In March 2010, as part of SFR’s Worth issue, we profiled the Bioneers’ Dreaming New Mexico, an ambitious project designed to map out a sustainable future for the state. 

Since then, the project has marched quietly forward and, on March 24, Dreaming New Mexico won national recognition as a semifinalist in the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

The challenge, which will ultimately whittle the 21 semifinalists down to a single $100,000 winner, gives the project a healthy dose of good visibility, Bioneers Co-CEO and founder Kenny Ausubel tells SFR.

Over the past year, Ausubel and the project’s collaborative leadership have worked on releasing a new map of New Mexico’s renewable energy resources; assessing the solar energy potential of the Navajo Nation with the help of a Google grant; and pushing relevant legislation, such as SB 63, the local food procurement bill.

“We’re deeply honored,” Ausubel says of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. “It’ll help the project to spread around the world more—and if we’re lucky, we’re going to win!”