Sorted Food/ Kensington Palace
It’s not everyday your burger comes from the hands of a future king, but that’s just what happened when the Prince of Wales lent his support to Earthshot Prize winners.
Prince William was joined by three of 2022’s Earthshot Prize winners to showcase their winning innovations; the group then partnered with Sorted Food, a popular food-based YouTube channel and community-minded organisation, to test their solutions and develop an Earthshot Burger.
“Being joined at our studio and in the food truck by Prince William was a real ‘pinch me’ moment – hearing him explain how passionate he is about helping the planet and what The Earthshot Prize is doing was incredibly inspiring, and has already given us a lot of ideas for future projects to work on with our community,” said Jamie Spafford, co-founder of Sorted Food, in a statement on the Earthshot Prize website.
The three winners collaborating were Notpla (Build a Waste-Free World winner), Mukuru Clean Stoves (Clean Our Air winner), and Kheyti’s Greenhouse-in-a-Box (Protect and Restore Nature winner).
Notpla has worked with William in the past, having created Earthshot-branded takeaway boxes created from seaweed. Their packages help reduce plastic pollution. Notpla has also partnered with the Duchy of Cornwall—now managed by William—to provide plastic-free packaging to The Oval.
Mukuru Clean Stoves helped prepare the Earthshot Burgers on their biomass-fuelled portable stove. The company has developed their stoves in Kenya to reduce the use of charcoal and decrease air pollution across the African continent.
The vegetables used for the Earthshot Burgers were grown in Kheyti’s Greenhouse-in-a-Box. The winning solution for the Protect and Restore Nature prize sees vegetables requiring 98% less water and yielding seven times more produce.
Sorted Food was tasked with developing a burger recipe using the Earthshot Prize winners’ solutions. William told customers: “I can’t vouch for the taste and the quality–that’s up to Kush and Ebbers–they designed the menu, so I’m rolling with it.”
Speaking of what led him to create the Earthshot Prize, William told the team at Sorted Food, “We liked the idea that this is a big deal, this is like something we really need to aim for, but it’s about saving the planet, not taking us to the moon.
“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet.”
On the food truck, William spoke with customers about the Earthshot Prize and its mission, saying it had been in the works so long—despite only formally launching in 2020—that “I had hair when it started.”
This video collaboration is the first of its kind between The Earthshot Prize and YouTube. According to its website, Earthshot Prize videos will appear on the platform to inspire “users to drive action against climate change with stories of urgent optimism from around the world.”
You can view the full video collaboration here.