New York, May 4, 2021 — The winners of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced today, honoring the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.

 

Now in its fifth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 33 winners, more than 400 finalists, and more than 800 honorable mentions—with Health and Wellness, AI & Data among the most popular categories. A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. Plus, several new categories were added, including Pandemic Response, Urban Design, and Architecture. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.

 

Showcasing some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling exigent global challenges, Fast Company’s Summer 2021 issue (on newsstands May 10) highlights, among others, a lifesaving bassinet; the world’s largest carbon sink, thanks to carbon-eating concrete; 3D-printed schools; an at-home COVID-19 testing kit; a mobile voting app; and the world’s cleanest milk.

 

“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.”

 

“We are honored that Fast Company would highlight our Pledge-1%-motivated work with Habitat for Humanity and World Vision” said Harry Sangree, Founder and President of SeaFreight Labs.  “When we joined the Pledge-1% movement last year, I mentioned the Steve Jobs quote which says: ‘The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do’”.  It is deeply satisfying to be recognized for innovating a world-changing idea.”

 

“Crowd-Solving is a great tool for global non-profits to accelerate their work in ways not possible with internal resources,” stated Sangree.  “Stephen Shapiro, in his book ‘Invisible Solutions’, talks about a ten-fold advantage in ROI from open-innovation challenges versus internally-generated ideas.  The promising results from our challenges now underway, covering a number of housing, water, and sanitation-related problems from all over the world, point to the valuable truth of these claims.  I am most excited that this ROI can lead to transformational improvements in the quality of life for a significant number of people worldwide.”

 

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About SeaFreight Labs:  SeaFreight Labs is a consultancy delivering crowd-solving services to the global seafreight community.  We serve as "Project Advisor" on global challenges to cost effectively deliver breakthrough innovation to intractable problems.  Read about our humanitarian crowd-solving initiative at https://www.seafreightlabs.com/humanitariancrowd-solving.

 

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 the goals 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. 

 

See the full list of honorees in the Best-in-North-America category (with links to further information) at World Changing Ideas Awards 2021: North America Finalists and Honorable Mentions (fastcompany.com)

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A link to a PDF of the press release is available HERE.