My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
Yes
I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.
Yes
My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.
Yes
My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.
Yes
If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.
Yes
My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.
Yes
I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.
Yes
Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?
No
I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions
1
First Name
Last Name
Pronouns
Email address
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Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Initiative Title
Planet Earth Games London
Lead Organization Name
Planet Earth Games Trust
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2021
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://planetearthgames.org/
Initiative Stage
Growth (You’ve moved past the very first activities; working towards the next level of expansion.)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Environment & Sustainability
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Planet Earth Games London is a sport-led climate action programme that enables primary school children in London’s most deprived boroughs to co-design and deliver physical activity challenges that build environmental awareness, shift behaviours and support long-term participation.
Challenge Focus: What topic does your initiative most directly relate to?
Climate action through awareness and engagement
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve and who will benefit the most from your solution? How close are you to the problem and/or community impacted?
Children growing up in London’s most deprived boroughs face a double inequality: reduced access to high-quality physical activity opportunities and disproportionate exposure to the impacts of the climate crisis. Many schools lack green space, resources, and capacity to respond meaningfully to climate education, while pupils experience rising eco-anxiety and limited opportunities to turn concern into action. The Planet Earth Games London programme addresses this gap by using sport and physical activity as a universal, inclusive entry point to climate action. Our primary beneficiaries are pupils aged 5–11 in Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets - boroughs with high levels of deprivation, lower physical activity rates, and fewer safe, accessible spaces for play and nature connection. We are deeply embedded in this challenge. As a sustainable sport charity with a track record of delivering in schools, colleges and communities, we work directly with teachers, pupils and local partners. Our national pilot engaged 19 schools and 950 children, giving us first-hand insight into the barriers schools face and the conditions needed for success. By working alongside local authorities, London Youth Games and London Sport, we ensure solutions are rooted in lived experience and aligned with local priorities.
Your approach: How are you addressing the problem outlined above? How are you using the power of sport and physical activity to build awareness, shift behavior, and enable sustainable participation for all in response to the climate crisis? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
Planet Earth Games harnesses the motivational power of sport - competition, teamwork, play and purpose - to make climate action accessible, positive and participatory for young people. Rather than treating climate education as abstract or fear-based, we embed it in movement-based challenges that children enjoy and understand. Schools take part in a structured programme of climate-positive physical activity challenges such as active travel days, litter-picking “plogging”, nature-based games, building habitats for wildlife, and plant-based food initiatives. Each activity links physical movement with tangible environmental outcomes, helping children connect how everyday behaviours impact their health and the planet. Our “aha moment” came from seeing how quickly children shift from anxiety to agency when climate action is framed through sport. During our pilot, pupils didn’t just complete challenges, they created their own cycle-to-school days, started gardening clubs, and transformed unused school corners into wellbeing and nature spaces. This demonstrated that sport can be a catalyst for both behaviour change and long-term participation. The Planet Earth Games London programme will be co-designed with local partners to reflect the realities of dense urban environments, limited green space and diverse communities. By localising challenges and supporting schools with practical tools, we enable climate-resilient participation in physical activity while building awareness, skills and confidence that extend beyond the school gates.
Collaboration with young people and the community: In what ways does your initiative engage young people and community members closest to the problem? What role do they play in building the solution you deliver?
Young people are not passive participants in Planet Earth Games - they are co-creators and leaders. While we provide the overall competition framework, resources and safeguarding, pupils play an active role in shaping what climate action looks like in their school and community. Each participating school identifies young leaders (“Planet Champions”) who develop green skills by designing and delivering activities that work for their peers. This might include organising active travel initiatives, creating new nature-based play spaces, or adapting challenges to reflect cultural and local context. This approach ensures solutions are relevant, inclusive and owned by those closest to the problem. Teachers, parents and local stakeholders are engaged as enablers rather than directors. Evidence is shared via an online platform, allowing schools to learn from each other, celebrate success and build a sense of collective movement across boroughs. In London, collaboration will extend beyond schools. We will work with local authorities, London Youth Games and London Sport, organisations we already have strong working relationships with, through a shared organising committee, which will also have school representation, to align the programme with borough priorities and community assets. This multi-level collaboration gives children a real voice in shaping their surroundings while connecting their actions to systems and partners that can sustain and scale impact.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in raising climate awareness, shifting behaviors, or reducing environmental impact or harm? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had¡, and/or what impact do you envision having in the future?
Planet Earth Games is designed to deliver impact across three areas: climate awareness, behaviour change and sustained participation in physical activity. From our national pilot, 19 schools and approximately 950 children took part. Participation rates were high, and we achieved an 88% favourability rating from teachers, alongside strong endorsement from college leaders familiar with our longer-term programmes. Schools reported increased engagement in physical activity, improved teamwork and leadership skills, and greater confidence among pupils to take environmental action. Behavioural impact was evident in pupil-led initiatives such as increased walking and cycling to school, reduced litter on school grounds, new gardening clubs and the creation of nature-connected wellbeing spaces. Importantly, teachers highlighted the programme’s ability to reduce eco-anxiety by replacing fear with hopeful, practical action. In London, we anticipate engaging 60 primary schools in year one, reaching thousands of children in communities most affected by inequality. Longer-term, we envision a city-wide annual movement that embeds climate-positive physical activity into school culture, supports borough Net Zero ambitions, and builds a generation of young Londoners who see sport as a force for environmental and social good.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
What sets Planet Earth Games apart is how it reframes climate action. Rather than positioning sustainability as an add-on or educational module, we embed it into physical activity - something every child can access regardless of background, ability or prior knowledge. Our approach is deliberately low-cost, flexible and scalable, making it particularly suited to schools in deprived areas with limited resources. The competition and points-based format create excitement and momentum, while the emphasis on innovation rewards creativity rather than compliance. Crucially, we do not prescribe solutions. By empowering young people to co-create challenges, we generate locally relevant responses that reflect real constraints - limited space, time and funding - while still delivering meaningful impact. This “learning by doing” model mirrors the Open Innovation Challenge ethos and builds long-term capability, not dependency. The London-specific iteration adds another layer of innovation by aligning schools, boroughs and city-wide partners through a shared organising committee. This creates pathways for scaling successful ideas, influencing policy and embedding sport-led climate action across London’s education and community ecosystems.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Planet Earth Games Trust provides overall programme leadership, safeguarding, monitoring and evaluation, digital infrastructure and learning resources. We design the competition framework, support schools throughout delivery, and capture impact data. Our Founder, who will have overall responsibility for the delivery of Planet Earth Games London Programme, brings extensive experience of the sport and leadership sector, having held leadership roles across the sector for 25 years, including two Olympic Games and four Commonwealth Games. He founded Planet Earth Games in 2019, leading on organisational strategy, including winning an award at the 2022 BASIS Sustainable Sports Awards. He is supported by our incredible trustees, who boast experience across the sport for development sector, sustainability, fundraising and event management. Local authorities, London Youth Games and London Sport act as strategic partners, supporting school engagement, localisation of challenges and alignment with borough and city priorities. Schools lead on delivery within their communities, with teachers facilitating and young people driving ideas and implementation. This shared model ensures accountability, local ownership and scalability.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your organization up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?
We are setting the programme up for long-term success by embedding it within existing school systems and local authority priorities. The low-cost, repeatable nature of Planet Earth Games means schools can continue participating beyond the funded period with minimal external input. Year one will focus on delivery in four boroughs, learning and refinement. From year two, we aim to grow into a London-wide annual movement, supported through a mix of public funding, partnerships, sponsorship and earned income from schools outside priority areas. By building strong local partnerships and demonstrating measurable impact, we ensure both operational sustainability and the ability to scale without losing quality or inclusivity.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Recruitment of Programme Co-ordinator - September 2026 Programme localisation and organising committee established - September/Ocotber 2026 Recruitment of 60 schools across four boroughs - October 2026 Resource design and updating - October 2026 Teacher onboarding and Planet Champions training (average two per school) - October 2026 Programme delivery and challenge period (average of two challenges per school across the academic year) - November 2026 Monitoring, evaluation and learning review - quarterly surveys with pupils and teachers Planning for London-wide expansion for year two - April 2027
Capacity-Building Participation and Support Funding: If you were to make it as a finalist, you will be required to participate in an 8-week capacity building programme. If funding/ cost is a barrier to your participation, we may be able to offer up to 10,000 GBP of grant money available to support you. Please break down below, if it is the case, what costs you would incur and you would need covered. (Please note that there are restrictions on how the grant money may be used; please refer to the T&Cs for further details (LINK).
Capacity-building support cost breakdown To enable full participation in the 8-week capacity-building programme and ensure learning is embedded into delivery planning for the London programme, we would request support for the following operational costs: 1. Programme Co-ordinator costs – £8,000 Contribution towards staff costs for a dedicated Programme Co-ordinator to: Attend all capacity-building sessions and required workshops Manage internal delivery planning and timelines coordinate engagement with local authorities, London Youth Games and London Sport Integrate learning directly into programme design, school onboarding and year-one delivery This role is critical to ensuring capacity-building learning is translated into practical delivery and informs programme implementation in real time. 2. Travel and subsistence – £1,000 To cover essential travel costs associated with: attending in-person capacity-building sessions operational meetings with borough partners and participating schools across London This ensures consistent engagement across partners and boroughs without limiting participation due to travel costs. 3. Digital and design resources – £1,000 To support operational delivery requirements, including: light-touch design and updating of existing programme materials for London schools preparation of digital assets to support onboarding, delivery and reporting These resources will enable efficient rollout and ensure materials are fit for purpose for London-based delivery. Total requested support: £10,000
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