The Earthshot Prize applies urgent optimism and action to discover, spotlight, accelerate and scale solutions to repair and regenerate the planet. Each year, the Earthshot Prize Council identifies five winning projects to support out of hundreds of nominations across the private sector, academia, non-profits and grassroots organizations.
Representing five key goals of the nonprofit, or earthshots, the 2022 winners provide cleaner burning stoves to women in Kenya, help smallholder farmers in India boost yields, draw on indigenous knowledge to protect the ocean, make an alternative to plastic packaging from seaweed, and turn carbon dioxide into rock for permanent underground storage.
Two years after it was founded by Prince William, The Earthshot Prize engaged Oliver Wyman to review its progress and develop a roadmap for the next few years. The Oliver Wyman team spent nine weeks working on three objectives: identify lessons learned from 2021 and 2022 to inform the charity’s future direction; review the organization’s vision, its North Star, for 2030, and design a three-year business plan and roadmap for 2023-25, with a focus on 2023.
Working with The Earthshot Prize has been a fascinating and rewarding experience for the Oliver Wyman team. Having the opportunity to work with a client who is dedicated to driving positive environmental impact through innovation and telling incredible stories has been a great privilege. I feel very proud to have played a part in supporting an organization on such an important mission for all of usPaddy Mortimer, Consultant, Oliver Wyman
Over the course of the engagement, the team worked with around 30 stakeholders, including the The Earthshot Prize’s senior leadership team, board, and external partners, alongside previous award winners and nominees.
As part of the firm’s commitment to its Social Impact program, this work was staffed and delivered like any commercial project, with dedicated partners and a full project team. The quality of work is a testament to the dedication of the team, who consistently demonstrated a strong desire to deliver the best possible impact for The Earthshot Prize.
In a short time, Oliver Wyman built trust with the organization’s leadership team and presented the ultimate output, including articulated current state and priorities for 2023, to the board in December. To support the ongoing impact of this work, the team also developed a detailed Q1 timeline and a custom financial modelling tool to assist with budgeting up to end of fiscal year 2025.
We greatly valued their expertise, tireless professionalism and ability to quickly and deeply understand our mission, business and culture, which they then translated into clear strategic thinking. They were adept at guiding and challenging our senior team to identify strategic priorities. From the beginning we felt that we were all part of one team and it was clear that they genuinely cared about delivering whatever we needed for success – they always went above and beyondFiona Treharne MBE, Chief Operating Officer, The Earthshot Prize
The final deliverables were a joint effort by the full project team with input from Lippincott Senior Partner Simon Glynn, co-lead of Oliver Wyman’s climate and sustainability platform, and delivery support from Executive Assistant David Bairstow, who was vital in making the program a success.
It has been truly rewarding to see the impact our consulting toolkit can have supporting a charitable cause. From a professional perspective it was also deeply enriching to work at the cutting edge of climate and sustainability innovation, with The Earthshot Prize accelerating novel solutions to the climate crisis across every corner of the globeKirsty McKnight, Engagement Manager, Oliver Wyman
