A Kenyan is among the 15 inaugural finalists announced by Prince William, competing for Ksh154 million in a coveted award on Friday, September 17.
Talash Huijbers, the founder of the InsectriPro, was announced for the Earthshot Prize, Prince William's ambitious global environmental award that aims to find new ideas and technologies to tackle climate change, air pollution, and the Earth's most pressing challenges.
The Kenyan enterprise turns organic waste into fertilizer and insect protein for farmers. The project uses the larvae of black soldier flies to break down more than 30 tons of discarded fruit, each day.
The fruit scraps come in from markets, juice companies, and breweries, and are then fed to the larvae. The larvae are then dried and sold as animal feed.
Any excess waste created by these larvae is sold to neighboring farms to use in the soil.
Farm's mission is to chip away at the 1,900 tons of organic waste produced in Nairobi every day.
Five winners will be chosen next month from the 15 finalists, and each will receive a grant worth Ksh 154 million ($1.4 million). In addition, 14 global companies and brands, including Microsoft, Unilever, Ikea, and Walmart, have agreed to support and scale the ideas developed by the finalists.
"When we launched the prize last year, our ambition was to find the most innovative solutions to the world's greatest environmental challenges," William said, in a pre-recorded video announcing the finalists.
Prince William, while making the announcement, said the award received over 700 nominations that were all ambitious, which made it hard for the judges to pick one that should proceed to the next level.
He launched his charity, The Royal Foundation, which then created the Earthshot Prize in 2020. The whole idea to create it was inspired by President John F. Kennedy's 1962 "Moonshot" speech, which challenged and inspired Americans to go to the moon.
The prize is billed as the most prestigious of its kind, with a 50 million-pound prize pot to be awarded to five winners every year until 2030.
Other finalists include a 14-year-old student who proposes using solar energy to replace charcoal to power millions of roadside ironing carts in India; a land-based coral farm in the Bahamas to restore dying coral reefs; a community project in Congo devoted to protecting gorillas.
The winners of the coveted award will be announced in a ceremony on October 17.
