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Lush Spring Prize

Zicä Pires Silva - founder of AAQ Agentes Agroflorestais Quilombolas, Brazil
Zicä Pires Silva - founder of 2018 winners AAQ Agentes Agroflorestais Quilombolas, Brazil.

The Lush Spring Prize comprises of a biennial £200,000+ prize fund and other support activities, to build capacity for those repairing the earth’s damaged systems.

It is for groups, organisations, enterprises or networks that are working to revive damaged social and natural environments, and who want to share what they are doing to inspire and inform others. This process of reviving or healing is often referred to as regeneration.

LUSH Spring Prize 2023 Awards

73 projects from around the world were shortlisted for the Lush Spring Prize for environmental and social regeneration.

Recipients were announced as part of a celebratory in-person event held in Berlin, Germany in May. This was the first time the event has been held outside of the UK, with prize recipients, judges, Lush staff, press and other guests. At least 14 different countries and five continents were represented.

A total of £236,000 was awarded to 17 groups, celebrating the efforts of regenerative practitioners across the globe. More than £1 million has now been awarded through the Spring Prize since its inception in 2017.

The ceremony was hosted by Mona Bani and Fisayo Fadahunsi from Untelevised Media and Aja Barber.

The 17 recipients of the 2023 Lush Spring Prize are:

Influence Projects Award

  • European Coordination Via Campesina (Europe)
  • Rawa Fund (Palestine)

Established Projects Award

  • Himalayan Permaculture Centre (Nepal)
  • Jupago Kreká Collective (Brazil)

Young Projects Award

  • Cooperativa Agropecuaria de Servicios Tonanzintlalli (Nicaragua)
  • Organización Waorani de Pastaza (OWAP) (Ecuador)
  • Rwamwanja Rural Foundation (Uganda)

Intentional Projects Award

  • Beejvan (India)
  • Mycorama (Greece)
  • Taniala Regenerative Camps (Madagascar)
  • teKio (Mexico)

Ancient and Indigenous Wisdom Award (collaborative) (Run in partnership with Be The Earth Foundation)

  • Ashiniawka – Sapara Women’s Association (Ecuador)
  • Instituto Janeraka (Brazil)
  • Resguardo Indígena Musu Runakuna (Colombia)

Permaculture Magazine Award (collaborative) (Run in partnership with Permaculture Magazine)

  • Sol Haven (UK)
  • Tejiendo Futuros ONG (Guatemala)
  • Unidos Social Innovation Centre (Uganda)

Information about all 2023 Spring Prize recipients (and the shortlist) can be found on the Spring Prize website.

Woman crouching with pile of sweetcorn cobs on mat
(C) Himalayan Permaculture Centre (Nepal) and Lush Spring Prize

What does the Lush Spring Prize have to do with regeneration?

People all over the world are developing ways to live in harmony with nature and each other. They are generating renewable resources, restoring ecosystems, nurturing solidarity and building health, wholeness and resilience. They are bringing life back to damaged land and oceans.

The Lush Spring Prize is here to support these regeneration movements.

Regeneration can mean a lot of different things to different people. By regeneration we mean systems and practices that take a ‘holistic’ approach to solving environmental, social and economic problems; aiming to restore health, wholeness and resilience.

The Lush Spring Prize looks for projects that are actively contributing to the health of all the systems they are part of.

As well as helping to restore the natural systems in the place the project is based, projects should be nurturing the wellbeing of all their workers, the capacity of the community around them, and the networks they are connected to.

The Lush Spring Prize seeks projects that are aware of the challenges they face, that are building the capacity of their own organisation to address these challenges, improve and evolve.

Finally, projects should be sharing their experience so that others can learn from their work, adapt the knowledge to their own situations in doing so, support the wider regenerative movement.

What is regeneration?

What is the LUSH Spring Prize?

Launched in 2017, the Lush Spring Prize celebrates groups working toward eco-social regeneration. It is a joint venture between LUSH Cosmetics and Ethical Consumer, and has distributed more than £820,000 to date.

The LUSH Spring Prize was set up to support ‘regenerative’ projects – those that go beyond sustainability by taking holistic approaches to building the health of ecology, economy and social systems. It seeks to support those who are leaving the world lusher than they found it, and are actively restoring all the systems they are part of.

By supporting regenerative projects the Spring Prize hopes to raise the profile of the movement as a whole to inspire more individuals, groups, communities, funders, media platforms and businesses to start engaging with regenerative processes. 

People all over the world are developing and remembering ways to live in cooperation with nature and each other. They are resisting further damage, restoring ecosystems, generating renewable resources, nurturing solidarity and building health, wholeness and resilience.

The Lush Spring Prize supports and celebrates their work through:

  • A biennial £200,000+ prize fund. This is open to communities, organisations and businesses from the Intentional stage, through to Young and Established organisations, and Influencers.     
  • Events that bring people together to share their skills and experience.
  • Publicity to raise awareness of regeneration and its potential to heal damaged systems.

Previous Spring Prize winners are listed on the Spring Prize website alongside shortlisted projects. They demonstrate the variety of approaches that can be taken to create a more regenerative society, from restoring degraded landscapes to creating platforms that give a voice to marginalised communities.

Four people in garden
Education for Climate Action for Peace (E4CAP), winner of the Young Project 2021

Podcasts by Untelevised

A partnership between Lush Spring Prize and Untelevised has led to a podcast series of interviews with Spring Prize judges, projects, shortlisted projects etc.

These podcasts are being broadcast from 17th November 2021 - find out more from their website and also the podcast link.

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