15 February 2011: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that Chinese electronics manufacturer Hisense has become the first corporate partner of UNEP’s SEED Award, which supports innovative and small-scale entrepreneurs worldwide to integrate environmental and social benefits into their business models.

In its three-year agreement with UNEP, Hisense commits US$600,000 to promoting and strengthening the brand profile and global positioning of the SEED Award. According to UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, the partnership underlined that “striving to achieve sustainability in the 21st century is as much a developing country agenda as it should be a developed-country goal.”

The SEED Initiative was founded by UNEP, UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa. Winners of the annual award include a diverse range of business models tackling poverty and providing environmental stewardship in water and waste management, sustainable energy, climate change, recycling, fish farming and other areas. [UNEP Press Release]