Green stoves and clean lighting projects were named Tuesday as winners of this year’s prestigious Sasakawa Prize, given annually to sustainable and replicable grassroots projects around the globe.

The UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Sasakawa Prize was awarded to Nuru Design, a social enterprise introducing rechargeable lamps to villages in Rwanda, Kenya and India, and Trees, Water and People — an organization collaborating with local NGOs to distribute fuel-efficient stoves to communities in Honduras, Guatemala, El Savador, Nicaragua and Haiti.

The prize accepted nominations with the theme Green Solutions to Combat Climate Change.

“These projects are selected because [they are at] the grassroots,” Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace Wangari Maathai, one of the four-member panel of jury for the prize, said.

“And they are replicable so many people can replicate them on their own. They also meet the needs of millions of people living under the poverty line.”

The winners, who took home US$100,000 each, received the prestigious award at a ceremony attended by dozens of environment ministers on the eve of the 11th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council to be opened Wednesday.

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner, who led the panel of jury, praised Nuru Design and Trees, Water and People for changing the lives of thousands of schoolchildren, housewives and villagers across Latin America, Africa and India.

“Combating climate change is not just for governments. It starts at the grassroots level, as
communities tap into the power of renewable and sustainable technologies,” he said. “This is the green economy of tomorrow in action today.”

Sameer Hajee of Nuru Design said the lighting system, started with seed-funding from the World Bank’s Lighting Africa Initiative, consisted of portable, inexpensive rechargeable LED lights that sell for $5. It can be recharged by a solar panel or AC charger but the primary recharging source is human power — a pedal generator.

Gentle pedaling for 20 minutes can fully recharge five Nuru lights, each one lasting up to 37 hours.

“We aim for two things, to bring access to light and remove kerosene,” Hajee said.

The lighting project, which has already converted thousands of households to rechargeable lights, aims to prevent the emission of around 40,000 tons of CO2 from kerosene lighting in 2010.

And through its fuel-efficient stoves, than burn 50 to 70 percent less wood, Trees, Water and People helps households save money and prevents nearly 250,000 tons of hazardous emissions.

Nearly half of the world’s 6.8 billion people still rely on smoky open fires to cook their daily meals, a traditional practice that causes deadly indoor air pollution that kills 1.6 million women and children annually.

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