NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

The Ashden Awards reward outstanding and innovative projects which tackle climate change and improve quality of life through the generation of sustainable energy at a local level. As you can imagine, the winners had some amazing ideas with the potential to drastically change the lives of the communities they are reaching out to.

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. More general information on the awards can be found in the press release.1st Prize Winners:

TANZANIA: Mwanza Rural Housing Programme (MRHP) (?30,000) wins the Africa Award

MRHP uses brick-firing technology that uses rice husks, cotton waste and coffee husks instead of wood to fire bricks for house building. This technology has led to the construction of 100,000 new homes for the people of Mwanza whilst at the same time saving an estimated 1,500 kilo-tons of wood in five years.

INDIA: International Development Enterprises India (IDEI) (?30,000) wins the Enterprise Award

The treadle pump is a simple device which uses human power to lift water from shallow aquifers or surface water such as lakes or streams, up onto the fields.This boosts farmers? income by enabling them to grow crops through irrigation, rather than relying on rainfall. IDEI has helped install over half a million treadle pumps across eastern India.

MEXICO: Grupo Interdisciplinario de Tecnolog?a Rural Apropriada (GIRA), (?30,000) wins the Health and Welfare Award

GIRA designs and aims to distribute the Patsari Stove – a locally adapted fuel-efficient stove design that boasts up to 60% reduction in fuel wood use and a 70% reduction in indoor air pollution. The aim of GIRA’s project is to make clean, affordable energy a catalyst for local sustainable development in Mexican rural households. To this end local users have been consulted at all stages of design development.

INDIA: Appropriate Technology Institute (ARTI), (?30,000) wins the Food Award

ARTI’s new compact biogas technology developed by the inspirational Dr. Karve and his team of engineers, needs only vegetable residues, waste food and grain. Its daily consumption is just 1kg of feedstock (such as waste flour, leftover food, spoilt grain, spoilt milk, over-ripe fruit, green leaves and oil cakes) as opposed to the 40kg of cow dung needed for the traditional plants. From this small amount of feedstock it produces 500 litres of gas. The digestion process is also much quicker – taking place within 48 hours instead of the 40 days required when using dung.

BANGLADESH: Grameen Shakti and Rahimafrooz Batteries Limited (RBL) (?30,000) jointly win the Light Award

Grameen Shakti has installed nearly 65,000 ’solar home systems’, bringing the simple benefit of electric light and power to families across Bangladesh. Grameen has accounted for the lion’s share of systems installed under a World Bank-backed programme, and uses micro-credit to make them affordable to ordinary households.

Rahimafrooz also plays a key role in the success of Bangladesh’s World Bank-backed solar power programme as a system integrator. A long-established family business, Rahimafrooz has supplied and installed almost 25,000 solar home systems – the majority via POs taking part in the programme. Rahimafrooz is also the main source of batteries for the 65,000 systems installed by Grameen Shakti.

You can also read about the 2nd place winners on the press release.

Via Worldchanging.