Awards, Rewards in bio and sustainability

The first week of May seems to be full of awards announcements, so I might as well compile them here:

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its 33 Safer Choice Partner of the Year winners across 17 states and the District of Columbia for outstanding achievement in the design, manufacture, promotion, and use of Safer Choice-labeled products over the past year. The program recognized participants who demonstrated leadership in furthering safer chemistry and products throughout the past year and promoting the new Safer Choice label.

Formulators-Product Manufacturers

Amway Corporation, Ada, MI
Anderson Chemical Company, Litchfield, MN
Berkley Green, Uniontown, PA
Boulder Clean, Boulder, CO
Case Medical, Inc., South Hackensack, NJ
Clean Control Corporation, Warner Robins, GA
Cot’n Wash, Inc. DBA dropps.com, Philadelphia, PA
Earth Friendly Products, Garden Grove, CA
GOJO Industries, Inc., Akron, OH
Jelmar, LLC, Skokie, IL
Krud Kutter Inc. A Rust-Oleum Co., Cumming, GA
Osprey Biotechnics, Inc., Sarasota, FL
PRIDE Industries, Roseville, CA
Reckitt Benckiser, LLC (RB), Parsippany, NJ
Seventh Generation, Burlington, VT
State Industrial Products, Mayfield Heights, OH
The Clorox Company, Oakland, CA

Innovators

AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry, Chicago, IL
BASF Corporation, Florham Park, NJ
JOSELI LLC, Reno, NV
Rivertop Renewables, Missoula, MT
Stepan Company, Northfield, IL
The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI

Purchasers and Distributors

Solutex, Inc., Sterling, VA

Retailers

Albertsons Companies, Boise, ID
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., Rochester, NY

Supporters

American Cleaning Institute, Washington, DC
American Sustainable Business Council, Washington, DC
Consumer Specialty Products Association, Washington, DC
ISSA, The Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association, Northbrook, IL
Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County, WA
McFadden and Associates, LLC, Canby, OR
The Ashkin Group, Los Angeles, CA

Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) has awarded funding for Econse Water Purification Systems (Econse) project through BIC’s Centre for Commercialization of Sustainable Chemistry Innovation (COMM SCI) program. The funding will help Econse build and test the first commercial scale version of their BRÜ CLEAN system for craft brewery wastewater treatment.  This first unit will be installed at Sawdust City Brewing Company in Gravenhurst, Ontario.

AkzoNobel selected its 20 finalists for its Imagine Chemistry initiatives which invited start-ups and academics to work with the company to find solutions to some of the most urgent chemistry-related challenges that include plastic recycling, eliminating waste-water from production sites, development of cellulose-based alternatives to synthetics, developing sustainable bio-based and biodegradable surfactants and thickeners, developing bio-based sources of ethylene and/or ethylene oxides, and development of sustainable alternatives to current technologies.

Revolutionizing plastics recycling

• Jack Buffington, University of Denver, US
• Emile Clement,  FiliGrade B.V., The Netherlands
• Adriana Pineda, CADEL DEINKING, Spain

Waste water-free chemical sites

• Steve Furlong, Drystill, Canada
• Steven De Laet, InOpSys, Belgium
• Guido Mul, University of Twente – Enschede,  The Netherlands

Cellulose-based alternatives to synthetics

• Lindy Hensen , PeelPioneers, The Netherlands
• Gertjan de Jong, MISCQ, The Netherlands
• Andrew Mwangi, Aquabax Enterprises, Kenya
• Charles Sanderson, Renmatix, USA

Bio-based and biodegradable surfactants and thickeners

• Dan Derr, Logos Technologies, USA
• Ben Dolman, The University of Manchester, UK
  New separation system for bio-surfactants
• Jeremy Minty, Ecovia Renewables Inc., USA

Bio-based sources of ethylene and ethylene oxides

• Derek Greenfield, Industrial Microbes, USA
• William Mackintosh, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Sweden

Highly Reactive Chemistry and Technology 

• Sasa Marinic, ANTECY, The Netherlands
• Mark Mascal, University of California Davis, USA

Sustainable alternatives to our current technologies

• Brian Miller, uFraction8, UK
• Mark Randall, T2 Energy, USA
• Christoph Winkler, University of Graz, Austria

The Biorenewable Deployment Consortium (BDC) awarded Green Biologics, Inc. with the organization’s Spring 2017 Commercialization Achievement Award at its spring meeting in Des Moines on May 2, 2017. Green Biologics is recognized for its leadership in the biorenewable industry and successful commercialization of renewable alternatives to n-butanol, acetone and its associated derivatives.

EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, invites small and medium sized biotech companies (SMEs) across Europe to apply for the 8^th edition of the Most Innovative European Biotech SME Award – a unique annual initiative recognising biotech innovation and its contribution to society. Depending on their field of activity, SMEs can apply in 3 categories: healthcare, agricultural or industrial biotech. Applications must be submitted online at biotechSMEawards.eu by Monday 26 June 2017.

The Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) launched a global competition to identify new preservatives with improved health and safety profiles for cosmetics, personal care and household products. The competition is sponsored by 17 companies and has a $175,000 prize pool. The deadline for entries is August 24 2017.