Getting us to stop wasting energy and instead choose sustainable ways of living is a daunting task. But it’s what the Ashden Trust for Sustainable Energy is committed to. It rewards schemes that show renewable energy products working for the community – whether it’s using solar energy, biogas or any other form of energy that doesn’t endanger the environment. In 2005 its annual awards featured projects in Honduras, Rwanda, Nigeria, India and Nepal. In Hyderabad, India, one company’s struggling to keep up with demand for its solar lamps to replace dangerous kerosene versions, while in Nepal, turning cow dung into cheap clean biogas has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people. A solar powered solution has also worked for the people of northern Nigeria. In Maiduguri, they’re using solar energy to provide a constant source of refrigeration for vaccines in their health centre. An energy efficient cooking stove in Tegucigalpa, Honduras caught the imagination of the Trust. It cuts out the health hazards of firewood stoves and is affordable, and is now going into mass production. Schemes using crop waste as fuel in the Punjab and turning sewage into biogas at a prison in Rwanda were highly rewarded in the 2005 awards. The Ashden Trust also wants to persuade policy makers, funders, organisations and individuals to recognise renewable energy and energy efficiency as a crucial tool for addressing the urgent environment issues the world faces. The awards were created in 2001 by Sarah Butler-Sloss of the Ashden Trust, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts.

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