2024-2025 Storyfest: Tell an inspiring story to move the Planet Forward

There is no story more gripping than that of our changing planet — and the solutions to sustain it. While problems ranging from climate justice to conservation, from rising sea levels to increasing heat waves, from the continuing pandemic to our plastic addiction, we’re looking for the stories surrounding the people, ideas, and innovations moving the world toward a greener future.

The Planet Forward Storyfest Awards highlight the voices of students, seeking to understand and illuminate innovations for how to best care for the earth. We are looking for stories that inspire, motivate, and drive change. Stories that are compelling, thought-provoking, and vibrantly stimulating. Be memorable, have an impact — and have fun.

We encourage students from all academic backgrounds to enter Storyfest for a chance to win a seat on this year’s trip with Lindblad Expeditions to the Galápagos Islands. Whether you come from a journalism background or are studying engineering, your story is yours alone to tell. Planet Forward seeks to reward the very best of student environmental storytelling in the following categories:

Award categories:

Best Short Video: All video submissions should be one to eight (1-8) minutes in length with HD-quality audio and visual, and include an article, which should be fifty to two hundred (50-200) words describing the video without transcription. All video submissions must be uploaded to Vimeo or YouTube. If the entry is longer than eight minutes, a trailer must be submitted that satisfies the run time requirement.

Best Social Media Video: All social media videos should be thirty to ninety (30-90) seconds in length with HD-quality audio and visual, and include an article, which should be fifty to two hundred (50-200) words describing the video without transcription. All social media video submission must be uploaded to Vimeo or Youtube and vertically oriented (9:16 aspect ratio).

Best Written Story: All written submissions should be six hundred to one thousand (600-1,000) words and include a minimum of one (1) image, where the image is preferably taken by the Entrant, and feature interviews with two to three (2-3) sources.

Best Multimedia Story: Multimedia projects may creatively combine elements of photography, video, audio/music, and other forms of digital art as, for example, incorporated into an Adobe Express story. All photograph submissions should utilize digital images with a minimum of one hundred and fifty (150) dots per inch (dpi) and feature detailed captions, not to exceed two hundred (200) words for each photograph. Each multimedia project should include a short article. The written portion should be two hundred to six hundred (200-600) words and should summarize the submission.  If a multimedia submission is prepared using Adobe Express or similar platform, an embed code and an additional written summary of one hundred to two hundred (100-200) words and one (1) photograph to be featured.

Best Podcast: All audio story/podcast submissions should be three to fifteen (3-15) minutes in length with HD-quality audio and include an article, which should be fifty to two hundred (50-200) words describing the audio story/podcast without transcription, one (1) photograph to be featured, and a full transcription of the audio story/podcast for accessibility. All audio story/podcast submissions must be hosted on a third-party platform, such as SoundCloud or PodBean, and include an embed code.

Requirements for Planet Forward Storyfest Competition

We’re looking for stories about ideas and innovations that can move the planet forward. Untold stories. Misunderstood stories. And little-known ideas, people, and breakthroughs that can make a difference, have impact, inform, and inspire. These are the topic areas we’re hoping you will explore, and can reflect your studies, research, work, experience, or dreams:

Food: How can we feed the planet, grow better food, stop wasting so much of it?

Water: How should we use it, conserve it, clean it, get it to places that don’t have enough of it?

Energy: What are new ways to get it, make it cleaner, use it more efficiently?

Mobility: What’s a better way to get around, reduce congestion, minimize the impact on the environment and the climate? What has changed since the pandemic, for better or worse, and how can we look forward?

The built environment: How should we build for the future? What are the new materials, technologies or designs that will make better homes, offices, neighborhoods, cities and towns? How has the pandemic changed our view of city life?

Biodiversity: How do we preserve and foster our vital ecosystems?

Public health: What impact and takeaways can the environmental movement utilize from the pandemic and/or the response to it? How are climate change and the pandemic intertwined, and what can we learn?

Climate justice: How can we better implement climate policies and environmental initiatives that provide fair and equal treatment to all communities, and prevent discrimination in the systems that perpetuate climate change?

Selection Process

Planet Forward staff will also select Winners in the following categories:

GW Award 

Awarded to a University Entrant whose submission most clearly demonstrates the storytelling and academic excellence of university students, consistent with the University’s mission and vision.

Spotlight Award

Awarded to the Entrant whose submission most deeply highlights underserved communities with a focus on the extraordinary people who are innovating, leading, and inventing to address climate change, environmental degradation and injustice, and unhealthy communities.

A final award will be determined by readers of Planet Forward like you.

The Fan Favorite

All Finalists will be eligible for the “Fan Favorite Award.”  The “Fan Favorite Award” will be selected by a majority vote of 2025 Planet Forward Summit attendees and via public polling, advertised on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Voting for the “Fan Favorite Award” shall begin on Monday, March 31, 2025 at 10:00 AM EDT and end on Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 5:00 PM EDT.

Storyfest entries will be judged in four areas:

Creativity and effectiveness of chosen format/s and storytelling techniques;

Excellence in written/verbal communication and/or technical and production skill;

Factual accuracy, including attribution of facts, data and quotes, and superior research that considers different perspectives; and

Overall potential impact of the storytelling.

All submitted work will be reviewed by Planet Forward’s team of experts and winners will be determined by a panel of independent judges.

Application Deadline

February 10, 2025

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to Planet Forward on planetforward.org to apply

Review the Official Rules, then log into your PlanetForward.org account, or create a new one.

Draft your story on the Planet Forward website.

At the bottom of the page, check the “This is a Storyfest entry” checkbox and complete the entry form questions. 

Change your story status to “Needs Review,” and hit “Save.” You’re done!

Need help? Email [email protected].