Lush Spring Prize
Overview
The Lush Spring Prize is here to support this regeneration movement through:
- A biennial £200,000+ prize fund. This is open to communities, organisations and businesses from the Intentional stage, through to Young and Established organisations, and Influencers.
- Events that bring people together to share their skills and experience.
- Publicity to raise awareness of regeneration and its potential to heal damaged systems, create resilience to crises, and grow abundance.
The prize is for organisations that are working to revive damaged social and natural environments; and want to share what they are doing to inspire and inform others.
What are they looking for?
By regeneration they mean systems and practices that take a ‘holistic’ approach to solving environmental, social and economic problems; aiming to restore health, wholeness and resilience.
They are looking for projects that are actively contributing to the health of all the systems they are part of.
As well as helping to restore the natural systems in the place the project is based, projects should be nurturing the wellbeing of all their workers, the capacity of the community around them, and the networks they are connected to.
They are seeking projects that are aware of the challenges they face, and building the capacity of their own organisation to improve and evolve.
Finally, projects should be sharing their experience so that others can be inspired by their work, adapt the knowledge to their own situations and develop the regenerative movement.
Eligibility
- They accept nominations from anywhere in the world.
- Lush, the company funding the Spring Prize, is a vegetarian company. As such, money awarded will not be channelled towards the direct slaughter or ill-treatment of animals.
- Although organisations farming animals will not be excluded, priority will be given to organisations which encourage alternatives to animal consumption.
- Any project which does not quite fit these eligibility guidelines is welcome to nominate themselves if they feel they can provide a strong argument for why they should consider them.
- Organisations may only submit an application to one category.
- Organisations which are more than 1 year old are not eligible for the Intentional awards.
- Organisations which are more than 5 years old are not eligible for the Young awards.
- No organisation will receive a prize two years in a row.
- Prizes are for ongoing work (not as a reward for past work).
- If offered a prize, recipients must:
- attend the awards ceremony in person, unless there are exceptional circumstances (travel expenses will be paid).
- prepare information on the winning project for the awards event.
- fill in an evaluation form 10 months from the award being given.
- support the PR and outreach activity for the prize.
- Ethical Consumer Research Association (a partner in the LUSH Spring Prize) will conduct due diligence research on nominated individuals and organisations prior to recommending initiatives for awards. It would be helpful if applicants flag up any potential concerns in advance.
- Other unanticipated ethical concerns will be considered on a case by case basis.
The Lush Spring Prize 2025
Nominations for the 2025 prize are now closed. A shortlist will be announced in January 2025, and the award recipients will be announced in May 2025.
There were 9 awards in 3 different prize categories: from the Intentional stage, through to Young and Established organisations.
- Intentional Award – at least 4 awards of up to £10,000
- Young Award – at least 3 awards of up to £20,000
- Established Award – at least 2 awards of up to £25,000
There were also 3 other awards:
- Influence Award – at least £25,000 to a project shortlisted in other categories, to highlight the influential work of an applicant.
- Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom Award – recipients share an amount of £20,000, provided by Be The Earth Foundation and the Savitri Trust.
- Permaculture Magazine Award – recipients share a prize fund of £25,000, provided by Permaculture Magazine.