Everest summiter Marco Cremona wins environmental award

Engineer Marco Cremona, who reached the summit of Everest on 17 May as part of the Maltese Challenge8000 team, has recently been awarded the national prize by the International Energy Globe Jury for his ‘water self-sufficient house’ in Mosta. Through a combination of traditional rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling and a number of water conservation measures Marco’s household has been completely self-sufficient in water use for the last 5 years – no mean feat considering that Malta only receives 550mm of rainfall a year.

This is not the first award this Mosta eco-house has won. Last June it was awarded the France 5 TV Report Terre award as the best environmental project in Europe.

The World Energy Globe Award for Sustainability was launched in 1999 and is today’s most prominent and prestigious environmental prize. Each year some 800 projects and initiatives from all over the world are submitted to compete for the award in the categories Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Youth. The Energy Globe is awarded annually in the realm of a huge television gala that is broadcast worldwide to some three billion households.

Engineer Cremona was invited to receive the Energy Globe country certificate at the Energy Globe  ceremony on 3 June in Kigali, Rwanda. However, Marco decided to not go for the award ceremony but opted to return to Malta on 4 June with his Challenge8000 colleagues after their successful ascent of Everest. “Of course, I would have wished to receive the award at such a prestigious ceremony in Rwanda but I knew that our team’s return to Malta after Everest was an occasion that cannot be missed,” Cremaona said.

This is the second Energy Globe award for Engineer Cremona. Last year, he won the national award with his innovative HOTER project which converts sewage from hotels into perfectly safe potable water.

The HOTER project went on to become one of 3 finalists in the CNBC/Allianz 2009 Good Entrepreneur Competition, and narrowly missed out on the prize worth more than €250,000.