According to the Gothenburg Award website (http://www.gothenburgaward.com/se/): "Pavan Sukhdev has brought into focus the enormous, elusive values represented by the global ecosystem and biodiversity by promoting a wider perspective that goes beyond the monetary values of the ecosystem, to include more elusive aesthetic, spiritual, cultural and recreational values. His work together with the TEEB group (http://www.teebweb.org/about/) has aroused wide interest among decision-makers. For example, TEEB provides a key source of reference to the United Nations in its efforts to get ecosystem services included in national accounts by 2018."
The Jury also awarded Janine Benyus for drawing attention to nature's services and natural solutions to problems that could affect human survival and dependency.
In the words of the Gothenburg Jury Chairman, John Holmberg: “Over billions of years of evolution, nature has been creating vital functions that we are only just starting to understand the value of, and ingenious solutions that we can draw inspiration from. This year's winners have successfully developed tools for measuring the value of nature's vital functions as well as opportunities to learn from nature's intelligent solutions."Â
Responding to the award, Pavan Sukhdev said, “I feel very honored to receive this prize from the City of Gothenburg. I firmly believe that the well-being of humanity is connected to nature thriving. As a race, our survival depends on our ability to live in harmony with nature, if we are to continue to receive the services and solutions she provides. I receive this award with humility and with credit and thanks to the efforts of the whole ‘TEEB' Community, thanks to whom nature's contribution to our well- being is no longer invisible."Â
The Gothenburg Award was founded in 1999 by the City of Gothenburg and several companies with the aim of stimulating further development and recognising strategic work in sustainable development, nationally and internationally.
This is the fourteenth time the prize has been awarded. Previous winners have included Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations (2011), Al Gore, USA (2007) and Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway (2002).
The winners will receive their prize of SEK 1 million at an award ceremony on 21 November 2013 in Gothenburg, Sweden. But we know Pavan Sukhdev. His real prize will be to see India's Planning Commission implementing the sage economic advice that he, TEEB and the Green Indian States Trust (GIST) have put on their table.
About Pavan Sukhdev: Mr. Sukhdev is the Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the founder & chair of GIST Advisory, a consulting firm specializing in valuing and managing environmental impacts and dependencies at all levels. A career banker, Pavan Sukhdev took a sabbatical from Deutsche Bank from 2008 to 2010 in order to deliver the environmental projects “TEEB" and the “Green Economy Report" for UNEP's Green Economy Initiative. Pavan Sukhdev was appointed Study Leader of TEEB in early 2008 by the European Commission and Germany while working full time at Deutsche Bank.
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