The Zayed Sustainability Prize

The Zayed Sustainability Prize, a tribute to the visionary legacy of the UAE’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, stands as a beacon of hope and progress for sustainable development. This prestigious award honours and empowers those who are driving transformative change across the categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water, Climate Action, and Global High Schools.

Each year, the Prize rewards organisations and high schools for their groundbreaking solutions, fostering innovation on global challenges. Over the past 18 years, through its 139 winners, the Prize has positively impacted over 400 million lives worldwide. By recognising these innovators, the Zayed Sustainability Prize inspires countless others to amplify their efforts, creating a positive ripple effect.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize aims to create a better world by advancing sustainable progress, ensuring a legacy of enduring impact on humanity and the planet. This Prize is more than an award; it’s a catalyst for global impact, a celebration of human ingenuity, and a commitment to shaping a sustainable future for all.

The Categories & Criteria
Distributed across five organisational winners with US $1M each and six Global High Schools winners with US $150,000 each. In addition, 10 organisational finalists receive US $100,000 each, and 12 Global High Schools finalists receive US $25,000 each.

• HEALTH – Improving access to universal healthcare
• FOOD – Optimising food security and agricultural productivity
• ENERGY – Enabling access to clean energy
• WATER – Improving access to safe drinking water and sanitation
• CLIMATE ACTION – Enhancing climate adaptation and resilience
• GLOBAL HIGH SCHOOLS – Shaping future sustainability leaders

The categories are evaluated based on three criteria: Impact, Innovation, and Inspiration.

IMPACT
Impact refers to a positive change that addresses social, economic, technological and/or environmental challenges and has proven to make the world a better place by improving the well-being of humanity.

Organisations must demonstrate that their solution:

• Has had a positive impact on the quality of peoples' lives
• Is resilient to potential social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges
• Involves good governance by employing skilled people and establishing fair policies
• Has a detailed plan of how the Prize money would be used to further increase their impact

INNOVATION
Innovation refers to a novel solution or a transformation of an existing solution that solves a challenge or a need, generates value and brings significant positive impact. A solution can be a technology, a service or a business model.

Organisations must demonstrate that their solution:

• Has a unique value proposition
• Is disruptive or transformative
• Is technically and commercially viable
• Is adopted by the market.

The Prize does not award early stage startups, inventions, prototypes or solutions that have not demonstrated any impact on the ground.

INSPIRATION
Leading by example, Sheikh Zayed, the founding father of the UAE, placed great value on the pursuit of socio-economic development that meets the needs of both current and future generations. Continued through the Prize, Sheikh Zayed’s legacy is a source of inspiration for the entire world.

Organisations must demonstrate that their solution:

Reflects Sheikh Zayed’s core values, sustainability, and humanitarian efforts, which were central to his own approach and actions

• Can inspire and influence others to advance sustainable and human development
• Can further inspire sustainable actions from the wider community by instigating behavioural changes

Health
This category recognises organisations that have demonstrated impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainability solutions in the areas of health that include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring access to essential and affordable healthcare
• Improving maternal and newborn health
• Tackling epidemics (AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, etc.)
• Preventing and treating waterborne, communicable, and non-communicable diseases
• Reducing illness from pollution, hazardous chemicals, and contamination.

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Food
This category recognises organisations that have demonstrated impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainability solutions in the areas of food that include, but are not limited to:

• Decreasing hunger and malnutrition
• Increasing agricultural or other food processing productivity
• Ensuring sustainability of food systems
• Enhancing sustainable food production

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Energy
This category recognises organisations that have demonstrated impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainability solutions in the areas of energy that include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring access to affordable and reliable clean energy
• Increasing production of clean energy
• Improving energy efficiency and energy infrastructure
• Implementing clean energy technology innovation

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Water
This category recognises organisations that have demonstrated impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainability solutions in the areas of water that include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring access to safe and affordable drinking water
• Ensuring access to sanitation and hygiene
• Increasing water use efficiency

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Climate Action
This category recognises organisations that are fostering efforts to address environmental challenges and promote climate resiliency:

• Building climate adaptation and resilience
• Implementing sustainable land use and environmental conservation
• Developing nature-based solutions for conserving/restoring ecosystems and natural resources
• Utilising carbon capture, usage and storage

Organisations must also demonstrate a clear vision and long-term plan to further deploy their solution and scale up their impact, as well as inspiring others to follow suit by advancing sustainable and human development.

Global High Schools
The Global High Schools category recognises high schools, or secondary schools, from six global geographic regions that propose impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainability projects in one or any combination of areas among health, food, energy and water.

The Prize is intended to encourage students to develop and implement their sustainability ideas and is not aimed at administrative projects or educational reforms at the school. These student-led projects must demonstrate innovative approaches to address global challenges and inspire students to take active roles in sustainable development.

The application must be submitted by the students and be supported by the school management.

The projects must:

• Demonstrate how they meet the three criteria: impact, innovation, inspiration
• Be able to be implemented and operational within one to two years
• Benefit the school community and/or their local/regional community for several years

Evaluation Process
The evaluation of each submission to the Prize consists of a rigorous, three-stage process. Each category is evaluated according to the three core criteria: Impact, Innovation, and Inspiration.

FIRST STAGE: Due diligence is conducted on all submissions to ensure that they meet the evaluation criteria
SECOND STAGE: The Selection Committee evaluates and scores entries to create a shortlist of finalists
THIRD STAGE: The Jury meets in person to deliberate on the finalists and elect the winners. Final decisions must be unanimous

The winners of the 2027 Zayed Sustainability Prize will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 12 January 2027.

Process Milestones
Launch of Submissions: JAN 2026
Close of Submissions: 22 JUN 2026
Due Diligence Completed: JULY 2026
Selection Committee Deliberation: AUG 2026
Jury Meeting: 15 SEPT 2026
Awards Ceremony: 12 JAN 2027

Get Involved
If you are an organisation with a sustainable solution or a high school with a project proposal in the areas of health, food, energy, water, or climate action, you can submit your entry for consideration by visiting www.ZayedSustainabilityPrize.com.

If you are a sustainability advocate and wish to make a difference, you can support by creating awareness about the Prize on social media.

To recommend a deserving enterprise, organisation or high school, please contact: info@ZayedSustainabilityPrize.com.

Source: Here