The Economist recognises pioneers in pollution reduction and corporate innovation
Celebrating the world’s leading entrepreneurs, thinkers, creators, scientists and innovators at The Economist’s Innovation Awards 2013
Monday November 25th, 2013 – Tim Bauer, Nathan Lorenz and Bryan Willson, co-founders of Envirofit, were named this year’s winners in the Energy and Environment category of The Economist’s Innovation Awards 2013 for their development of technologies that improve indoor air quality in the developing world. Genentech, the pioneering biotechnology company, was named the winner of the Corporate Award for its consistent and impressive record in breakthrough research and innovation.
Now in their 12th year, the Innovation Awards recognise significant contributions in eight fields: Bioscience, Computing and Telecommunications, Consumer Products, Energy and Environment, Process and Services, Social and Economic, No Boundaries and Corporate.
Tim Bauer, Nathan Lorenz and Bryan Willson co-founded Envirofit in 2003 to develop sustainable technologies to reduce pollution and energy use and yield health, environmental and economic improvement in emerging markets. About half of the world's population cook their daily meals indoors, over biomass-fueled cooking fires. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, reported in The Lancet, estimates that the resulting indoor air pollution kills as many as four million people every year, with more than 85% of the victims either women or children under the age of five.
Since 2003 Envirofit has developed a series of stoves that reduce indoor pollution, cutting smoke and toxic emissions by up to 80%, reducing biomass consumption by up to 60% and cooking time by up to 50% compared with traditional cooking fires and stoves.
“Indoor air pollution is a scourge that affects millions of people, but gets far less attention than other forms of pollution,” said Tom Standage, digital editor at The Economist and chairman of the panel of 30 judges. “We are delighted to recognise the achievements of Envirofit’s founders in tackling this problem.”
The Corporate award celebrates Genentech’s track record in research and innovation. Genentech was founded by biochemist Herbert Boyer and venture capitalist Robert Swanson in 1976. It has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Roche Group since 2009. Widely considered the founder of the biotech industry, the company changed the face of medicine when it became the first to scale up protein-manufacturing from the small quantities used for research to the much larger quantities needed to treat patients. The firm’s achievements include the development of the first recombinant DNA medicine ever marketed, the first targeted medicine approved to treat cancer and the first medicine shown to improve vision in the most common cause of blindness in adults.
Genentech’s research scientists have earned more than 10,500 patents and brought breakthrough medicines to people with serious diseases such as cystic fibrosis, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and stroke. Overall, it has 35 medicines on the market and at least 30 more in clinical development. In 2012, sales of Genentech’s medicines in the United States were CHF13.856 billion.
“Some trailblazing companies become synonymous with particular industry categories, like Google in search, or Amazon in online retail,” said Tom Standage, digital editor at The Economist and chairman of panel of 30 judges. “The same is true of Genentech in biotech. It has maintained its leading position through an impressive and consistent track record in innovation.”
Energy & the Environment - Systems for improving indoor air quality in the developing world
Envirofit derived from research work undertaken by Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory. The company was created to unite clean energy research with consumer driven product design to bring sustainable and scalable market-based solutions to emerging markets. Envirofit’s first project focused on retrofitting motorcycles and three-wheeled taxis known as tricycles in Manila. By selling direct injection conversion kits, the team was able to reduce emissions by a two-stroke engine by 90% while reducing fuel consumption by up to 40%.
Envirofit then turned its attention to reducing the impact of indoor air pollution through the use of cleaner burning, efficient biomass cook stoves. Envirofit has sold more than 700,000 cookstoves in more than 40 countries affecting more than 3.5 million people through a sustainable scalable business model. Envirofit relies on standard market mechanisms and consumer demand to guide product development, distribution and sales. Operating income from sales pays for further development and expansion of its businesses. Envirofit also operates a Carbon Credit program that helps to further reduce the cost of cookstoves and drive adoption, reducing the initial purchase price for distributors and resulting in a lower market price.
Bauer and Lorenz continue to work for Envirofit; Bauer as director and vice-president of operations and Lorenz as director and vice-president of engineering. Willson is a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Energy Institute at Colorado State University.
Corporate Award Winner - Genentech
Genentech was founded by biochemist Herbert Boyer and venture capitalist Robert Swanson in 1976. Its achievements include the development of the first recombinant DNA medicine ever marketed, the first targeted medicine approved to treat cancer and the first medicine shown to improve vision in the most common cause of blindness in adults. Genentech’s medicine Herceptin, approved in 1998 to treat breast cancer patients with the HER2-positive genetic sub-type of the disease, is widely recognized as ushering in the era of personalized medicine. More recently, Perjeta and Kadcyla were approved for people with certain types of HER2-positive breast cancer. Genentech’s scientists have been studying the HER2 pathway for more than 30 years and these new medicines provide additional options that build on the progress made with Herceptin.
Genentech’s groundbreaking approach to research and innovation continues today, as evidenced by the company’s collaboration with the Banner Alzheimer's Institute and the National Institutes of Health to conduct the first-ever prevention trial in healthy individuals who are likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease due to their genetic history. The study involves an entirely new approach to stopping the underlying mechanisms of the disease and is being conducted primarily in the Antioquia region of Colombia. Genentech’s research scientists have earned more than 10,500 patents and brought breakthrough medicines to people with serious diseases such as cystic fibrosis, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and stroke.
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