Environmental Leader

The very first World Clean Energy Awards have been presented (via GreenBiz). The Swiss transatlantic21 association drew up the program for the World Clean Energy Awards. The following individuals were honoured at the 2007 ceremony:

Construction (new buildings, urban development, renovation)
Josefin Wangel, Communications Officer with Hammarby SjA?A??A?AA¶stad Sustainable City, Sweden. Resource consumption in this new area of Stockholm, which is home to 25,000 people, is at least 50 percent lower than the current standard for comparable new developments.

Transport and mobility
Bryan Willson, Chief Technical Advisor with the Philippine Two-Stroke Engine Retrofit Project. The Envirofit company has developed a retrofitting kit for two-stroke engines, which are found everywhere in the Philippines. The kit improves fuel-efficiency and thus massively reduces greenhouse gas and toxic emissions.

Products (agriculture, mining, industry, utilities)
Fredrick Ouko, Director of the Simple Solar Assembling Project in Kibera Slum, Kenya. The assembly of solar cells in one of Africa’s biggest slums has provided inhabitants not only with work, but also with clean energy.

Services, trade and marketing
Srinivasan Padmanaban, Project Manager, Green Business Center and Water Energy Nexus Activity, New Delhi, India. India’s leading center for energy, the environment and climate change supports “green” concepts for improving energy efficiency and sustainable development.

Finance and investment
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, with the Masdar Initiative, United Arab Emirates. As a first among the world’s oil-producing nations, the United Arab Emirates, launched the Abu Dhabi-based billion-dollar Masdar Initiative to promote renewable energies.

Politics and legislation
Li Zhaoqian, Mayor of Rizhao, with the project: Popularization of Clean Energy in Rizhao, China. Home to more than three million, the city of Rizhao, north-east of Beijing, is using a combination of incentives and legislative tools to encourage the large-scale, efficient use of renewable energies. Over 500,000 people have already benefited directly from the scheme. In some areas, solar thermal collectors are installed on almost every single roof.

NGOs and initiatives
Russell de Lucia, CEO The Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund, Inc. (S3IDF), with the project: “Social Merchant Bank” -? Approach to providing efficient lighting services to poor households, communities and SMEs in southern India. S3IDF provides around 5,500 people in southern India with light from a clean energy source. More light means that people can work longer and thus generate higher incomes. It also improves health and safety. The project is being extended.

Jury’s special award
Anandi Sharan, Project Manager, Women for Sustainable Development, with the Bagepalli CDM Biogas Project, India. The project is introducing biogas cookers as a substitute for India’s traditional cooking methods, which use non-renewable sources of energy. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the greenhouse gas emissions that the project saves can then be sold in the form of certificates.

Jury’s special award for courage
Patrick Spears (President) and Robert Gough (Secretary), Intertribal COUP, with the Intertribal COUP/Rosebud Sioux Environmental Justice Revitalization Project: Tribal Wind Power Demonstration Project Plan. The Sioux are investing in wind power. In doing so, they are generating clean energy, creating jobs and earning income for the tribe. This is happening in an environment which presents many obstacles to the development of renewable energies.

Institutions such as the Worldwatch Institute, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the local government sustainability union ICLEI and South-South-North Cape Town, South Africa, were invited to propose winners. Together with other  institutions, they nominated a total of 70 candidates from 20 countries.