Nominations for 2004 WTN Environment Prize

The World Technology Awards

"The World Technology Awards have been created to honour those individual leaders or, at times, co-equal teams from across the globe who most contribute to the advance of emerging technologies of all sorts for the benefit of business and society. We especially seek to honour those innovators who have done work recently which has the greatest likely future significance and impact over the long-term. The WTN awards are about those individuals whose work today will, in our opinion, create the greatest "ripple effects" in the future... in both expected and unexpected ways."

The Achievement

On October 7th and 8th, in San Francisco, the most innovative people and organizations in the science and technology world - as selected by their peers through the annual World Technology Awards program -- came together for an historic gathering. They came together to honor each others accomplishments; to explore what is imminent, possible, and important in and around emerging technologies; and to create the relationships that create the future.

Named for the 2004 Prize in the individual category was the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, for his strong personal commitment to introducing in February 2003 the successful Congestion Charging Scheme in his transport-challenged city - and thereby bringing this important policy into the tool kit for every major city in the world.

Click here for background on this nomination

And for the Group/Corporate Environment Prize, the Stockholm Partnerships for Sustainable Cities was named as one of five finalists in distinguished company along with the Pew Initiative on Food & Biotechnology, the Solar Frost Research Project, and the AgraQuest pest management program.

Click here for background on this nomination

Both these outstanding accomplishments were vigorously endorsed by members of the network of The Commons and the New Moblity Agenda (click for details). Once again by working together we were able to make a difference.

What, Why, How

After considerable and at times fairly fractious discussions, we decided to see if we could put the weight of the Network behind two highly deserving projects for the two prestigious World Technology Awards for the Environment (in the categories of outstanding individual achievement and group or corporate accomplishments).

For the individual award category, we nominated the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, for his initiative in introducing in February 2003 the Congestion Charging Scheme in his transport-challenged city -- and then put this nomination before hundreds of leading thinkers and practitioners in many parts of their world for their/your views and eventual support of the nomination.

We nominated the Stockholm Partnerships for Sustainable Cities for the 2004 Award for Environment (Group or corporate project), both for its outstanding accomplishments in the field of sustainable development and social justice, and in parallel for its reliance on low-cost SOA communications technologies to get the job done. The partnership theme which was the keystone of the SPSC events from the beginning is just as valid here as in the more formal program itself. And while this award is intended for the accomplishments of the City of Stockholm and the team behind the program in making it happen, it is also a vote for the future.

About the World Technology Network

The World Technology Network (WTN) is a cross between a global meeting ground, a virtual think tank, and an elite club whose members are all focused on the business or science of bringing important emerging technologies of all types (from biotech to new materials, from IT to new energy sources) into reality. WTN's membership is comprised of over 700 individuals and organisations from over 50 countries judged by their peers to be the most innovative in the technology world.

WTN brings key players together - from the most cutting-edge technologists to the most forward-thinking financiers, from the most conceptual futurists to the most grounded entrepreneurs, from the most insightful science writers to the most savvy marketers, from the most big-picture government officials to the most focused policy analysts, and from the world's leading corporations to the world's newest start-ups - helping to make things happen sooner and better than they might have.

WTN exists to "encourage serendipity" - the happy accidents of colliding ideas and new relationships that cause the biggest breakthroughs for individuals and institutions. WTN works to accomplish its mission through global and regional events for its members (and others) to help make connections amongst them, and to examine the likely implications and possible applications of emerging technologies. WTN also seeks to provide useful information and provoke action through its publications.

The World Technology Awards are presented each year to the outstanding innovators from each sector within the technology arena, both as a way to honour those individuals and as a vetting process to determine the newest WTN members. The Awards are announced each year in a gala ceremony at the close of the annual World Technology Summit.

The 2004 World Technology Summit took place on October 7-8, 2004 in San Francisco, California. Following on the success of the previous three World Technology Summits (2001 in London; 2002 in New York; and 2003 also in San Francisco), the 2004 World Technology Summit took the form of a 2 day gathering of many of the most innovative people in the technology world, concluding on the last night with the 2004 World Technology Awards gala ceremony. Delegates to the Summit were primarily current WTN members and 2004 World Technology Awards nominees.