How the Goldman Environmental Prize Works—the Green Nobel

The World's Largest Award for Grassroots Environmentalism

Every April, six people from six continents learn they have won the Goldman Environmental Prize — a $200,000 award recognizing grassroots environmental activists who take on powerful industries, governments, and entrenched interests to protect the natural world. Often called the "Green Nobel," the prize has honored 239 winners from 98 nations since its founding in 1989, making it the largest and most prestigious award of its kind.

Unlike high-profile science or peace prizes that tend to celebrate academics, diplomats, or heads of state, the Goldman Prize deliberately spotlights ordinary people — farmers, teachers, Indigenous leaders, community organizers — who achieve extraordinary environmental victories with limited resources.

How Winners Are Selected

The Goldman Prize does not accept public nominations. Instead, a confidential network of environmental organizations and vetted individuals worldwide submits candidates. Each prospective nominator is formally onboarded by prize staff before they can propose anyone.

An international jury — comprising the Goldman Foundation's board of directors and a panel of distinguished environmentalists — reviews the confidential nominations and selects six winners, one from each of the world's geographic regions:

• Africa
• Asia
• Europe
• Islands and Island Nations
• North America
• South and Central America

This regional structure ensures geographic diversity and guarantees that activists from small island states or remote communities receive the same platform as those working in major economies.

What Winners Receive

Each laureate receives $200,000 with no strings attached. But the prize goes beyond money. Winners participate in a 10-day program in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., that includes a formal awards ceremony, press conferences, media briefings, and meetings with political leaders and policymakers. The goal is to amplify their stories and build connections that support long-term advocacy.

Perhaps most critically, the Goldman Foundation provides security and defense support to winners who face threats for their work — an increasingly vital benefit given the dangers of environmental activism.

A Dangerous Line of Work

Grassroots environmental activism can be life-threatening. Several Goldman laureates have been killed for their work. Berta Cáceres, the Honduran Indigenous leader who won in 2015 for blocking a major dam on the Gualcarque River, was assassinated in 2016. Nigerian author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who campaigned against oil pollution in the Niger Delta, was executed by the military government in 1995 — four years after receiving the prize.

Others have endured beatings, imprisonment, and harassment. Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan founder of the Green Belt Movement who won in 1991, was beaten unconscious by police and publicly ridiculed before going on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Why the Prize Matters

The Goldman Prize serves as both a shield and a megaphone. By raising the international profile of local activists, it makes it harder for governments and corporations to silence them. Winners have gone on to become heads of state, Nobel laureates, and leaders of major NGOs.

The prize also validates a model of environmentalism that starts from the ground up. While global climate summits produce sweeping agreements, Goldman laureates achieve concrete, often irreversible victories: mines blocked, forests saved, legal precedents established, species protected.

Founded by San Francisco philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman, the prize was born from a simple observation — that the people doing the most important environmental work often received the least recognition. More than three decades later, it remains the definitive award for those who risk everything to defend the planet at the community level.