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In the year that was in its inaugural Australian Make It Awards in support for Australian entrepreneurs, creators, as well as small-scale businesses. Its Make It Awards come from 's roots: In 2003 its President Anthony Casalena founded the company by obtaining a loan of $30,000 that could be used to buy's first servers.

The Make It Awards, we're helping Australia's Australian business community by providing three emerging businesses with an award of $30,000 to help further their goal. The award winners were picked from more than 2,500 submissions, based on their business strategies, innovativeness, benefits for the community and branding and style. Meet Reef Design Lab, Lousy Ink, and The Difference Three mission-driven companies that are committed to sustainability and community involvement.

    Reef Design Lab

Reef Design Lab is a multidisciplinary design firm that designs marine habitat structures. They support studies on the ways to repair and sustain the diversity of coastal and marine environments. Reef Design Lab works with government officials, builders, architects and research institutions and collaborates with marine researchers in multiple areas including ecological engineering, coastal protection, marine infrastructure, and coral farming.

Reef Design Lab plans to use its grant to upgrade internal technology, and accelerate the development of new products.

    Lousy Ink

Two artists founded the company. Lousy Ink recycles printer cartridge ink to make a variety of art supplies that are sustainable, including ink and recycled pens. It works with Australian partners to gather recycle, reuse, or reuse old, used cartridges inkjet. Lousy Ink's mission is to transform waste into a creative resource, as well as support the environment and the artistic community through encouraging environmentally sustainable practices in creative expression.

Lousy Ink plans to use its grant to develop an array of colored inks, including cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

    The difference

The Difference was the only mobile application that's available in Australia that lets users collect virtual spare cash from transactions and then donate the money to cause they are enthusiastic about. The Difference makes use of technology to allow any individual to contribute to sustainable global change through simple daily actions and microdonations.

The Difference plans to use it to broaden its offerings in technical areas and help the Make Change campaign.