TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Asahi Glass Foundation, which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its international environmental award, the Blue Planet Prize, announced that its two annual prizes would be awarded this year to Pavan Sukhdev of India and Markus Borner of Switzerland. Both recipients will receive a cash award of 50 million yen.
The Asahi Glass Foundation established the Blue Planet Prize in 1992, the year of the pivotal Earth Summit, to recognize individuals or organizations for outstanding contributions toward solving global environmental problems.
Pavan Sukhdev (India)
Pavan Sukhdev is an UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, a founding trustee of the Green Indian States Trust (GIST), the founder & CEO of GIST Advisory and an associate fellow of Davenport College at Yale University. He was selected for his pioneering research into economic rationale and practical metrics for transitioning towards an inclusive green economy. He has drawn attention to the critical roles of corporations in this transition and has shown how to mainstream ecosystem services for improved public policies and business practices. By developing sustainability metrics for corporations on both local and national levels, he has hastened the evolution toward an inclusive green economy.
Markus Borner (Switzerland)
Markus Borner is a professor of University of Glasgow and the former director of the Frankfurt Zoological Society Africa Program. His Blue Planet Prize recognizes his four decades of leadership in conservation and management initiatives to protect endangered wildlife and protected-area ecosystems in Africa. He was among the first to recognize that the protection of individual species requires comprehensive protection of entire ecosystems, including a commitment by people to save their local ecosystems. He has drawn global attention to the fact that wilderness, biodiversity and beauty are essential for the survival and health of our planet.
The awards ceremony will be held at the Palace Hotel Tokyo in Tokyo on November 16. Commemorative lectures will be delivered by the prize recipients at the United Nations University in Tokyo on the following day.
The prize selections were made by members of the board of directors and councilors of the Asahi Glass Foundation, which is chaired by Kazuhiko Ishimura.
Photos of the recipients are available at www.af-info.or.jp/en. For more information about the Blue Planet Prize, please visit www.af-info.or.jp/en/blueplanet/about.html.
About the Asahi Glass Foundation
The Asahi Glass Foundation strives to contribute to the creation of a society that can transmit the genuine wealth of human civilization by supporting advanced research in the fields of science and technology and by recognizing efforts to solve environmental issues that call for global solutions. The Asahi Glass Foundation was established in 1933 as the Asahi Foundation for Chemical Industry Promotion in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of AGC Asahi Glass. Over most of its first half-century, the foundation focused primarily on fostering research in the field of applied chemistry. In 1990, the foundation expanded the scope of its activities, established its commendation program and was renamed the Asahi Glass Foundation. Today, its main activities include grant-making and commendation programs. www.af-info.or.jp/en
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Blue Planet Prize Laureates |
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1992 |
Dr. Syukuro Manabe (USA) International Institute for Environment and Development (UK) |
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2005 |
Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton (UK) Dr. Gordon Hisashi Sato (USA) |
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1993 |
Dr. Charles D. Keeling (USA) IUCN—The World Conservation Union (headquartered in Switzerland) |
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2006 |
Dr. Akira Miyawaki (Japan) Dr. Emil Salim (Indonesia) |
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1994 |
Professor Dr. Eugen Seibold (Germany) Mr. Lester R. Brown (USA) |
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2007 |
Professor Joseph L. Sax (USA) Dr. Amory B. Lovins (USA) |
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1995 |
Dr. Bert Bolin (Sweden) Mr. Maurice F. Strong (Canada) |
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2008 |
Dr. Claude Lorius (France) Professor José Goldemberg (Brazil) |
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1996 |
Dr. Wallace S. Broecker (USA) The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (India) |
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2009 |
Professor Hirofumi Uzawa (Japan) Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford (UK) |
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1997 |
Dr. James E. Lovelock (UK) Conservation International (headquartered in the USA) |
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2010 |
Dr. James Hansen (USA) Dr. Robert Watson (UK) |
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1998 |
Professor Mikhail I. Budyko (Russia) Mr. David R. Brower (USA) |
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2011 |
Dr. Jane Lubchenco (USA) Barefoot College (India) |
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1999 |
Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich (USA) Professor Qu Geping (China) |
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2012 |
Professor William E. Rees (Canada) and Dr. Mathis Wackernagel (Switzerland) Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy (USA) |
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2000 |
Dr. Theo Colborn (USA) Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt (Sweden) |
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2013 |
Dr. Taroh Matsuno (Japan) Professor Daniel Sperling (USA) |
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2001 |
Lord (Robert) May of Oxford (Australia) Dr. Norman Myers (UK) |
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2014 |
Prof. Herman Daly (USA) Prof. Daniel H. Janzen (USA) and Costa Rican National Biodiversity Institute (Costa Rica) |
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2002 |
Dr. Harold A. Mooney (USA) Professor J. Gustave Speth (USA) |
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2015 |
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS (UK) Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs (USA) |
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2003 |
Dr. Gene E. Likens (USA) and Dr. F. Herbert Bormann (USA) Dr. Vo Quy (Vietnam) |
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2016 |
Mr. Pavan Sukhdev (India) Prof. Markus Borner (Switzerland) |
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2004 |
Dr. Susan Solomon (USA) Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway) |
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