A North East business is on the cusp of a £1m prize win after becoming one of a handful of finalists to be shortlisted in the Earthshot Prize 2022.
The Earthshot Prize – founded by Prince William – today announces the 15 firms to make its grand final, from a longlist of 1,000 companies nominated. Seaham-based Low Carbon Materials (LCM), formerly called Sphera, has made the final for this year’s Earthshot Prize in the Fix Our Climate category, putting the company’s product among the three most impactful and inspiring solutions for environmental issues in its category.
Organised by The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Earthshot Prize was launched in 2020 and is the most prestigious global environment prize in history. The initiative’s goal is to incentivise change and help repair the planet over the next 10 years, with awards ceremonies planned to take place in 10 different cities across the world each year.
This year’s is set to take place in Boston, US, in December, when finalists will learn the winners through an event broadcast to a global audience. No finalists are travelling to Boston however, as flying would defeat the object of benefiting the environment. The prize centres around five Earthshots – protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world and fix our climate.
Each sets out a goal to be achieved by 2030, and the winners of the five prizes will receive guidance from companies like ARUP, Bloomberg and Hitachi and £1m to scale their solution.
LCM has made the final three in the Fix Our Climate category – which aims to cut out carbon by building a carbon-neutral economy that lets every culture, community and country thrive – thanks to its innovative first product, the carbon negative building material Osto. It meets the criteria of the prize as it is primarily made from waste materials and by-products that would have otherwise been difficult to recycle.
LCM was nominated by The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) through Potter Clarkson, an intellectual property law firm which has supported the team for the last couple of years. The product was created by the team of three scientists behind LCM – Dr Natasha Boulding, Dr Phil Buckley and Scott Bush – who came together to form the company in 2019 after meeting at Durham University while studying for PhDs in material science.
Dr Boulding said that just making the final will have a huge impact on the business, which currently has 14 staff.
She said: “It’s super-exciting and I think we’re one of only two or three finalists in the whole of the UK too. It’s incredible to make the final, I watched it last year and thought this would be amazing to get involved in and really didn’t believe we’d be here the year after. It’s so inspirational to be with the other finalists too.
“To give a company like ours a global platform and really validate what we are doing feels incredible. For us, it’s a no-brainer - we need to start being more innovative, especially in the built environment industry, which we are involved in. We need to bring more diverse thinking to some of the challenges we are facing..”
Prince William said: “The innovators, leaders, and visionaries that make up our 2022 Earthshot Finalists prove there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future of our planet. They are directing their time, energy, and talent towards bold solutions with the power to not only solve our planet’s greatest environmental challenges, but to create healthier, more prosperous, and more sustainable communities for generations to come.
“I am so excited to celebrate these fifteen Finalists and see the five Winners of The Earthshot Prize announced in Boston – the hometown of President John F. Kennedy, who shared The Earthshot Prize’s belief that seemingly impossible goals are within reach if we only harness the limitless power of innovation, human ingenuity, and urgent optimism.”
In addition to their eligibility for the £1m prize, all finalists will receive tailored support and resources from The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance Members, a network of private sector businesses around the world committed to helping scale innovative climate and environmental solutions and multiplying their impact.
The five Winners will be selected by The Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse team of influential individuals including Prince William, Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Alves Da Silva, Sir David Attenborough, Ernest Gibson, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Jack Ma, Shakira Mebarak, Yao Ming, Luisa Neubauer, Indra Nooyi, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Naoko Yamazaki.
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