Enrique Lomnitz
Isla Urbana General Director
Enrique Lomnitz is an industrial designer by trade. Mexico City born and US raised, Lomnitz has a passion for sustainability in all of its application. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design where he developed a rainwater harvesting project for low income Mexico. Lomnitz then returned to Mexico City and founded Isla Urbana. Isla Urbana focuses on developing a model to make rainwater harvesting into a viable water source for Mexico City capable of greatly increasing its sustainability, while helping water scarce communities. Lomnitz is an Ashoka Fellow and lives and works in Mexico City.
Judge’s selections
The Chicken Plan Award
A Lighter Delicacy
individual
This looks like it could have a significant impact, on the very large and problematic system that is large-scale animal farming. If it becomes economically and environmentally viable to turn large amounts of chicken feathers into edible protein, this could be a great thinng. I appreciate the acknowledgement of neophobia as a barrier, and the upscale approach to the introduction of this makes sense, and could help create acceptance for the product to move to lower-cost markets where the scale potential could be realized.
White as a Beetle Award
Impossible Materials - Producing cellulose white pigments as a sustainable alternative to titanium dioxide
Impossible Materials
One of the best possible outcomes in material science is to discover a way to make something inexpensive and abundant replace something rare and expensive. In sustainability design, one of the best outcomes If you can hope for is to make a non toxic and renewable material or process that can replace a polluting or destructive one. If you can make celulose replace titanium in paint, that would surely fit both bills.
This is the Pits Award
REolivar, TRANSFORMATIVE PRODUCTS FROM OLIVE PITS
Naifactory Lab
im giving this the prize even though there are many upcycled materials projects in the list, because I imagine olive canners and bottlers discard large amounts of the material in points that make collection relatively easy. This is a big part of making something like this viable, and the kinds of materials you are making seem like they would have road applicabillity. Congratulations!
Wear Your Beliefs on your Shirtsleeve Award
AMPHITEX: 100% recyclable and PFC free waterproof breathable textile for the outdoor and sportswear industry
AMPHIBIO LTD
multilayer papers, packaging, and textiles are a bane on recycling systems, and almost always resullt in landfill waste. Using different structures of a single material to achieve similar results sounds like a very good idea, and could have enormous impacts. Cheers to such a likeable seeming team as well!