International Ashden Awards
Overview
Why apply?
The annual Ashden Awards are free to enter, and benefits for winners include a cash grant, access to funders, and a promotional film about their work. All finalists receive publicity and opportunities as part of the Ashden network.
- Winning an Ashden Award brings a prize of up to £25,000 as well as ongoing development support.
- They put winners in front of funders, investors, policymakers, journalists and others who know the unique value of an Ashden Award and the strength of our rigorous assessment process.
- They create promotional films about your winners’ work and tell their story in mainstream and specialist media, and through our growing digital channels. We’ve helped previous winners gain coverage at Sky News, The Telegraph, Times of India, Al Jazeera, New Scientist and other leading platforms.
- Award winners’, views, needs and insights are at the heart of their influential reports, toolkits and events – which shape the views of key climate decision makers.
- All winners join the Ashden network – giving them the chance to connect with new partners through masterclasses, investor pitching events and introductions to influential policy makers.
Who can apply?
Businesses, NGOs, government organisations, social enterprises and community groups are all eligible. Work must be currently available to clients, customers or beneficiaries.
International Awards
Ashden Award for Energy Innovation (Global South)
Award prize: £25,000
Hundreds of millions of people in the Global South go without access to energy – making it harder for them to work, learn, relax and stay healthy.
The Ashden Award for Energy Innovation (Global South) will boost work helping people access clean power – whether they previously lived without access to energy, or relied on polluting technologies like kerosene lamps and diesel generators.
The award will recognise trailblazers tackling energy generation and storage, as well as the digitisation need to create modern energy systems.
Social, technical and commercial innovation can address global energy poverty and set countries on the path to a low-carbon future. This award will back entrepreneurs and organisations ready to create large-scale impact.
Find out more about this award
Supported by: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Ashden Award for Powering Futures in Clean Energy
Award prize: £25,000
Clean energy can bring change across communities – and could create 25 million new jobs worldwide by the end of the decade. But marginalised and excluded groups, such as women, young people and those with little money, often lack the skills and opportunities to join the clean energy workforce.
The Ashden Award for Powering Futures in Clean Energy will boost organisations bringing skills to marginalised people in the Global South. The training could be in any part of the clean energy sector and could support financial, technical, management or soft skills.
As well as focusing on excluded groups, the winner will be pioneering an innovative approach and tackling the transition from training to paid employment.
Find out more about this award
Supported by: LinkedIn
Ashden Award for Natural Climate Solutions (Global South)
Award prize: £25,000
Around the world, land stewards, indigenous peoples and local communities hold a unique power to protect and restore essential ecosystems. From forests to wetlands, these ecosystems are a key defence against climate change.
Indigenous people safeguard 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. When they are threatened – or denied the chance to make a sustainable living – our climate is threatened too.
The Ashden Award for Natural Climate Solutions will boost the work of Indigenous peoples and local communities carrying out their vision of ecological restoration and territory protection, and strengthening their incomes, wellbeing and security of their communities.
The winner could be turning palm or soy plantation areas into sustainable productive land, helping communities restore degraded or desertified ecosystems, or supporting community agroforestry. The winner’s work will be centred on the needs, priorities and knowledge of indigenous people and local communities.
Find out more about this award
Supported by: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Ashden Award for Energising Refugees and Displaced People
Award prize: £25,000
In refugee camps, 94% of people have no access to electricity. Whether they live in camps or elsewhere, energy poverty makes it harder for displaced people to make a living.
This award will accelerate clean energy solutions helping displaced people raise their incomes – and so look forward to a more secure life and brighter future. The winning organisation will be chosen in partnership with the Global Refugee-led Network, drawing on the knowledge and priorities of displaced people themselves.
This award will boost solutions delivered hand-in-hand with affected communities, and bringing change where it is needed most.
Find out more about this award
Supported by: The Linbury Trust and J.A.C. Trust
Criteria
The work submitted for an award should must be innovative. It might feature new technology, new approaches to marketing and distribution, or a new way of sharing training and skills. It might involve improved financing mechanisms or an innovative business model.
Work should also have the potential to create significant impact. This impact might be a large drop in greenhouse gas emissions, raised incomes, better health, reduced inequality, or a combination of positive outcomes. Impact might be achieved by the growth of the organisation applying, or by the spread of their ideas to other organisations.
Initiatives should boost resilience and be as participatory and democratic as possible – designed and run with input from the people they support, particularly marginalised groups. Applicants should also show good governance and management.
To be shortlisted and win an award, all applicants must satisfy these eligibility criteria:
- The work submitted for an award must be currently available to customers, clients or beneficiaries.
- The applicant must show an innovative approach in their work.
- The applicant’s work must have the potential to create significant impact. This might be achieved by their growth as an organisation, or the replication of their innovation around the world. Applicants must be willing to work with Ashden and others to achieve this goal. ‘Significant’ impact could be a large reduction in emissions, a mitigation or adaptation action that addresses a serious threat to people’s wellbeing, or a transformation in people’s quality of life – particularly the most marginalised.
- The applicant must show good governance and management. We are looking for efficient use of funds and a strong plan to generate further income, whether from sales, grants or any other source. Organisations can be for profit or not-for-profit. Winners must have sustainability embedded in their values and practices.
You can apply more than once, providing they are for a different business/organisation.
FAQS - see webpage.