Odebrecht Award for Sustainable Development Announces 2014 Finalists

PHILADELPHIA, PA--(Marketwired - Aug 7, 2014) - Following two months of screening and deliberation, a decision has been reached for the finalists of the 2014 Odebrecht Award for Sustainable Development. This year's top three entries include, in alphabetical order:

"A GPS-Enabled Three-Bike Rack to Connect Communities in the Developed and Developing World"
 Authors: Brian Barr, Kivani Sanchez, Max Hasbrouck
 Advising Professor: Matthew Wettergreen
 Rice University

"Production of Gasoline from Municipal Solid Waste by Carboxylate Fermentation"
 Authors: Jeremy Seidel, Samarpita Roy, Victoria Ehlinger
 Advising Professor: Mark Holtzapple
 Texas A&M University

"Sprayable Solar Panel as Sustainable Low Cost and Disaster Relief Energy Source"
 Authors: James Caraballo, Sami Awad Azrak, Yonatan Rotenberg
 Advising Professor: Bilal El-Zahab
 Florida International University

The award ceremony, to take place at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on September 23rd, will award $40,000* to be split amongst the winning students, their advising professor, and their university. Second place will be awarded $15,000*, while third place will receive $10,000*.

The winners will also receive a piece of sustainability of their own: a trophy produced with Braskem's green plastic, which is made from sugarcane and 100% recyclable.

Finalists were determined by two separate groups: an Internal Committee Review composed of Odebrecht USA and Braskem America team members, and an External Judge Panel consisting of eight experts from several sustainability fields. Projects were judged based on their applicability, technical contribution, content, reasoning and depth, and clarity and presentation.

This year's award ceremony keynote speaker will be Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, author of Green Recovery and co-author of Green to Gold, the international best-selling guide to what works, and what doesn't, when companies go green.

This is the third edition of the Odebrecht Award in the United States. The 2014 winners will join 2013's "Using Trap Grease as the Raw Material for Biodiesel Feedstock Production" idea presented by a team from the University of Cincinnati. Second place went to the University of California Berkeley, followed by Florida International University.

It is worth noting that both Florida International University and Rice University have participated and won previous editions of the program. To read more about past winners and their ideas, visit www.odebrechtaward.com.

The Odebrecht Award for Sustainable Development was launched in the United States in 2012 to encourage students nationwide to join the Odebrecht Organization in the search for innovative technologies and methods to promote sustainable and responsible development.

* all numbers herein are before taxation in accordance with state and federal law

About Odebrecht
Founded in 1944, Odebrecht is a company of Brazilian origin with a global presence. Odebrecht is Latin America's leader in engineering and construction, chemicals and petrochemicals, and also operates in the areas of bioenergy, water utilities, defense, real estate, properties, oil & gas, shipbuilding, and transportation and logistics. Operating in 23 countries, Odebrecht has more than 190,000 team members of 70 different nationalities and exports products and services to more than 70 countries worldwide. Our engineering and construction division has 70 years of experience and more than 35 years of international presence. Over the past 24 years, Odebrecht USA has built a portfolio of more than 60 projects worth more than $6.4 billion, delivering vital infrastructure projects for federal, state and local governments, as well as important private developers in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, California, North Carolina, and South Carolina. For more about Odebrecht, please visit www.odebrecht.com.

About Braskem
Braskem is the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas and the world's leading biopolymers producer, manufacturing green polyethylene from sugarcane-based ethanol. With 36 industrial plants in Brazil, the United States and Germany, the company produces over 35 billion pounds of thermoplastic resins and other petrochemicals per year, creating more environmental-friendly, intelligent and sustainable solutions through chemicals and plastics that improve people's lives.

Braskem is a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Emerging Markets, the Carbon Efficient Index (ICo2) and the Corporate Sustainability Index of the BM&FBovespa - Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange. Braskem is a member of the United Nations' platform for more sustainable industries and its sustainability annual report is rated level A+. Fast Company ranks Braskem among its world's top 50 most innovative companies for using renewable sources to take the oil out of plastic.

Braskem America is the leading producer of polypropylene in the United States, with five production plants located in Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and a Technology and Innovation Center in Pittsburgh. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Braskem America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Braskem S.A. For more information, visit www.braskem.com.

Documents and/or Photos available for this release:
2014 Odebrecht Award finalists

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