Sophie Tipper

Centennial, CO

Advocating for youth involvement in policy-making.

Sophie won for her work in the policy sphere in the state of Colorado. She has successfully passed legislation focused on environmental justice.

Sophie Tipper, 2025 Brower Youth Award Winner

More About Sophie

Sophie Tipper fell in love with environmental policy as middle schooler, when she and a friend ran a campaign to reduce waste and ramp up energy efficiency at their school district. So a few years later, in July 2023, when she joined the Colorado Youth Advisory Council (COYAC), which allows students to research and write policy memos that can become law, she quickly noticed that youth were not represented on any of the state’s “green” task forces or committees. She decided that needed to change.

Over the next year, she and her COYAC colleague, Ashna Shah, researched environmental issues impacting the state, met with experts and stakeholders, and came up with a policy memo that recommended adding youth advisors to the Colorado Department of Public Health’s (CDPHE) Environmental Justice Board. Her team then drafted a bill that would require the board to include one voting and one non-voting youth member and presented it to state lawmakers. The draft earned the sponsorship of senators and representatives working with COYAC. But in November 2024, there was a setback: One of the bill’s sponsors was defeated in the general election. Tipper — who is the chair of COYAC’s environmental committee as well as a member of the executive committee — had to quickly find another representative to sponsor it. The bill, SB25-055, was introduced to the Colorado legislature in January 2025. After several amendments, it was passed by Congress and signed into law by Governor Jared Polis in May.

Tipper is now drafting a new bill to regulate plastic pollution. She says her advocacy work has not only helped her cope with climate anxiety, it has shown her that young people can affect real policy change, even if they can’t vote yet. She hopes to encourage youth in other states to create groups like COYAC and maybe form a new group dedicated solely to youth-powered environmental policy.