Bright Award 2017

Andrij Zinchenko and Roman Zinchenko, environmental and green energy innovators in Ukraine, were the 2017 Bright Award winners.  The Zinchenko brothers founded the Ukrainian innovation network Greencubator, an NGO working to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainability. Greencubator has created several initiatives aimed at promoting smart energy, including:

  • EnergyEfficient Universities – a series of conferences aimed at educating the educators on energy efficiency and stimulating universities to save energy on campus;
  • TeslaCamp– an off-grid, open-air, solar-powered hackathon which annually gathers hundreds of participants for developing smart energy solutions. Many teams that formed at TeslaCamp have evolved into startups and well-known companies. For example, EcoIsMe, a prominent Ukrainian startup was formed at TeslaCamp in 2013.
  • Hack4Energy– an energy hackathon that unites representatives of 10 Ukrainian cities and hundreds of developers working on new sustainable energy solutions. Some of the hackathon participants obtained first rounds of investment and continue developing their solutions, and others, such as uMuni, have become well-established companies.

The brothers also founded and are managing a large coalition of over 70 NGOs and independent experts to develop and promote critically important legislation for reforming energy markets in Ukraine.

To learn more about the winners, click here.

2017 Recipients

Andrij Zinchenko

Andrij Zinchenko

Co-Founder

Greencubator

Roman Zinchenko

Roman Zinchenko

Co-Founder

Greencubator