Since 2020, Brighter Green has been a nominator for the Goldman Environmental Prize, which, as its website notes, “honors ordinary people who take extraordinary actions to protect our planet.” The prize, which was founded in 1989 by Richard and Rhonda Goldman, highlights grassroots activism and inspiring fearless leadership against polluters, extractive industries, and those who fund them. Each year, the prize is awarded to individuals in six geographical regions: Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and islands and island nations. Previous winners include the late Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel peace prize winner. A friend to, guiding for, and hero of Brighter Green, Wangari was awarded the prize in 1991.
Since it became a partner for the prize, Brighter Green has been privileged to nominate activists from all over the world, including five finalists and two winners (so far): Sharon Lavigne (who won in the North America category in 2021) and Marcel Gomes (who won in the South America category in 2024).
In its citation, the Goldman Foundation said the following about Marcel (shown left):
Marcel Gomes coordinated a complex, international campaign that directly linked beef from JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company, to illegal deforestation in Brazil’s most threatened ecosystems. Armed with detailed evidence from his breakthrough investigative report, Marcel and Repórter Brasil worked with partners to pressure global retailers to stop selling the illegally sourced meat, leading six major European supermarket chains in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to indefinitely halt the sale of JBS products in December 2021.
Marcel and Repórter Brasil have continued to work with Brighter Green. Through our Animals and Biodiversity Reporting Fund, Marcel and his team have documented in a series of articles and a short film the devastating impact of agribusiness on wildlife in Brazil.
In its citation, the Goldman Foundation said the following about Sharon (shown left):
In September 2019, Sharon Lavigne, a special education teacher turned environmental justice advocate, successfully stopped the construction of a US$1.25 billion plastics manufacturing plant alongside the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Lavigne mobilized grassroots opposition to the project, educated community members, and organized peaceful protests to defend her predominantly African American community. The plant would have generated one million pounds of liquid hazardous waste annually, in a region already contending with known carcinogens and toxic air pollution.
We are grateful to the extraordinary people we’ve nominated for the prize for their pathbreaking work on food and agriculture, forests, protecting wildlife, climate and environmental justice. We also appreciate the colleagues who’ve recommended potential nominees to us.