SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA – November 2010 – Impact Carbon was selected as one of 6 finalists for the International Workplace Health Promotion Awards (IHPA). The IHPA Awards are being presented by URAC and the Global Knowledge Exchange Network (GKEN), two nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving health worldwide. The IHPA program will recognize organizations around the world that have implemented innovative health promotion programs that have made real and reproducible effects that dramatically improve health. Finalists will be honored at the Inaugural International Health Promotion Awards Symposium, December 6-7, 2010 in Rome, Italy where winners will be announced.

The goal of IHPA is to promote “cross-fertilization” of health promotion ideas within the health care industry. Shared best practices have long been vital in advancing health care innovations. Sharing established wellness and prevention programs from around the world will surely facilitate discussion, partnership and learning.

URAC and GKEN received worldwide interest in this inaugural program with almost 200 organizations contributing profiles. In the end, Impact Carbon’s program was selected by a distinguished panel of judges out of 88 programs submitted– 31 for Workplace Wellness and 57 for Community Health Promotion. Programs were received from approximately 45 countries representing North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Impact Carbon is a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve health, protect the environment and reduce poverty through clean energy projects. For the past nine years, we have worked with researchers and practitioners to bring clean-burning and efficient stoves to more than 735,000 people in developing countries, reducing fuel dependency within poor communities and ensuring that climate change solutions generate sustainable livelihood opportunities at a local level. In Uganda, Impact Carbon partnered with JP Morgan Climate Care and Uganda Stove Manufacturers Ltd to introduce affordable, efficient and healthy stoves into the community through the Efficient Cooking with Ugastoves project.

This joint endeavor targets low-income families, schools and hospitals, and distributes both charcoal and wood-fueled household stoves as well as wood-burning institutional stoves to consumers. The project employs an innovative approach to ensuring affordability through the use of carbon financing. Impact Carbon sells carbon offsets generated from clean-burning stove use in Uganda and directs financial returns from those sales back to the community. This has allowed business to drop prices, offer warranties, extend credit to customers, improve marketing efforts and reach an additional 23,000 people per month.

This project was the first Voluntary Gold Standard cookstove project to register and verify credits, demonstrates the value and viability of leveraging carbon financing to benefit underserved populations. Through these innovative efforts, the project has succeeded in connecting local and international partners to allow more Ugandans access to clean cooking technology.

“The International Health Promotion Awards provide a unique opportunity to showcase organizations whose ideas in health promotion and disease prevention have made significant contributions to improving individuals’ lives and well being in local communities and in workplaces around the globe,” said Alan P. Spielman, President and CEO of URAC. “URAC is proud to spotlight these life-saving programs and share them with the world.”

The finalists were chosen by a distinguished panel representing the best of domestic and international health care policy and practice. All finalists are invited to present their program to the judges at the Awards Symposium, when they will discover the winners of both the Workplace Health Promotion Awards and Community Health Promotion Awards.

For complete conference details and to register for the International Health Promotion Awards Symposium, December 6-7, 2010 in Rome, Italy, go to http://www.aihpa.org/. To see a complete list of judges, go to http://www.aihpa.org/judges.asp.