About the SEED Initiative
The SEED Initiative is a global partnership for action on sustainable development and the green economy.
Founded by UNEP, UNDP and IUCN at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, SEED supports innovative small-scale and locally driven entrepreneurships around the globe which integrate social and environmental benefits into their business model.
The goal of SEED is to support the ability of such entrepreneurs to scale up or replicate their activities. This furthers their contribution to their local economies and communities while promoting sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems and reducing poverty, marginalisation and exclusion.
“The SEED Award 
winners are shining examples of what can be achieved with very little in terms of funds but an extraordinary amount by intelligent management, hard work and by shinning a fresh lens on persistent and emerging challenges. They demonstrate with their innovation that environmental challenges can be solved, and can be solved in a way that at the same time creates economic and social benefits.
We therefore must do all we can to allow creative ideas to emerge. Local entrepreneurs can play an enormous role in demonstrating how the social and green economy can work and so help to spur on a collective and global sense of responsibility for our planet.”
Achim Steiner is the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, the host of the SEED Initiative.
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