Deadline: June 30, 2017 | Register here
Eligibility: Anyone from around the world, aged between 18 and 35 (as of 30 June 2017), who is working on an initiative in one of our four categories; Farm to Table, Opportunities for Women, Waste and Water. Your initiative must have already progressed beyond the idea stage and started making an impact.
Prizes: Cash awards, mentorship, invitation to an Accelerator Programme in Cambridge

Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2017

The Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards are all about supporting and celebrating inspirational young people from all over the world with existing initiatives, products or services that are tackling some of the planet’s biggest sustainability challenges.

The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan

The investment in the Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards is driven by a simple but clear purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace.

We are living in a world where temperatures are rising, water shortages are more frequent, food supplies are increasingly scarce and the gap between rich and poor is increasing. Populations are growing fast, making basic hygiene and sanitation even more of a challenge. Unilever sees how people across the world are already affected by these changes. And the changes will pose new challenges for the company too, as commodity costs fluctuate, markets become unstable and raw materials harder to source.

We believe that business must be part of the solution. And to do that, business will have to change; it can’t be ‘business as usual’ anymore. Sustainable, equitable, long-term growth is the only acceptable business model. Unilever’s vision is to grow the business, whilst reducing our environmental footprint and increasing its positive social impact.

The Plan has three big goals:

1. Improving Health and Well-being
   If we’re going to make a meaningful contribution to human well-being, health is a good place to start. We’re going to help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and hygiene by 2020.
2. Reducing Environmental Impact
   Business growth shouldn’t have to come at the expense of the planet. By 2030 our goal is to halve the environmental footprint generated by the making and use of our products as we grow our business.
3. Enhancing Livelihoods
   We want our company to provide ways out of poverty and meaningful employment for people everywhere. By 2020 we will enhance the livelihoods of millions of people.

Celebrating young sustainability innovators

If you’ve got an initiative, product or service already in action that’s tackling a sustainability problem, or you know someone else whose brilliant work deserves recognition, Unilever wants to hear from you.

This year, the Awards will recognise initiatives in four key areas:

1. Farm to Table
2. Opportunities for Women
3. Waste
4. Water

Prizes

The Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards will recognise up to eight winners in 2017.

Two finalists in each of the four categories will be selected from a video interview process and invited to an Accelerator Programme in Cambridge, where they will work with experts from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Unilever and other guest experts.

A winner will be selected out of each of the four categories. Those category winners will go forward to pitch to a guest judging panel who will then decide on the overall winner of the 2017 competition. The overall winner will receive the ‘HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize.’

All will attend a special prize event hosted in London.

• The winner of the ‘HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize’ will receive a €50,000 cash award and one-to-one mentoring support tailored to their specific needs for a duration of 12 months.
• The category winners will receive a €10,000 cash award and one-to-one mentoring support tailored to their specific needs for a duration of 12 months.
• The category finalists will receive a €7,000 cash award and one-to-one mentoring support tailored to their specific needs for a duration of 12 months.

For more opportunities, check our opportunities sections and subscribe to our weekly newsletters.