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This Endangered Species day we revisit and celebrate the work of 2022 Finalist ✨ Hutan ✨

🌳 The forests of the Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, are among the richest and most biodiverse in the world. They are home to the endangered Bornean orangutan, elephant, proboscis monkey, and clouded leopard. 

🧍 Human activities have broken up large areas of the Kinabatangan forest into fragments. Orangutans and other wildlife are now trapped inside isolated forest patches - with no alternative other than venturing through agricultural land and villages when moving between islands of protected forest.

📚 Through thoroughly studying and monitoring the region’s biodiversity, Hutan revealed that wildlife could survive in the future if allowed to ✨ travel freely and safely ✨ between the remaining fragments of protected habitat. 

🐒 Hutan create strategic wildlife corridors and to reforest degraded areas with native trees, ensuring safe passage, food and shelter to orangutans and other species. 

Learn more about Hutan here: 
 https://youtu.be/r7KFgoHI-ZY?feature=... 

2022 Finalist The Great Bubble Barrier® have now installed their first project outside of the Netherlands!

It's the first Bubble Barrier capturing plastic pollution in Portugal. By capturing plastic waste in the Ave River, they are able to stop it before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more about this project:  https://thegreatbubblebarrier.com/bubble-barrier-vila-do-conde/ 

From toxic dyes to oil-derived textiles; from factory emissions to unfair working conditions - the fashion industry needs to change FAST. It's a positive step that the French lower house of Parliament recently tabled its intentions to 'tax' fast fashion products with a surcharge based on their economic footprint - but the industry's problems are multifold. Luckily some of our very own Earthshot Prize Finalists are part of the solution! 

✨Colorifix ✨uses DNA sequencing and nature's own colours to create sustainable dyes, that reduce the fashion industry's use of water and harmful chemicals

✨Circ✨ has created a ground-breaking solution to enable the recycling of polycotton fabrics, which make up half of all textile waste.

In 2020, the ✨City of Amsterdam✨ committed to becoming a circular economy; by 2050, it aims to waste nothing and recycle EVERYTHING. 

Flowers cast into the Ganges river contain highly toxic pesticides - ✨Phool✨ used this floral waste to make a sustainable alternative to leather, known as Fleather! 

✨Lanzatech✨ use bacteria to recycle carbon pollution into profitable and sustainable products - including textiles. 

🧐 Want to know more?

👉 Phool & City of Amsterdam: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XAd4... 
👉 Lanzatech: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tD8p...  
👉 Colorifix: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtZCP... 
👉 Circ: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDD_T... 

It's  #EarthDay , and we're all talking about the fight to  #EndPlastics . The impact of plastic on our health and our environment is pretty dramatic, but here are some of the Earthshot heroes giving us all reason for hope! 

Just 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled and only 12% has been incinerated. The rest lies in landfills or has been dumped into the oceans. 

There are people right now around the world, working on ground-breaking solutions to fix this problem. Here are some of our favourites... 

The theme for this year's Earth Day is Planet Vs. Plastic! ♻️

Did you know?
By 2050, there is going to be more PLASTIC than FISH in the ocean! 🐟

Why is this such a problem? 🤷‍♀️
👉 Plastic in the ocean can be mistaken for food by birds and fish; and subsequently enter the food chain and even our bloodstreams - not much is known yet about the long-term impact of microplastics. 

👉 Plastics in the water could lead to Ocean Acidification; leading to inhospitable changes to the delicately balanced ecosystem

👉 Animals can be injured when plastic enters our rivers and oceans as litter or waste - turtles frequently get caught in discarded fishing nets.

Learn more about plastic pollution from our Earthshot Prize Finalists! 

The Great Bubble Barrier catches plastic before it has a chance to reach the ocean 👏  https://youtu.be/KngS_gLM5wU  

Notpla are creating a plastic-free packaging alternative made from seaweed 👏  https://youtu.be/9cnk_feRdGo 

Sources: 
 https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html#:~:text=Plastic%20debris%20can%20come%20in,microplastics%20and%20their%20impacts%20yet .
 https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/one-more-thing-about-plastics-they-could-be-acidifying-the-ocean-study-says/ 
 https://www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-plastics-in-the-ocean/ 

A few weeks ago in Cape Town, we asked Sophia li some fun questions, plus some totally impossible ones like “who’s your favourite Finalist”

Get to know our Global Correspondent a little better and let us know what else we should have asked 👇

 https://youtube.com/shorts/aAD3bL7v3HU 

Seaforester teams up with Nestlé Purina to pioneer marine habitat restoration! 

Recognising the urgent need for innovative solutions to protect and restore our oceans, this exciting programme between Nestlé Purina and SeaForester seeks to tackle these challenges head-on.

By using fish by-products in its pet food, Nestlé Purina ensures nothing goes to waste. This circular approach not only reduces waste but also underlines the importance of sustainable ingredient sourcing in protecting marine life.

While, at the heart of the programme, SeaForester’s revolutionary approach to marine habitat restoration and unique seaforestation techniques, including mobile seaweed nurseries, resurrect the crucial ecosystems that support marine biodiversity and coastal resilience. 

This year we have received a record-breaking 400+ Africa-based nominees!

These nominations alongside our incredible Africa-based alumni paint a picture of the trailblazing creativity and innovation, and have the potential to inspire transformative change across the continent – and the world! 🌍

We can’t wait to see what solutions Africa has to offer in 2024... 

E-commerce giant Amazon have joined forces with 2023 Finalist Belterra to help more Brazilian smallholders move away from damaging monoculture farming and adopt regenerative techniques that help lock harmful carbon emissions in the ground.

The partnership will not only restore the land but help Belterra develop a carbon offsetting scheme which can provide new sources of income to farmers.

Learn more about their Earthshot here!  https://youtu.be/aUGAtUpPfnM 

Some of the BIGGEST consumer packaged goods companies in the world are already using Aquacycl wastewater management systems. 

In just one year, the Aquacycl system at a single PepsiCo 🥤 plant mitigated more than 800 tons of CO2e – the equivalent emissions of over 10 tanker trucks worth of gasoline. 🚚🚚