🎯 This Year’s Finalists
Here are the 15 organisations shortlisted for the 2025 Earthshot Prize, grouped by category:
Protect & Restore Nature
Tenure Facility (Sweden) re.green (Brazil) and Tropical Forest Forever Facility (Brazil)
Clean Our Air
City of Bogotá (Colombia), State of Gujarat (India) and City of Guangzhou (China)
Revive Our Oceans
The High Seas Treaty (The Netherlands), Matter (United Kingdom) and Bnds for Ocean Conservation (USA)
Build a Waste-free World
ATRenew (China), Lagos Fashion Week (Nigeria) and Quay Quarter Tower (Australia)
Fix Our Climate
Barbados (Barbados), Form Energy (USA) and Friendship (Bangladesh) 🧬 Spotlight Story: Matter (Bristol)
Matter a UK Finalist in the Spotlight
One of this year’s proud finalists is Matter, a Bristol-based environmental technology company founded by Adam Root in 2017.
Starting as a one-person idea on a dining room table, Matter now employs around 45 people and has secured £15 million in investment — all to tackle one issue many of us barely think about:
🧵 Microplastics
Tiny fibres shed from synthetic clothes when we wash them, flowing straight into rivers, oceans, drinking water and food chains.
Matter’s pioneering Regen® filtration technology captures these microfibres before they reach the water system — from homes to industrial textile production.
Their goal:
➡️ Stop microplastics at the source
➡️ Protect ocean health
➡️ Enable a healthier future for people and the planet
And it’s being recognised on the global stage.
“It’s just wild. You can’t apply, you have to be nominated.
In 2017 it was just me; now we’ve grown to 45 people having global impact across a number of regions and we’ve raised £15 million.”
— Adam Root, Founder & CEO, MatterWhy This Matters for Children, Young People & Communities
Microplastic pollution doesn’t just harm wildlife, it threatens human health too.
Oceans produce half the world’s oxygen, store vast amounts of carbon, and support millions of livelihoods.
Matter shows:
✅ Local innovation can have global impact
✅ Environmental action creates exciting future careers
✅ Everyday behaviours — like how we wash our clothes — are part of climate solutions
📺 When to Watch
Mark the date: 📅 Tuesday 5 November 2025 – 📍 Rio de Janeiro (global broadcast details TBA)
We’ll be cheering for Matter — a brilliant Bristol team working to protect ocean life and future generations.
✨ Final Thought
The Earthshot Prize reminds us that climate solutions already exist, and they’re growing in our own communities.
As we celebrate Matter’s achievement, it’s also a chance to ask:
👉 How can we encourage young people to see themselves as environmental innovators?
👉 What ideas could be the next big breakthrough?
From Bristol to Rio — change starts at home, and it can ripple across the world.
