20 January 2026

The BASE Foundation, a 2019 Lab alum, was awarded the 2026 Zayed Sustainability Prize in the Energy category for its work on Cooling-as-a-Service (CaaS). The Prize is known as one of the world’s most prestigious sustainability awards, celebrating solutions that deliver real-world impact at scale.  

Developed by the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE), CaaS is an innovative pay-per-use business model that expands access to clean, efficient, and reliable cooling by eliminating upfront costs. To date, CaaS initiatives have benefited more than 160,000 people, saved more than 130 GWh of electricity annually, and prevented 81,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.  

The USD 1 million Prize fund will support the expansion of CaaS across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, accelerating the deployment of affordable, low-carbon cooling solutions and helping address rising global cooling demand.