[Stoves] ASHDEN AWARDS: Pioneering projects from Bangladesh, India, Mexico and Tanzania win first prizes in the worlds leadinggreen energy awards

Fri Jun 16 19:33:26 CDT 2006

Many thanks to Christa Roth for the press release on "yesterday evening's
"energy oscar", the Ashden Award 2006."

Christa tells us:
Some background info: 
There were app. 150 applications of projects, out of which 11 were accepted
for the final round. 

These 11 projects were grouped into 5 different categories. There were 6
first prizes and five second prizes. In the 'light' category there was a
shared first prize. 

There were 3 solid biomass stove projects and the cooperation of
Aprovecho-ProBEC came second in the African category. In the Health&Welfare
category GIRA from Mexico came first . Congratulations to Omar and his team.
The charcoal stove project from GERES in cambodia came second in the
enterprise category. 

Thanks Christa. Congratulations to ProBEC, GIRA, GERES, and ARTI for your
well deserved awards. 

Tom Miles

-----Original Message-----
Subject: [Stoves] ASHDEN AWARDS: Pioneering projects from Bangladesh,
India,Mexico and Tanzania win first prizes in the worlds leadinggreen energy
awards

Pioneering projects from Bangladesh, India, Mexico and Tanzania win first
prizes in the worlds leading green energy awards

Second prize winners from Cambodia, China, India and southern Africa are
awarded £10,000 each for their winning work 

Winners personally congratulated by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales 

London - 15 June 2006 - Winners of the 2006 Ashden Awards for Sustainable
Energy were tonight announced following an awards presentation at the Royal
Geographical Society in London addressed by David Cameron, leader of the
Conservative Party and Lord May, one of the UK’s leading scientists and
former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK government.

The Ashden Awards, the world’s leading green energy award scheme, reward
outstanding and innovative projects which tackle climate change and improve
quality of life through the generation of sustainable energy at a local
level.

Four awards were given in recognition of the way in which sustainable energy
has been used to improve access to Light, to Food, to promote Enterprise and
to improve Health and Welfare.  An Africa Award was given in recognition of
the urgent need to address the combined challenges of environmental
degradation and lack of access to resources in the region. 

“All this year’s winners show how pursuing a sustainable approach to energy
generation makes financial sense and, crucially, has the potential to
radically improve the lives of the communities involved. We hope that others
will be inspired to follow these highly replicable schemes” says Sarah
Butler-Sloss, Chair of the judging panel and Executive Chair of the Awards.

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Ashden Awards, also
addressed the awards via a video message and personally congratulated all
the winners in a separate private ceremony. A Clarence House spokesperson
said of the meeting:

“The Prince of Wales was impressed by the remarkable determination of the
project leaders who have achieved inspiring results in difficult
environments and often with very little backing. His Royal Highness hopes
that the practical, simple and economical solutions demonstrated by each of
these projects would aid the adoption of these technologies on a larger
scale.”(for photos see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners_HRH_2006)

International 1st prize winners:

TANZANIA: Mwanza Rural Housing Project (MRHP) (£30,000) wins the Africa
Award for, in the words of the judging panel, “using sustainable fuel
sources to create profitable new businesses and provide decent housing while
at the same time protecting the local environment”. MRHP has devised an
innovative way to fire bricks for house building that uses rice husks,
cotton waste, sawdust and coffee husks instead of wood.” (For more details
see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_tanzania)

INDIA: International Development Enterprises India (IDEI) (£30,000) wins the
Enterprise Award for, in the words of the judging panel, “commercialising a
simple, sustainable technology which helps poor farmers achieve massive
improvements in yield and income”. IDEI has promoted and marketed over half
a million treadle pumps to farmers in the plains of northern India. This
simple device that uses human power to pump water up onto farmers’ fields
allows them to grow crops all year round rather than wait for the monsoon.
This stops farmers migrating to the cities for work, allowing them to stay
on the land all year round. (For more details see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_india_idei)

MEXICO: Grupo Interdisciplinario de Tecnología Rural Apropriada (GIRA),
(£30,000) wins the Health and Welfare Award for, in the words of the judging
panel, “the designing and rolling out of an extremely effective
fuel-efficient stove and for providing compelling scientific evidence of the
dramatic health and environmental benefits of such technologies”. GIRA has
designed and developed, in collaboration with local women users, a cooking
stove that cuts fuel wood use by up to 60% and indoor air pollution by 70%.
(For more details see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_mexico)

INDIA: Appropriate Technology Institute (ARTI), (£30,000) wins the Food
Award for, in the words of the judging panel, “its revolutionary application
of biogas technology to an urban environment, transforming food waste into
clean household cooking fuel”. ARTI has designed an innovative compact
biogas system suited to urban households that uses food waste and other
sugary, starchy substances rather than dung to produce gas for cooking (For
more details see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_india_arti)

BANGLADESH: Grameen Shakti and Rahimafrooz Batteries Limited (RBL) (£30,000)
jointly win the Light Award for, in the words of the judging panel, “the
central roles which they have both played in delivering the world’s most
successful solar power programme bringing electric light and power to rural
people.” Between them they have installed 90,000 solar home systems into
rural homes across Bangladesh. Rahimafrooz is also the main supplier of
solar batteries and has helped design the solar systems, whilst Grameen has
devised innovative micro-credit schemes to make solar energy affordable to
ordinary households (For more details see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_bangladesh)

International 2nd prize winners

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Aprovecho and ProBEC (£10,000) takes second prize in the
Africa Award for, in the words of the judging panel, “helping to spread the
adoption of an innovative, clean-burning stove technology across the region
through the stimulation of local enterprise”. Aprovecho and ProBEC have
designed and promoted a series of locally-adapted fuel efficient stoves for
use in large institutions such as schools, hospitals, orphanages and prisons
which radically cut the use of fuel wood. This is crucial in a region
suffering from severe deforestation. With the support of ProBEC there are
now thriving stove production businesses in Lesotho, Malawi and Uganda.
(For more details see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_southern_africa ).

CAMBODIA: GERES (£10,000) take second prize in the Enterprise Award for, in
the words of the judging panel, “successfully commercialising a new design
of cooking stove, which cuts fuel use, so reducing pressure on Cambodia’s
forests, saves users money, and boosts the local economy”. GERES has
commercialised an improved charcoal stove (New Lao) which reduces charcoal
consumption by at least 22%, cooks more cleanly and lasts longer (For more
details see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_cambodia
<http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_cambodia> )

CHINA: Shaanxi Mothers Environmental Protection Volunteers (£10,000) take
second prize in the Health and Welfare Award for, in the words of the
judging panel, “their determined efforts to bring all the health, economic
and environmental benefits of biogas technology to farming families in rural
China”. The Shaanxi Mothers have promoted and installed around 1,300 biogas
plants across the Shaanxi province, that use pig dung mixed with human waste
to produce gas for cooking (For more details see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_china
<http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_china> )

INDIA: Vivekananda Kendra and NARDEP (VK-Nardep) (£10,000) take second prize
in the Food Award for, in the words of the judging panel, “making the use of
biogas technology yet more appealing to farmers by devising innovative ways
of turning the slurry into effective organic fertiliser”. VK-Nardep have
made a series of advances to biogas designs which generate gas for cooking
and have developed effective ways of using the slurry as a powerful
fertiliser using a combination of new and traditional techniques. (For more
details see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_india_vk_nardep
<http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_india_vk_nardep> )

SRI LANKA: Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Service (SEEDS)
(£10,000) take second prize in the Light Award for, in the words of the
judges,“devising and implementing groundbreaking financing packages which
make solar power affordable to the rural poor”. SEEDS has brought solar
power to 51,000 homes across Sri Lanka and has made it affordable to rural
families through simple and effective micro-credit schemes. (For more
details see: http://www.ashdenawards.org/media_summary06_sri_lanka)

Notes to editors
For further information or interviews contact Jo Walton, Communications
Manager, T + 44 (0)20 8487 5967; M +44 (0)7958 480 771; E
Joanna.Walton at ashdenawards.org

Photos:

*	For photos of the Award ceremony, see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners_2006_photos 

*	For photos of winners with HRH Prince of Wales, see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners_HRH_2006 
*	For photos of the international winners’ work, see: 

*	http://www.ashdenawards.org/projects_2006_photos
<http://www.ashdenawards.org/projects_2006_photos> 

* ***** For photos of the UK winners’ work, see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/projects_UK_2006_photos
<http://www.ashdenawards.org/projects_UK_2006_photos> 

For information on the UK Ashden Award winners, see:
http://www.ashdenawards.org/uk_press_2006

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy – now in its 6th year – exists to
both highlight and reward exemplary and successful examples of sustainable
energy use both in the UK and the developing world. Through its awards
scheme and related activities, the Ashden Awards aims to persuade policy
makers, funders and the wider public to recognise renewable energy and
energy efficiency as a crucial tool for addressing the urgent global issues
of climate change, pollution and energy supply as well as the social and
economic needs of local communities across the globe.

The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy were created in 2001 by the Ashden
Trust. The 2006 Awards are funded by nine Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts
along with Climate Care, John Ellerman Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn
Foundation.

For further information on the Awards and our winners, see:
www.ashdenawards.org <http://www.ashdenawards.org/> 

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