Santa Barbara United Nations Association Peace Prize Award

Inaugural Santa Barbara United Nations Association Peace Prize Awarded to Rinaldo S. Brutoco, Founding President of World Business Academy

The United Nations Association of Santa Barbara & Tri Counties has awarded its inaugural 2017 Santa Barbara Peace Prize to environmental leader Rinaldo S. Brutoco, founding president of the World Business Academy, now in its thirtieth year. 

The United Nations Association (UNA) of Santa Barbara & Tri Counties was started in 1947 and is the oldest chapter in the nation. The UNA has engaged locally with many important global topics, such as the Fukushima nuclear disaster, youth in peril, climate change, and educating the community about human trafficking and the plight of refugees internationally. To celebrate its 70th year, the UNA decided to honor contributions made by local people working toward a more peaceful world. The UNA created the Santa Barbara Peace Prize for nominees who live locally and have achieved measurable progress in creating peace in the world, advancing the cause of human rights internationally, and/or advancing the progress of developing nations. 

The UNA of Santa Barbara will honor Brutoco, of Santa Barbara, with its first Santa Barbara Peace Prize on United Nations Day, Tuesday, October 24, at a dinner at Moby Dick Restaurant in Santa Barbara. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at unasb.org.

“In this first year of the Santa Barbara UNA Peace Prize, the United Nations Association of Santa Barbara received excellent nominations that were very impressive in terms of the breadth and scale of accomplishments worldwide by people in our community. Google ‘Rinaldo S. Brutoco,’ and you’ll be stunned by what he’s accomplished,” President Barbara Gaughen-Muller said.

Brutoco is the founding president of the World Business Academy, a Santa Barbara-based think tank devoted to addressing climate change and advocating for sustainable energy use and other timely environmental issues by working to elevate the consciousness of people in the business community and encouraging them to use their power and influence to take responsibility for the environment. Dr. Jerry Brown, director of the Academy’s Beyond Nuclear Energy Initiative, nominated Brutoco, calling Brutoco a visionary leader who inspires cooperation for the common good.

Among his many accomplishments, Brutoco has served on the board of directors of several non-profits, including: The Gorbachev Foundation, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, the State of the World Forum, the Omega Point Institute and the National Peace Academy. Brutoco is also co-author of Profiles in Power: The Anti-Nuclear Movement and the Dawn of the Solar Age (1997) and Freedom from Mid-East Oil (2007).

Brutoco played a significant role in helping to establish and grow the National Peace Academy, which, among other things, was an affiliate of the George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Brutoco also serves on the Permanent Drafting Committee for the Geneva-based group that is developing “A Global Bill of Rights” (www.uniteforrights.org), appointed in 2017. And, he was the Founding Chairman of Unstoppable, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that has built schools and provided clean drinking water for over 10,000 African children and their parents.

Brutoco’s other notable accomplishments, awards and honors:

• Recipient, Congressional Commendation, 2010, for his humanitarian service and outstanding contribution to the culture of peace.
• Recipient, Ellis Island Medal, 2017, for his work on behalf of immigrants to the United States.
• Recipient, Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions, Earth Charter Award, 2008, for his  “commitment to ecological integrity.”
• Co-founder, JUST Capital. Each year, JUST Capital surveys the American people to find out what they value most when it comes to corporate behavior and then ranks the 1,000 largest publicly-traded corporations based on the priorities Americans share.
• President and/or board member, Chopra Foundation, 2013 to 2017.