Three amazing entrepreneurs awarded UNEP Young Champions of the Earth prize

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and American cleantech CEO Chris Kemper announced the selection of three environmental entrepreneurs from India, Kenya and the United States as the 2025 Young Champions of the Earth.

Winners are recognized for groundbreaking contributions that advance a global circular economy and improving environmental outcomes by treating wastewater, expanding access to clean water, tackling plastic pollution, and creating sustainable alternatives to conventional materials. Award recipients will receive seed funding, mentoring, communications support, and a global platform to showcase and scale their solutions.

The Young Champions program, which UNEP founded in 2017, was re-launched this year in partnership with Mr. Kemper, who in 2023 was designated as UNEP’s Advocate for Partnerships to mobilize resources and action around today’s most urgent environmental issues. Mr. Kemper is the Chairman, Founder and CEO of U.S. climate tech company Palmetto and a climate philanthropist. Through the support of The Christopher Kemper Foundation, this year Mr. Kemper co-founded Planet A, a new YouTube channel to drive environmental awareness and action. 

This year’s Young Champions of the Earth winners each received US$20,000 at today’s event. Then tomorrow, the three 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 committed to a future fundraising round. Planet A is filming the competition, and the Young Champions’ leading up to it, to be released on Planet A’s YouTube channel in October.

The 2025 Young Champions of the Earth are:

●      Jinali Mody (28, India): Jinali is 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 by producing leather alternatives made from banana crop waste. Compared to conventional leather, Banofi drastically reduces water use, toxic waste, and CO₂ emissions.

●      Joseph Nguthiru (27, Kenya): A climate-tech engineer, Joseph’s 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.

●      Noemi Florea (24, US): Climate innovator Noemi has founded Cycleau, a compact water reuse system, in consultation with dozens of marginalized communities. The company transforms greywater into drinking water. Retrofitted under sinks, showers, and laundry units, Cycleau significantly reduces wastewater, using much less energy than alternative systems.

 “The lives of our children and our children’s children are already being dramatically impacted by the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution and waste. I commend these inspiring Young Champions of the Earth for their innovations, for the benefit of this and future generations,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

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.

“I’m honored to support the Young Champions program in my philanthropic role with the United Nations; over 5,000 amazing entrepreneurs around the world were interested in the program - all of whom are seeking to make a positive impact on the planet. 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 ,” said Mr. Kemper, who participated in the selection of this year’s winners. “A huge congratulations to Jinali, Joseph, and Noemi for their successful achievements and in winning this highly competitive award.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

The stories of the three Young Champions and accompanying assets including newswire video package and photographs are accessible through the following link (password: Action2025!). Each Young Champion has self-filmed their own video news package, capturing their work and vision in their own words and images. To support them, UNEP and Planet A provided smartphone video kits and mentorship.

The three Young Champions’ journeys leading up to this week’s events, including behind-the-scenes as they accept their UNEP award and compete in the Planet A pitch competition, will also be shared in a documentary on Planet A’s YouTube in October 2025. 

About the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

About Planet A
Planet A is a new YouTube channel, launched with the support of The Christopher Kemper Foundation. It is designed to spark action that safeguards the future of our planet. The Planet A YouTube channel brings together creators, experts, and partners to drive environmental awareness and action through a range of educational stories, contests and collaborations. Planet A is cofounded by Chris Kemper, the founder, CEO and Chairman of Palmetto, a cleantech company accelerating consumer adoption of clean energy, and Court Crandall, a screenwriter, creative director and entrepreneur. Subscribe to @TheOfficialPlanetA on YouTube for original documentaries, features, and changemaker spotlights. For more information, please contact: press@theplaneta.org. 

About UNEP’s Young Champions of the Earth Award

Young Champions of the Earth is UNEP’s flagship youth engagement initiative. The award is bestowed to ambitious young people from around the world with outstanding ideas to protect and restore the environment.

For more information, please contact:
unep-newsdesk@un.org, UN Environment Programme