For the selection committee, “we wanted to choose personalities within each of [the] categories”, explains Albers. “We wanted it to be a mixture of the usual suspects, so to speak: like Graham Hill, [who] everyone knows from [the blog] Treehugger … We also wanted those who weren’t quite so green; again, it’s that idea of democratizing sustainable design and making it more populist.”
     Currently, committee members are all heavily involved in brainstorming ideas to help the Earth Awards evolve: “We look at this as political campaign, in a way,” says Albers, “and we want to get all of [the selection committee members’] ideas and their sphere of influence and get this to spread out to as broad a base as possible.”
     This year’s call for entries is still ongoing: those interested have until May 10 to nominate a sustainable design innovation here. The competition seeks nominees in six categories: built environment, product, future, systems, fashion, and social justice. Each category winner will receive $10,000 and the grand prize winner will receive $50,000; winners will be announced and featured in an exhibition in London this upcoming September.