IFCo attends the Zayed Sustainability Prize

January 26, 2025

IFCo CEO, Bill King talks about his recent trip to the to participate in the Zayed Sustainability Prize and the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

At about 12.30 on Wednesday, I got an email from our LATAM Director, Karina, asking if I would like to join her in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday of the following week to participate in the Zayed Sustainability Prize and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. She had been in conversation with them for some time on a number of projects, and they had invited us at the last minute to join them.

Once the shock wore off, and following some hasty rearranging of my diary (and my wife’s), I said yes, I’d love to, and so flights were booked, a hotel was reserved, and I was off.

Since 2008, the Zayed Sustainability Prize has been recognising and rewarding SMEs, not-for-profits, and schools around the world that are pioneering innovative sustainability solutions across a range of categories, including health, food, climate, and water. In that time they have helped their winners power 54 million homes by renewable energy, give more than 11 million people access to clean drinking water and much more.

The week kicked off with the awards ceremony itself, showcasing the amazing and inspiring work of those nominated. It may be a cliché to say that everyone deserved to win. Whilst the overall winner receives the financial prize, the Zayed Sustainability Prize opens up its networks through an Investor Connect session, where nominees can meet investors and philanthropists, with the potential of receiving funding.

The ceremony was followed by the Gala Dinner at the incredible Royal Palace Hotel, and a chance for us to meet some of the winners and nominees. We were fortunate to share a table with Rhett Butler, Founder of Skyjuice, who won for their water treatment systems for humanitarian projects and emergency and disaster relief, Serge Raemaekers, from ABALOBI, nominated for their work with small-scale fisheries, and Veena Moktali and Koustubh Naik from Periwinkle Technologies, who won the health category for their work revolutionising cervical cancer screening in India and elsewhere. Great food and inspiring conversations were rounded off with an amazing drone light display.

The next day the conference proper began with addresses from a succession of Presidents and Prime Ministers, including of Nigeria, Italy and Albania, who were attending as part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

We also heard from a succession of people engaged in sustainability, from those financing the work to those on the ground undertaking projects. The format of short panel sessions and fireside chats worked well, moving things along quickly and keeping it focused. Highlights for me included Simon Bland from GLIDE (Global Institute for Disease Elimination), Satya Tripathi (Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet), and Raman Khalifa Al Mubarak, President of IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), but numerous other speakers showed the breadth and scale both of what is being done, and what still needs to happen, if we are to create the sustainable world we need.

Finally, the conference concluded with the aforementioned Investor Connect session – a Dragon’s Den-style opportunity for some of those nominated for the prizes to pitch their projects to investors, with those speaking seeking a mix of commercial and philanthropic funding. Speaking to the presenters afterwards, they were encouraged by the conversations they had been having, and we hope those will convert into the financing they need.

And that was it. Back to the airport and home. A long way to go for a short trip, but a memorable time and some interesting connections made. We hope to come again!