new award announced for sustainable transportation entrepreneurs

Submitted by Green Lily on Tue, 2012-03-20 16:06

SMART Mobility EnterPrize

Is your New Mobility project moving minds as well as people? Then enter the SMART Mobility EnterPrize competition and you could find yourself moving in new mobility circles at Rio+20, and beyond.

New Mobility – also known as ‘sustainable transportation’ – is about moving people, moving goods, and moving less, in ways that are cleaner, greener, safer, healthier, and more equitable (and more ‘hip’, of course…).

The purpose of the SMART Mobility EnterPrize competition is to identify existing and emerging New Mobility business models and innovative transport approaches that benefit the urban poor; recognise enterprises that demonstrate innovative and replicable solutions to local and global transportation challenges; and explore paths for scaling up these models. The SMART Mobility EnterPrize was conceived and developed by the University of Michigan SMART initiative and its local and international partners, with the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation. It is part of a SMART’s wider ‘Catalyzing the New Mobility in Cities’ project.

So if you are an entrepreneur with a venture that advances New Mobility, visit http://www.mobiprize.com and apply online. The deadline is 1 April 2012.

Your entry will need to be able to answer the following questions, and more:

  • Does your venture improve quality of life / sustainability for a community or communities?
  • Does it improve access to needs?
  • Does it serve the urban poor?
  • Is it an innovative approach to transport or access?
  • Is it replicable or scalable?
  • And how do you measure and evaluate its success?

Three prizes include:

  • $5000 cash
  • a trip to Rio + 20 in June to receive the prize
  • dedicated time with entrepreneurial mentors

  • But if you don’t win one of the three grand prizes, you are still a winner because you will be listed in the SMART Mobility EnterPrize Register of New Mobility Ventures.

    Rio + 20 – officially the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) – marks the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.

    For more information visit http://www.mobiprize.com or contact Andrew Russell.

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