Asahi Glass Foundation's 2016 Blue Planet Prizes to Pavan Sukhdev and Markus Borner

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Asahi Glass Foundation, which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its international environmental award, the Blue Planet Prize, announced that its two annual prizes would be awarded this year to Pavan Sukhdev of India and Markus Borner of Switzerland. Both recipients will receive a cash award of 50 million yen.

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The Asahi Glass Foundation established the Blue Planet Prize in 1992, the year of the pivotal Earth Summit, to recognize individuals or organizations for outstanding contributions toward solving global environmental problems.

Pavan Sukhdev (India)

Pavan Sukhdev is an UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, a founding trustee of the Green Indian States Trust (GIST), the founder & CEO of GIST Advisory and an associate fellow of Davenport College at Yale University. He was selected for his pioneering research into economic rationale and practical metrics for transitioning towards an inclusive green economy. He has drawn attention to the critical roles of corporations in this transition and has shown how to mainstream ecosystem services for improved public policies and business practices. By developing sustainability metrics for corporations on both local and national levels, he has hastened the evolution toward an inclusive green economy.

Markus Borner (Switzerland)

Markus Borner is a professor of University of Glasgow and the former director of the Frankfurt Zoological Society Africa Program. His Blue Planet Prize recognizes his four decades of leadership in conservation and management initiatives to protect endangered wildlife and protected-area ecosystems in Africa. He was among the first to recognize that the protection of individual species requires comprehensive protection of entire ecosystems, including a commitment by people to save their local ecosystems. He has drawn global attention to the fact that wilderness, biodiversity and beauty are essential for the survival and health of our planet.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Palace Hotel Tokyo in Tokyo on November 16. Commemorative lectures will be delivered by the prize recipients at the United Nations University in Tokyo on the following day.

The prize selections were made by members of the board of directors and councilors of the Asahi Glass Foundation, which is chaired by Kazuhiko Ishimura.

Photos of the recipients are available at www.af-info.or.jp/en. For more information about the Blue Planet Prize, please visit www.af-info.or.jp/en/blueplanet/about.html.

About the Asahi Glass Foundation

The Asahi Glass Foundation strives to contribute to the creation of a society that can transmit the genuine wealth of human civilization by supporting advanced research in the fields of science and technology and by recognizing efforts to solve environmental issues that call for global solutions. The Asahi Glass Foundation was established in 1933 as the Asahi Foundation for Chemical Industry Promotion in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of AGC Asahi Glass. Over most of its first half-century, the foundation focused primarily on fostering research in the field of applied chemistry. In 1990, the foundation expanded the scope of its activities, established its commendation program and was renamed the Asahi Glass Foundation. Today, its main activities include grant-making and commendation programs. www.af-info.or.jp/en

Blue Planet Prize Laureates
1992		Dr. Syukuro Manabe (USA) International Institute for Environment and Development (UK)			2005		Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton (UK) Dr. Gordon Hisashi Sato (USA)
1993		Dr. Charles D. Keeling (USA) IUCN—The World Conservation Union (headquartered in Switzerland)			2006		Dr. Akira Miyawaki (Japan) Dr. Emil Salim (Indonesia)
1994		Professor Dr. Eugen Seibold (Germany) Mr. Lester R. Brown (USA)			2007		Professor Joseph L. Sax (USA) Dr. Amory B. Lovins (USA)
1995		Dr. Bert Bolin (Sweden) Mr. Maurice F. Strong (Canada)			2008		Dr. Claude Lorius (France) Professor José Goldemberg (Brazil)
1996		Dr. Wallace S. Broecker (USA) The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (India)			2009		Professor Hirofumi Uzawa (Japan) Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford (UK)
1997		Dr. James E. Lovelock (UK) Conservation International (head­quartered in the USA)			2010		Dr. James Hansen (USA) Dr. Robert Watson (UK)
1998		Professor Mikhail I. Budyko (Russia) Mr. David R. Brower (USA)			2011		Dr. Jane Lubchenco (USA) Barefoot College (India)
1999		Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich (USA) Professor Qu Geping (China)			2012		Professor William E. Rees (Canada) and Dr. Mathis Wackernagel (Switzerland) Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy (USA)
2000		Dr. Theo Colborn (USA) Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt (Sweden)			2013		Dr. Taroh Matsuno (Japan) Professor Daniel Sperling (USA)
2001		Lord (Robert) May of Oxford (Australia) Dr. Norman Myers (UK)			2014		Prof. Herman Daly (USA) Prof. Daniel H. Janzen (USA) and Costa Rican National Biodiversity Institute (Costa Rica)
2002		Dr. Harold A. Mooney (USA) Professor J. Gustave Speth (USA)			2015		Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta FBA FRS (UK) Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs (USA)
2003		Dr. Gene E. Likens (USA) and Dr. F. Herbert Bormann (USA) Dr. Vo Quy (Vietnam)			2016		Mr. Pavan Sukhdev (India) Prof. Markus Borner (Switzerland)
2004		Dr. Susan Solomon (USA) Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway)

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