On Monday 24 November 2025, The London Clean Air Initiative hosted the fifth annual London Eco Champion Awards at its largest venue yet – King’s Place in King’s Cross. With over 150 attendees, this event continues to highlight the significant impact of young people, communities, schools and businesses who participate in sustainable practices to protect the environment and help achieve a greener future.
Sophia Kesteven from Octopus Energy welcomed all nominees, supporters, and families, alongside business leaders and community organisations into this inspiring event. The ceremony recognised those nominated and prized across five categories for their outstanding efforts in triumphing environmental challenges.
The breadth of climate action across London was highlighted through remarkable contenders, from 11-year-old Leo’s Animal Planet raising over £10,000 for conservation and local rewilding projects, to young campaigner Inaaya Ijaz, who has led national plastic awareness initiatives transforming school cultures around single-use plastic.
All the nominees shared a powerful message: no matter one’s age, every conscious choice matters and makes a difference, for today and for future generations.
2025 Winners and Finalists
Mini Warriors (Ages 5-11)
- 🏆 Winner: Leo’s Animal Planet
Leo’s Animal Planet began as a lockdown project and has grown into a wildlife YouTube channel that has raised over £10,000 for conservation and local rewilding in Peckham. From planting wildflowers to installing nest boxes and writing original eco-songs like “Rewild,” Leo is transforming his street, school and community into a richer habitat for birds, bees and other wildlife. - 🥈 2nd Place: Seaweed Warriors – Hampden Gurney C of E Primary School
The Seaweed Warriors designed an imaginative system using seaweed, LEDs and photosynthesis to absorb CO₂ and release oxygen, demonstrating how low-tech ideas can help clean polluted air. Their prototype tank brings climate science to life and shows the potential of simple, scalable solutions in urban environments. - 🥉 3rd Place: Eco Warriors – East Acton Primary School
This team led their school’s “Cut Your Carbon” campaign, creating assemblies, displays and an after-school stall to help classmates and families cut energy use and emissions. From promoting recycling of plastic bottle tops into playground equipment to writing an article for other schools, they’ve turned awareness into sustained, community-wide action.
Junior Heroes (Ages 12-17)
- 🏆 Winners: Inaaya Ijaz
Inaaya is an environmentalist and youth advocate whose roles with Kids Against Plastic, the UK Youth Parliament and her school’s Eco Leaders have driven national campaigns on microplastics, climate education and single-use plastics. Her work has reached millions, influenced parliamentary debate and transformed her school into a Plastic Clever community. - 🥈 2nd Place: City of Westminster College – Performing & Production Arts Students
Performing & Production Arts students at City of Westminster College created a low-impact theatre production for the National Theatre Connections Festival, using recycled materials, portable LED lighting and rechargeable batteries. Their staging of Mia & the Fish not only explored climate injustice onstage but modelled sustainable practice behind the scenes, .
- 🥉 3rd Place: Aarushi Patel & Pedro Gonçalves Gurgo Filho
Aarushi and Pedro have turned their school’s Eco Club into a force for change, from winning a £500 sustainability grant to running eco-refill shops and borough-wide litter picks. Through assemblies to nearly 1,000 peers, media projects with Brent Council and hands-on greening of school grounds, they’ve embedded climate action into everyday school life.
Super Schools
- 🏆 Winner: Jessica Dobrowolski and the St. Robert Southwell Eco Council
St. Robert Southwell’s pupil and staff Eco Councils have embedded sustainability across school life, from switching to low-waste milk deliveries and running an eco-refill shop to building gardens, a living wall and large-scale recycled-material projects. Their hands-on approach has engaged pupils, families and the wider community in practical, curriculum-linked climate action. - 🥈 2nd Place: Plashet School
Plashet School in Newham integrates sustainability into teaching, student clubs and the school estate, from living roofs and wildflower areas to solar PV and SuDS planters supported by the Mayor of London’s Greener Schools Pilot. With STEM and Greenhouse clubs, partnerships with Trees for Cities and RAFT, and strong community links, Plashet models how a busy urban school can lead on climate, biodiversity and air quality. - 🥉 3rd Place: City of Westminster College
City of Westminster College, part of United Colleges Group, was crowned Planet Earth Games FE winner 2025 after students delivered over 200 youth-led eco-actions, from reservoir clean-ups to sustainable crafts and advocacy. Their work has led to green career pathways, partnerships with organisations like Energy Garden, and a formal commitment to cleaner air through the Camden Breathing Better Charter.
Local Leaders (Ages 18+)
- 🏆 Winner: Lola May & the Climate Champions at Paddington Development Trust
In just 18 months, Lola May and the Climate Champions have built a team of adult and junior champions leading projects from seasonal community cookbooks and reusable pad workshops to canal-side rewilding and “Nature of Things” salon evenings. Working in some of London’s most polluted and deprived wards, they’ve engaged nearly 5,000 residents and created a vibrant, hopeful culture of local climate action. - 🥈 2nd Place: Silvia Pedretti
Silvia leads Global Generation’s Generator project at the Story Garden, using nature, food growing and outdoor experiences to connect young people—often from marginalised communities—with ecology and each other. Her long-term, joyful leadership has changed lives, with former participants returning as young eco-champions themselves, a testament to her profound and quiet impact. - 🥉 3rd Place: Olu Shobowale
Through Papertunity, Olu runs creative workshops, after-school clubs and community events where children transform recycled paper into art while learning about waste reduction and environmental responsibility. His holistic, hands-on approach embeds sustainability into play, education and family life, nurturing a new generation of eco-conscious young people.
Better Business
- 🏆 Winner: Surplus to Supper
Surplus to Supper rescues edible surplus food from restaurants, shops and farms and turns it into meals for people experiencing food insecurity, while helping partner businesses cut waste and costs. Through recycling initiatives, youth engagement and partnerships with schemes like DofE and ROTL, they combine environmental impact with social inclusion and skills-building. - 🥈 2nd Place: Work and Play Scrapstore
Work and Play Scrapstore in Tooting has spent nearly four decades diverting over 60 tonnes of business surplus from landfill each year, redistributing it—mostly for free—to schools, artists, community groups and families for creative reuse. With affordable memberships, extensive volunteering and award-winning outreach, it is a cornerstone of the local circular economy and a lifeline for budget-stretched educators and makers. - 🥉 3rd Place: Compost Collective
Compost Collective is a BAME women-led initiative designing on-site composting systems and education programmes for schools, universities and businesses, turning food waste into healthy soil and learning opportunities. From piloting schemes at UAL and Here East to working with primary schools and councils, they are building a network of composting communities that link waste reduction, biodiversity and social connection.
A Growing Movement
Since its inception as a small Camden initiative, the London Eco Champion Awards has grown into a city-wide platform for grassroots climate action. This year’s event, hosted by The London Clean Air Initiative’s Community Director, Valeria Pensabene, celebrated the inspiring grassroots efforts of Londoners committed to a sustainable future.
Georgina McGivern, Co-Founder of The London Clean Air Initiative, highlighted the growing influence of the awards each year. “These finalists show that meaningful climate action is happening on every street, in every classroom and in every corner of London,’’ she said. “It is an honour for the TLCAI team to present awards to such deserving individuals who are driving real, systemic change across our incredible city.”
Congratulations to all the nominees, finalists and winners who made the London Eco Champion Awards a powerful reminder of how inspiring sustainable choices and environmental action can be.
Together, through actions big and small we are stepping towards a brighter, greener future.