Cranfield nominee reaches global finals of prestigious Earthshot Prize

For the second year running, a Cranfield University nominee has successfully been selected as a finalist for The Earthshot Prize.

Founded in 2020 by His Royal Highness Prince William, the Prize aims to spotlight projects that provide 'innovative solutions that are working to repair and regenerate our planet'. It's split into five categories - or Earthshots - inspired by the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals that aim to make a tangible difference towards those environmental goals by 2030.

Cranfield University is one of the Official Nominators for the prize, and a pan-university panel together with external panel members completed a rigorous selection process before choosing which projects to put forward for the global prize.

This year the Earthshot Prize had over 2,000 nominees, and with only 15 making the global final reaching this stage is a great achievement.

One Cranfield nominee to make the 2024 shortlist is Build up Nepal, a project founded in response to a devastating earthquake that hit the country in 2015, destroying over 800,000 homes. Many of the regions affected were poor and couldn't afford brick homes, and Build up Nepal made it their focus to create affordable and eco-friendly bricks, enabling the villagers to re-build their homes stronger than they were before.

The bricks developed are called Compressed Stabilised Earth Bricks, made on site in the villages using sand, soil and 10% cement and are a low-cost solution for building stronger, more sustainable homes. The process of forming the bricks is also far lower emission than producing traditional fired bricks.

Within 5 years, Build up Nepal aims to have supported 600 villages to build 25,000 houses, creating 6,600 jobs and saving 115,000 tonnes of CO ₂ emissions by replacing fired brick with their eco-friendly versions.

Professor Phil Longhurst, Director of Partnerships and Professor of Environment and Energy Technology, who headed up the Cranfield pan-university selection panel, commented: "Build up Nepal is doing vital work helping communities in need while also lowering carbon emissions in the brick making process. It is an extremely worthy nominee with the potential to make a huge impact to peoples' lives. This nomination is also a testament to all the effort Cranfield has put in promoting, organising and ensuring the effectiveness of the selection process. To have had nominees making the finals in two consecutive years is exceptional."

The year's Earthshot Prize winners will be announced in November during Earthshot Week 2024, held in Cape Town, South Africa. Five projects will be selected and each will receive a variety of support going forward, as well as £1million in funding.

Cranfield University will be an Official Nominator next year's 2025 Earthshot Prize, and will be putting out an open call for projects starting in early October 2024.