(Press-News.org)
When: Wednesday, September 24, 2025
7:00 p.m. US Eastern Time—Reception
7:30 p.m. US Eastern Time—Announcement
What: The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy at the University of Utah
announces that Build up Nepal is the winner of the $250,000 Wilkes
Climate Launch Prize for 2025.
Build up Nepal replaces polluting coal-fired bricks with eco-friendly ones and makes safe housing affordable for poor communities. Their interlocking Compressed Stabilised Earth Bricks can be made using locally available materials, with minimal cement, and are compressed, not fired.
Nepal is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, but poor families cannot afford disaster resilient homes, most of which are built with bricks. The coal-fired brick industry is responsible for 37% of CO2 emissions from combustion in Nepal, on top of dangerous air pollution and poor working conditions. Build up Nepal trains local entrepreneurs to make climate-friendly eco-bricks, build safe, affordable homes, and create jobs in low-income communities.
"Winning the Wilkes Climate Launch Prize is an honor, and a huge boost for our mission,” said Björn Söderberg, co-founder of Build up Nepal. “It will help us scale up eco-friendly bricks to replace polluting coal-fired bricks, and bring safe, affordable homes to marginalized families affected by climate change and natural disasters.”
The 2025 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize highlights top global ideas for combating climate change. Each year, by elevating and honoring innovative climate solutions, this University of Utah prize aims to accelerate worldwide progress and encourage technological advances, with the goal of developing effective climate change solutions quickly for the benefit of people and ecosystems worldwide.
Build up Nepal was selected from among six finalists that presented their ideas at the 2025 Wilkes Climate Summit in May.
The runners-up for the 2025 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize are Roca Water, a company in Alameda, California, and De Novo Foodlabs, based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Roca Water uses electrochemistry to recover valuable materials from wastewater, reducing pollution and climate emissions while returning resources to productive use instead of losing them. De Novo Foodlabs uses precision fermentation technology to create scarce, valuable nutrients and compounds that are difficult to source traditionally, developing next-generation nutritional solutions.
The 2025 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize received over 1,100 submissions worldwide, more than five times the number received in 2024 (See an interactive map of applicant locations). The finalists were evaluated by a team of independent expert judges for scalable impact, feasibility and potential for co-benefits to communities, economies or ecosystems.
Björn Söderberg, co-founder of Build up Nepal, and Fielding Norton, managing director of the Wilkes Climate Center, can also be available for in-person interviews earlier in the day between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. US Eastern Time
Where: L. S. Skaggs Applied Science Building, Suite W1204
275 S. University Street,
Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112
Attend virtually at youtube.com/@universityofutah/streams
Who: Affiliated faculty, staff, and supporters of the Wilkes Center
PARKING: Free parking available on Presidents Circle and Lot 2.
END
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