permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

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