St Andrews Prize for the Environment 2011

The St Andrew's Prize for the Environment 2011 was held at University of St Andrews on the 5th of May 2011. Jonathan den Hartog of the BioLite project was presented with the 1st prize of $75,000. Jonathan said: 'I am delighted with this win. It will enable us to further develop our programme by funding capital costs, hardware and administration expenses.'

BioLite is an innovative cookstove, which provides improved air quality and a clean economic source of electricity inside the home, has won this year's St Andrews Prize for the Environment. Solid biomass fires, used by almost half the global population are inefficient and amongst the most greenhouse intensive systems in the world per unit of energy delivered. Clean energy company BioLite has developed a cookstove that slashes emissions by up to 95 percent and also provides electricity for charging LED lights, mobile phones and other devices used in rural areas where open fires are prevalent.

This year's runners-up, each presented with a cheque for $25,000 were:
Project Meshanani to re-establish the ecological balance in the desertified area around the Amboseli National Park in Kenya provides a sustainable, habitable environment with a positive economic outlook for the local Masai community.

Coconut Oil, development of a hydraulic press doubling the amount of oil which can be extracted from coconuts and significantly increasing the incomes of the people of the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, just north of Sumatra.