Inspiration Off The Chain

I sat through another Zayed Future Energy Prize awards ceremony yesterday, and it again moved me to tears. No, it’s not normal for me to be moved to tears, but the deep, powerful, inspirational change that certain finalists communicated was too much for the emotional sensors behind my eyes.

I thought I was perhaps too jet lagged and more emotional than normal, but then I talked to other level-headed, calm people and found out that they were also moved to tears.

The emotional surprise wasn’t just created by the one-way surge of inspiration from the finalists, but also from the inspiration, gratefulness, and support sent back their way by the Zayed Future Energy Prize team. Certain members of winning companies, nonprofits, and schools were so thankful for the transformations encouraged by the Zayed Future Energy Prize team that their gratefulness flowed out throughout the crowd at the awards ceremony, and then deeply touched many of us.

Winners from previous years were highlighted to show the impact they’ve continued to have in their communities since winning the prize. That included Liter of Light, Munro Academy, and Nkhata Bay School Authority.

Putting some numbers to the flash, the Zayed Future Energy Prize team noted, “Altogether, the winners of the Zayed Future Energy Prize have had a positive impact on 307 million people globally in the past 10 years. As many as 8.5 million people have benefitted from training, while around 27.5 million have been introduced to renewable energy solutions through the prize. Youth-supported sustainability projects have flourished thanks to the Global High Schools winners, generating an estimated 3 million kWh of renewable energy and displacing 2,372 tonnes of carbon dioxide in total.“

It’s hard to explain the inspiration that comes from deeply diving into these winners as well as the often equally inspiring finalists, interviewing the executives and students, and hearing touching story after touching story.

However, you can get a taste of it by watching the illuminating videos of this year’s finalists — approximately a dozen global high schools finalists, 3 SME finalists, and 3 nonprofit finalists. The winners of those categories are highlighted below in bold and via tweets following the video of the entire ceremony.

If you want to jump to specific sections of the 1½ hour ZFEP awards ceremony, here’s a breakdown of what’s in the video (click any of the items to jump to that point):

• Videos of all of the finalists (0:00–18:40)
• Beautiful dance performance (18:57–22:10)
• Multimedia presentations and words of inspiration from Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Alia Al Mansoori (the Emirati Envoy to the NASA Genes in Space Program), and others (22:10–27:50)
• Presentation from Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State in the UAE, Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and Chairman of Masdar (27:50–36:20)
• “Generation Sustainability” panel (36:20–50:10)
• 2018 ZFEP Awards Ceremony butterfly (50:11–51:33)
• 2018 ZFEP Awards Ceremony intro about previous winners and effects (51:33–1:06:20) — this is the section of the opening ceremony that got me and many others to tear up
• 2018 ZFEP Winners (1:06:47–1:37:00)

SME

We are excited to reveal the 2018 winner in the Small and Medium sized Enterprise category. Congratulations @SunnaDesign for your exemplary work on sustainable solar street lights. #ZFEP #UAE #AbuDhabi #ZFEP2018 #ADSW pic.twitter.com/z8nE3TFERW

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

• Sunna Design
• BBOX
• 1366 Technologies

Nonprofit

Congratulations to this year’s winner in the Non-profit Government Organisation category, @SELCOFoundation, for their work on inspiring and supporting global initiatives through innovation, integration, collaboration and education.
#ZFEP #UAE #AbuDhabi #ZFEP2018 #ADSW pic.twitter.com/fZhy5vhUYE

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

• Selco Foundation
• Solar Sister
• We Care Solar

Global High Schools — Oceania

The #ZFEP2018 Global High School category winner for Oceania is Motufoua Secondary School from Tuvalu! It is amazing to see so many young people from across the world passionate about preserving a future for years to come! #YouthForSustainability #UAE #AbuDhabi #ZFEP #ADSW pic.twitter.com/5o4zaATe8A

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

• Motufoua Secondary School (MSS)
• Lowanna College
• Tenison Woods College

Global High Schools — Asia

The #ZFEP2018 Global High School category winner for Asia is Bahrain Bayan School from Bahrain! We can’t wait to see your next endeavour.#YouthForSustainability #UAE #AbuDhabi #ZFEP #ADSW pic.twitter.com/oPueYuCELa

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

• Bahrain Bayan School
• Mahindra United World College of India (MUCWI)
• Shenzhen Yadi School
• Muntinlupa National High School

Global High Schools — Africa

The #ZFEP2018 Global High School category winner for Africa is Auoda Saadia High School from Morocco! We look forward to following your journey to a sustainable future.#YouthForSustainability #ZFEP #UAE #inAbuDhabi #ZFEP #ADSW pic.twitter.com/BdZbkoUHds

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

• Aouda Saadia School
• Primrose Technical High School
• Gaitheri Secondary School

Global High Schools — Americas

Our #ZFEP2018 Global High School category winner for the Americas is from #Paraguay. Congratulations to Centro Educativo Mbaracayu for your amazing contribution to a better future!#YouthForSustainability #ZFEP #UAE #inAbuDhabi #ZFEP #ADSW pic.twitter.com/FbrmdIGJoV

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

• Centro Educativo Mbaracayú
• Centro Educacional Agrourbano
• Prof. Dimas Mozart e Silva School

Global High Schools — Europe

The #ZFEP2018 Global High School category winner for Europe is Vladimir Nazor school from Croatia! We hope that your efforts will continue for generations to come!#YouthForSustainability #ZFEP #UAE #inAbuDhabi #ZFEP #ADSW pic.twitter.com/wCMVBynv8V

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

• Vladimir Nazor
• Werner Heisenberg School
• Gomel State Regional Lyceum

We are pleased to announce that our 2018 winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Shuji Nakamura. We commend his exemplary work in the field of sustainable technology, through his many years in electrical engineering.#ZFEP #UAE #AbuDhabi #ZFEP2018 #ADSW pic.twitter.com/qZdCGBa6ZC

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

Google is this year’s Large Corporation winner! Thank you @Google for being at the forefront of sustainable innovation and development.#ZFEP #UAE #AbuDhabi #ZFEP2018 #ADSW pic.twitter.com/czMfcZSNjv

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

The other big winners were Google, in the Large Corporation category, and LED inventor Shuji Nakamura for the Lifetime Achievement Award. I’ll have more about them in coming articles and video interviews.

Here are highlights from yesterday’s #ZFEP2018 Awards Ceremony. #ZFEP #UAE #AbuDhabi pic.twitter.com/RUms0K4KNi

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 16, 2018

Here are 3 of our #ZFEP2018 Global High School finalists sharing their happiness on winning the award. #ZFEP #UAE #AbuDhabi #YouthForSustainability #ButterflyEffect pic.twitter.com/4le89HTj2L

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 16, 2018

As promised, this year’s #ZFEP awards ceremony was a beautiful event, marking our 10 year anniversary.#ZFEP2018 #UAE #AbuDhabi #ADSW pic.twitter.com/PQBYGybY7m

— Zayed Sustainability Prize (@ZSP_ORG) January 15, 2018

Congrats to this year’s @ZFEP winners, which include global organizations, individuals and high schools from all around the world. The winners were presented their awards by His Highness Sheikh @MohamedBinZayed. We commend your efforts shaping a sustainable future #ZFEP2018 pic.twitter.com/zub1mmxDbE

— Mubadala (@Mubadala) January 15, 2018