Geneva/Arles – The Geneva-based foundation Innovate 4 Nature (I4N) has awarded its first prizes to promote innovation and sustainable action that can halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity.
The winners come from almost all parts of the world.
On the occasion of its I4N Day in the French city of Arles on September 13, I4N honored environmentally friendly solutions from numerous countries.
In the first year of the I4N Awards, 400 applications were received.
150 companies were invited to a second round and 20 were selected to present their project to the jury and on I4N Day.
The prizes in the four main categories are endowed with CHF 25,000 each.
Savimbo won in the Sustainable Management of Ecosystems category.
Founded by indigenous leaders in the Colombian Amazon region, the social enterprise provides indigenous communities with the means to manage their forests themselves and market timber directly. Rrreefs won in the Nature as Infrastructure and Green Cities category.
The Zurich-based company has developed an innovative structure for restoring natural reef ecosystems.
Guaro Farms from Ethiopia’s capital Addias Ababa is the winner of the Productive and Regenerative Agriculture category.
It optimizes supply chains for small farmers through direct sales.
And finally, Chemolex from the Kenyan capital Nairobi won the Circular Nature-Positive Solutions category.
The company uses water hyacinths to produce a recyclable, reusable and biodegradable alternative to disposable plastic polymers.
Honorable mentions went to the Munich-based Landbanking Group, the Ponera Group from Lugano and Terraformation from Hawaii.
Three grants from I4N are awarded for innovative solutions that are already successful in the initial phase and have high growth potential.
They go to Coral Bioworks from Puerto Varas in Chile, Protofib in Zurich and Ulysses from Dublin.
Two solutions have been selected to participate in the INSEAD Hans H. Wahl Impact Entrepreneurship Program.
The winners are DNAir from Winterthur and Alien Ltd. from Lausanne.
The participants of the I4N Day selected the Paris-based company ER Soulier for the Audience Award, which is endowed with CHF 5,000.
It offers organic leather made from marine waste.
“Together, we can create a nature-friendly future where businesses thrive, ecosystems flourish and our planet is regenerated for generations to come,” I4N Managing Director Dr. Barbara Dubach is quoted as saying in a press release about the competition. ce/mm