Announcing the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists

The Buckminster Fuller Institute announced the finalists for the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge today. Out of 19 semi-finalists--who we previously covered back in August--the distinguished Jury selected the top five after a day of deliberation on Oct. 7.

Now without further ado, the 2013 Challenge finalists are:

• Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science
• Ecovative
• The Green Chemistry Commitment
• PITCHAfrica: Waterbank Schools
• Echale a tu Casa

Each finalist will have a chance at the winning prize of $100,000 and receiving significant support from Challenge sponsor Interface Inc. to help launch the winning initiative.

The prize will be awarded at the evening award ceremony on Nov. 18 at the Cooper Union in New York. You can register for the ceremony here.

Keep scrolling to learn more about the Challenge finalists.

2013 Challenge Finalist: Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science

"Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science collaboratively develops inexpensive, open-source monitoring tools and techniques in order to 'democratize' science and empower a grassroots network of 'citizen scientists' to be able to accurately measure environmental problems, and, when necessary, challenge inaccurate government and industry environmental health data in order to demand accountability."

 

2013 Challenge Finalist: Ecovative

"Ecovative has developed a new class of home-compostable bio-plastics made from living organisms, mushroom mycelia, developed by Ecovative. Their high-performance, environmentally responsible alternatives to traditional plastic foam packaging, insulation, and other synthetic materials offer a revolutionary, truly sustainable alternative to the current toxic plastic foam materials that pollute and burden the modern world."

 

2013 Challenge Finalist: The Green Chemistry Commitment

"The Green Chemistry Commitment, an initiative to get university chemistry departments to commit to integrating Green Chemistry into their academic curricula and transform how chemistry is taught and practiced in order to eliminate the numerous devastating neurotoxic and carcinogenic chemicals that characterize modern life and damage the global ecosystem, replacing them with non-toxic alternatives."

 

2013 Challenge Finalist: PITCHAfrica: Waterbank Schools

"PITCHAfrica: Waterbank Schools, a building prototype in Laikipia, Kenya, is a working demonstration of the remarkable leveraging power of water catchment as a socially integrated resource awareness and community engagement tool."

 

2013 Challenge Finalist: Echale a tu Casa

"Echale a tu Casa, an elegantly integrated model that combines community empowerment, local technical capacity building, a novel, affordable financing system, and cutting-edge but culturally appropriate "green" building techniques to improve housing conditions for otherwise underserved populations in Mexico."

 

For more info, click here.

Images via challenge.bfi.org.