BioLite Wins Cooper Hewitt's National Design Award

BioLite is honored to receive the prestigious 2021 National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum. Winning the Product Design category, this award celebrates BioLite’s role in using the power of design to change the world through its physical consumer products.

What Are The National Design Awards? 

Launched in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the Awards seek to increase national awareness of the impact of design through education initiatives. Winners are selected by a jury of experts who carefully review submissions against the following criteria: extraordinary originality in identifying, shaping, and solving problems, perspectives that significantly broaden the conventions of a nominees’ discipline, and work that introduces formal innovation and exhibits consistently high levels of imagination and insight. 

BioLite: Products With Impact 

 

On a mission to empower people and protect the planet through access to renewable energy, BioLite has designed and manufactured a robust portfolio of products that deliver clean cooking, charging, and lighting solutions to individuals living off-grid. Using a unique business model termed Parallel Innovation, BioLite develops core technologies that serve two distinct markets united by a common need for remote energy: outdoor enthusiasts looking to power life away from an outlet and households in emerging markets where traditional grids are unreliable or do not yet exist.

“For our emerging market customers, we have the humbling opportunity to be the first step in accessing essential energy that powers daily life safely and affordably. For our outdoor customers, BioLite shows what a renewable energy future could look like, a life beyond the fossil fuels and disposable batteries we are used to. This award means so much to us as it sits at the core of our work and our impact: a solution is only good if people actually use it – and that ultimately comes down to excellent product design.” - Jonathan Cedar, BioLite Founder and CEO

To date, BioLite has reached over 2.9 million lives across Asia and Africa and offset over 400,000 tons of CO2e emissions with its renewable energy solutions. The organization is on track to realize its vision of providing 20 million people with access to clean energy and avoiding 3 million tons of CO2e by 2025.

BioLite's National Design Award portfolio submission. Click image to view portfolio.

“This is a tremendous honor for our entire team. From design to engineering to operations, everyone at the organization plays a key role in delivering products with beauty and soul into the hands of our users. In an especially challenging time, this award affirms the passion and dedication of this group, and we celebrate this win, together.” - Jonathan Cedar, BioLite Founder and CEO

In addition to developing physical products, BioLite is a co-founder of  Climate Neutral Certified, an independent non-profit that enables brands to quickly and efficiently measure, reduce, offset, and certify their carbon footprint. More than 300 brands have certified their products through Climate Neutral, representing $4 Billion dollars a year of carbon neutral consumer spending and directly  offsetting more than 1M tons of CO2e.

October 2021: Design Month Programming

BioLite, along with other winners, will be participating in a series of educational programs during during National Design Week, an initiative launched in 2006 and expanded in 2020 to National Design Month that aims to draw national attention to the ways in which design enriches everyday life. Through NDA CITIES, Cooper Hewitt brings design literacy to communities around the country with hands-on workshops, professional development opportunities, and dynamic panel discussions.

Stay tuned for future updates on how and where BioLite will be participating.