Farouk Tedjar, Jean-Claude Foudraz

German engineer Stefan Lehnert has pioneered the use of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene - a highly durable, light and adaptable plastic - in architecture. The roof and cladding system he invented, based on plastic cushions filled with air, is energy efficient and able to withstand high impact. It has been used all over the world in high-profile architectural projects, such as the Eden Project in England or the Beijing National Aquatics Centre in China.

The inventions of American scientist Stanford Ovshinsky have arguably put the "green" into auto technology, paving the way for the development of the world's first electric car and the popular hybrids of today. The NiMH battery he invented offers a clean-energy storage solution with record durability and double to triple the capacity of nickel-cadmium batteries of the same size. Besides being at the heart of the eco-tech revolution, this battery is also widely used in consumer electronics.

German chemical engineer Manfred Stefener, together with Oliver Freitag and Jens Müller, created the first fuel cell for portable use, known as the direct methanol fuel cell. These fuel cells deliver efficient, reliable and clean electricity in a much more compact form than a traditional battery-power supply, even in extreme temperatures. They are already used in a vast array of applications from traffic management, to security and surveillance systems, to powering isolated environmental-data stations.