Two UK projects among Earthshot finalists

Announced by the Prince of Wales in New York to coincide with the UN General Assembly’s Climate Week, the shortlist features five separate categories: ‘Protect and Restore Nature’, ‘Clean Our Air’, ‘Revive Our Oceans’, ‘Build a Waste-free World’, and ‘Fix Our Climate’. The 15 finalists were selected from over 1,100 nominees during a screening process conducted by a global panel of scientific and academic experts.

UK company ENSO was named as a finalist in the ‘Clean Our Air’ category. The London-based start-up is developing tyres for EVs that reduce harmful particulate matter whilst improving durability and performance.

“Tyre pollution is a pressing problem for all vehicles, including electric vehicles, so while we can’t make a tyre last forever, we can make them last a lot longer, and pollute a lot less,” said Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, founder and CEO of ENSO. “By doubling tyre durability, we can halve tyre pollution, it's as simple as that.”

In the Build a Waste-Free World category, Norwich company Colorifix was named a finalist for its environmental solution to the damage caused by industrial dyes. Using DNA sequencing to precisely identify colours in nature, Colorifix then uses the genetic code to engineer microorganisms that replicate the pigment the same way it occurs in nature.

The winners of the Earthshot – now in its third year – will be announced in Singapore on November 7, with five £1m prizes going to the category winners.

The 15 Earthshot finalists are:

Protect and Restore Nature

• Accion Andina - Peru: A grassroots project working across South America to protect native forest ecosystems across the Andes.
• Freetown the Tree Town - Sierra Leone: An initiative from the Freetown City Council for tree preservation in the Sierra Leone capital.
• Belterra - Brazil: A start-up that partners with small and medium-sized farmers to transform forests and degraded land through regenerative agricultural practices.

Clean Our Air

• Polish Smog Alert - Poland: A campaigning group working to encourage policy change and improve the air quality across Poland.
• Enso - United Kingdom: A company that has designed a more sustainable tyre for electric vehicles in the hopes of reducing tyre pollution and reducing air pollution.
• GRST - Hong Kong: A start-up that has developed a new process for making and recycling lithium-ion batteries, paving the way “to make the electric cars of the future even cleaner.”

Revive Our Oceans

• Abalobi - South Africa: A social enterprise organisation taking a data-driven approach to supporting small fishing communities by helping them become more resilient and sustainable.
• Coastal 500 - Global with US-based headquarters: An international network of mayors and other local leaders committed to restoring ocean habitats and pushing for coastal protections around the world.
• WildAid Marine Program - Global with US-based headquarters: A non-profit combining “partnership building and knowledge sharing” to support the planet’s ocean conservation needs.

Build a Waste-Free World

• S4S Technologies - India: An agritech start-up using its solar-powered dehydration equipment to cut food waste and help farmers process excess crops into products with a longer shelf life.
• Circ Inc. - US: A company that has developed a way of recycling polycotton back to its raw materials so that it can be reused and reduce textile waste.
• Colorifix - UK: This company seeks to reduce the fashion industry’s use of water and chemicals by finding colours created by an organism in nature and using online DNA sequencing to create sustainable pigments and dyes.

Fix Our Climate

• Sea Forest - Australia: A Tasmanian biotech company that has created a seaweed-based livestock feed that reduces the production of planet-warming methane pollution from cattle and sheep while supporting “sustainable farming and healthy marine ecosystems.”
• Aquacycl - US: The team at Aquacycl use microbial technology to make treating industrial wastewater more cost-effective and accessible, more efficient and less polluting.
• Boomitra - Global with US-based headquarters: The company is “removing emissions and boosting farmer profits by incentivising land restoration” through the creation of its soil carbon marketplace.