Cleantech Group, the global market intelligence firm based in San Francisco, and Facebook, the world's most influential social network, today announced the three finalists and honorable mentions for the "Cleantech Goes Social" contest.

The contest winner will be announced on Wednesday, March 20^th in front of global media at Cleantech Group's prestigious Cleantech Forum San Francisco 2013, an annual deal-making summit for the most important investors, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives driving innovation in the clean technology industry. Facebook and Cleantech Group launched the contest as a democratic, grassroots 'open innovation' effort to engage the network’s most creative thinkers on energy and resource challenges—and to enlist the public in meaningful and urgent dialogue.

The three finalists include SunFunder, a crowd funding platform to finance off-grid solar projects in developing countries; wattTime, an application that shows users their energy mix, including the percentage of current power from renewable sources; and yerdle Instant Share, whose founders discovered that Facebook users can find 20 percent of what they are searching to buy within their own Facebook friend network. The finalists and seven honorable mentions are listed here: http://events.cleantech.com/sanfrancisco/cleantech-goes-social-1

"With more than one billion Facebook users, opportunities abound for developers to create products with immediate societal impact—and to vastly accelerate the adoption of clean technologies, fulfilling the promise of environmental sustainability,” stated Bill Weihl, Facebook’s Sustainability Guru. “The contest entries are both inspired and inspiring."

"The caliber of the applications we received was fantastic, and served as a great reminder that innovation can come from anywhere,” said Sheeraz Haji, CEO of Cleantech Group. “The excitement around the contest has been incredibly motivating and highlights the intersection of cleantech and the web as a means to scale sustainability solutions. We are convinced that Facebook will play a pivotal role in advancing the social nature of cleantech.”

Facebook and Cleantech Group salute the ingenuity of contestants from across the globe.

About Cleantech Group Inc.

Cleantech Group’s market intelligence, events, and advisory services accelerate market adoption, stimulate demand, and remove barriers to cleantech innovation. A global company with offices in North America and Europe, we connect business leaders with cleantech innovation through the i3 platform the most comprehensive up-to-date source for insights into companies, investors, financing and relationships across the clean technology ecosystem. In October 2012, Cleantech Group merged with GreenOrder, a leading sustainability strategy and management consulting firm. Details at http://www.cleantech.com.