Finalists Announced for the Sankalp-Alliance Award for Innovation in Clean Cooking Solutions
For the second consecutive year, Sankalp Forum and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will offer the Sankalp-Alliance Award for Innovation in Clean Cooking Solutions 2014 to support early stage clean cooking businesses doing business in India.
The Alliance is pleased to announce that the three finalists for the Sankalp-Alliance Award for Innovation in Clean Cooking Solutions 2014 are:
- NoKooda brings a fresh perspective on decentralization of Waste to Energy projects at an affordable cost. They implement a Decentralized Organic Reject Management (DORM) solution, which converts organic waste into clean energy sources and products such as organic animal feed and fertilizer.
- Swami Samarth Electronics have developed ‘Agneeka’ – a fuel efficient yet affordable cookstove – that can use wood, coal, biomass pellets, and rice husks as fuel. Swami Samarth will manufacture and distribute this product through local entrepreneurs.
- Dharma Life sells a portfolio of socially impactful products such as solar lighting, improved cookstoves, and water purifiers through their network of rural entrepreneurs. By 2020, Dharma Life aims to recruit, train, and mentor more than 100,000 entrepreneurs, which will help improve the lives of more than 50 million people.
The finalists will receive strategic mentorship, technical assistance, investor readiness support, and attend a residential boot-camp to selected emerging enterprises. They will present their businesses to global investors and networks at the Sankalp Unconvention Summit in April 2014 and compete for a grant of US$ 15,000.
In addition to the Sankalp-Alliance Award for Innovation in Clean Cooking Solutions 2014 finalists, there are also two clean cooking businesses nominated in the clean energy category – Navdurga Metal Industries and Pollinate Energy.
Please visit the Sankalp website and vote for your favorite clean cooking business! The enterprise that receives the highest number of votes will be recognized as the winner of the Popular Choice Award at the Sankalp Unconvention Summit 2014.
Sankalp Africa Notes
Clean cooking was also featured at the first ever Sankalp Africa Summit on February 12-13, 2014. The Summit gathered over 450 entrepreneurs, capacity building organizations, and investors focused on African social enterprise. Alliance partners were present throughout the two day event. The Summit’s Innovation Showcase featured Emerging Cooking Solutions and Biolite. Envirofit was also featured for its work on South-South collaboration and Takamoto Biogas, a pay-as-you-go biogas solution, was also given the Special Recognition Award from the Grand Jury for the Sankalp Africa Awards.
The Alliance took advantage of the large number of entrepreneurs to co-host an entrepreneur round table with the Global Social Benefit Institute. Nearly 40 entrepreneurs gathered from all sectors to share their needs for resources to scale up their companies. This information will be incorporated into future Alliance capacity building initiatives. Look for further updates on the Alliance’s work to build capacity of social enterprises in the coming months.