Pressroom

The Curt Bergfors Foundation actively supports the transition to sustainable food systems through research grants, awards, and information campaigns. Most of our activities are centered around the Food Planet Prize. Our team welcomes requests from journalists regarding the Foundation, the Food Planet Prize and its winners, our professorship, as well as other questions.

Please send your inquiry to: press@foodplanetprize.org

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Images of winners, shortlisted initiatives, jury members and more are available upon request.

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Winners

The Curt Bergfors Foundation is humbled to award the 2022 Food Planet Prize to anti-food loss champion ColdHubs and mangrove advocate Global Mangrove Alliance. Each winner receives $2 million, the world’s biggest award in the environmental and food sectors. The Foundation would also like to thank the Swedish Embassies in Nigeria and the USA for partnering with us to hand over the diploma to the winners.

Global Mangrove Alliance

BASED IN THE USA FOUNDED IN 2018

Topics covered

Oceans

The Global Mangrove Alliance brings together more than 30 member organizations around the world not only to fight the loss of the unsung heroes that Mangroves are but also to protect the livelihoods of its guardians. Its five coordinating NGOs – Conservation International, Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and World Wildlife Fund – leverage their resources to lift up localized conservation and restoration solutions that can be applied at scale.

“We are thrilled that the Prize will contribute to supporting the livelihoods of coastal communities and improving food security for the 4.1 million fishers who depend on healthy mangroves as a critical source of jobs and protein. I will reduce poverty and boost economic resilience, as the Global Mangrove Alliance conitnues to work towards our goal to halt loss, restore half, and double protection of mangroves globally by 2030.

Karen Douthwaite, Director of Oceans at World Wildlife Fund

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Fighting to save vital ecosystems

Mangrove ecosystems provide community livelihoods, function as biodiversity hotspots, and help mitigate the effects of climate change, but efforts to protect them have been patchy and localized. A few organizations have banded together to change that.

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Mike Crispino (WWF) welcomes Ambassador Olofsdotter at WWF headquarters

The Global Mangrove Alliance welcomes Ambassador Olofsdotter at WWF headquarters

Ambassador Olofsdotter presents the Food Planet Prize Diploma at WWF headquarters

Jen Howard (Conservation International) accepts the Diploma from Ambassador Olofsdotter

The Global Mangrove Alliance team receives the Diploma from the Swedish Ambassador in the US

Global Mangrove Alliance's team members hang the Food Planet Prize Diploma

Global Mangrove Alliance's team members discusses with Ambassador Olofsdotter

The Global Mangrove Alliance's 2022 Food Planet Prize Diploma

The Global Mangrove Alliance's coordinating team members

Marismas Nacionales Reserve in Mexico, one of the locations in which GMA is active

A shellfish farm in the Marismas Nacionales Reserve (Mexico)

A Shellfish farm in Bocas de Camichin, Marismas Nacionales Reserve (Mexico)

A fisher retrieves a string of oysters farmed on rafts (Mexico)

Oysters retrieved from Bocas de Camichin (Mexico)

A large oyster retrieved from a floating raft in Bocas de Camichin (Mexico)

A mangrove in Mexico

Park ranger Oscar Gonzales installs a motion sensor camera in Marismas Nacionales Reserve

Park ranger Oscar Gonzales measures ocelots' footprints in the Marismas Nacionales Reserve

Press contact

Emma Barnes

Communications Officer Global Mangrove Alliance

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ColdHubs

Based in Nigeria Founded in 2014

Topics covered

Agriculture
ColdHubs at Farin Gada Markt

ColdHubs designs and operates solar-powered cold rooms that cut food loss by 80% ; yet are so cost-effective that the poorest farmers can afford them and so holistic that they address 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, incl. zero hunger and clean energy.

Launched in 2015, ColdHubs has built 72 solar-powered cold rooms – 54 of which are self-operated in outdoor markets of Nigeria – and two refrigerated trucks. It’s now gearing up to launch 40 more hubs and soon enter Benin, Rwanda, Kenya, and more.


“The entire ColdHubs team and I are incredibly grateful to the Food Planet Prize Jury and the Curt Bergfors Foundation for this wonderful recognition. We’ll cherish it forever! The award money will accelerate our expansion, save at least 43,800 tons of food annually, create at least 80 jobs for women as Hub Operators, and save more than 1,000,000kg of C02.”

Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, ColdHubs’ CEO

Resources

Fixing food loss with off-grid cool rooms

Every year, smallholder farmers in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia lose a quarter of their income to spoilage. ColdHubs takes on the problem at all steps of the production and distribution chain, one solar-powered cold room at a time.

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ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu arriving at the Swedish Embassy in Abuja

The staff of the Swedish Embassy in Abuja receives ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu

ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu shakes hands from Deputy Head of Unit Jöran Bjällerstedt

ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu accepts the Diploma from Deputy Head of Unit Jöran Bjällerstedt

ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu accepts the Diploma from the Swedish Embassy staff in Nigeria

ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu with its 2022 Food Planet Prize

ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu talking to the press

ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu celebrating the win

ColdHubs’ CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu exiting the Swedish Embassy in Abuja

A ColdHubs unit installed at Farin Gada Market in Jos, Nigeria.

Baskets of okra for sale at Farin Gada Market in Jos where vendors use Coldhubs

CEO Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu interacting with a fruit seller / Cold Hubs' customer

Customer storage cards at the Port-Harcourt food market in Owerri, Nigeria

Hub Operators Esther Nnwakwe sorting crates of fruits and vegetables at the Relief Market in Owerri

Amaka Clodeth and Uzoamaka Umezuruike brainstormings on market expansion at Coldhubs offices in Owerri

Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, Founder and CEO of ColdHubs, in front of one of its storage rooms

Tomato harvest along the Kaduna-Jos road in Plateau

Press contact

Chinedu Hardy Nwadike

Communications and Social Media Officer

Food Planet Prize

The Food Planet Prize awards initiatives that solve the dilemma of feeding a growing world population while saving a planet in peril. We welcome solutions from all over the world and any field as long as they can help humanity shift to sustainable food systems within this decade. Unlike traditional awards, anyone can apply or nominate—all year round. The Prize is handed out by Curt Bergfors Foundation.

Resources

Press release

Nigerian food tech start-up ColdHubs and Global Mangrove Alliance pocket 2 million dollars each in the third edition of the Food Planet Prize, the world’s biggest environmental award

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Magnus Nilsson, Director-General and Co-chair of Jury, Food Planet Prize

Johan Rockström, Co-chair of the Food Planet Prize Jury

Richard Bergfors, Chairman of the Board, Food Planet Prize

Curt Bergfors, Founder, the Food Planet Prize

Media information

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