Global Winners Honoured for Sustainable Energy Innovation

The Ashden Awards, a celebration of international innovation and creativity in the sustainable energy industry. At this year’s Ashden Awards twelve organisations from across the globe have been announced as winners. Winners were presented with their Award at a ceremony hosted by BBC journalist Mishal Husain at the Royal Geographical Society in London last week.

This year’s winners are all at the forefront of innovation when it comes to excellence in sustainable energy.  Included are forward thinking businesses using smart technology to influence how energy is managed in the UK to a Chinese green buildings specialist to a global solar light manufacturer that has reached more than five million households.

The winners of the 2016 Ashden Awards are:

UK Award winners

Cosy Homes in Lancashire (CHiL), a partnership between 14 local authorities  helping to prevent fuel poverty in some of the most deprived areas of the county,  wins the Ashden Award for Sustainable Homes, supported by the Berkeley Group.

Low Carbon Hub in Oxfordshire is a plucky social enterprise determined to put renewable energy in the hands of local people.  The organisation is a joint winner of the Ashden Award for Sustainable Communities, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Open Energi – winner of the Impax Ashden Award for Energy Innovation – works with large power-hungry clients to shift their demand for energy in real time, reducing stress on the national grid and helping create the right environment for renewable energy.

The Mayor of London’s highly successful RE:FIT London programme has so far supported the energy efficiency retrofit of more than 600 public sector buildings in London, making huge cost and carbon savings. RE:FIT London wins the Ashden Award for Sustainable Buildings, supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation.

Repowering London works with communities living in social housing in Brixton and Hackney to support them to install and manage their own solar installations Repowering also offers training and employment opportunities to young residents and is a joint winner of the Ashden Award for Sustainable Communities.

Tempus Energy aims to change the way the world buys and uses electricity, using smart equipment to connect customers with the cheapest available energy prices.  Tempus wins the Ashden Award for Smart Energy.

International Award winners

Bridges to Prosperity not only builds bridges but also teaches communities how to build and maintain these connections to healthcare, education and employment.  In total the organisation has completed 180 bridges in the past 14 years, serving more than 800,000 users, and wins the Eurostar Ashden Award for Sustainable Travel.

In India Frontier Markets provide high quality solar lamps and systems to hard-to-reach villages, using a network of trained women called Solar Sahelis. The organisation has sold over 100,000 in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, and wins the Ashden Award for Clean Energy for Women and Girls, supported by UK aid.

Greenlight Planet has reached more than four million households in remote regions of the world with its reliable solar products and are well on their way in their mission to deliver light that everyone can afford.  Greenlight Planet wins the Ashden Award for Increasing Energy Access, supported by the IKEA Foundation.

Nazava water filters – winner of the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy and Water, supported by the Waterloo Foundation – enable lower income households in Indonesia to purify their well or tap water without the need to boil it by burning wood or using electricity. This reduces disease and sickness, lowers household costs and reduces CO₂ emissions.

Shanghai Landsea Planning & Architectural Design Co.Ltd is a leading practitioner of green buildings in China, boasting more than 40 projects totalling 2.5 million m². Landsea wins the Ashden Award for Sustainable Buildings, supported by Grosvenor.

SunFunder in Tanzania is unlocking reliable continuous capital for beyond-the-grid solar companies by providing investors the opportunity to lend to a carefully selected portfolio of solar businesses and has so far provided over $8 million of finance in ten countries. SunFunder wins the Ashden Award for Innovative Finance, supported by Citi.

Sarah Butler-Sloss, Ashden’s Founder Director, said: “The winners of this year’s Ashden Awards are really pushing the boundaries when it comes to innovation, being ahead of the curve and working towards our vision of a world where everyone has access to affordable clean energy.  We are proud to have the opportunity to support their game-changing work.”

The Ashden Awards were established in 2001 to reward and promote sustainable energy trailblazers and help accelerate the transition to a low-carbon world.  Each winner receives prize money as well as tailored support to scale up their work.