FAST COMPANY ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2020 WORLD CHANGING IDEAS AWARDS
CRISP SELECTED AS A FINALIST IN THE FOOD CATEGORY AND AN HONORABLE MENTION IN THE AI AND DATA CATEGORY
New York, - The winners of Fast Company ’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced today, honoring the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to flattening the curve when it comes to the climate crisis, social injustice, or economic inequality.
The carbon footprint of food production and the amount of energy, water and resources that go into it are massive. Wasteful overproduction inflates both its environmental and economic costs, while creating no benefit. Crisp is tackling this devastating global problem head-on in a way that benefits both the environment and food businesses.
The heart of the global food waste problem is forecasting ineffiency: the challenge of accurately predicting demand and meeting it every time without overproducing. Designed specifically to bring efficiency and balance to the food supply chain, the Crisp forecasting platform provides a solution that the world needs. Fast Company recognized this contribution and awarded Crisp as a Finalist in the Food Category and an Honorable Mention in the AI and Data Category.
Now in its fourth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 26 winners, more than 200 finalists, and more than 500 honorable mentions with Health and Wellness, Corporate Social Responsibility, and AI and Data among the most popular categories. A Panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 3,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more.
The 2020 World Changing Company of the Year is Abbott, for a range of devices and projects to improve global health - from a new implant to keep babies’ hearts healthy, to lighting malaria, to advancing the careers of underrepresented people in STEM. Additional honorees include hunger-fighting nonprofit Food Rescue Hero, 3D-printing housing builder Icon, carbon-tracking nonprofit Climate Neutral, broadband provider Viasat, and several other game-changing companies in industries ranging from healthcare to disability empower to cleaner transportation. The 2020 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Vancouver to Singapore to Tel Aviv.
Illustrating how some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies are addressing grave global challenges, Fast Company’s May/June issue celebrates, among others, an electric engine for airplanes that eliminates emissions from flights and expensive fuel from the tricky financial calculus of the airline industry; a solar-powered refrigerator that finally frees people in remote villages from daily treks to distant markets, transforming the economics of those households; an online marketplace that connects food companies with farms to buy ugly and surplus produce to fight waste; and an initiative to offset all of the carbon costs of shipping, creating a new model for e-commerce sustainability.
“We know that sustained change can only happen if there is also a financial benefit for customers. In the case of food waste, the potential benefits are enormous, because lost sales from out-of-stock situations or waste due to overproduction and overstock equate to lost profit,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Crisp. “With Crisp, customers forecast more accurately, they drive more profits, and they contribute to resolving a global food crisis. This is the double bottom line that makes Crisp technology a game-changing idea. We appreciate the recognition of its importance by Fast Company.”
“There seems no better time to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, resources, and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”
About the World Changing Ideas Awards:
World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.