July 2007
Indian Waste Food Project Achieves Green Award
A project in India to turn waste food into cooking gas was among the winners of the Ashden Environmental Awards announced on Thursday.
Also honoured were a stove design from China that uses crop waste, affordable solar power projects in Laos and Tanzania, and a Bangladeshi solar energy boat project. Each winner received a prize of £30,000 ($60,000) in the five international categories of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.
"Our winners show how sustainable energy can improve health, education and livelihoods and at the same time reduce carbon emissions," said Sarah Butler-Sloss, who headed the judging panel.
"If these technologies were expanded and replicated on a large scale, they would play a significant role in helping us to tackle climate change and poverty. What we need now is the political will to scale up and roll out these solutions."
The Ashden Awards were founded in 2001 by the Ashden Trust, one of the Sainsbury family charitable trusts. They are awarded each year to deserving projects that can benefit local communities and also be expanded to boost sustainable development. There are both international and British sections, with the five international categories sub divided into: enterprise, food security, light and power, education and welfare, and Africa.
China's Beijing Shenzhou Daxu Bio-Energy Technology Company Ltd won the enterprise award, India's Biotech won food security, Sunlabob Renewable Energies Ltd of Laos won light and power, Bangladesh's Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha won Education and Tanzania's Zara Solar Ltd won the Africa award.
There was an outstanding achievement award of £15,000 ($30,000) for an Indian company, Selco, which provides affordable solar power systems to the poor. Its network of local sales and service centres are set up where micro-finance organisations can provide loans to customers. All systems are sold on a commercial basis, but SELCO is committed to providing the service to poor people on financial terms they can afford.
SELCO used its 2005 Ashden Award prize money to create an innovation department, establish new partnership arrangements with microfinance organisations, develop a five-year business plan with the aim of reaching an additional 200,000 customers by 2010, and set up a pilot fund to guarantee the deposits on solar systems for very poor households.
As a result, since 2005 its total sales of SHS have increased from 48,000 to 71,000, despite a 50% increase in the price of small photovoltaic modules on the world market. Four new service centres have been opened, including one run jointly with the influential Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) bank in Gujarat, in which PV systems and finance can be arranged together for bank customers, mainly self-employed women; a real success story for a holistic approach to development
There were also categories for UK awards, the top prizes going to Ecotricity in the Energy Business category, Wood Energy in the Renewable Energy category, Cumbria Energy Efficiency Advice Centre and ENWORKS as joint winners in the Energy Efficiency category, and Woodheys Primary School in Sale, Cheshire, in the sustainable schools class.
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