Waste burning stove takes top urban ingenuity prize

The Community Cooker Foundation was revealed last night as the global winner of the inaugural Financial Times (FT) / Citi Ingenuity Awards at a gala dinner in New York.

The Kenyan not-for-profit organisation was announced as the overall winner for its innovative and low-tech stove, which by using waste collected by young locals, reduces emissions from cooking, provides a cheaper fuel alternative, and helps tackle youth unemployment. The Foundation also won in the category of energy.

“Thank you very much for these two awards,” said Janice Muthui, Foundation Manager at the Community Cooker Foundation. “This will go a long way in creating awareness of this fantastic and very simple technology.”

Winners were chosen for another three categories in which submissions were received from 41 countries. The winners included; JCDecaux – Vélib’ (infrastructure), GlaxoSmithKline New Citizen (health) and College Possible (education).

“These awards are to recognise originality and inspiration,” said Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi, CEO, Citi Transaction Services, speaking prior to the award presentation. “It is for those that are willing to try, and willing to fail.”

Dame Zaha Hadid, DBE, Founder, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Dr Anne-Marie Slaughter, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University gave keynote presentations earlier in the evening, both emphasising the growing importance of cities and the need for innovative solutions.

“Technology can be used for good or bad, very complex or very basic, but human contact is foremost in technology,” said Dr Slaughter.  “It is the technology that allows humans to connect that is important, particularly the bigger a city becomes. I don’t see a world of 194 states, I see a world of cities.”

The FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards aim to recognise leaders, teams, organisations and community groups that have developed innovative solutions to benefit cities, citizens and urban communities.

“Now more than ever, cities around the globe face the tremendous challenge of providing basic services and infrastructure to booming populations, often with extremely limited resources,” said Martin Dickson, US Managing Editor of the Financial Times. “The inaugural winners of this award represent an impressive pool of organisations working to achieve that goal.”