Repairing the Earth by Kasia Strek
Congratulations to Kasia Strek (Poland) for winning the 2025 Sustainability Prize for her series Repairing the Earth. This initiative rewarding photographers passionate about communicating the planet’s biggest challenges is part of Creators for the Planet, a global year-round engagement programme set up by Creo and developed in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation and Sony Pictures.
Strek says about her win:
‘I’m thrilled that my work highlighting success stories of environmental conservation worldwide is being recognised. Among often harsh conditions and multiple obstacles, the people I had a chance to meet have proven that with vision and perseverance, change, even if on a local scale, is possible. I’m hopeful that through this recognition, the work will be widely seen and bring hope that what we do on this planet still matters.’
Strek receives $5,000 plus a range of Sony digital imaging equipment as well as promotion across the World Photography Organisation and Sony Future Filmmaker Awards websites and social media channels.
Speaking about her series, Strek says: ‘Climate change now affects all regions of the Earth, with increased storms, floods, droughts and fires, warming and rising oceans, unprecedented loss of species, scarcity of food and growing displacement. An IPCC report from 2021 states that a UN panel reported that human actions can still determine our climate future. Worldwide, people are succeeding in reversing the trend, halting further decline and restoring what was damaged. In Europe, the region’s largest land mammals – bison –returned to the wild after disappearing a century ago, while in Benin, one of the world’s poorest countries, mangrove forests have been saved through NGOs, political will and local beliefs. Underwater, divers and scientists work to preserve corals threatened by ocean acidification, while thousands of farmers in India have switched to organic crops, restoring soil and adapting to new monsoon patterns. Copenhagen, on track to become the world’s first carbon-neutral city, has cut its emissions by 75 per cent since 2005, proving drastic change is possible.’
