BE OPEN Foundation: Online Vote Selects Winner of International Student Competition in Support of the UN's Sustainable Goals

LONDON, July 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- An online vote has defined the winner of the Public Vote Award in the "Second Life of Things in Design" competition. In 2019, BE OPEN and Cumulus joined forces to hold an international competition to support the UN's SDG programme. Students of arts, design and architecture-related courses submitted works that demonstrate a design-oriented take on the problems of sustainability, wiser production and consumption called for in one of the SDGs. The project accumulated a total of 683 submissions from 44 countries.

The competition offered 5 prizes overall; the three main winners were selected in May by the international jury and awarded the prizes of €10,000, €6,000, €4,000 jointly by BE OPEN and Cumulus.

Out of the 50 honorable mentions, the public have selected the winner of the Public Vote Award, who will now receive a €2,000 prize and a paid trip to the awards ceremony, where all the winners will have a chance to present their ideas to a wide panel of academics, design professionals, sustainability experts, etc.

BE OPEN Founder Elena Baturina says: "From the very first day we launched the online vote platform, we were happy to see how much attention these projects received from all over the world. Our purpose was not only to award a talent, but help thousands of people see the remarkable creativity and awareness of the younger generation."

BE OPEN and Cumulus are happy to announce that the award goes to Fernanda Ordorica Bechelany, a student of National School of Architecture, Art and Design at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, for her Agave Bioplastic project, "a thin but resistant bioplastic made from the agave plant fiber, the main waste of the Tequila producing industry."

Fernanda comments on her victory: "I'm really honored to be part of this amazing initiative by BE OPEN and Cumulus that supports the so important fight against climate change. I didn't expect my project to win the Public Vote against so many incredible entries, but I'm happy and motivated now to perfect Agave Bioplastic thanks to this. My hope is to invest the prize into further research to eventually create the material that could efficiently be used worldwide. I also hope that my example will inspire others to investigate your countries' economies, identify an issue and try to fix it with design and creativity."