Nairobi: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced the selection of three environmental entrepreneurs from India, Kenya, and the United States as the 2025 Young Champions of the Earth.
According to Kenya News Agency, the winners are recognized for their contributions that advance a global circular economy and improve environmental outcomes by treating wastewater, expanding access to clean water, tackling plastic pollution, and creating sustainable alternatives to conventional materials. The award recipients will receive seed funding, mentoring, communications support, and a global platform to showcase and scale their solutions.
The 2025 Young Champions of the Earth include 27-year-old Joseph Nguthiru from Kenya, a climate-tech engineer whose company, HyaPak, converts the invasive species hyacinth in Lake Naivasha into packaging bags and biodegradable seedling wrappers. By replacing single-use plastic products, HyaPak makes agricultural lands healthier and offsets CO2 emissions.
Another champion is 28-year-old Jinali Mody from India, a biochemistry graduate from St. Xavier's College in Mumbai and the Yale School of Environment. She founded Banofi Leather, an India-based women-led company aiming to make the fast fashion business more sustainable by producing leather alternatives made from banana crop waste. Compared to conventional leather, Banofi drastically reduces water use, toxic waste, and CO2 emissions.
The third winner is 24-year-old Noemi Florea from the United States, a climate innovator who, in consultation with dozens of marginalized communities, founded Cycleau, a compact water reuse system that transforms greywater into drinking water. Retrofitted under sinks, showers, and laundry units, Cycleau significantly reduces wastewater, using much less energy than alternative systems.
The Young Champions program, founded by UNEP in 2017, was relaunched this year in partnership with American Cleantech CEO Chris Kemper. In 2023, Kemper was designated as UNEP's Advocate for Partnerships to mobilize resources and action around today's most urgent environmental issues. He also co-founded Planet A, a YouTube channel to drive environmental awareness and action.
Kemper expressed his honor in supporting the Young Champions program in his philanthropic role with the United Nations. Over 5,000 entrepreneurs around the world showed interest in the program, all seeking to make a positive impact on the planet. He stated, 'It was difficult to select only three winners for the 2025 Young Champions program, but these three leaders stood out for their passion, drive, execution, and innovation.'
He extended congratulations to the three winners for their achievements and in winning the highly competitive award. Each winner received US$20,000 and will have an opportunity to compete in the first-ever Planet A pitch competition for a business growth grant of US$100,000 and a possible seed investment of US$1 million.
Planet A is filming the competition and the Young Champions leading up to it, with a release set for October on Planet A's YouTube channel. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, commended the Young Champions for their innovations, emphasizing the importance of addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution for the benefit of future generations.
The Young Champions of the Earth prize is UNEP's flagship initiative on youth engagement. Since 2017, it has recognized 30 young trailblazers-activists, entrepreneurs, and environmental innovators under the age of 30-for their outstanding ideas to protect the environment.