
There were some great contenders in the nonprofit category of the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize, but it was always hard to see anyone beating Liter of Light. Just about every time when covered Liter of Light and the basic idea of passive solar lighting in the developed world via plastic bottles, water, and bleach, the story has blown up. Liter of Light built off of that simple yet effective cleantech solution and came up with more crowdsourced solutions that people in these communities can create and implement (themselves) in order to get nighttime lighting (beyond the stars & moon) and improve their standards of living in other ways.
Listening to Liter of Light founder and executive director Illac Diaz, it’s hard not to get very inspired. He glows with it. He’s also super passionate about bottom-up solutions, crowdsourcing, and empowering people. Watch the following interview, which I filmed during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week* just one day after Liter of Light won the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize in its category, in order to be inspired and also find out Illac’s plea for help to make an even greater impact.
*Full Disclosure: Masdar covered my trip to Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in 2014 and 2015, and I do some contract work for the clean energy corporation.
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