3.1 The Earth Prize Platform
3.2 The Earth Prize Submission Portal
3.3 Registration Confirmation
3.3.1 Problem Definition (one fill-in form per team)
3.3.2 Team Motivation Letter (one per team, in 300 words or less)
4.1 Fresh Idea Canvas
4.2. Fresh Idea
4.3 Supporting Materials (optional)
4.4 The Earth Prize Mentor of the Year Vote
5.1 Social Media Engagement Campaign
5.2 Final Idea
5.3 Supporting Materials (optional)
5.4 Video submission
5.5 Presentation of the Final Idea to the Adjudicating Panel (14th – 18th March 2022)
5.6 Live Q&A Session
6.1 Footnote Referencing Guidelines
6.1.2 Reference Formatting
6.1.2 In-text Footnote Example
7.1 Upon Registration
7.2 Submissions Phase
Adult Supervisor: Each team must have an adult Supervisor who is required to review and sign off on the Participants’ submissions in The Earth Prize Submissions Portal. Submissions cannot be changed after they have been approved by the team’s Supervisor.
Fresh Idea Canvas: A fill-in template divided into eight (8) different sections where The Earth Prize Participants can provide an overview of their Fresh Idea in a very visually clear way.
Fresh Idea: One of the two submissions required in The Earth Prize Submissions Phase. This is an extended version of the Fresh Idea Canvas, where Participants are required to provide a more detailed description of their proposed solution by elaborating on each of the eight (8) Canvas’ building blocks.
Social Media Engagement Campaign: One of the components of the Finalists Phase, during which teams are encouraged to create social media content to be shared through The Earth Prize social media channels, with the aim of raising awareness about their Final Idea.
Supporting Materials: Any information (facts, statistics, definitions, etc,) which can help develop and/or justify the team’s Fresh and Final Ideas.
Team: Any individual Participant or group of up to five (5) Participants registered together for The Earth Prize competition.
The Earth Foundation: The Swiss nonprofit organization in charge of planning and executing The Earth Prize.
The Earth Prize Adjudicating Panel: A group of world-renowned experts who will be in charge of judging Participants’ submissions to The Earth Prize competition and determining The Earth Prize Finalists, The Earth Prize Winner, and the three The Earth Prize Runners-up.
The Earth Prize Ambassador: An inspiring individual with a strong interest in environmental sustainability who will provide an assigned Earth Prize Finalist team with advice and guidance in a one-on-one call ahead of their final presentation to the Adjudicating Panel.
The Earth Prize Mentor: A university student passionate about sustainability and entrepreneurship tasked with answering The Earth Prize Participants’ questions on The Earth Prize online platform and providing advice and support on Participants’ submissions.
The Earth Prize Scholar: The Earth Prize Participant whose submission has reached outstanding standards according to the evaluation criteria set by The Earth Foundation team.
Language
All personal and submission information must be in English.
Submissions
Participants are required to enter all submissions (with the exception of the Social Media Engagement Campaign) through The Earth Prize Submission Portal. Incomplete or late submissions will not be accepted. All submissions (with the exception of the Social Media Engagement Campaign) will have to be reviewed and approved by each team’s adult Supervisor. Submissions cannot be changed after they have been approved by the team’s Supervisor.
Citations and References
All submissions must adhere to rigorous standards of citation and referencing for source material, fully acknowledging all data, research, and opinion that is not original, using a consistent system. Participants must follow the referencing standards set up specifically for The Earth Prize and described in The Earth Prize Referencing Guide section of this document (see Section 6).
Phase | Time period | Tasks required from the team |
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Registration Phase | 1st September 2021 - 30th November 2021 |
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Submissions Phase | From registration completion - 31st January 2022 |
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Finalists Phase | 14th February 2022 - 11th March 2022 |
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3.1 The Earth Prize Platform
Participants and Supervisors (teachers) are required to register for The Earth Prize using the online platform (www.theearthprize.org) by providing the following information:
For the registration to be approved, each Participant is required to provide their Supervisor’s email address, who will need to register on the platform too. The Earth Foundation will also notify each Participant’s parent or legal guardian that their child has registered for the competition. As soon as the registration is complete, Participants will have access to bespoke learning materials on The Earth Prize Learning Platform and mentoring by university students (“The Earth Prize Mentors’’) on The Earth Prize Mentorship Portal.
3.2 The Earth Prize Submissions Portal
The Submissions Portal can be accessed through the “Submissions” menu option on The Earth Prize website. Supervisors will need to (a) verify their teacher/administrator/tutor status by uploading their teacher ID (or other pertinent form of ID) as well as (b) confirm each team member’s student status at the given school/educational program, and (c) confirm that all the collaborators (students) are registered at the same school/educational program as the Supervisor and that their participation in The Earth Prize is endorsed by the institution.
Students will be invited by their Supervisor to collaborate in a team on The Earth Prize Submission Portal. Each Participant will be required to complete a student verification form consisting of (a) age verification and b) school verification.
As soon as the teams have been created and verified, the Participants can start working on their submissions.The deadline to create a team is the 30th of November 2021 at 23h59 CET.
3.3 Registration Confirmation
By the end of the Registration Phase, Participants must confirm their participation in The Earth Prize competition by submitting (i) their Student Verification Form, (ii) their Problem Definition and (iii) a Team Motivation Letter by the 30th November 2021, at 23h59 CET. The aim of this step is to encourage Participants to reflect upon their interests and motivations.
3.3.1 Student Verification Form
Participants are required to confirm their personal information, including full name, date of birth, and name and address of their school / educational program.
3.3.2 Problem Definition (one fill-in form per team)
The Participants are required to answer a series of questions on the environmental problem the team has worked on, or will be working on, using a fill-in form available on The Earth Prize Submission Portal.
Questions:
3.3.3 Team Motivation Letter (one per team, in 300 words or less)
This document describes why the Participant(s) is/are interested in this problem and why it is important to him/her/them.
At the end of this phase, all registered teams who have successfully submitted their Problem Definition and Team Motivation Statement will be automatically invited to the Submissions Phase.
In the Submissions Phase, Participants are required to submit (i) their Fresh Idea Canvas and (ii) their Fresh Idea.
Submissions Phase | Tasks required from the team |
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Participants will be able to start working on these two submissions as soon as their registration is finalized:
4.1 Fresh Idea Canvas
The Fresh Idea Canvas is a fill-in template which Participants will use to describe their Fresh Idea. The Participants are encouraged to use the canvas as a drawing board before filling in the Fresh Idea forms on The Earth Prize Submission Portal.
The aim of the Canvas is for the Participants to provide a visual overview of their Fresh Idea in a very clear and structured way. Participants can draft their answers using a bullet-point style with a maximum of 70 words per box to explain each building block of their Fresh Idea.
4.2. Fresh Idea
This is the extended version of the Canvas. For each section, Participants are required to provide a more detailed description of each of the eight (8) building blocks of the Canvas. The Participants can use short sentences to fill in each element. Please note that the maximum word count is merely for guidance purposes and the Participants will not be marked down for not reaching the suggested word count.
4.3 Supporting Materials (optional)
Each team is allowed to submit a maximum of three (3) supporting documents (with up to six (6) pages each) that provide additional information (i.e facts, figures, data, graphs, maps, etc.) and that might allow the reviewers to better understand the team’s idea. The supporting materials can be in the following format:
4.4 The Earth Prize Mentor of the Year Vote
At the end of the Submissions Phase, Participants will also be asked to cast their vote for The Earth Prize Mentor of the Year award.
The top 10 teams will be selected and invited onto the Finalists Phase, where they will continue to receive the support of The Earth Prize Mentors and an assigned Earth Prize Ambassador to complete their Final Idea. During this phase, Participants will work on the elements listed below.
Finalists Phase | Tasks required from the team |
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5.1 Social Media Engagement Campaign
In the Finalists Phase, teams will be asked to create engaging audiovisual content for one social media post to be shared across The Earth Prize social media profiles in order to drive interest in their project. Each team will create material for one (1) original post (a carousel of pictures, a video, etc.) which will be shared on The Earth Prize Instagram account to promote its Final Idea. This includes any audiovisual content to be shared and any other accompanying details such as captions, hashtags, locations, etc. At the beginning of the Finalists Phase, Participants will receive a Social Media Guidelines E-book with tips and resources that will help them with their content-creation process. The results of the engagement campaign will not impact the final score of the teams.
5.2 Final Idea
Teams will continue working on and improving their Final Idea Canvas and Final Idea submission, which will include the three (3) new elements.
5.3 Supporting Materials (optional)
Each team is allowed to submit supporting documents that provide additional information (i.e facts, figures, data, graphs, maps, etc.) and that might allow the reviewers to better understand the team’s Final Idea. The supporting materials can be in the following format:
5.4 Video Submission
The ten (10) Finalist Teams are required to submit a recorded video presentation of up to five (5) minutes highlighting the key aspects of their Final Idea or initiative in a clear and engaging way. The video submission can be in the following format:
5.5 Presentation of the Final Idea to the Adjudicating Panel (14th – 18th March 2022)
Finalists will be required to make a virtual presentation of their Final Idea to The Earth Prize Adjudicating Panel. All information provided during the presentation must be in English. Use of translation devices or translator services is not allowed.
5.6 Live Q&A Session
The presentation will be followed by a live Q&A session. The team is free to choose the number of representatives who will answer questions on behalf of the team. Team Supervisors and external individuals are not allowed to take part in the Q&A session.
Submissions to The Earth Prize must adhere to rigorous citation and referencing standards, properly acknowledging external data, research, and opinions in order to avoid plagiarism. Source referencing on The Earth Prize Submissions Platform must follow a particular footnote-based referencing standard specific to The Earth Prize competition.
6.1 Footnote referencing guidelines
Footnotes will be indicated in numerical order and in parenthesis after the content (paraphrased sentence, quote, data, etc.) to be cited. At the bottom of the submission’s page, Participants will find a box where they can list all their references, according to the corresponding footnote number. Each reference should include key information about the source such as the author, date of publication, title of the source, where to find it, etc. All sources included on the references’ list must match a footnote in the text. If Participants need to reutilize a source, they should simply use the same footnote number. These referencing guidelines will be available to Participants on The Earth Prize Submissions Platform as well. Below are more detailed explanations of how to reference each type of source.
6.1.2 Reference formatting
6.1.2 In-text footnote example
This is an example of how the in-text footnote referencing style would look.
The Earth Foundation is committed to ensure that the submissions’ evaluation is fair, open, unbiased and aligned with our vision and mission. All successfully submitted ideas will be reviewed by The Earth Foundation team and subsequently by The Earth Prize Adjudicating Panel, a group of highly renowned experts with backgrounds in corporate sustainability, academia, entrepreneurship, conservation, and communications. The evaluation process will take place in three (3) different stages. The evaluation criteria for each stage of the competition are outlined below.
7.1 Upon Registration
All teams that have successfully submitted their Problem Definition and Team Motivation Letter will automatically enter the Submissions Phase of the competition.
7.2 Submissions Phase
At the Submissions Phase, the (i) Fresh Idea Canvas and the (i) Fresh Idea will be evaluated individually.
7.2.1 Fresh Idea Canvas Screening
Each submission will be rated on a 5-point grading scale as outlined below. All submissions that score above the minimum score defined by The Earth Foundation will automatically enter the Fresh Idea review.
Grading Scale | Criteria |
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5 (Excellent) 4 (Very Good) 3 (Good) 2 (Satisfactory) 1 (Unsatisfactory) |
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7.2.2 Fresh Idea Review
Each Fresh Idea will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Criteria | Definition |
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Accuracy | The degree of clarity and precision in the team’s research and proposed idea.
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Impact Potential | The tangible impact expected to be created by the proposed idea.
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Feasibility | The practicality of implementing the proposed solution objectively and rationally.
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Innovativeness | The proposed idea’s ingenuity and originality.
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Scalability | The potential prospect of expanding the scale of the idea at a local, national or global level.
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Relevance | There is a real-life need for the proposed solution.
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Velocity | The readiness of the Fresh Idea to be implemented.
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Short-term Applicability (1-2 years) | The idea’s prospective demand and relevance.
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At the end of the Submissions Phase, the top 20-30 submissions will be forwarded to the Adjudicating Panel for the Finalists’ selection. The Adjudicating Panel will review the Fresh Idea Canvas and the Fresh Idea using the Fresh Idea criteria only.
7.3 Finalists Phase
At the Finalists Phase, the ten selected (10) Finalists’ submissions will be evaluated by the Adjudicating Panel. Each of the four (4) submissions will be evaluated using specific criteria and weighting.
7.3.1 Final Idea (50%)
The selected submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Criteria | Definition |
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Accuracy | The degree of clarity and precision in the team’s research and proposed idea.
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Impact Potential | The tangible impact expected to be created by the proposed idea.
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Feasibility | The practicality of implementing the proposed solution objectively and rationally.
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Innovativeness | The proposed idea’s ingenuity and originality.
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Scalability | The potential prospect of expanding the scale of the idea at a local, national or global level.
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Relevance | There is a real-life need for the proposed solution.
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Velocity | The readiness of the Final Idea to be implemented.
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Long-term Applicability (3-5 years) | The idea’s prospective demand and relevance.
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7.3.2 Presentation of the Final Idea to the Adjudicating Panel (20%)
Presentations will allow the Adjudicating Panel to gain a better understanding of each Final Idea. The presentation will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Criteria |
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Clarity and structure of the presentation |
Content of the presentation |
Strength of argumentation and use of supporting evidence |
Consistency between written Final Idea and presentation |
7.3.3 Live Q&A session (20%)
Each team is required to participate in a live Q&A session after the final presentation. The live Q&A will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Criteria |
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Ability to answer the given question |
Ability to respond directly to the questions in a clear manner |
Ability to draw on knowledge from the presentation (and beyond) |
Ability to think on your feet |
7.3.4 Video Submission (10%)
The videos must be the students’ own work, in the students’ own words, and may include personal experiences and thoughtful observations. Videos must reflect that the student has carefully examined and thought through their Final Idea. The video submissions will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Criteria | Definition |
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Content | Does the video clearly explain the problem, solution, and impact of their Idea? |
Structure | Does the video follow a logical sequence? |
Creativity / Originality | Is the video original and creative? |
Engagement | How well does the video draw in the audience and keep it engaged? |
7.3.5 Social Media Engagement Campaign
The Earth Foundation team will present The Adjudicating Panel members with an overview of each team’s campaign. No weighting will be given for the Social Media Engagement Campaign. However, it might be taken into consideration in case of a tie between two or more Finalist teams. The posts will be evaluated based on (i) engagement and (ii) content. The final score for each team's Social Media will be determined by adding up the points from the two (2) evaluation criteria.
For detailed criteria, please see below.
Engagement:
Criteria | Definition |
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Engagement rate | Measures the level of interaction (likes, shares, comments, reactions) with users generated from the content created by the teams. The points will be distributed to the ten (10) finalist teams by allocating ten (10) points to the team with the highest engagement rate and one (1) point to the team with the lowest engagement rate. |
Content:
Criteria | Definition |
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Quality | Content is entertaining, informative, inspirational, educational, convincing and relevant. |
Creativity | Content is unique and visually pleasing. The team uses meaningful and impactful content to bring attention to their project. The content can include the use of visual imagery, captions, hashtags and tags. |
Professionalism | Good choice of words; no grammatical and spelling errors. |
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