NCIIA News and Media

On Sunday, PBS will be airing a new documentary chronicling the work of four social entrepreneurs working to change the world via a Staples-Ashoka Youth Venture competition. The one-hour special, Biz Kid$ -- Three Minutes to Change the World, presented by The Lemelson Foundation, will give viewers a front row seat to the Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition and a backstage pass into the days leading up to it.

One of the four competitors is Eden Full, a NCIIA Student Ambassador and founder of Roseicollis Technologies, a social enterprise to take her solar panel tracking invention, among other appropriate technologies, to developing communities. Don't miss this exciting show!

The Lemelson-MIT Program chose Dr. Ashok Gadgil as the recipient of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation in recognition of his steady pursuit to blend research, invention, and humanitarianism for broad social impact. Gadgil is a chair professor of Safe Water and Sanitation at the University of California, Berkeley and director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Gadgil has received NCIIA grants for removing arsenic from contaminated drinking water in Southeast Asia.

Ecovative Design has won the prestigious United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Quality award. Ecovative is a former E-Team and upstate New York company that makes biodegradable packaging material from mushrooms.

EPA regional administrator Judith Enck presented the environmental leadership award to Ecovative on Thursday, April 20. The company uses the "roots" of the mushroom—called mycelium—and plant matter to make soft blocks that are used to cushion products ranging from computer servers to furniture.

Former E-Team EcoTech Marine was recently awarded the Entrepreneurial Achievement Award from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The award is given to individuals who best exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit: a combination of ingenuity, hard work, and innovation that has resulted in the creation of a successful and growing business venture.

EcoTech has grown substantially since starting out as an E-Team in 2003 and is on track for more than $12 million in revenue for 2012, almost doubling its 2011 sales. Beginning with three founders, the company now employs thirty, plans to add ten more full-time team members this year, and is seeking new space that quadruples its current area.