Bright Idea Wins the Challenge

The winner and runners-up of the 5th annual World Challenge awards were our guests at the awards ceremony in the City of The Hague on December 1st 2009, hosted by Shell, BBC World News and Newsweek.

Achim Steiner - Executive Director of UNEP was the guest speaker at this year’s ceremony. In his engaging speech he commented on the challenges facing this month’s Climate Change summit in Copenhagen and welcomed the winners of this year’s competition. To hear more from Achim Steiner please view the video above.

A record breaking 900 plus nominations were received this year and from these, twelve finalists were chosen by a panel of expert judges. BBC World News viewers and Newsweek readers then selected their favourite from these dozen unique and inspiring entries by casting more than 127,800 votes at www.theworldchallenge.co.uk.

The winner of World Challenge 09 is:

Bright Idea: Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation, Sri Lanka, which distributes safe, virtually unbreakable kerosene lamps to those who can’t afford electricity. The Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation received a $20,000 grant from Shell to invest in the future of the project.

The runners-up, each receiving $10,000, are:

Nothing Wasted: Danamon Go Green, Indonesia, which turns waste from traditional farmers’ markets into organic compost.

Fungi Town: BTTR Ventures, U.S., which uses coffee grounds that would otherwise end up in landfills as nutrient rich “soil” in which to grow mushrooms.