Founding Donor Boost To IGS Foundation, don't miss the words of Mr. Anant Kanoi

Educational opportunities in geosynthetics have received a boost thanks to a host of new and repeat donors to the IGS Foundation (IGSF).

The IGSF, a charitable body launched in 2020 to support the IGS’s educational initiatives, attracted the support of a number of high profile patrons including geosynthetics pioneer J.P. Giroud and industry leader Solmax at its inception.

Now numbers have swelled with new members added to the Founding Donors’ honor ladder and several inaugural donors contributing again.

IGSF Secretary-Treasurer Boyd Ramsey explained individuals and companies were invited to give before the end of 2021 to receive ‘Founding Donors’ status, which comes with a range of extra benefits depending on level of contribution.

He said: “We were delighted with the response. We welcome our new supporters for 2021 and are very grateful for existing Founding Donors who generously gave again.

“We’re thrilled to have this level of support in such a short space of time and are grateful so many in our industry understand the value and importance of our aims. We look forward to continuing ploughing this vital funding into IGS educational initiatives around the world.”

New Founding Donors expressed their enthusiastic backing for the good cause.

Mike Ayers, from Gold donor Watershed Geo, said: “There is a strong future for increased adoption of geosynthetics by the engineering community and end users. Organizations such as the IGSF play a vital role in helping to bring greater visibility of the technical, environmental and cost-benefits for a variety of applications that will help the industry realize the potential market.

“Donating to the IGSF is important for our business as we want to play our part in promoting, educating and spreading the message about the many virtues of geosynthetics. We hope our contribution will provide the resources to educate and inform educators and engineers about the many benefits of geosynthetics. More visibility to the engineering community as a whole is critical.”

Silver donor Anant Kanoi of TechFab India said: “As geosynthetics technology has an increasingly substantial role to play in developing effective, economical and sustainable solutions to global challenges, there is a compelling need to expand the awareness and understanding of geosynthetics. We greatly appreciate the excellent work the IGSF is doing to deepen the understanding and promote the appropriate use of geosynthetics technology.

“We hope our contribution will help the IGSF to continue its excellent efforts and get more confidence in sustaining its activities long term. We also hope our donation will motivate others to become donors and supporters as it is important all stakeholders work together to develop a better understanding and promote the appropriate use of geosynthetics technology especially in India.”

Bronze donor Kent von Maubeuge said: “The IGS Foundation is focused on ensuring a diverse range of stakeholders have a better understanding of how to use geosynthetics materials correctly so they can be more widely adopted in sustainable infrastructure projects. This mission is essential and we’re proud to support the IGSF financially and with the efforts from our company Naue for a more sustainable world.”

Jean-Louis Vangeluwe, President and CEO of repeat donor Solmax, added: “Solmax as an industry leader sees geosynthetics as providing great benefits for the users and the planet. The Foundation can help to push geosynthetics usage into the global world and Solmax supports that.”