FoST Nepal runners up in the World Challenge 2007

For their work on biomass briquettes made from waste, The Foundation for Sustainable Technologies (FoST) in Nepal have been awarded a runners up prize in the World Challenge 2007, brought to you by BBC World and Newsweek, in association with Shell.

Now in its third year, the World Challenge 2007 is a global competition that seeks out projects and businesses that not only make a profit, but also put something back into the community. More than 107,000 people around the world voted online to determine the winners.

In 1995, Sanu Kaji Shrestha ran out of cooking gas. So too did nearly everyone else in Kathmandu, as a countrywide shortage set in. Demand was so great Sanu had to take three days off work to queue up for more fuel. This first-hand experience of his country’s dependence on external energy supplies set Sanu thinking. He began to look into sustainable energy technologies for the domestic market, researching existing designs and adapting them for the Nepalese market. In 2001 he retired from his day job to concentrate on bringing low-cost, high-efficiency energy technologies to Nepal’s rural and urban poor. Measures developed to date include simple yet ingenious solar cookers and briquette presses to make smokeless fuel from waste materials.

Read more about FoST Nepal here

See a 10 minute BBC short film on their project here

Read an article from Boiling Point 52 by Sanu Kaji Shrestha on his work or go to his HEDON user page here