing how governments, businesses and people think, learn and act in relation to the world around us, and by working with local communities to improve their livelihoods and the environment upon which we all depend.