Tirana, 12 July 2019 – Balkan Green Foundation organized the 8th Annual Regional Competition of the Balkan Green Ideas (BGI) competition. This year the competition gathered representatives from countries of the Western Balkans and Greece and provided an opportunity to competitors from 7 countries to present their green and innovative ideas.

For two days, 21 innovative, original, and unique green ideas were presented in front of the jury members who had the challenging task of choosing the four winners who were each awarded $10,000.

This year’s winners are:

• Jordanco Lefkov from North Macedonia for growing a new “Bio Smart Rice”,
• Stamatina Ioanna Moschandreou from Greece for her idea "Community Energy River", 
• Olga Rajchikj from North Macedonia for the mobile application named "Challenger" and
• Salko Užičanin from Bosnia and Herzegovina for the unique solar panel "SolHeat Ltd".

Over the years, BGI has strongly supported the initiation and development of more than 22 successful business ideas which continue to thrive and strive for incremental growth on the and regional levels. BGI also explores the role of philanthropy in engaging local communities to generate green business ideas that utilize local resources and revitalize disappearing traditional production chains and community-based markets.

Balkan Green Ideas is a project of the Balkan Green Foundation, supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Western Balkans Program, and in cooperation with national foundations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.