Sunny Sanwar originates from
Dhaka, Bangladesh, and currently resides
in Kansas City, Missouri. He began his
ground-breaking journey of sustainable initiatives as a teenager and now holds a B.S. in
Mechanical Engineering from the University
of Kansas and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Missouri at
Kansas City. Sunny is also a Columnist for
the Daily Star, the largest English newspaper
in Bangladesh, and is currently working in
local government at Jackson County, Missouri. This multicultural and interdisciplinary
background gives him a holistic understanding of socially sensitive issues in energy and
environment around the world. His graduate
dissertation thesis in Public Policy dealt with
local level emissions reduction strategies.
Sunny’s 2008 “efficiency over performance” project called the KU Ecohawks,
aimed for urban transportation to not need
to rely on conventional fossil fuel sources
that pollute the local and global environment, using instead local wastes as a fuel
source. Completely off grid, the mono-crystalline solar cell powered workspace
charged the cars, with no energy taken
from the main power lines – an inspirational achievement. Sunny also founded the
Sustainable Built Environment Initiative in
his native Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh,
which was renamed Bangladesh Green
Building Council (BGBC) in 2011, when it
became the national representative of Bangladesh, as part of the World Green Building
Council in Toronto, Canada. Supported by
United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fellows, the council provides a centralized national board for green building certifications,
courses and outreach, as well as consultancy
services to private construction firms, think
tanks and government initiatives.
Winner SBN International Youth 20-25 years Award 2013
in partnership with Positive Impact Magazine
KU Ecohawks
In February 2008, Sunny and a group of
4 other mechanical engineering students from the University
of Kansas met to organize a new project under their Professor,
who formerly worked with the American Auto Industry. They
converted old, gas-powered community cars to run primarily
on renewable energy sources, such as solar powered batteries
and wasted cooking oil. The Ecohawks group is one of the largest and most promising initiatives of the University of Kansas,
and garnered attention from Executives of GM and Ford and
also Wired magazine. It has been funded at various times by
Coca Cola, US EPA and National Instruments, among others.
The Ecohawks Research Center building located in Lawrence,
Kansas won ‘The Very Best Projects of 2013’ by the American
Institute of Architects for its sustainability in design. More
information visit wikipedia.org/wiki/KU_Ecohawks
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