BuckyBall Honors Paradigm Definers

The Buckminster Fuller Institute awarded their 5th Annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge award and $100,000 to The Living Building Challenge, a Seattle-based NGO "building standard framework and certification program that is defining the highest possible level of environmental performance in the built environment." The award was presented as the finale to a day-long event hosted by the Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design in New York City on Saturday, June 9. The event included presentations by the winner and runner-up, a keynote presentation by Dr. John Todd, and a roundtable discussion with awards jurors. 

"If Bucky Fuller were with us today," said Challenge Juror Kenny Ausubel, "he'd be smiling because the Living Building Challenge exemplifies his mission statement for humanity: 'To make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense for the disadvantage of anyone.' The Living Building Challenge is especially important at this make-it-or-break-it moment when humanity must rapidly address climate change in disruptive, systemic ways. At a cusp when world populations continue to place increasingly radical strains on the biosphere, innovating on how we redesign the built environment is imperative."

Quoting from the Buckminster Fuller Institute press release, the following were among the top contenders for the $100,000 prize:

Future of Fish, a nonprofit accelerator for entrepreneurs launching market-based initiatives that drive sustainability, efficiency, and traceability in the seafood supply chain, was named Runner-Up. It focuses specifically on industry pioneers whose planned initiatives are directly aligned with their own mission and whose ideas are considered too nascent to secure traditional financing without the additional strategic and operational support Future of Fish provides.

The Honorable Mentions were:

Eco-Fuel Africa Limited works with rural farmers in Africa to make clean cooking fuel and organic fertilizers called biochar from agricultural waste like coffee husks and sugarcane waste. Providing farmers with access to free organic fertilizers, they are reducing indoor air pollution and cost of fuel, combating deforestation, enhancing the fertility of depleted farming soils, boosting rural incomes, and empowering communities.

The Water Retention Landscape of Tamera, is a model for natural decentralized water management, restoration of damaged ecosystems and disaster prevention. It is a basis for reforestation, agriculture and aquaculture, especially in regions threatened by desertification, and is an integral part of a comprehensive model for sustainability in water, food, energy and social structures.

For a list of former Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award Winners, click here. 

image by fdecomite, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.