SEED Awards

Recognising the achievements of eco-inclusive enterprises globally.

Enterprise Brief: Food & Trees for Africa

Published: 24 August 2010
Food and Trees for Africa (FTFA) is a social enterprise that is implementing sustainable natural resource management and food security programmes. FTFA has distributed over 3.6 million trees and facilitated the creation of over 2500 organic food gardens for the poorest in South Africa. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Efficient Charcoal Production and Smoke Recycling

Published: 24 August 2010
The Modern Carbonization Programme initiated by Enterprise Multiservices (EMS) is an initiative to improve the wood-energy channel in Rwanda. The partnership aims at introducing modern carbonization and waste recovery technologies as well as more efficient energy supply equipment, such as improved stoves. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: DeCo! - Decentralized Composting for Sustainable Farming and Development

Published: 24 August 2010
DeCo! offers a composting service to smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. DeCo! follows a low-tech approach and aims for scalability. The plants are run by highly educated local managers and DeCo! offers parttime work for local people during the off-farming season. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Claire Reid Reel Gardening

Published: 24 August 2010
Reel Gardening is a simple, cost effective and convenient means of growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers from seed. Reel Gardening enables and empowers communities to implement their own sustainable food projects throughout South Africa through a user-friendly and educational medium which can contribute to alleviating food shortages and promote self-sustaining communities. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Biofuel Production in Promoting Sustainable Land Management

Published: 24 August 2010
The Tema Cooperative Sunflowers Association (TCSA) is a multi-integrated model for rehabilitation of degraded community lands through the cultivation and processing of sunflower into oil and biodiesel. The biodiesel is used to power tractors, machines and lanterns and the cake from the sunflower oil is used for feeding and fertilizing. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Amatola Wild Trout Fishery

Published: 24 August 2010
Amatola Wild Trout is the first community-owned and -managed recreational fishery in South Africa. It introduces economic and social development into the Amatolas through the development of an eco tourism attraction. Read more
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Enterprise Profile: High-value Syrup from 'Prekese' Fruits for Community Livelihood Empowerment

Published: 24 August 2010
Relying on local raw materials, this initiative promotes the sustainable cultivation and harvesting of Prekese fruits in rural communities, allowing income to be generated over the whole life cycle of the tree. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative

Published: 24 August 2010
Ghana Bamboo Bikes aims at taking advantage of the abundant raw bamboo materials in Ghana to manufacture high quality bamboo bikes suitable for export markets and for the road conditions in Ghana and affordable to the poor. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Flower of Hope

Published: 24 August 2010
Flower of Hope sets up an innovative production system that offers resourcepoor women land, inputs and professional training as well as market access to become self-employed agricultural entrepreneurs. Relying on environmentally friendly cultivation methods, the initiative produces premium hibiscus for export and domestic herbal tea markets. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: EcoPost - Fencing Posts from Recycled Post-Consumer Waste Plastic

Published: 24 August 2010
GBS Ltd. recycles waste plastic into durable and environmentally-friendly fencing posts. The opportunity was born out of the huge demand for environmentally-friendly and sustainable fencing posts and the abundance of post-consumer waste plastic littering the environment. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Commercialization of Prosopis Juliflora Products from Affected Areas

Published: 24 August 2010
The initiative creates alternative incomes for pastoral communities by manufacturing Prosopis products and helping to generate markets for them. At the same time, the initiative contributes to controlling the spread of this invasive species, thus helping to conserve biodiversity. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Bosque Humedo Biodiverso

Published: 24 August 2010
“Bosque Humedo Biodiverso” is a business initiative headed by a local NGO that uses fruit and pulp as ingredients for the local cosmetics and food industries. The use of non-timber products will reduce deforestation of tropical forests and local families will benefit from collecting value-added goods. This helps develop alternative income sources and promotes the sustainable management of local biodiversity. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Backpack Farm Agriculture Program

Published: 24 August 2010
The Backpack Farm Agriculture Program is an agri-based social enterprise operating in Kenya since 2007. The core of the program is an all-in-one canvas backpack with the eco-friendly agritech and training program supporting smallholder farmers. Read more
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SEED Executive Director launches the 2010 SEED awards at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Bamako, Mali

Published: 25 June 2010
Helen Marquard, SEED's Executive Director has joined the 12thsession of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Bamako, Mali (20-25 June). During a UNEP-hosted event on the green economy at AMCEN, she launched the 2010 Awards for entrepreneurship in sustainable development. Read more
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SEED 2009 Gold Winners move on

Published: 02 March 2010
Over the last few months the SEED Secretariat has attended all the award ceremonies and conducted workshops for each of the 2009 SEED Gold Winners. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Sustainable Shrimp Farming in the Gulf of Morrosquillo

Published: 24 August 2009
The initiative, established in 2006, farms and harvests shrimps by utilising a unique ecological production process. Fishermen are trained in shrimp farming which provides an alternative to marine exploitation. It also demonstrates to the worldwide shrimp industry that sustainable production is possible and economically viable. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Almodo

Published: 24 August 2009
ALMODO, established in 2005, is a sustainable solid waste management system suitable for lower income urban areas. It collects, centralises and ecologically recovers waste and transforms it into products useful for the local community. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Powering the Future with SuryaHurricanes

Published: 24 August 2009
Since 2008, the partnership has provided women with solar powered lanterns and replaced the traditional kerosene lamps. Besides improving work capacity and income opportunities of the household, it also enables children to study in the evening as the light quality is much better than from kerosene lamps. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Oro Verde

Published: 24 August 2009
Since 2000, Oro Verde has reversed environmental degradation caused by uncontrolled mining in the Chocó Bioregion, by developing certified responsible mining practices. The partnership, consisting of two national NGOs and two grassroots organisations, also reduces social exclusion by strengthening local miners and facilitating market access for them. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Nafore and Afrisolar Energy Kiosks

Published: 24 August 2009
MicroSow and Afrisolar aim to fill the energy gap faced by citizens in rural areas in Burkina Faso. With many people excluded from the official power grid the initiative, through their mobile solarpowered charging stations (Nafore), offers access to sustainable electricity for mobile phones. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Lighting Sri Lanka’s Future

Published: 24 August 2009
In the next 5 years, the partnership aims to convert 20,000 kerosene lanterns into solar-powered LED lighting systems. These can be used by children to study at night and aid night fishermen. The initiative employs between 5 – 10 staff. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: KAITE - Zimbabwe's bridge to the world

Published: 24 August 2009
Since 2007, KAITE has been training small-scale farmers to produce, process, and certify organic essential oils, herbs and spices. The 30 employees at KAITE then connect the 500 cooperating partner farmers to international fair trade markets. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Innovative oyster, fish and algae aqua-farming

Published: 24 August 2009
Since 2006, the tropical multi-species aqua-farm has contributed to food security by providing sustainable supplies of organic oysters, milkfish and tilapia. More recently, they also cultivate micro-algae as livestock feed for fish. The initiative furthermore creates a local source of income and employment. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: Eco-Amazon Piabas of Rio Negro

Published: 24 August 2009
The project aims to safeguard traditional ornamental fisheries in the Amazon in a sustainable way by stimulating a niche market. Through a socially and environmentally responsible fishery cooperative and traders, the initiative introduces a fair trade system for rural communities. Read more
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Enterprise Brief: The Clean Energy Initiative

Published: 24 August 2009
Since 2009 the project has provided electricity for rural areas using energy generated from micro wind turbines. This also generates employment and income, and promotes entrepreneurial skills at the local level by providing capacity building trainings. Read more
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