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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Semi-Finalists Announced for the 2014 Fuller Challenge | The Buckminster Fuller Institute
  • Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2014 10:02:24 -0400

http://bfi.org/dymaxion-forum/2014/08/semi-finalists-announced-2014-fuller-challenge

Semi-Finalists Announced for the 2014 Fuller Challenge
Tuesday, 26 August 2014

The Buckminster Fuller Institute is pleased to announce the Semi-Finalists
for the 2014 Fuller Challenge. Named "Socially Responsible Design’s Highest
Award", the Fuller Challenge invites scientists, designers, architects,
activists, entrepreneurs, artists and planners from all over the world to
submit their innovative solutions to some of humanity’s most pressing
problems. A $100,000 prize is awarded to support the development and
implementation of one outstanding strategy.

The twenty proposals now under consideration for the grand prize were
selected out of an entry pool of over 450 proposals and have undergone a
rigorous review for adherence to the Challenge entry criteria
<http://bfi.org/challenge/about/criteria>. Each project has been through
three rounds of vetting by the members of the Challenge Review Committee
including targeted analysis and evaluation by a select group
<http://bfi.org/challenge/about/selection-process/advisory-team> of experts
and advisors.

The proposals submitted by the Fuller Challenge Semi-Finalists showcase an
exemplary body of work—each presenting an integrated strategy to address a
pressing global issue, ranging from sanitation, health, food, and poverty
to water systems, conservation, and design.

"These projects deserve the attention of the world for their commitment to
'solving for system' – an approach that takes an unusual degree of insight,
patience, tenacity and courage", said Elizabeth Thompson, BFI’s Executive
Director. "The individuals and teams behind these initiatives have made
extraordinary efforts to define the systemic context underlying the problem
they are seeking to solve, and provide much needed hope and encouragement
that solutions to our most entrenched problems are indeed at hand."

"While only one project will receive the $100,000 cash prize, they all
deserve and need our support. We are thrilled to announce that, in addition
to these twenty fantastic initiatives, the benefits of our Catalyst Program
<http://bfi.org/challenge/about/catalyst-program> will be extended to
dozens of additional project leaders and teams. More information about the
Catalyst Program and a full list of program participants will be announced
soon,"" added Sarah Skenazy, The Fuller Challenge Program Manager.
Challenge Finalists will be announced in the fall and celebrated at a
ceremony in New York City in mid-November.

The 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Semi-Finalists Include:

- *Algal Turf Scrubbing* <http://walteradey.com/ats.php> generates a
fast growing, easily harvested, filamentous polyculture of hundreds of
natural, locally adapted algae species over a new, highly efficient 3D
screen surface beneath a shallow flow of water to oxygenate and purify
water, produce biomass for biofuel and organic fertilizer, mitigate
pollution from agricultural run-off, improve freshwater and coastal
habitats, and sequester carbon and reduce fossil fuel dependency.
- *AskNature* <http://www.asknature.org/> is an immense, web-based
interactive database, learning tool, and living Biomimicry encyclopedia,
which seeks to catalog and propagate solutions to the most pressing human
challenges by drawing from time-tested strategies evolved by nature.
AskNature aspires to make biomimetic solutions widely accessible for
educational and industrial applications.
- *Bonobo Peace Forest*
<http://www.bonobo.org/programs/preserving-rainforest/bonobo-peace-forest/>
is growing a network of community-managed and protected forests in remote,
immense swaths of rainforest in the Congo Basin, using a “viral”
conservation strategy that partners with local indigenous peoples and the
government to engender sustainable prosperity while preserving the habitat
of our closest genetic relative, the endangered Bonobo.
- *Concern America* <http://www.concernamerica.org> seeks to transform
conventional healthcare by training and empowering community members in the
most remote, disrupted and underserved locales to take prevention and
healing into their own hands and virally spread training in their regions.
Disrupting the hegemonic concept of institutionally recognized healthcare,
the organization has built local capacity, demonstrating that HPP-trained
practitioners can treat 80% of primary medical cases. HPP is finalizing
training manuals of best practices developed over four decades to
disseminate their model.
- *Earth Roofs for the Sahel* <http://www.lavoutenubienne.org/en> trains
members of impoverished communities in Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region to
build long-lasting, passively cooled earth buildings. The codified,
traditional Egyptian Nubian Vault design creates an affordable, locally
sourced, environmentally sustainable built environment; the construction
training generates a self-replicating cadre of skilled masons throughout
the region and engenders entrepreneurship. A self-sustaining, virally
expanding market results, transforming the quality of life and economic
capacity of communities.
- *Ecosoftt* <http://www.ecosoftt.org> is an emerging Singapore and
India-based social enterprise that is the first to develop decentralized,
adaptable, chemical-free, cost-effective water systems that combine
rainwater harvesting, wastewater recycling, groundwater replenishment and
other technological innovations in Asia. Their systems are adaptable to
both poor rural and prosperous urban contexts. They aim to revolutionize
water systems throughout Asia and beyond, bring clean water to underserved
communities and offer an inspiring model of social enterprise as an
alternative to government or privately run water systems.
- *Finance Innovation Lab* <http://www.thefinancelab.org> is a UK-based
non-profit that aims to strategically shift the existing financial paradigm
to one that values sustainability and resilience. The Lab works on the
system from the bottom up by convening gatherings of innovators, nurturing
entrepreneurs, encouraging alternative business models, and seeking to
influence economic policies and financial regulation.
- *The Food Commons* <http://www.thefoodcommons.org> aims to transform
local and regional food systems by creating larger, more highly organized
and coordinated physical, financial, and organizational infrastructures for
specific regions and connecting them to the global economy in order to
boost and facilitate investments, encourage partnerships and cooperative
ownership, and create a genuinely sustainable model of a local and global
food economy.
- *The Force Majeure* <http://theharrisonstudio.net>, a bold,
large-scale vision of the deeply beloved and respected, world-renowned
artists Helen and Newton Harrison, aims to reduce the entropy of planetary
ecosystems in the face of human-induced climate change. Four sites have
been proposed in which the Harrisons and scientists will experiment with
methods to assist nature in its response to massive system disturbance.
- *Fuego Del Sol Haiti* <http://www.elfuegodelsol.com> is a social
enterprise that confronts Haiti’s deadly charcoal addiction through
development, introduction and adoption of innovative ecological fuel
briquettes, presses, stoves, and the training and empowerment of women.
Fuego Del Sol, the largest upcycler in Haiti, also collects and separates a
wide range of waste materials into sustainable products and plans to
include farming, green building, and land reclamation.
- *Gardens for Health International* <http://www.gardensforhealth.org>,
an NGO pioneering the integration of nutrition-based agriculture into the
clinical care of malnutrition, partners with rural Rwandan health clinics
to implement healthcare strategies that include nutritional education and
the nurturing of home gardens of nutrient rich foods for each family. They
are seeking to expand this program throughout Rwanda and into Uganda,
Burundi, and beyond. This elegant model could be replicated globally to
address malnutrition.
- *International Bridges to Justice* <http://www.ibj.org> works
tirelessly to abolish torture and assure fair judicial processes by
strengthening existing legal systems worldwide. They offer in person and
web-based trainings in international and local best practices and legal
skills for attorneys, judges, and law enforcement officials, seek to
nurture a global legal community that can be supportive and protective of
lawyers and officials working in difficult contexts, and develop training
modules in many languages to help propagate solid human rights-based legal
knowledge.
- *International Youth Network for Food Security and Sovereignty*
<http://www.canunite.org> trains rural youth in Mexico and Central
America in a highly participatory process to develop sustainable food
systems in their communities through social, ecological and technological
innovation. With a broader goal of agro-ecological transformation across
Central America and beyond, the network seeks to re-imbue communities with
traditional ecological values while drawing from modern best practices.
Trained and empowered youth leaders are the ideal vectors to propagate
genuine sustainability.
- *Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic*
<http://www.floatingclinic.org> seeks to address the logistical problems
of providing healthcare to communities in the highly underserved,
infrastructure-poor Lake Tanganyika Basin region by building and deploying
a floating medical and research facility. Through the growth of a radio
network, collaboration with local partners, healthcare training, ecological
education and more, the clinic will serve as a mobile hub of communication
and cooperation between remote, vulnerable communities in one of the
earth’s richest freshwater ecosystems.
- *Living Breakwaters*
<http://www.scapestudio.com/projects/living-breakwaters/> is a
comprehensive design for coastal resiliency along the Northeastern Seaboard
of the United States and beyond. This approach to climate change adaptation
and flood mitigation includes the deployment of innovative, layered
ecologically-engineered concrete underwater breakwaters, the strengthening
of biodiversity and coastal habitats, the nurturing and resuscitation of
fisheries, and deep community engagement through diverse partnerships and
innovative educational programs.
- *Makoko/Iwaya Waterfront Restoration Plan*

<http://oshlookman.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/makokoiwaya-waterfront-community-from-risk-to-resilience-through-regeneration-plan/>,
a comprehensive, detailed regeneration plan for the Makoko/Iwaya community
in Lagos, Nigeria, which was threatened with being razed, seeks to preserve
local culture and social relationships, revitalize the built environment,
increase economic opportunities, and ensure disaster resilience for over
40,000 residents. Its implementation revolves around community inclusion
and local leadership and the empowering of women and youth. The plan holds
the preservation of traditional lagoon-front culture as a core value,
presenting a compelling vision of a floating economy based on sustainable
aquaculture and tourism.
- *Multifunctional Membrane: Self-Active Building Cells, Not Building
Blocks* <http://www.bioms.info> are the centerpieces of a technology
that could potentially provide inexpensive, biodegradable, living,
breathing "skins" for buildings that would auto-regulate in response to
heat, light and humidity and provide climate control, ventilation and
lighting without mechanical systems, thereby radically reducing energy use
and costs, especially in tropical regions under critical environmental and
socio-economic stresses.
- *Sistema Biobolsa* <http://www.biobolsa.com> provides farmers in
Mexico, Central America and Haiti with an on-site waste-to-nutrient
ecosystem: a biomimetic, modular advanced geo-membrane anaerobic
biodigester that converts organic waste into biogas and fertilizer,
increasing local capacity and resiliency and boosting health and
livelihoods as it provides safe, non-toxic thermal, mechanical, and
electrical generation not previously affordable to small farmers.
Distributed through innovative micro-financing mechanisms and
entrepreneurial capacity building, this project has great potential to
boost sustainable farming globally.
- *Slow Money* <http://www.slowmoney.org> catalyzes the flow of
investment capital into local food economies and place-based enterprises in
North America and Europe, seeking to “bring money back down to earth”
through communications, education, convenings, investment clubs, liaison
services, and shared learning networks. This integrated effort to restore
fiduciary responsibility and nurture sustainable enterprises aims for a
systemic transformation of food systems and local economies.
- *Thunder Valley Regenerative Community Plan*
<http://www.thundervalley.org>, born of a collective vision, has created
a comprehensive plan to build a locally owned and operated development in
the geographic center of the Oglala Lakota Nation, on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota, one of the poorest and most disenfranchised
parts of the country. The goal is to resuscitate the local economy and
traditional culture and provide attractive, culturally appropriate
affordable housing in the context of a deeply sustainable community with a
net-zero built environment that could serve as a compelling, dynamic model
for the rest of Indian country and the world.

For further information, please contact challenge@bfi.org



  • [permaculture] Semi-Finalists Announced for the 2014 Fuller Challenge | The Buckminster Fuller Institute, Lawrence London, 09/01/2014

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