Key facts
- Who: Six young environmental leaders from the United States, Mexico and Canada
- What: Named winners of the 2026 Brower Youth Awards for Environmental Leadership
- Announced by: Earth Island Institute’s New Leaders Initiative, on 6 October 2026
- Ceremony: Monday 19 October 2026, Berkeley, California
- Why it matters: Now in its 27th year, the award recognises youth-led climate and conservation work that delivers measurable results — from habitat restoration to clean energy and climate policy
Six young environmental leaders have been named the 2026 winners of the Brower Youth Awards for Environmental Leadership, one of North America’s most established honours for youth climate action. The announcement, made on 6 October 2026 by Earth Island Institute’s New Leaders Initiative, recognises six people aged 19 to 21 whose work spans habitat restoration, pollinator protection, wildfire recovery, clean energy, school climate policy and climate education.
Now in its 27th year, the Brower Youth Awards have honoured more than 160 young environmentalists since 2000. The programme also gives winners leadership training, networking opportunities and a public platform to amplify their work.
Restoring habitats, seed by seed
Esther Bonney, 19, of La Plata, Maryland, founded the nonprofit Nurture Natives in 2022 to promote native biodiversity across the Chesapeake Bay region. Working with dozens of partner organisations, the group runs educational programmes and native plant giveaways. According to the award announcement, Nurture Natives has engaged more than 15,000 young people, facilitated the planting of three million native seeds and restored over 420 acres of habitat across Maryland. Her work previously earned the 2024 Presidential Environmental Youth Award.
Protecting the pollinators
Kaitlyn Culbert, 20, of Toms River, New Jersey, is on a mission to protect pollinators. As a high school student, she published a study in Harvard’s Journal of Emerging Investigators finding a correlation between greater access to native plants and improved honeybee health and survival. She then created a State-by-State Native Plant Compendium covering local native plants in all 50 US states. In 2023 she worked with New Jersey legislators on the “Parks, Plants, and Pollinators” bill, which would prohibit planting non-native species in state parks and forests, and in 2025 she introduced a congressional bill that would ban neonicotinoid pesticides on federal lands.
From city hikes to wildfire recovery
Garrett Ordonez, 21, of Los Angeles, California, founded Hike for Habitats at the University of Southern California in the autumn of 2024, pairing guided hikes with hands-on conservation work so students help heal the ecosystems they explore. After the Eaton and Palisades wildfires of 2025, the group mobilised volunteers to assist with debris removal and recovery efforts in Altadena. What began as a five-person team has grown into a community of 600 people.
Clean energy from waste
Maritza Sanchez, 21, of Cuautlancingo, Puebla, Mexico, grew up surrounded by pollution. As a high school student she developed a concept for microbial fuel cells that could reuse materials from discarded local waste to generate electricity for energy-poor households and improve water quality along the heavily contaminated Atoyac River. In 2025 she founded Aquayac Energy, where she designs, builds and tests microbial fuel cell prototypes, checks water quality after treatment and measures energy generation. She expects to scale the project over the coming year and produce 50 functional fuel cells by 2027.
School climate action at scale
Ojas Sanghi, 21, of Tucson, Arizona, saw that districtwide climate action could lower his school district’s greenhouse gas emissions, reduce students’ exposure to air pollution and bring young people into the climate movement. As co-lead of the Tucson branch of the Arizona Youth Climate Coalition, he mobilised a team of 15 students. Following letter campaigns, climate strikes and a Tucson climate summit, the Tucson Unified School District adopted what the award announcement describes as the most comprehensive school climate action resolution in the country in 2024. Sanghi now leads implementation efforts and is helping other student groups replicate the coalition’s success.
A voice for youth in climate policy
Renee Zhao, 19, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, served as director of climate education for the Canadian Youth Climate Action Team from 2024 to 2025. She developed curriculum resources that make environmental issues accessible for students from elementary through high school; the team’s educational programmes have reached more than 300,000 young people around the world. In 2025 she helped organise the first-ever BC Students’ Climate Policy Meeting with members of parliament, where youth advocates representing some 10,000 students pushed for environmental education, emission caps and equitable climate policies.
The ceremony
The six winners will be honoured at the 27th annual Brower Youth Awards Ceremony in Berkeley, California, on Monday 19 October 2026. The award is a signature programme of Earth Island Institute’s New Leaders Initiative, which describes the awards as a way to cultivate the next generation of environmental leaders by giving winners leadership training, networks and a stage for their achievements.
For more climate coverage, see Watan News International’s climate section.
