Our inaugural YEAA! awardees

Launched in April 2021, the annual Young Environment Ambassador Award was established to celebrate three exceptional young people from around the world who are making an extraordinary contribution to protect nature and the environment. Recognised as inspiring young leaders, the awardees will get access to BESTSELLER and BESTSELLER Foundation’s network, as well as mentorship and USD 5,000.

Meet Idah Murithi, Shashwat Gangwal and Doris Vertegaal - our inaugural YEAA! winners

Idah has been selected for her community work with the human-elephant conflict. The 23-year-old hails from Kenya and is a student at the African Leadership University in Rwanda. Idah’s efforts include the development of a community education programme on elephant conservation.

Shashwat, 24, is focused on eliminating single-use plastics in India. His start-up InfinityBox has developed a reusable container system for takeaway restaurants, while he has also founded India’s first podcast on the circular economy.

Doris is committed to global food security and is studying a Masters in Climate Studies at Wageningen University & Research in her homeland of The Netherlands. The 23-year-old works part-time at CGIAR – a multistakeholder organisation dedicated to food security research – and has organised various awareness-raising events with organisations such as Rabobank, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Bayer.

For more information about the selection criteria, please click here. The nomination process for 2022 is now open!