Dilmah initiated Merrill J. Fernando Innovation Awards 2021 unveils winners
The winner of ECOVATION 2021 is the innovatorduo Prof. Rangika Halwatura and Ms. Himahansi Galkanda, affiliated to the
Unive r s i t y of Moratuwa, who created an ecofriendly wall-putty out of waste alum sludge.
In addition to being honoured as winner of Ecovation 2021 with the Merrill J Fer nando Innovation Awards 2021 trophy, the duo received a cash prize of Rs. 750,000.
The Merrill J. Fernando Innovation Awards – ECOVATION – first took place in 2016, seeking to encourage practical or scientific innovation amongst youth, women and men in academia or any field, in designing creative and impactful solutions to our most urgent ecological issues. The award ceremony for Ecovation 2021 was held on March 31 at the Dilmah Tea Head-Office Premises, the company said in a media release.
In second place was Sudhara Jayakody, also affiliated to the University of Moratuwa, with his Eco Crumbler - “earthworm pet home” - a solution devised to help city dwellers deal with accumulating household food waste. Chosen in third place was Gamini Priyantha Alexander, from Nature’s Paper (Pvt) Ltd, a formidable eco- entrepreneur, who has been creating eco- friendly packaging alternatives out of paper waste and agricultural waste as well as invasive plants. The second place and third place winners received cash prizes of Rs. 500,000 and Rs. 250,000 respectively. The remaining top 10 were also awarded with cash prizes of Rs 50,000 each towards their continuing eco innovation journey.
This edition of the awards saw 64 aspiring eco- innovators sending in t h e i r e c o - f r i e n d ly ideas and prototypes. These eco- innovations we r e t hen scored on t heir innovativeness, but most importantly on adaptability, scalability and practicality.
This edition of the awards saw 64 aspiring ecoinnovators sending in their ecofriendly ideas and prototypes