Building on a Legacy: Introducing the Zayed Sustainability Prize

Evolving from 10 years of success as the Zayed Future Energy Prize,
the UAE’s preeminent sustainability Prize undergoes a strategic refocus

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Zayed Future Energy Prize will today become the Zayed
Sustainability Prize as part of a strategic move to refocus its
mandate. After ten years of successfully promoting renewable energy
initiatives across the globe, the Prize will now broaden its focus to
affect greater humanitarian impact by supporting a wider range of
solutions to the challenges of sustainable development.

Commenting on the Prize’s transformation, His Excellency Dr. Sultan
Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and Director General of the Zayed
Sustainability Prize, said: “Inspired by the vision and legacy of our
founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Zayed Future
Energy Prize has, for the last decade, been able to positively impact
307 million lives through empowering access to energy, clean water,
education, training, advocacy and more.

“In a move to align more closely with the UN Sustainable Development
Goals and the UAE’s developing national agenda, going forward the Prize
will broaden its reach beyond renewable energy, and reward projects and
innovative solutions from a wider spectrum of sustainability and human
development initiatives. In addition the Prize will expand its support
of young people through the Global High Schools category, which will now
reward youth-driven projects from a greater number of world regions.”

Based on its renewed mission, the Prize now has five distinct categories
for applicants to choose from: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global
High Schools. These pillars are interconnected and representative of
basic needs essential to human survival where innovations will yield
progress in sustainable development.

Dr. Lamya Fawwaz, Director of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, said: “The
new categories were carefully selected to reflect the most pressing
sustainability challenges and offer the greatest socio-economic impact
on the lives of people around the world.”

“The Zayed Sustainability Prize will also look to inspire today’s youth
to be forward-thinkers and cultivate within them a vested interest in
becoming agents of change for sustainable development – after all, youth
of today are leaders of tomorrow. Beyond that, we look to recognise
existing innovations and amplify their reach so that they may benefit
more people and bring us closer to helping solve some of humanity's
biggest challenges,” Dr. Lamya added.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize will see a three-stage evaluation
process, beginning with the due diligence that is conducted by a reputed
international research and analysis consultancy. Following this, the
shortlisted entries will undergo evaluations by a Selection Committee to
determine the finalists. From these finalists, a Jury will select the
winners in all five categories, including the winning schools from six
world regions.

The deliberations on who wins the Zayed Sustainability Prize are set
against three core criteria where entrants must demonstrate:

• Impact: Significant and tangible outcomes on the quality of
  people’s lives
• Innovation: Distinctive characteristics to change the “status
  quo” and potential to catalyse opportunities that will have a
  disruptive positive impact and transformative change
• Inspiration: The potential to scale up project outcomes in the
  next decade and the ability to inspire others

Winners of the Zayed Sustainability Prize will be announced at the
awards ceremony during the opening of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week,
on 14th January 2019.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize is open for submissions from today, 17th
April 2018, and will close on 9th August 2018. More
information can be obtained at www.zayedsustainabilityprize.com.

*Source: AETOSWire

Contacts

for Zayed Sustainability Prize
Jung Yee Tan, +971543066393
jungyee.tan@edelman.com
or
Andrew
Chupeau, +971502583558
achupeau_c@masdar.ae