Announcing Geo for Good Impact Awards: Recognizing our community
By Devaja Shah, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach
Since the launch of Google Earth a couple of decades ago, and the launch of Earth Engine over a decade ago, both tools have been used to protect ecosystems, biodiversity, and other environmental resources, to mitigate climate change by reducing carbon emissions, to help people and nature adapt to the impacts of climate change.
There have been incredible projects over the last decades with real-world impacts, from saving elephants to mapping mountaintop removal, from conserving ecosystems to protecting biodiversity, from mapping temperature and drought to mapping biodiversity indicators.
Through the Geo for Good Impact Awards program we’re launching today, we want to recognize the collective impact and contributions made by users, partners, changemakers and communities who’ve used Google’s mapping tools to drive environmental change.
What are Geo for Good Impact Awards?
Geo for Good Impact Awards are our way of recognizing and awarding organizations for projects that have had real-world impact using Google’s mapping tools. We want to hear about projects that focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation or nature protection & conservation.
Every awardee will receive a certificate of recognition, a digital badge to post online and a chance to get featured on Google Earth’s social channels (YouTube, X or our Medium blog).
Learn more about the program on our website. Nominate your project for a Geo for Good Impact Award here.
The last date to apply to be considered for our 2023 Impact Awards is Nov 10, 2023; applications will remain open until Mar 2024 for the next cohort.
Geo for Good Impact Awardees
Earlier, at this year’s Geo for Good Summit, we announced our first cohort of 33 Impact Awardees from summit attendees who applied to join the event and were recognized under the Impact Awards program.
Here’s some notable mentions of the work done by our first cohort of Impact Awardees:
- The Nature Conservancy uses Earth Engine for fire monitoring and conservation decisions across 6.7 million ha in the Kafue Ecosystem. ~200,000 people living in the Kafue System, who are dependent on the natural resources provided, are impacted by the improved land-use planning and protection/conservation of natural resources.
- The Firelight Group is helping 300+ indigenous communities in Canada protect, conserve and manage over 100 sq kms of indigenous territories from encroachment of large-scale energy developments. Firelight uses Google Earth Pro (desktop) to document indigenous knowledge of land use that inform Indigenous Protected and Conservation Area (IPCA) plans and community climate adaptation plans.
- Oromia Environmental Protection Authority uses Earth Engine and Google Earth to monitor land use land cover changes and protect and manage degraded landscapes. OEPA has reduced 1.8 MT of CO2e and helped protect more than 300,000 ha of forest lands
Here’s our first cohort of Impact Awardees! Stay tuned to our channels to learn more about their projects:
- Arctic Eider Society
- Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)
- BAERI
- Blue Ventures
- Cayes Botanical Garden
- Conservation Science Partners
- Desert Research Institute
- Ecam
- Ecociencia / MapBiomas
- enggana
- Farmer’s Business Network, Inc.
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology
- Mara Elephant Project
- NASA
- NASA Ames Research Center
- Nature Metrics
- Oromia Environmental Protection Authority, REDD+
- Rainforest Connection
- RedCastle Resources
- Restor
- SERVIR
- SilvaCarbon
- The Firelight Group
- The Nature Conservancy
- The Nature Conservancy — California
- United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
- University of Montana
- University of Victoria
- Urban Systems Lab
- USDA Forest Service
- Wildlife Conservation Society
You can be the next Geo for Good Impact Awardee, come and join the community!
👉 Apply now: g.co/earth/impact-awards
