For Immediate Release
August 21, 2013 – Ecovative has been named a 2013 Semi-Finalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, the prestigious annual design science competition named "Socially-Responsible Design's Highest Award" by Metropolis Magazine. The Challenge awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a whole systems-based solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. Ecovative provides sustainable alternatives to plastics and plastic foams for packaging, building materials and other applications by using mushroom technology to convert agricultural waste into high-performance, cost effective, and home-compostable materials. Ecovative maintains its commitment to triple bottom line principles, aligned with a mission to benefit people, the planet, and progress of the economy, environment, and society. "Our technology and mission directly answer the challenges posed by the Buckminster Fuller Institute," said Gavin McIntyre, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Ecovative. "Since the invention of our Mushroom Material technology, Ecovative has pursued a material platform that, while disruptive, can be holistically integrated and significantly revolutionize materials for an ideal world. We'd be honored to receive this support of our ideological principles." After an initial rigorous vetting process by BFI's multi-disciplinary review team, which included an in-depth interview, our project (listed on BFI's contest page, among the other entries) was chosen from a pool of hundreds of entries from around the world, to be one of 19 Semi-Finalists this year. It will now be featured as a top tier project in BFI's Idea Index and featured on their website. Semi-finalists will be reviewed and discussed by a board of 7 distinguished jurors, which includes industrial designer Jay Baldwin; Jason McLennan, Founder of International Living Future Institute; Andrew Revkin, journalist and author of New York Times blog, Dot Earth and Woody Tasch, Founder and Chairman of Slow Money. Finalists will be announced in October and the winner, runner up, and honorable mention(s) will be announced at the conferring ceremony in New York on November 14th. The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is the premier international competition recognizing initiatives which take a comprehensive, anticipatory, design approach to radically advance human well being and the health of our planet’s ecosystems. The 2013 Semi-finalists are providing workable solutions to some of the world’s most significant challenges including water scarcity, food supply, health, energy consumption and shelter. The Challenge is a program of The Buckminster Fuller Institute, which aims to deeply influence the ascendance of a new generation of design-science pioneers who are leading the creation of an abundant and restorative world economy that benefits all humanity.
