Bioneedle Technologies Group is the winner of the 2012 Katerva Award. Although this project is only in the ideation stage, this technology has the possibility to grant vaccine access to more people than ever before and increase the global population's immunity to infectious disease. Bioneedles, “tiny, biodegradable mini-implants” come prefilled and contain vaccines in a thermally stable environment. The Bioneedle Technologies Group (see www.launch.org/innovators/gijsbert-van-de-wijdeven) is a project based in The Netherlands.

The Katerva Award is the pinnacle of global sustainability recognition, and has been referred to as the Nobel Prize of Sustainability. The Katerva Award winner was chosen from among 51 Finalists, the top five-ranked projects in each of ten award categories.

According to Terry Waghorn, founder and CEO of Katerva, “Today's unprecedented challenges require a new kind of organization, one that optimizes the world's unprecedented interconnectedness, prioritizes action and systematically taps the most innovative ideas on the planet. Katerva is that organization: designed to convene, catalyze and accelerate breakthrough solutions to global challenges.”

This year, for the first time, Katerva Finalists were also part of a public vote for the People's Choice Award, held on Katerva's website. Over 3,650 people cast their vote.

The 2012 Katerva People's Choice Award winner is:

Safe World for Women (www.asafeworldforwomen.org) The Safeworld International Foundation is a women-led NGO working with grassroots groups to promote women's empowerment amd sustainable development, tackle the root causes of poverty and oppression, and bring positive social and economic change at a global level. It is registered in England and Wales.

Honorable Mention goes to ¡Echale! a Tu Casa (www.echale.com.mx), an assisted self-build program that provides sustainable community development through social housing production. ¡Echale! A Tu Casa (put your heart into your home) is commissioned by the Mexican National Social Housing Production Program to help people build their homes.

The ten 2012 Katerva Award Category Winners are:

Behavioral Change: FOLDIT (www.fold.it/portal/)
Foldit focuses on solving challenging biochemistry problems by building a symbiosis between computers and people—through interaction with a video game. Developed by the University of Washington.

Economy: Water/org's WaterCredit (www.water.org/solutions/watercredit/)
Water.org's WaterCredit puts microfinance tools to work in the water and sanitation (watsan) sector. WaterCredit is the first comprehensive program of its kind that connects the microfinance and watsan communities to scale up access to credit for individual- and household-based watsan needs. Water.org is a worldwide project based in the US with staff in the US, India and Kenya.

Ecosystem Conservation: Reef Check (www.reefcheck.org)
Reef Check is the world's largest reef monitoring network. The Reef Check Foundation is a non- profit that started in Southern California in 1996 with a mission to empower local communities through grassroots research, conservation, and eductation to protect and rehabilitate reefs worldwide.

Energy & Power: Center for Rice Husk Energy Technology (www.crhet.com)
Discarded in heaps along roadsides and riverbanks, rice husks are considered waste in many countries heavily dependent on rice as a staple product. However, the Center for Rice Husk Energy Technology (CRHET) is challenging this notion by creating a rise husk gasifier stove that uses rice husks to provide clean and low-cost fuel. Gas produced from just one kilogram of husk can generate an equivalent of 1,920 kilocaleries of energy. The CRHET is an office at the CPU College of Agriculture, Resources and Environmental Sciences, The Philippines.

Food Security: Backpack Farm Agricultural Program (www.backpackfarm.com)
The Backpack Farm Agriculture Program (BPF) in Kenya is an internationally recognized social enterprise aggregating packages of “green” farming inputs and conservation training exclusively to smallholder “commercial” farmers with 2-5 acres of land earning their primary income from horticulture production.

Gender Equality: Safe World for Women (People's Choice Winner, see description above)

Human Development: BioNeedle (Katerva Award Winner, see description above)

Materials & Resources: Pasteurization Technology Group (www.pastechgroup.com)
The Pasteurization Technology Group seeks to revolutionize the disinfection of wastewater using a patented “two-for-one” technology, eliminating toxic chemicals and intensive electricity usage in the process. Based in California, it has partnerships in North America, Asia, and South America.

Transportation: Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System for Shipping
http://www.mhi.co.jp/technology/review/pdf/e481/e481053.pdf
The Mitsubishi Air-Lubrication System (MALS) developed by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Corporation, Japan, is a technology designed to reduce the skin-friction resistance on the hull of a ship by sendng air to the bottom of the hull to create a layer of air bubbles between the hull and seawater.

Urban Design: Agua Clara (www.aguaclara.cee.cornell.edu)
The AguaClara Program is a research program at Cornell Universty that produces engineering design for reliable and sustainable municipal-scale water treatment plants.

The purpose of the Katerva Award is to reward those projects whose quality and innovation provide concrete solutions to global challenges. The Katerva Award Winner will be fostered through development stages by members of the Winner's Circle, a group of businesses and committed experts, with the aim of implementing the winning project for maximum impact.

Katerva's mission is create the world's first truly open global platform for change. www.katerva.org.

Katerva

Katerva

Katerva (Katerva.net) identifies and awards the world's best sustainability ideas and initiatives. The Katerva Awards celebrate radical innovation and accelerate change for a sustainable planet.

Katerva has built an extensive content platform and network focused on the intersection between sustainability and innovation. Its website offers a constant feed of nominee and awards information, commentary on sustainability news, and expert insights and opinions. Katerva has a prestigious global network of sustainability innovator experts, thought leaders and partner organizations that identify, review and award those sustainability innovations making the greatest strides towards a sustainable planet. As well, it is building a social media following so that it may tap into the insights and ideas of the public.

The Katerva Sustainability Awards are bestowed annually according to 10 categories across the social, economic and environmental sustainability spectrum. Those categories are Behavioral Change, Human Development, Gender Equality, Economy, Food Security, Protected Areas, Energy & Power, Urban Design, Transportation, and Materials & Resources.

Following announcement of the 10 category winners in the 4th quarter of the year, a council of high-profile sustainability thought leaders will review the winners and select a grand prize winner. At the same time, an online vote of the general public will select a people's choice winner.

Go to Katerva.net to find out about the world's best, game-changing sustainability ideas and efforts. Keep up with Katerva news on your favorite social networks at Facebook.com/Katerva and Twitter.com/Katerva.

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