World Changing Ideas

2018 World Changing Ideas

We’re now accepting entries for Fast Company’s second annual World Changing Ideas awards, which honor products, concepts, companies, policies, and designs that are pursuing innovation for good.We’re looking for any ideas that have launched since the start of 2017, running the gamut from finished product to brave concept. Feasibility and the potential for impact are two key criteria—so having something in users’ hands is a big advantage. But we also want to award ingenuity and help foster innovation, which is why well-thought-out ideas that are not yet in the field will also be considered. Entries will be considered by a venerable group of designers, venture capitalists, thinkers, social entrepreneurs, and Fast Company editors. You can see some of the judges below, and more will be added in the coming months.By giving these awards, we hope to give more attention to ideas with great potential, and help them expand their reach and serve as inspiration for more people to start work on solving the problems that affect us all. The finalists will appear in an upcoming issue of Fast Company magazine (circulation 725,000) and on Fast Company’s website (12 million visits per month).

You can read about last year’s winners and finalists here.

For full competition details, see the rules and FAQs.

The entry period is now closed. Please click here to sign up for future award notifications.

Categories

Advertising
Campaigns designed to draw attention to social issues and inspire people to act or to promote world-changing products or services.
Apps
Projects that live primarily in a mobile format, in any discipline.
Consumer Products
Items for your house or office that help you live a more purposeful life, or fundamentally alter outdated business models or supply chains of our current consumer goods.
Developing World Technology
Products designed specifically for the developing world, both ones intended for the bottom of the pyramid and those intended to help create leapfrog innovation.
Energy
Solar, wind, and any other innovative ideas to create clean power (either for personal use or at a large scale) or new systems for better electricity distribution.
Food
Projects changing what we eat, how we eat, and how we get our food.
Health
Products and projects that improve either personal or global well-being and longevity, from apps to devices, to new medical equipment.
Photography and Visualization
Any visual or creative project that helps explain and publicize global problems and solutions.
Students
Projects in any category, created by undergraduate or graduate students.
Transportation
Projects that get you places—whether on two wheels or four—in new, interesting, and fuel-efficient ways.
Urban Design
Buildings, landscapes, and programs that make cities—and living in them—cleaner, more efficient, more beautiful, and more equitable for their citizens.
General ExcellenceThe broadest ideas, be they new government policies, new business models, or entire new consumer categories. Anything that has the potential to effect true systems change or solve wicked problems.

Our 2018 Judges

Sophie Bakalar (Investor at Collaborative Fund), Tiffani Ashley Bell (Founder, Human Utility), Sebastian Buck (Cofounder and strategic lead, enso), Antionette Carroll (Founder and president, Creative Reaction Lab), Stephen D. Comello (Director, Sustainable Energy Initiative), Jay Coen Gilbert (Cofounder, B Lab), Cheryl Hicks (Executive director, The Toilet Board), Jessica Jackley (Cofounder of Kiva and author of Clay, Water, Brick), Emily Pilloton (Founder of Project H Design), Jigar Shah (Cofounder, Generate Capital), Brent Toderian (President, Toderian Urban Works) and more to come…

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Ideas

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