Green Entrepreneur Ashden International Awards For Developing Countries 2024

Published: 02 Jan 2024 778 views

Winning an Ashden Award brings a prize of up to £25,000 as well as ongoing development support.

We 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.

We 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 our 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. 

Ashden Green Entrepreneur Awards

Application Deadline	January 25, 2024
Value	£25,000
Type	Akwa Ibom
Sponsor	Ashden
Gender	Men and Women

Benefits of Ashden Green Entrepreneur Awards

What are the benefits of winning an Ashden award

• A prize of £10,000 or £25,000 each, depending on which award you
• Prestige of winning one of the world’s top sustainability awards. The rigour of our assessment process is well known to investors, policymakers, academics and other experts in the sustainable energy and climate change sector around the world. 
• Membership of an alumni network of Ashden Award winners, which facilitates learning and opportunities to create productive partnerships. 
• Opportunities to present your work to large and influential audiences at the Ashden Awards ceremony and other Ashden events. 
• The chance to have your work profiled in regional, national, international and specialist media. Ashden’s communication team gets winners exposure in newspapers and magazines, on television and radio, and on a wide range on online platforms. This continues long after the award ceremony – Ashden regularly secures coverage for winners months and even years after they win their award.  
• Promotional material including photographs, print material and broadcast quality video for you to use in your own marketing efforts.  
• Where it can have a significant impact, tailored support from our programme team to grow or replicate your work: this can include professional mentoring, training, help raising finance and investment, and media and communications support. 
• Where it can have significant impact, introductions to influential policy and decision makers, and an opportunity to make your voice heard. 
• We seek to integrate UK-based winners into our Sustainable Towns and Citiesprogramme of work, where we embed our winners’ approaches into policy and practice. Our widely used resources for local authorities such as a climate action co-benefits toolkit, and our Learning Out Loud pages feature many of our alumni. We also regularly showcase our winners at our regional local authority learning workshops, and through our network of city region sustainability lead officers.
• Additionally, there is opportunity for our winners to participate in a programme of free masterclasses which help them get to grips with a wide range of practical issues. These can be anything from customer experience or developing a communications strategy to getting investment-ready.
• Many of these benefits are also offered to shortlisted organisationswhere possible.

As an Ashden Award winner, we ask you to: 

1. Take part in the awards week events which are expected to take place in June 2024, location to be confirmed.  Winning an Ashden Award is contingent on taking part in the awards week activities.
2. Work with us to facilitate a visit from our video producer and photojournalist. 
3. Participate in media interviews. 
4. Agree with Ashden what you will spend the prize fund on and any business support you may receive. 
5. Provide monitoring data about the progress of your work after one, two and three years. 
6. Join our global alumni network of over 200 winners, a unique opportunity for learning and collaboration.

Requirements for Ashden Green Entrepreneur Awards

Businesses, NGOs, government organisations, social enterprises and community groups are all eligible. Work must be currently available to clients, customers or beneficiaries.

To be shortlisted and win an award, all applicants must satisfy these eligibility criteria:

1. The work submitted for an award must be currently available to customers, clients or beneficiaries.
2. The applicant must show an innovative approach in their work.
3. 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. 
4. 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.

Selection Process

Eligible applications will be judged against the following general criteria:

1. Decarbonisation, material use reduction and environmental protection
2. Resilience and adaptation.
3. Boosting green skills and work.
4. Reducing inequality
5. Participation and democratisation
6. Communications potential

If your organisation is shortlisted, we will get in touch in early February to ask for the following, to better understand your work and assure ourselves of your financial viability: 

1. Answers to some additional questions about your work (via phone, video call and/or email).
2. A copy of your financial accounts for the past two years.
3. A copy of your draft accounts for the current financial year.
4. A short informal video summarising the work you do, why it deserves an Ashden Award, and how the award would benefit you.
5. Contact details for two referees, who will be followed up if you are selected as a finalist.

Application Deadline

January 25, 2024

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to Ashden on apply2024.ashden.org to apply