Sustainable Businesses Honored by Scientific American

This November, Scientific American magazine launched a new award to honor “visionaries from the worlds of research, industry and politics whose recent accomplishments point toward a brighter technological future for everyone.” Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies were among the wide variety of inventors honored with the “Scientific American 50” award.

The Business Leader of the Year Award went to Geoffrey Ballard, founder of Ballard Power Systems, Inc., chairman of General Hydrogen for his pioneering work on hydrogen fuel cells. Some of the other winners are:

* Randy Howard, Cargill Dow LLC, a bioproduct company making plastics from corn starch;
* Ken Deering, The Wind Turbine Company, for designing a more efficient wind turbine;
* Manfred Stefener, Smart Fuel Cell AG, of miniature fuel cell developer;
* Eddie O’Connor, Airtricity, for bringing offshore wind to Ireland;
* Spectrolab, Inc. and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), for breakthroughs in solar cells;
* Hiroyuki Yoshino, Honda Motor Company, for spearheading the company’s progressive position on fuel efficiency and low emissions;
* Fran Pavley, California State Assembly, for legislating carbon-dioxide emissions standards for California vehicles; * Cambridge Display Technology, for developing flexible solar panels

The full list of winners is on the Scientific American website.