Globe Award 2011 – Leading Sustainability Awards

American company, Southwest Windpower Inc. receives prestigious Globe Sustainability Innovation Award 2011

STOCKHOLM, March 28, 2011 − Southwest Windpower Inc is acknowledged by the Globe Sustainability Innovation Award 2011.

“The jury is delighted to select Southwest Windpower as this year’s winner of the Globe Award for Sustainable Innovation. Southwest Windpower makes sustainable energy technologies accessible to people across the globe while simultaneously changing the very nature of power production from closed and centralized to open and distributed.”, the jury states in the motivation for the award.

The Globe Sustainability Innovation Award is now presented for the fifth consecutive year. The goal of the award is to discover and recognize economically, socially and ecologically viable innovations that contribute to developing a sustainable society.

“This year’s competition for the Globe Award for Sustainable Innovation was intense with candidates from across the globe highlighting the very best sustainable innovations.”, says Philip DesAutels, Chair of the Globe Award for Sustainable Innovation and Microsoft’s Director of Academic Strategy. “The candidates we saw this year are definitely more sophisticated in their approach and execution to address the challenges of achieving sustainability. Their solutions are spanning across multiple domains of four domains of innovation with the very best addressing all four - Technical, Biotic, Social, and Conceptual. While all of the candidates deserve recognition for their outstanding work, after careful evaluation and deliberation, the jury is pleased to recognize Southwest Windpower as a global sustainability leader and this year’s winner for their economically, socially and ecologically viable innovations to make access to renewable energy affordable, accessible and open.”, adds Chairman Philip DesAutels.

The competition was intense and the runners-up were extremely innovative companies like Plantagon International AB and Solvatten AB, both from Sweden. Inspiring and prospective Southwest Windpower Inc. however, impressed the jury the most and was unanimously selected the winner.

The Globe Sustainability Awards have been given out since 2007 in four categories: Sustainable Research, Innovation, Reporting - and since 2009 - Sustainable City. For more information about Globe Award and other winners, please see www.globeaward.org.

The prize ceremony will be held virtually at the Globe Forum sustainability conference in Stockholm on May 11^th. The winner and the jury will present the winning projects. There will be an online chat after the prize ceremony so anyone who wishes can put forward questions directly to the laureates.

More information about the program is available at: www.globeforum.com/stockholm

For more information please contact:

Lars-Olle Larsson, Overall Chairman of the Globe Award jury, Partner PwC, Sweden

Mobile: +46-709 29 39 83, e-mail: lars-olle.larsson@se.pwc.com

Alexandra Jansson, Executive Director Globe Award, Globe Forum, Stockholm, Sweden

Mobile: +46-733 17 53 57, e-mail: alexandra.jansson@globeforum.com

The jury’s full motivation:

The jury is delighted to select Southwest Windpower as this year’s winner of the Globe Award for Sustainable Innovation. Southwest Windpower makes sustainable energy technologies accessible to people across the globe while simultaneously changing the very nature of power production from closed and centralized to open and distributed. Southwest Windpower has shipped over 100,000 turbines since their founding in 1987 to people in over one hundred countries. Throughout that time the company has continued to innovate bringing technological advances to its products in their ongoing pursuit of sustainable production, increased efficiency and affordability. The result is both business success and affordable open sustainable energy solutions for people across the globe. Wind is a renewable energy source that Southwest Windpower enables people across the globe to access. Southwest Windpower stands out as a principled producer of sustainable renewable energy products that represent true innovation and generate long-term value for people and planet.

About Southwest Windpower:

Southwest Windpower, Inc., is the world’s largest supplier of small wind generators. Renewable energy sources account for less than 4 percent of the energy consumed by industrialized nations. As a source of renewable energy, small wind turbines utilize wind energy to produce clean, emissions-free power for multiple applications including homes, farms and small businesses. Although small wind accounts for a tiny fraction of the distributed renewable energy market, it is growing rapidly thanks to technological innovations. One of the pioneers driving these innovations is Southwest Windpower, who in 1987 set out to democratize power generation making it reliable, efficient, sustainable and affordable. The result is that Southwest Windpower has fundamentally changed the nature of power generation globally through the design, production and sale of low-cost, reliable small wind generators. Today, the company is recognized as a global leader – a responsible designer, producer and provider of wind turbines – that has demonstrated their capability by building and shipping more than 170,000 wind turbines to 120 countries.
www.windenergy.com

The Jury:

The jury consists of highly experienced and internationally recognized experts. The overall chairman of all jury groups is Lars-Olle Larsson, Partner PwC Sweden

Philip A. DesAutels – Chairman, Microsoft’s director of academic strategy; Researcher at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.
Pierre Berthon – PhD, Holds the Clifford F Youse Chair of Marketing / Strategy at Bentley University, MA, USA.
Charlotte Masiello-Riome – Communication Expert Consultant for UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UK.
Francesca Polini – Founder and CEO of Wecare, UK; Former Global Communications Director for Greenpeace
Prof. M.S. Swaminathan – UNESCO Ecotechnology Chair; Chairman of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai (Madras), India.

Globe Award was founded in 2007 in Sweden by the international business network and marketplace Globe Forum. Globe Award 2011 is acknowledging prominent researchers, innovators, cities and companies – from all parts of the world – within four categories Sustainability Research Award, Sustainability Innovation Award, Sustainable City Award and the Sustainability Reporting Award; www.globeaward.org,  www.globeforum.com.