If you have been on our mailing list or tweet stream, you may have seen something out there about the MYOO Create ‘Beat Waste’ competition. (And, if you haven’t voted yet, for pete’s sake, hurry up and vote here!) UPDATE: RecycleMatch was selected as a finalist!
MYOO Create is a community focused on social and environmental innovation. By offering ‘challenge prizes’ and encouraging discussion around key topics, in this case around the waste of our natural resources and overuse of landfills, MYOO is driving innovation on some of the most pressing challenges we currently face.
The $25,000 cash prizes for the Beat Waste Startup Challenge were underwritten by Adventure Ecology, a group focused on the enormous problem of plastics and trash collecting in our oceans.
Your votes and comments matter. But the final decisions will be made by a panel of judges that are all total rock-stars of the sustainable business. Leading the pack is Paul Hawken, author of Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution, the book that President Bill Clinton named to his 5 Most Important Books Today (1998). This book, along with Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce (1993), were influential reading for the RecycleMatch team.
Another major influence on the RecycleMatch business was Adam Werbach. When the youngest elected President of the Sierra Club started working with Wal-Mart, it was a controversial move. A few years later, Wal-Mart is driving zero waste and sustainable sourcing initiatives throughout their supply chain. Making the RecycleMatch services a must for businesses seeking to achieve sustainability goals at both ends of their supply chain.
Zem Joaquin and Adam Lowry are making sustainability sexy, giving it broader appeal than the hippie fringe movement of the past. AutoDesk’s Lynnell Cameron is making sustainable architecture and industrial design more practical and achievable. And KIVA’s Premal Shah is putting financial resources within reach for millions of entrepreneurs all over the globe. Kiva takes microlending to the masses, empowering millions to make the change they want to see in the world.
For the full list of MYOO’s distinguished panel of Beat Waste judges, click here. http://www.myoocreate.com/blog/about-us/judge-test/