The Lush Spring Prize is a biennial £200,000+ prize fund and other support activities, that seeks to build capacity for those repairing the earth’s damaged systems.
It is a joint venture between Lush Cosmetics and the Ethical Consumer Research Association, with both organisations shaping the development and coordination of the project, whilst integrating feedback from those that participate in its processes.
This includes applicants, shortlisted projects and prize recipients, decision makers, event attendees, media partners and collaborative prize partners (organisations that have contributed support, solidarity and funds towards themed prizes e.g. Be The Earth Foundation and Permaculture Magazine).
Initiated in 2017, the Spring Prize has run for five prize cycles. During this time it has:
This has resulted in a diversity of shortlisted projects, prize recipients and stories that explore the concept of regeneration in a variety of contexts and in multiple languages.
The root of the Spring Prize was to bring coherence and alignment around the topic of regeneration. What it has achieved is bring people from different movements together to answer the question ‘what is regeneration’ by living this question. The other elements that Spring Prize has offered is accessibility and participation and a global platform for grassroots groups.
The more I talk to funders, the more I see how little money is getting to the grassroots and the real work on the ground. What Spring Prize does is special, it gives unrestricted funds to support the collective power of grassroots groups.
Ruth Andrade
More than ever, people need examples of what ecological and social regeneration can look like. In a world where the dominant culture forefronts violence and destruction as the norm, humans need to see what the positive alternative might be. With thousands of applicants to the Lush Spring Prize, we see that regenerative alternatives are out there, and need celebrating.
The Prize seeks to highlight and actively support projects from around the world that are increasing the capacity of communities and societies to thrive in harmony with nature and each other. It also hopes to increase access to resources, information and skills to build alternatives to the dominant culture of degeneration. Quite simply:
Exploitation has gone too far.
There are too many win / lose situations: where one goal is pursued at the expense of another, where short-term gain undermines long-term survival, where the economy grows but the environment is degraded, or where some people benefit from other people’s suffering.
The whole system needs attention.
Our own wellbeing relies on the health of natural and social systems and many interconnected relationships. We are interdependent, and things could be better organised to benefit all.
We need to move beyond the ‘sustainable’.
The word ‘sustainable’ has been used a lot over the last 20 years to describe situations which prolong ‘business as usual’ and maintain inequalities.
We need livelihoods that can revive and regenerate damaged environments and communities.
We are looking for projects that are actively contributing to the health of all the systems they are part of. Find out more here.
