The shortlists for the 2023 Ashden Awards have been announced – highlighting inclusive climate solutions to power our future and regenerate our world.
Shortlisted projects and organisations are tackling key climate challenges in the UK and Global South, creating fairer societies as well as lower emissions. In the UK they range from high-tech solutions tackling fuel poverty in social housing, to work restoring nature in the UK’s neglected coastal towns.
Shortlisted organisations work in Liverpool, London, the Cotswolds, Yorkshire, Devon, Cambridgeshire, Wales and nationwide.
Winning organisations, chosen by panels of expert judges, will be revealed this autumn. Winners will benefit from a cash prize and publicity, as well as new connections to investors, funders and policymakers. The annual Ashden Awards were launched in 2001.
Ashden Head of Awards Dr Stephen Hall said: “We’re proud to celebrate a great crop of climate trailblazers – the sort of pioneers that can push the UK towards reaching its net zero goals.
“Two of our UK award categories are supporting new relationships with nature – recognising the need to transform approaches to food and farming, and also the power of nature to inspire diverse communities into climate action. Our awards’ focus on inclusion has never felt more appropriate.
“The third category tackles energy innovation, with a strong showing from pioneers improving the efficiency of our homes and developing fairer local energy systems. The energy crisis of the past few months – worsening the UK’s already shocking levels of fuel poverty – tells us that innovation in this area is urgently needed.
“We’ve seen exciting potential to create stable green jobs and livelihoods up and down the UK. We now need consistent and ambitious national policies that make space for these solutions to grow and replicate across the country.”
The 2023 Ashden Awards shortlists: UK categories
(Explore our five categories focused on the Global South)
Ashden Award for Energy Innovation
Accelerating the UK’s net zero journey
Supported by Impax Asset Management
Advanced Infrastructure’s geospatial planning tool “LAEP+” is supporting local authorities in the UK, energy networks and practitioners to identify and plan viable pathways to decarbonise local areas.
The Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust
The Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust is originating carbon credits to unlock funds to support UK homes in need of retrofitting.
tepeo’s Zero Emission Boiler (ZEB®) is a plug-n-play replacement for existing fossil fuel boilers, that works with a hot water tank to deliver low carbon and low cost home heating in the UK.
UrbanChain runs a safe, transparent and unique energy market for renewables, enabling UK consumers to place an order for electricity and for generators to meet that order.
Ashden Award for Local Nature Recoverers
Celebrating inclusive, community-focused adaptation initiatives
Supported by the Lund Trust, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin
Liverpool’s 40 URBAN GreenUP projects range from green walls and rain gardens to mobile forests – with 120,000 residents benefiting from the work.
Trees for Cities’ Forgotten Places scheme delivers training, volunteering, tree planting and new resources for neglected coastal communities in the UK.
The Alconbury Brook Flood Group is a community organisation, harnessing nature-based solutions to protect villages in Cambridgeshire threatened by devastating floods.
Working with local residents, this collaboration has restored rivers and created new ponds, woods and wetlands to build climate resilience in north London.
Ashden Award for Future Farmers
Developing skills and training for sustainable land management
Supported by Garfield Weston Foundation
FarmED is a Cotswolds not for profit showing regenerative agriculture in action, and working to transform attitudes to food and farming.
Agriculture courses at Bishop Burton College in East Yorkshire combine cutting-edge technology with climate-friendly techniques.
Education at Black Mountains College in Wales supports climate action and adaptation. Vocational courses teach regenerative approaches to land and woodland management, and are taught in nature, with a focus on creating positive change in the region and beyond.
The Apricot Centre in Devon offers free traineeships and placements, working in partnership with local farms to support skills for regenerative agriculture.
