The 2022 Renaissance Honourees:
The Leaders of a New Generation
The recipients of the Renaissance Awards were chosen among young leaders all over the world who are taking action and creating solutions for the future we need. They represent the society making this future a reality.
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Lavinya is a writer, activist, and Founder and CEO of The Black Curriculum. Graduating with a first-class from SOAS in 2019, she has most recently authored a paper exploring Maroon ecology in Jamaica and Brazil. Lavinya was recently named as one of the Sunday Times 50 Women of the Year and was awarded Trailblazer of The Year by Hello Magazine, as well as featuring in Vogueshi and GQ for her activism. The Black Curriculum is a social enterprise founded in 2019, working to teach and support the teaching of Black history all year round, aiming to empower all students with a sense of identity and belonging. Lavinya is currently writing her debut book on Black History ‘Omitted’ due out for publication in Spring 2023.
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Juan Francisco is a young cultural entrepreneur, artist, researcher, and activist in Argentina. He is the founder and current creative director of NODO - Cultural Digital Center. His projects tackle problems such as climate change, social inequalities, and the relation between society and virtual environments through arts and culture. He received his graduate degree in acting from the National University of Arts and a postgraduate degree in cultural mediation.
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Sophia Kianni is an Iranian-American environmentalist studying climate science and health policy at Stanford University. She is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, an international nonprofit with 8,000 volunteers in 40+ countries working to translate climate information into over 100 languages. She represents the U.S as the youngest member on the inaugural United Nations Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. She sits on boards and advisory councils for The New York Times, World Economic Forum, Inkey List, Iris Project, JUV Consulting, Ashoka, and American Lung Association.
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Matteo Ward is the CEO and co-founder of WRÅD, an innovative start-up and design company dedicated to sustainable innovation and social change, and winner of the Best of the Best RedDot Design Award, finalist at the Green Carpet Challenge Awards, selected by the ADI Design Index and finalist at the Compasso d’Oro 2019. Matteo is also a member of Fashion Revolution Italia, and an academic lecturer and contributor for Artribune. He is often called as a public speaker at international forums.
CATEGORY 1
Socially Just
Social justice depends on four essential goals: human rights, access, participation, and equity. Social justice can’t be achieved without these four principles. A world without discrimination.
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Abigail is a youth organiser and climate justice advocate and a young mother from the Kichwa People of Sarayaku. She is the former president of SAMARUTA indigenous youth organization of Sarayaku, and has been on the forefront in the fight against extractive industries on indigenous land for many years.
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Nina Gualinga is a 24-year-old indigenous leader of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
From the age of seven, she campaigned for climate justice and indigenous rights, following in the footsteps of her aunt. Gualinga advocated for better protection for the Ecuadorian Amazon, the inhabitant wildlife, and the people who depended on the ecosystem.
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Alexis a young Kichwa indigenous leader from Santa Clara in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Alexis has been protecting the Piatua River on which his peoples’ livelihood depends upon. He has been on the forefront organising the defense against land degradation and the construction of an ilegal hydroelectric dam on the river that would be devastating for all life in the river, as well as the communities along the riverbank. Together his people have successfully paused the project and exposed corruption in the justice system that was meant to protect the Kichwa People of Santa Clara.
CATEGORY 2
Environmentally
Restorative
A world in which businesses operate within the boundaries
of our planet, ensuring a flourishing bio-diverse future and
becoming restorative by giving back more than they take.
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Vee (Varaidzo) Kativhu is a 24 year old Girls’ Education Activist and YouTube visionary from Zimbabwe and the UK. She is the founder of Empowered By Vee, a youth empowerment organisation, which uses social media to help underrepresented students fulfil their academic potential. A graduate of both Oxford and Harvard, Vee has been named a Diana Award Legacy Award recipient by Prince Harry and Prince William, a UK Rare Rising Star by MPs, and Diversity Champion by Oxford’s Vice Chancellor. Author of ‘EMPOWERED’, a practical self-help book for young people, Vee is an active ambassador for United World Schools, CAMFED and Girl Up Zimbabwe. Vee was recently appointed as a Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, a role that she’ll hold from 2022-2024. Vee hopes to pursue a PhD in Education Leadership and work alongside other changemakers to reduce the rising number of 130 million girls out of school.
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Dion is a twenty year old support worker based in Birmingham. Naturally caring and personable, she provides support to vulnerable people with learning disabilities in her local community.
CATEGORY 3
Economically
Inclusive
An inclusive market economy ensures that anyone regardless of their gender, place of birth, family background, age or other circumstances, over which they have no control, has full and fair access to labour markets, finance and entrepreneurship and, more generally, economic opportunity.
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Lino Marrero is a 15 year old, four-time recognised Invention Convention Worldwide Inventor. Lino is the inventor of The String Ring, The Sole Solution and The Kinetic Kickz. In 2022 Lino was named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 5 ‘Kid Of The Year’ finalists for his continuous eco-friendly and sustainable inventions, innovative thinking, passion to change the world and drive to inspire others. Lino is also a TIME For Kids Reporter and an Invention Convention Worldwide Kid Reporter. Lino is currently working on a couple of inventions and he aspires to start an organisation to promote sustainable invention education with the aim to help discover and inspire other inventors.
CATEGORY 4
Technologically
Balanced
A world in which technology plays an important role in advancing sustainable solutions without damaging human capital and is compatible with the protection of natural capital, bio-diversity, and a productive Circular Economy.
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Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mary Lempres has always been deeply connected to nature and has felt a powerful need to protect it. She is equality inspired by people, history, and the stories and rituals we share: she believes that it is in our nature to care for the world around us and all the life-forms we share it with. This is why she’s leveraged her background in Biology and Art to improve people’s lives, promote curiosity, and to bring us closer to symbiosis with natural systems. Through an interdisciplinary lens, Mary co-designs with biological processes in order to design tools that empower non-experts to harness natural processes from nature where systems achieve near perfect economies of energy and material. By linking nature and culture, she hopes to provide individuals and communities with the tools for resilience, economic prosperity, and social equity. Her most recent projects include: open-infrastructure for plastic biodigestion by mealworms, in situ biocementation for flood resilience, water filters derived from food waste, and 3D printed wind turbines for community microgrids.
method Renaissance Changemaker award
This year, in partnership with method, we have launched the method Renaissance Changemaker Award.
method is on a mission to make positive change so joyful and irresistible it becomes the everyday practice of the many. This award honors a pioneer who is driving change through sustainable design.
The Possibilists
ChangemakerXchange supports, connects and empowers 1000 young changemakers across 130 countries globally. New members join via flagship summits, a unique experience of connecting, co-learning and collaboration with other social innovators from around the world. This is followed by ongoing, and life long, community engagement, capacity building and support for their work.
Through the Facilitators for Change programme, building on learnings from working with hundreds of social innovators 150 civil society leaders were also trained in the facilitation skills needed to create spaces for collective impact.
Through The Possibilists, ChangemakerXchange works towards aligning the support ecosystem around a shared understanding of the needs and challenges of young changemakers and to create the best possible conditions for them to thrive and to deepen or scale their impact.
Members of the alliance include Ashoka, ChangemakerXChange, One Young World, The Diana Award, We Are Family Foundation and Yunus & Youth. This year’s awardees met in the first Possibilists Summit and were joined by young leaders including:
