By Julia Hawkins, Ashden PR and Digital Media Manager

It may come as some surprise to you, but the Ashden Awards are about more than a fancy ceremony, a few rousing speeches and canape-fuelled networking. 

They're about recognising and rewarding the few amazing people out there who don't just shrug their shoulders at increasingly disturbing climate change predictions, or rising fuel prices, or poverty statistics, but who are determined to make a positive difference to this planet and all of us who live on it.

So as well as providing providing financial rewards to our Award winners, we also do everything in our power to give them as much media exposure as possible - not to mention business advice, links to investors, policy makers or potential partners. In doing so, we aim to help them increase their reach even further, as well as holding them up as a model for others to follow.

This presentation by solar lantern company d.light shows the difference that winning an Ashden Award in 2010 made to the company at what CEO Donn Tice describes as a 'pivotal point' in it history. The bottom line for us is that it has helped transform the lives of many more poor people around the world by giving them a clean, reliable and affordable source of power. 

That's what it's all about, see.