Inc. Magazine named Envirofit International to its 36th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment – its independent small and midsized businesses.

Envirofit International Inc. was selected as one of the ten winners of The Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s “New Energy Pioneers 2017” Award. The awards are presented annually by Bloomberg New Energy Finance to companies from around the world based on their potential to scale, their innovation and momentum. Envirofit International received this recognition for their groundbreaking work making high quality clean cooking technology affordable and accessible to people living in energy poverty, and pioneering sustainable markets for clean cookstoves around the world.

Envirofit International was recognized for creating the most positive overall community impact by B the Change Media based on an independent, comprehensive assessment administered by the independent nonprofit B Lab. Envirofit International is honored in the Best for Customers list, which includes businesses that earned a Customer score in the top 10 percent of more than 1,800 Certified B Corporations on the B Impact Assessment.

Ron Bills, CEO of Envirofit, was chosen as a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year for his role in leading the company’s growth in clean cookstove markets around the world – including India, East Africa, West Africa, and the successful establishment of localized manufacturing operations in new markets in Latin America. Each year the Schwab Foundation, a sister organization of the World Economic Forum, selects a group of individuals to be recognized for their innovative approaches and potential for global impact.

The Envirofit EFI-100L Institutional cookstove has won a 2015 GREEN GOOD DESIGN award from The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture, Art Design and Urban Studies.A winner in the “Product and Graphic Design” category, the EFI-100L Institutional cookstove was designed by ROBRADY design using Envirofit’s patented cookstove combustion chamber architecture and rust resistant alloys. The highly functional and aesthetically appealing cookstove is 80% more fuel efficient than traditional cooking methods and can help schools, orphanages, refugee camps and other organizations who cook using wood fires apply more resources towards their mission by reducing their energy costs.

The GOOD DESIGN awards were started in Chicago in 1950 by Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames to recognize the most innovative and visionary new product design worldwide. The GREEN GOOD DESIGN award was established in 2007 to focus on the most important new international products, buildings and construction and planning projects that are sustainable and compatible with the highest standards of good environment.

Tim Bauer, Nathan Lorenz and Bryan Willson, founders of Envirofit International, a company that delivers clean-burning cookstove technology to the developing world, have been named this year’s Energy and Environment Innovators, by The Economist magazine, based in London.The 10-year-old social enterprise was recognized for the global impact of its innovative technology and market-based delivery approach that pioneered the clean cookstove marketplace. Envirofit is the global leader in the design, development, and delivery of high performing clean energy cookstoves that that combat air pollution in developing nations. It has grown from its initial concept in the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Lab to a small pilot project in India with one stove and from there on to become a worldwide company with multiple models and 700,000 cookstoves sold across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

With proven increases in efficiency and reduction of emissions, the Envirofit Institutional Cookstove is an economical and safe cooking alternative for orphanages, schools, and community centers. The cookstove utilizes all of Envirofit’s industry-leading household cookstove technologies into a highly-efficient institutional-sized model designed for scalability depending on the needs of the location. The unique shape and design is coupled with an equally unique manufacturing process to minimize the likelihood of inferior quality copying, which protects the trusted Envirofit name in 3rd world countries. The stoves are long-lasting, durable and are easy to use, clean, and maintain. Designed to encourage users to stand to the sides, it allows for two people to cook safely. Key benefits in the design of the stove are safety mechanisms for pot stability, reduction of harmful emissions (90% less smoke and soot), adaptability for indoor/outdoor cooking, and an 80% reduction of wood needed for cooking. This benefit is crucial in the developing world, where up to 60% of income is spent on fuel to cook food. Also, by using wood more efficiently, there is a reduction in deforestation, subsequently preventing erosion, landslides and habitat destruction. Traditional biomass stoves account for 20% of the world’s black carbon emissions. The Institutional Cookstove represents a new, more sustainable approach to tackling the global IAP and energy dependence while yielding health, environmental and economic improvements in emerging markets. It is designed to meet all proposed ‘tier 4’ indoor emissions, efficiency, and safety ISO-IWA standards for cookstoves.

The PCIA Special Achievement Awards acknowledge commitment and accomplishment in one or more of the four essentials of highly effective and sustainable household energy and health programs.Envirofit was pleased to be recognized for our dedication to creating sustainable commercialization strategies for increasing the use of clean and efficient cooking technologies.

This award is named for Colorado State University’s 8th President, Dr. William E. Morgan, whose participation in and commitment to the life of Colorado State University for over 30 years has significantly contributed to Colorado State’s position as a premier institution of higher education. This award is the highest honor given by the Association and is reserved for alumni who have excelled at the national or international level. The purpose of this award is to recognize a graduate of Colorado State University who has attained extraordinary distinction and success in his/her field of endeavor, whose achievements have brought credit to Colorado State University and benefit to his/her fellow citizens.In April 2010, the Colorado State University Alumni Association’s top award, the William E. Morgan Alumni Achievement Award, was presented to Tim Bauer and Nathan Lorenz, who in 2009 were named “Heroes of the Environment” by TimeMagazine.

As members of Colorado State University’s snowmobile challenge team, and winners of the national Clean Snowmobile Challenge competition, Bauer and Lorenz saw an opportunity to convert dirty, two-stroke engines into cleaner and more fuel-efficient direct injection systems.

Both men were working at the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory run by Professor Bryan Willson at the time. Their discovery led them to co-found the nonprofit Envirofit International with Paul Hudnut, an Entrepreneurship instructor at CSU’s College of Business, and Willson in 2003.

In 2007, Envirofit created global clean cook-stoves, in order to achieve long term reductions in global indoor pollution. The clean cook-stove won the Best of What’s New in Green Technology from Popular Science magazine in 2008.

Heroes of the Environment 2009 — Our green heroes are informed by this simple notion: We can all make a difference.For millions of women in developing countries, the simple act of preparing a meal is a hazardous activity. Every time they cook on a traditional wood, coal or animal-dung stove, which is to say a couple of times a day, their homes are filled with toxic by-products such as benzene, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde. Little wonder that such stoves are blamed for killing 1.6 million people every year, more than 85% of them women or children under 5. Traditional stoves are also highly inefficient, and their soot is second only to carbon dioxide emissions in speeding up global warming.

Which is why when Nathan Lorenz, 31, and Tim Bauer, 32, of Colorado State University learned about those problems, they knew they could help. Envirofit partnered with the Shell Foundation charity and in 2008 introduced a range of virtually smokeless stoves that since their launch have helped thousands of families in India breathe easier. Engineered to burn poisonous fumes and particles before they escape into the air, the stoves reduce toxic emissions by up to 80% and fuel consumption by some 60%.

The cookstove design and development teams at Envirofit International and the Engines and Energy Conversion Lab (EECL) at Colorado State University have won a Bronze IDEA for Envirofit’s clean cookstove in the Ecodesign category in the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards. The winners of the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition-a celebration of year’s most innovative and exciting product designs and one of the world’s most prestigious and recognizable design competitions-exhibit a focus on sustainability, functionality and, breathtaking aesthetics. The Envirofit S-2100 clean cookstove is an example of a recent trend of the IDEA award and its sponsors, BusinessWeek, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Target and Autodesk, toward honoring products designed for underserved or underprivileged markets.

Dr. Bryan Willson — co-founder of Envirofit and co-director of the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University – named one of the inaugural Scientific American 10, along with such prestigous company as Barack Obama, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg.Ten researchers, politicians, business executives and philanthropists who have recently demonstrated outstanding commitment to assuring that the benefits of new technologies and knowledge will accrue to humanity. This year’s Scientific American 10 pays tribute to the exceptional foresight and accomplishment of a select group whose achievements, particularly during the past year, stand out from those of their peers. The 10 winners have demonstrated that establishing a public health program or running a green business requires more than administrative efficiency and good public relations. Bringing creativity to bear in overcoming institutional and bureaucratic impediments to adoption of not just new technology but innovative procedural methods is crucial for improving health care and the environment.

To be selected as a Red Herring 100 winner or finalist is a mark of distinction and high honor. Only 200 companies are chosen as finalists out of a pool of thousands. To decide on these companies the Red Herring editorial team diligently surveys entrepreneurship around the globe. Technology industry executives, investors, and observers regard the Red Herring 100 lists as invaluable instruments to discover and advocate the promising startups that will lead the next wave of disruption and innovation.

Tim Bauer — Envirofit Vice President of Operations – 2008 Rolex Award for Enterprise Laureate.In Asia, the ubiquitous motorised tricycle with its two-stroke engine is a major cause of air pollution. Working in the Philippines, American mechanical engineer Tim Bauer and his team have developed a kit to reconfigure these machines, drastically reducing their noxious emissions.

Established in 1976 to foster a spirit of individual enterprise around the world, the Rolex Awards recognise pioneering projects that demonstrate innovative thought and contribute to the betterment of humankind. 25,800 applications received and evaluated since the Awards were founded in 1976. Only 110 laureates have been selected.

Envirofit Clean Cookstove — Winner — Green Tech category. The 21st annual Best of What’s New celebrates 100 breakthroughs that, whether long awaited or completely unexpected, are equally amazing.

Envirofit International — 2005 Environment Award LaureateThe Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity. For these awards, the museum received 560 nominations from 80 countries, and then chose 10 technologies from among these 560.

The Tech Awards program inspires global engagement in applying technology to humanity’s most pressing problems by recognizing the best of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions to address the most urgent critical issues facing our planet. People all over the world are profoundly improving the human condition in the areas of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development through the use of technology. It is the goal of The Tech Awards to showcase their compelling stories and reward their brilliant accomplishments.

The 2008 Royal Award for Sustainable Technology Transfer, protected by HRH Crown Prince Felipe of Spain and HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, was presented to Colorado State University’s Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Copenmind this week for clean tech innovations in three different areas: Envirofit International’s international clean cookstove project, Envirofit International’s two-stroke engine conversion kit and Solix’s next generation of biofuels production from algae.Copenmind is a groundbreaking exhibition and conference dedicated to research, technology and innovation through university-industry partnerships – will create a global and dedicated forum enabling commercial matchmaking between university exhibitors and industry executives on a scale that has never been seen before. The theme for 2008 was cleantech, specifically the role of technology in solving global environment and climate challenges.

The World Clean Energy Awards are prestigious honors which recognize accomplished projects in the energy efficiency and renewable energy realm. The Nominating Institutions and the Jury for the Awards comprise internationally renowned institutions and recognized experts in the energy field. The Awards provide a showcase for new standards in applying clean and renewable energy solutions. The focus is on implementation projects, which assist in moving from experimental and scientific research in cleaner energy technologies to integrated, broad use of these technologies.

Development Marketplace (DM) is a competitive grant program administered by the World Bank and supported by various partners that identifies and funds innovative, early-stage projects with high potential for development impact. DM competitions – held at the global, regional and country level – attract ideas from a range of innovators, including civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, academia and businesses.

From old-school Fortune 500 companies to start-ups barely out of first-round financing, businesses are committing big bucks to the green revolution. And while it seems like everyone’s doing it these days, we think these 20 companies are the ones pushing the ecological envelope. Whether it’s because of their reach, their potential, their influence, or the sheer genius of their innovations, we predict that each one will have a hand in changing the world in one way or another-sooner rather than later.

Almost every day we read about some cool new technology that promises to change the world. Many of these products will indeed do that – but their impact will be greatest for those of us already living comfortable lives in industrialized nations. Meanwhile, most people in developing countries are left to contend with deadly diseases, smoggy air, dirty water, poor nutrition, widespread illiteracy, outdated tools, and unreliable electricity. Who creates gadgets to change their world?The 10 social entrepreneurs profiled do. But they don’t just invent gizmos. They also ask hard-nosed economic questions that help them understand their products’ distribution, adoption, and maintenance. What’s the payback period? Will users perceive enough financial return to part with their very hard-won cash?

Most of the enterprises profiled here are not in business to make a profit. Yet all apply the principles of running a commercial venture: clarify the value of the product, test the product extensively before launching it, and always listen to customers. Whether rich or poor, customers will let you know whether a product improves their lives.