Greener Gadgets 2009: THE WINNERS!

It was a roller-coaster ride of a panel discussion at the Live Greener Gadgets Design Competition Judging at the close of Friday's Greener Gadgets Conference in New York City. After a 10-minute overview of some of the notable entries by moderator Allan Chochinov from Core77, the judges--Jeff Kapec of Tanaka Kapec Design Group, Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat, and Saul Griffith of Makani Power--toured the audience through 13 of their favorite projects before deliberating to get things down to the Top 3 (In pre-judging sessions, they were unable to decide on a set of TOP 10). It was a difficult journey, with the audience ultimately chiming in with shout outs, criticisms, defenses, philosophical meanderings, and all the good stuff you would expect from a wonderful, engaged audience. Thanks for all the participation!

The top 13 projects debated were:

Wattblocks, submitted by frog Design Bware Water Meter, submitted by Ariel Drach Fastonauts, submitted by Sara Paculdo Indoor Drying Rack, submitted by Rob Podell Tweet-a-Watt, submitted by Limor Fried, Adafruit Industries & Phillip Torrone, MAKE magazine Social Environmental Station (Environmental Traffic Light), submitted by Hernando Barragan Power-Hog, submitted by Mathieu Zastawny, Mansour Ourasanah, Tom Dooley, Peter Byar, Elysa Soffer, Mathieu Turpault Thermal Torch, submitted by Gunnar Kramp Standby Monsters, submitted by Rachel Turner RITI Printer, submitted by Jeon Hwan Ju Recompute, submitted by Brenden Macaluso Blight, submitted by Vincent Gerkens Laundry POD, submitted by RKS Design Team

Ultimately it came down a Final Four: Power-Hog, Tweet-a-Watt, Indoor Drying Rack, and Laundry POD. The judges felt compelled to reward something "that wasn't electronic," and were charmed by the Shaker-simplicity of the Drying Rack. The Power-Hog seemed universally beloved, with audience members shouting out precedents for the pay-as-you-draw systems in England and Scandinavia. Tweet-a-Watt was a nice reminder of last year's winner--the D.I.Y. Enerjar--and Laundry POD also appealed to an anti-electronic sentiment.

Once the judges were decided on the four, the decision was turned it over to the audience, who, with the help of Allan's clap-o-meter iphone app WideNoise, delivered their ultimate verdict:

1st Place Winner: US$3000: Tweet-a-Watt, A twittering power meter Submitted by Limor Fried, Adafruit Industries & Phillip Torrone, MAKE magazine (Limor and Phillip have chosen to donate their prize to Engineers Without Borders.)

2nd Place Winner: US$2000: Power-Hog Submitted by Mathieu Zastawny, Mansour Ourasanah, Tom Dooley, Peter Byar, Elysa Soffer, Mathieu Turpault

3rd Place Winner: US$1000: Indoor Drying Rack Submitted by Rob Podell

Again, the judges felt very positively toward the Laundry POD, and although there's no cash prize, we'll call it a "runner-up":

4th Place Winner: Laundry POD Submitted by RKS Design Team

Congratulations to all the winners, and a big thank you to everyone who participated in the competition. Look for more pictures and videos soon, and if you haven't yet checked out the gallery, take a look through the TOP 50 Greener Gadgets!

Thanks to Jill for the pics!