D.light Design, a social enterprise set up by Stanford graduates Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun, on Thursday won the overall gold prize at Britain’s Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. The company, which is based in India, Hong Kong and China, won £40,000 as part of the prize and the award was collected by Tozun, who heads the China operations of D.light. “The firm was awarded for its passion and dedication to the cause of ridding the developing world of the health and pollution problems associated with the use of kerosene lighting through the design, manufacture and promotion of durable and affordable solar lanterns in India and across the developing world,” Ashden Awards committee said.
D.light aims to provide affordable lighting to people in developing world without access to grid electricity in order to eliminate the need for kerosene and candle lighting. Goldman and Tozun, members of the Stanford MBA Class of 2007, founded D.light Design during their second year MBA studies.
The two American students finalised India as the starting point for their social enterprise.
“Sam has this really interesting background: He grew up India and did his high school there. He also grew up in Pakistan and Peru and parts of Africa,” explained Tozun about his business partner.