PE Founder Ashok Gadgil Honored with Sustainability Leadership Award 2010
Pioneer Award Winner: Dr. Ashok Gadgil
Dr. Ashok Gadgil, a professor for environmental technology at the University of California, Berkeley and the Director of the Darfur Stoves Project is this year’s Pioneer Award winner. He is honored for his long-standing academic and entrepreneurial work in the area of hygienic drinking water. To counter the problem of poor water quality, a frequent cause of death in developing nations, Gadgil developed a water purification system using ultraviolet light that is cheap, safe, robust, efficient and simple to operate.
One particularly compelling aspect of this work is the solution’s link to a unique business model based on local initiative and entrepreneurship. This model ensures the technology’s financial viability and reproducibility while providing jobs and income to the local population. As such, this technology opens up new ways to solve the global water crisis and fight global poverty. The company that has emerged from this initiative, WaterHealth, is known for the extraordinary dedication of its employees, its flexible adaptation to changing market needs, the continuous regional spread of the business model and its ability to pull in strategic investors like Dow Chemical. Today, the technology is being used primarily in India, The Philippines and Ghana.
Learn more about the Sustainability Leadership Award and SAM SPG here
