Zayed Future Energy Prize 2013 Award Ceremony receives WindMade renewable energy label

19.1.2013 The 2013 award ceremony took place on 15 January at the Emirates Palace during the inaugural Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

Abu Dhabi/Brussel - Zayed Future Energy Prize, the world's pre-eminent award for innovation in renewable energy and sustainability, announced that this year's award ceremony has obtained the WindMade renewable energy label, certifying that the event was entirely powered by wind energy.



The Zayed Future Energy Prize is a US$4million prize for individuals, organisations and schools working to find solutions to tackle the global challenges of energy, water and sustainability. In 2011, the world's leading wind turbine manufacturer Vestas was awarded the first place in the prestigious prize, and donated half of its US$1.5 million prize money to the WindMade initiative.



As an independent non-governmental organisation, WindMade strives to raise demand and corporate investment in renewable energy by educating consumers on the benefits of clean technologies and by providing a tool for corporates to effectively communicate their commitment to wind power and other renewable energy sources.



"The WindMade initiative is an innovative way of promoting the use of renewable energy, and it is a great honour for us to be certified by an initiative that the Prize has supported. WindMade has grown to become one of the most coveted certifications in the wind power industry and this is truly a great testament to how the prize is catalysing innovation," said Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, director general of the Zayed Future Energy Prize and chief executive officer of Masdar, Abu Dhabi's multifaceted renewable energy company.



"In such a short period of time, we are experiencing, first hand, how the Prize is fulfilling the mandate set out by the wise leadership of Abu Dhabi - catalysing innovation thorugh collaborative efforts, initiating action and empowering individuals and organizations in the pursuit of a more sustainable future," he added.



Henrik Kuffner, CEO, WindMade, said: "Vestas' generous donation of the Zayed prize money has greatly contributed to the development and global expansion of the WindMade labelling programme. We continue to be grateful to both Vestas and the Zayed Future Energy Prize for their support. The fact that the Zayed Future Energy Prize award ceremony itself is now WindMade labelled is therefore particularly significant to our initiative. We would also like to congratulate this year's winners."



WindMade was founded in 2011 by Vestas, the UN Global Compact, WWF, GWEC, Bloomberg, PwC and the LEGO Group. Since WindMade became operational 18 months ago, the initiative has reached some key milestones, including the development of technical standards for labelling companies, events and products, and signing up some 55 members to be certified under the scheme. These include major companies such as Motorola Mobility, Deutsche Bank, Bloomberg, and BD. Moreover, at the recent climate talks in Doha in December 2012, WindMade announced the expansion of the programme to include a separate label covering a variety of renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar and geothermal.



The Zayed Future Energy Prize 2013, which culminated a year-long, four-stage evaluation process, honored eight winners at the award ceremony yesterday. Winners were Siemens in the Large Corporation category; d.light design in the Small Medium Enterprise category, Ceres in the Non-Governmental Organisation category; Dr. Jose Goldemberg in the Lifetime Achievement category. In the newly introduced Global High Schools category, the winners were Secundaria Tecnica 120 School from Cuernavaca, Mexico (Americas); Okehampton College in the UK (Europe); Kirya Secondary School (Africa); and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bangladesh Islamia School, based in Abu Dhabi (Asia).



Nominations for this year's Zayed Future Energy Prize were launched in March 2012 through a globally targeted campaign. In July, at the close of nominations, the Prize received a record 579 entries from 88 countries, marking a 36 per cent increase over last year.