On the 25th anniversary of the Ashden Awards for climate solutions, we look at past and present winners from around the world
By Craig Burnett, editor at Ashden
It’s the 25th anniversary of the Ashden Awards – an annual celebration of inclusive climate solutions. Through its awards and programmes, Ashden boosts organisations in the UK and Global South that create social impact, from new jobs to better health, as well as lower emissions and climate resilience.
This year’s winners, announced in a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) on 11 June, join more than 270 past champions. The stories of these organisations highlight huge advances in clean power and energy efficiency since the awards were launched. Data from BloombergNEF reveals that in 2000, wind and solar made up less than 1 per cent of the world’s energy generating capacity – in 2022, that figure had risen to 45 per cent.
Ashden’s champions over the last 25 years show how this shift can create enormous benefits across communities, and particularly for marginalised people. Inclusive and affordable solutions, powering a fairer and greener future, win public support for climate action. The awards were founded to bring these solutions finance, publicity and partnership, which they continue to do. Read on for a selection of winners through the years.
Powerful champions: Ashden Award winners from around the world
Argyll, Lomond and the Islands Energy Agency, Scotland (2005 winner)
ALI Energy won its Ashden Award for community energy initiatives, bringing clean power to remote and rural communities in the north of Scotland. Twenty years later, ALI Energy has grown its work to cover fuel poverty and education too.
ALI Energy supports 500 fuel poor households every year, saving households an average of £500 on their bills. The charity is also equipping young people with knowledge and experience of green careers, and ensuring large commercial developments like wind farms create guaranteed benefits for communities. The area covered by ALI Energy’s work has grown fourfold since its 2005 award win.
SELCO Solar Energy Private Limited, India (2005 and 2025 winner)
SELCO brings affordable solar power to India’s most marginalised communities, with a growing focus on supporting entrepreneurs – particularly women – and transforming the energy access ecosystem. It drives this change by working with banks and others to unlock finance for end-users, by delivering training, and by partnering with government on large-scale projects and policy innovation.
The organisation launched as a social enterprise in Karnataka in 1995, selling affordable clean energy products like cookstoves and solar home systems. It has now sold more than 500,000 products, bringing benefits to more than 2 million people. This includes boosting access to sewing machines and pottery wheels, blacksmiths’ fans, milking and breadmaking machines, and many more income-generating devices.
SELCO’s work with the Indian government has seen renewable energy feature in national policies for textile enterprises, and other small businesses. The organisation also collaborated with four state governments to deliver solar energy at health facilities – creating safer births and operations, better vaccine storage, and many other benefits. This has strengthened healthcare for more than 6 million people.
Read more about SELCO’s story.
Cotality, UK (2012 winner, as Parity Projects and 2025 winner)
Cotality empowers landlords, homeowners and local authorities to create warm, energy-efficient homes – addressing one of the UK’s biggest climate challenges. Its tools, data and advisory services enable users to analyse housing stock at scale, to create optimised upgrade plans for each home, and to deliver efficient retrofit projects.
These projects could see homes improved with better insulation, new doors and windows or improved heating technology. Measures that drive down energy use and bills, improve people’s health, and cut carbon emissions. And with 9 million UK households spending more than 10 per cent of their income on domestic energy, widescale retrofit is needed to address fuel poverty too.
More than 100 organisations, owning more than 2 million homes, use Cotality’s Portfolio tool to assess and manage the energy efficiency of their housing stock. Other Cotality products are used by homeowners and contractors working to upgrade individual homes, by local authorities working to reach net zero goals, and by mortgage providers.
Read more about Cotality’s story.
BURN (2015 and 2025 winner)
BURN’s cookstoves are an affordable, made-in-Africa solution to deadly air pollution. They have protected the health of 28 million people in 14 countries, while lowering the fuel costs faced by families. BURN’s products have cut global CO2 emissions by 26.2 million tonnes, and saved 14.7 million tonnes of wood. Their impact includes reducing the time women and children spend cooking or foraging for firewood, sometimes by several hours a week.
2.3 billion people worldwide cook on open fires or basic stoves, threatening their health and increasing pressure on local forests. The smoke they inhale contributes to millions of premature deaths every year, with women and children most at risk.
BURN meets the varied needs of buyers with a range of efficient and affordable electric, ethanol, LPG, charcoal and wood-burning stoves. The Kenya-based company employs 3,500 staff, mostly young people, and 50 per cent of its workers are women.
Repowering London (2016 winner and 2025 winner)
For more than a decade, Repowering London has enabled diverse communities across the capital to understand and enjoy the many benefits of clean energy. Its groundbreaking projects have created jobs and training for young people, tackled fuel poverty, and delivered funds for local initiatives. Crucially, Repowering London’s inclusive approach has helped communities that have been habitually under-represented to get involved in local clean energy schemes.
Repowering London has supported the launch of 11 community energy co-operatives across London, bringing solar to housing estates, schools and community centres. Residents lead the co-operatives, and profits from the sale of energy (after investors receive a small return) are fed back into other community initiatives – with about £250,000 distributed so far.
Repowering London is also innovating new ways to fund community energy projects. And its working with Newham Council to pilot the ‘Repowered Community’ – a holistic approach that integrates community-owned rooftop solar and green heating, home energy efficiency improvements, and fuel poverty support.
Read more about Repowering London’s story.
ASRI, Indonesia (2022 winner)
Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) supports indigenous communities in Indonesia to reverse illegal logging and deforestation.
The community-based non-profit organisation has designed solutions to the problem in collaboration with local people, with solutions that boosting sustainable livelihoods and enhance local healthcare. These include a scheme allowing people to trade in their chainsaw in return for investment in a new, more sustainable, business. ASRI also supports monitoring by ‘forest guardians’ drawn from villages around the national parks, as well as conservation education for local communities.
In the 108,000 hectare Gunung Palung National Park ASRI’s work has reduced illegal logging by 90 per cent, and infant mortality by 67 per cent. ASRI is also active in the 180,000 acre Bukit Baka Raya National Park, a crucial site for orangutan conservation.
In 2024 ASRI joined Ashden’s Thriving Forests programme, which strengthens forest protection and restoration led by Indigenous people and local communities.
Patapia, Uganda (2024 winner)
Patapia helps refugee women in Uganda launch and grow businesses powered by clean energy. With support to open shops, cafes, hair salons and other enterprises, displaced women can build a better future. But many banks are reluctant to lend to refugees, and don’t understand the economic potential of clean energy.
Affordable loans from Patapia – a refugee-led organisation – help entrepreneurs buy appliances, and its technicians give training and maintenance support. Women can manage the loans on their phones, and there’s no need for a bank account, collateral or credit history. The organisation also helps women form ‘business families’, entrepreneur groups whose members who provide guarantees and support for each other.
This year four past champions – BURN, SELCO, Cotality and Repowering London – were honoured with the 2025 Ashden Award for Outstanding Achievement, recognising their growth and impact since their original award win. To read about these and more climate champions over the 25 years, go to Ashden.org.
