The former British sailor and social entrepreneur

Ellen MacArthur

has been awarded the

2022 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation

, as announced today by the jury in charge of awarding it.

Ellen Patricia MacArthur was born in Whatstandwell (Derbyshire, England) on July 8, 1976. A professional sailor, in 2005 she made history by completing the fastest solo round-the-world race by any sailor.

In 2003, she founded the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, which helps young people with cancer overcome their problems through navigation.

In 2010 she created the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to change the production and consumption habits of the world economy and accelerate the transition to the so-called circular economy.

The jury for this Award - convened by the Princess of Asturias Foundation - was chaired by Gustavo Suárez Pertierra and made up of Pedro Alonso Fernández, Eugenia Bieto Caubet, Francisco de Paula Bisbal Pons, Andrés Conde Solé, Laura Díaz Anadón, Beatriz Domínguez-Gil González , Enrique FernándezMiranda y Lozana, Duke of Fernández-Miranda, Luis García Montero, Cristina Garmendia Mendizábal, Mónica Margarit Ribalta, Sophie Muller, Sami Naïr, Juan Carlos del Olmo Castillejos, Ana Pastor Julián, Ignacio Villaverde Menéndez and Gloria Fernández-Lomana García ( Secretary).

This candidacy has been proposed by Charo Izquierdo, CEO of Tornado Acciones de Comunicación (Spain).

The circular economy proposes a systemic change in industrial production for a better use of resources, based on the reduction, reuse and recycling of materials.

It is one of the most important models of struggle in favor of sustainable development and currently has a relevant weight in the agendas of governments, companies and international organizations.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has become a benchmark in the fight for a better use of resources, by introducing the principles of the circular economy in the mission of these institutions.

She promotes what she calls systemic initiatives within the Mainstream project, in collaboration with the World Economic Fund.

Its main areas of research and participation are four: the food initiative, which brings together and stimulates the key players in the sector to make the food production and consumption system sustainable;

the New Plastics Economy initiative, which seeks to reduce the use of this material;

in 2017 the Ellen MacArthur Foundation published the report A new textile economy: redesigning the future of fashion, the seed of the Make Fashion Circular campaign, which it presented in 2018,

together with the designer Stella McCartney and the support of other clothing firms, which analyzes and promotes the need for transformation towards a system that uses better materials, promotes sustainable production and encourages the reuse of resources within the textile sector;

and lastly, the fight against climate change through the principles of the circular economy to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and other polluting elements.

In addition, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation offers a series of information resources and educational platforms such as Circulytics, aimed at companies, or Circular Economy in Cities with keys for public agents.

It organizes meetings and outreach and training activities to spread its ideas and objectives.

It also publishes reports and programs,

In 2020 politicians, managers and other personalities joined his call to promote economic recovery after the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic through the responsible use of resources and the circular economy.

In February 2022, the Foundation launched, together with WWF (Prince of Asturias Award for Concord 1988), a campaign to ask world leaders for a major international agreement to reduce plastics.

A month later, the representatives of one hundred and seventy-five countries participating in the United Nations Environment Assembly, held in Nairobi (Kenya), agreed to create the first legally binding international treaty against plastic pollution, considered by Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Program,

the most important international environmental pact since the Paris Agreement against Climate Change (Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation 2016).

MacArthur is a member of the Club of Rome and a board member of the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

She is a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2005) and a Dame of the French Legion of Honor (2008).

In 2017 the Ellen MacArthur Foundation created the Innovation Prize to reward initiatives aimed at reducing plastics.

The Princess of Asturias Awards are intended, according to its Regulations, to reward "the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work carried out by people, institutions, groups of people or institutions in the international arena".

In accordance with these principles, the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation will be awarded for "the work, individual or collective, with another or others, for the development and promotion of public health, universality of education, protection and defense of environment and the economic, cultural and social progress of peoples".

In this edition, a total of 30 candidates from 14 nationalities competed for the International Cooperation award.

This has been the sixth of the eight Princess of Asturias Awards that have been awarded this year, in which they celebrate their forty-second edition.

Previously, the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts was awarded to the singer Carmen Linares and the dancer and choreographer María Pagés, the Communication and Humanities Award to the Polish journalist Adam Michnik,

the one for Social Sciences to the Mexican archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, the one for Sports to the Foundation and the Refugee Olympic Team and the one for Letters to the playwright Juan Mayorga.

In the coming weeks, those corresponding to (in order) Scientific and Technical Research and Concordia will be decided.

The ceremony for the Princess of Asturias Awards will be held, as is traditional, in the month of October in a solemn ceremony presided over by Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Doña Sofía.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró - the symbol representing the award - a diploma, a badge and the cash amount of 50,000 euros.

the one for Sports to the Foundation and the Refugee Olympic Team and the one for Letters to the playwright Juan Mayorga.

In the coming weeks, those corresponding to (in order) Scientific and Technical Research and Concordia will be decided.

The ceremony for the Princess of Asturias Awards will be held, as is traditional, in the month of October in a solemn ceremony presided over by Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Doña Sofía.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró - the symbol representing the award - a diploma, a badge and the cash amount of 50,000 euros.

the one for Sports to the Foundation and the Refugee Olympic Team and the one for Letters to the playwright Juan Mayorga.

In the coming weeks, those corresponding to (in order) Scientific and Technical Research and Concord will be ruled.

The ceremony for the Princess of Asturias Awards will be held, as is traditional, in the month of October in a solemn ceremony presided over by Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Doña Sofía.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró - the symbol representing the award - a diploma, a badge and the cash amount of 50,000 euros.

In the coming weeks, those corresponding to (in order) Scientific and Technical Research and Concordia will be decided.

The ceremony for the Princess of Asturias Awards will be held, as is traditional, in the month of October in a solemn ceremony presided over by Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Doña Sofía.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró - the symbol representing the award - a diploma, a badge and the cash amount of 50,000 euros.

In the coming weeks, those corresponding to (in order) Scientific and Technical Research and Concord will be ruled.

The ceremony for the Princess of Asturias Awards will be held, as is traditional, in the month of October in a solemn ceremony presided over by Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Doña Sofía.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró - the symbol representing the award - a diploma, a badge and the cash amount of 50,000 euros.

accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Doña Sofía.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró - the symbol representing the award - a diploma, a badge and the cash amount of 50,000 euros.

accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Doña Sofía.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards is endowed with a sculpture by Joan Miró - the symbol representing the award - a diploma, a badge and the cash amount of 50,000 euros.

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