Sustainability and Citizen Empowerment Projects Win Fab City Awards

The Fab City Awards 2025 are officially over. From a total of 56 submissions, four projects won the community-led climate action, circular innovation, biodiversivity, and overall impact award categories.

These projects will be presented at the FAB25 Czechia conference from July 4th to 11th. The winners will also receive €1,000 - €1,500 in travel funding and a ticket to FAB25 Czechia, the largest digital fabrication event.

Best Overall Impact Award: Kovai BSF

The Black Soldier Fly, Hermetia illucens, is an increasingly popular member of the soldier fly family. At its larval stage, the fly voraciously consumes all forms of organic waste, from food scraps to crop residues, to store up enough energy for metamorphosis and the adult phase when it doesn’t feed.

Mumbai startup, Kovai BSF, uses the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) to produce protein-rich animal feed from organic waste. The company was founded by Anupa Velusamy in 2018 after she noticed the growing amount of unprocessed wet waste in India. India processes less than 30 percent of the 62 million tons of organic waste it produces every year, an issue that also presents an untapped resource.

Kovai BSF’s modular larvae-rearing systems yield about 150kg of protein-rich meal from 1000kg of waste in 12 to 14 days, much faster than traditional composting. The initiative is reported to have “impacted over 5,000 farmers, processed more than 465 tons of waste, produced 93 tons of protein, and mitigated approximately 210 tons of CO₂ emissions.”

Kovai BSF wants to build a regional ecosystem of BSFL farmers and create other derived products such as chitosan food wrap and fertilizer.

Best Community-Led Climate Action Award: SifaisLab

Sifais (Sistema Integral de Formación Artística para la Inclusión Social) is a social inclusion foundation in the La Carpio district of San José, Costa Risa. Established in 2011 by Avilés and Maris Stella Fernández as a youth orchestra, Sifais has since expanded its services and offers over 100 courses for education, empowerment, and integration of La Carpio’s underserved community.

In 2018, the foundation commissioned SifaisLab, the first digital fab lab within a slum area in the Americas. The lab offers a year-long Makers Academy programme where participants learn the fabrication and entrepreneurial skills needed to create marketable, locally relevant products. Proceeds are shared between the members and the foundation. The Academy has produced a foot-wash station (Lava Patitas), an acrylic face mask, handwashing stations, and ergonomic mask-holders.

A fab lab is expensive to maintain and manage. Robert Garita, director of SIFAIS LAB, says the organization has been struggling to raise money, and he hopes this award will support their crowdfunding efforts.

Best Sustainable Tech and Circular Innovation Award: CIEC Madrid

The circular economy reduces waste by keeping materials and products in circulation for as long as possible. The circular economic model aims to address biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution.

Launched in 2022, CIEC Madrid (Centro de Innovación en Economía Circular) is the first public-private circular economy centre in Madrid. It is a knowledge hub in the Vicálvaro district that encourages entrepreneurship, sustainability, social inclusion, and innovation. The centre has two main labs: a fab lab and a “nature-based solutions” lab (SBN Lab).

The centre has supported 97 startups and helped 40 companies transition to a circular model. They organize conferences, workshops, courses, and citizen participation projects to strengthen the local circular economy, and are exploring a collaboration with the Circular and Regenerative Campus (CRC) at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM).

Best Regenerative Ecosystems and Biodiversity Award: Gut Einern

Gut Einern is an “extracurricular learning center for sustainability and circular economy.” The 3500m² non-profit farm is in Wuppertal, Germany, situated in a region between rural and urban settlements.

Dominic Stingl, project director of Gut Einern, explains that it was founded to address the disconnect between farm and fork. People who grow their food appreciate the work that farming requires and are reluctant to waste the produce as a result. Gut Einern, therefore, seeks to reconnect people with how their food is grown.

The center focuses on circularity, sustainable food systems, and community engagement. The Farming 2.0 project showcases permaculture and vertical farming gardens to visitors from schools and companies. With other learning modules like the mobile learning unit, outdoor kitchen, and a makerspace/fab lab, Gut Einern promotes sustainable food production and healthy nutrition.

Stingl invites other organizations to copy the Gut Einern model and spread the idea globally.

Across the world, finite resources are being used up as if they were unlimited. Fab cities present a vision of an ideal economy where sustainability and circularity are prioritized. The winning projects reflect the core values of the Fab City Foundation, and this year’s theme: “Empowering Citizens for Sustainable Urban Regeneration.”

All submissions for the contest can be viewed on Airtable. The winners’ roundtable explored the winning projects in greater detail.