“If the Nobel Society had an award for sustainability, it would resemble the Katerva Awards, a new international prize for the most promising ideas and efforts to advance the planet toward sustainability.”
Reuters
Like the winners of the Nobel Prize, the organizations, enterprises or individuals recognized by Katerva are set on a trajectory for immediate global impact. From clean energy production and bio-waste reduction, to disease eradication and community housing, Katerva Award Winners are already building a sustainable future for us all. Today.
Inaugurated in 2011, Katerva Awards exemplify the scale of Katerva's network and the strength we have in coordinating its energy. Through our platform, experts the world over identify the most promising projects on the planet in 10 categories: Behavioral Change, Economy, Energy & Power, Food Security, Gender Equality, Human Development, Materials & Resources, Protected Areas, Transportation and Urban Design. More than 400 specialists in specific subjects areas carry out the rigorous 10-month-long adjudication process to evaluate the practical, strategic, scientific, social, and commercial value of the endeavors. The implications the projects have for policy are also closely considered.
Katerva Winners create new paradigms, and slip out from under the old rules. We honor their radical innovation and support them in becoming a powerful force for change.
As the quest for new energy supplies and dramatic energy efficiency intensifies, there is a little known transportation technology that holds great promise to reverse the prevailing pattern of growth in consumption. The breakthrough is Solar Skyways, a unique integration of engineering (technology) and education (methodology) which holds great promise. To open doors for the possibility of 100% solar-powered transportation to thrive, Ron Swenson and Christer Lindstrom have founded INIST, the International Institute of Sustainable ...
The live/work concept embodies the social and economic aspects of a sustainable life. With this in mind, the live/work site in Athens, Georgia is divided into 3 units to accommodate families of 2, 4 and 6 people. Located beneath each unit is a commercial space where residents have the opportunity to run a small business, lease the space to a retailer or let the Homeowners Association be the landlord. The retail space, as a blank ...
Permeable Response is a high-speed rail network that works in synergy with wetland remediation and architecture in the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta. It has three primary functions: to transport pedestrian and cargo rail traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area mega-region more efficiently than cars; provide facilities for environmental research, pollutant testing and education; and support phytoremediation and constructed wetlands where the bridge lightly meets the water. The wetlands respond to varying pollution levels, becoming a ...
Point Source Power is a provider of low-cost energy solutions based on cutting-edge fuel cell technology for off-grid and unreliable electric power markets. Their approach is to develop reliable and scalable power generation systems that leverages their patented fuel cell technology in a way that is culturally relevant, intuitive to use, and financially accessible to those with little disposable income. The company’s simple systems can convert available fuel including charcoal, wood, agriculture waste, biogas or ...
With a $500,000 gift from Jack Dangermond, the founder and President of Esri, and matching funds from the New Zealand Department of Conservation, researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), recently finished initial development of SeaSketch, a GIS platform designed for public agencies who need to engage partner organizations and stakeholders in planning. In SeaSketch, planners can set up an online collaborative workspace where stakeholders in a planning process can sketch plan elements ...
Cool Planet Energy Systems aims to introduce Carbon Negative Fuel to offset global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. Cool Planet has developed a World changing technology which can directly produce negative carbon gasoline blend stock from renewable biomass for around $1 per gallon. Cool Planet’s proprietary invention is the biomass fractionator, which uses renewable (non-food) biomass to produce drop-in fuel blend stock and a carbon by product in the form of biochar. Biochar is subsequently ...
CO2-Plume Geothermal (CPG) Energy has developed a concept in which geothermal heat extraction and electricity generation is combined with geologic CO2 sequestration, resulting in a CO2-sequestering geothermal power plant with a negative carbon footprint. Using CO2, instead of water as in traditional geothermal heat extraction, results in two to three times higher power production efficiency Consequently, CPG technology may greatly expand the geothermal resource basein the US and worldwide and preserve water resources.
The ultimate goal ...
PolyPlus Battery Company is a small, privately held company in Berkely, CA focused on the development and commercialization of game-changing, ultra high specific battery technologies. PolyPlus’ batteries represent step-change technologies beyond the current state-of-the-art products (including Li-ion), and have demonstrated the highest specific energies of any battery chemistry.
PolyPlus believes that today’s energy storage solutions are simply not good enough – there is a rapidly expanding need for energy storage and a sustainable energy economy will ...
Eco-fuel Africa uses low-cost and tailor made technologies to create a new breed of clean energy entrepreneurs in Uganda and exploit mobile phone based technologies like SMS and Mobile Money to ensure that their entrepreneurs turn our technologies into viable businesses. They plan to use their technology to create a new breed of clean energy micro-entrepreneurs in Africa through a micro-franchising model that they have successfully piloted in a town called Lugazi in Uganda.
80% of ...
Thermofluidics Ltd. has developed an innovative, inexpensive pump technology that uses heat to pump liquids, gases or semi-solids. This technology has no moving parts and is so simple that it can be utilized in the developing as well as the developed world.
The pumps work by taking advantage of either solar heat or waste heat. The company CEO estimates that by using these renewable sources, this product will deliver pumping services in a way that is ...
More than 200 million women in developing countries have an unmet need for contraception. Contraceptive implants, which are inserted under the skin of a woman’s upper arm, are a safe and highly effective family planning method and provide continuous protection from pregnancy for 3-5 years, depending on the type of implant. This makes them ideal for women with limited access to health care services because they do not require regular resupply from a provider. Although ...
YOPO (in YOur POcket) is a smart phone app with a catchy tag line, but a serious social mission: protecting women from sexual attacks. YOPO is a social enterprise that seeks to utilize the technological advancements of smartphones to help women who are at risk of being victims of sexual violence. By using a non-profit model, the 2-year old Belgian company that designed YOPO hopes to put the earnings from sale of its technology toward ...
The Repair Café Foundation seeks to revitalize a do-it-yourself culture, and in doing so restore the social fabric of communities and protect the planet.
An increasing amount of the earth’s materials and resources are being extracted to be made into objects that are later just thrown away. The ability to repair things and thereby avoid having to make new things is a trait that is becoming lost in Western society. The Repair Café Foundation provides a ...
Womankind Worldwide believes that the entire planet can benefit from women contributing to decision-making processes. They want to make that happen through improving women’s education and promoting women’s rights.
Womankind Worldwide is an international charity that achieves its mission by financially supporting local and national organizations with initiatives that combat violence and discrimination against women. The charity focuses specifically on women in the developing world who are at risk of experiencing violence and have been excluded ...
VOICE 4 Girls is an organization working to combat gender inequality in India. The organization whose full name is Vital Opportunities in Creative Empowerment (VOICE) has a vision of a society where every woman holds the power to make the personal choices that shape her future. They believe that in order for girls succeed in their communities, it is vital that they develop marketable skills and understand the influence that they can have on the ...
The Water Initiative (TWI) aims to combat global water contamination problems by focusing on solutions at the household level. Traditional water treatment plants are expensive to build, consume large amounts of energy, and even re-contaminate water during storage and distribution. The Water Initiative has created an alternative by developing “Point-of-Drinking” (POD) water purification devices that are affordable, convenient and effective.
TWI’s innovation lies in customizing its products to local community needs. TWI staff work with community ...
With population growth and strained budgets, governments are finding it logistically difficult and expensive to provide health training and education programs, leaving health workers, families and communities with limited health knowledge. In response to this challenge, HealthPhone has begun providing those living in villages and slums with vital health information through a video, audio, and image reference library and guide to better health practices. Individuals living in Indian villages and slums in are given guides ...
The People’s Reporting Registry Map was created by Erin Brockovich and Simon Morrison as a way to record and follow the origins of disease clusters and disease groups. This map has significant potential for universities conducting studies into the origins of disease clusters, allowing them to explore environmental triggers and to ultimately investigate possible interventions or clean-ups to prevent further disease outbreaks. The map will eventually be interactive so individuals can conduct research in their ...
The LABS is a global innovation community designed by Jonathan Minchin in response to sustainable development issues. Through a social media platform, users can develop projects and designs efficiently and sustainably, co-develop productive ideas, and participate in E-learning. The LABs makes an array of miscellaneous information and ideas manageable and combines the ideas to then plant them exactly where they are needed. Users will be able to access a database of how-to methods and sustainable ...
A Liter of Light is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly Solar Bottle Light to underprivileged communities worldwide. MyShelter Foundation, in conjunction with the Development Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has created solar bottle bulbs made of recycled plastic soda bottles that can illuminate a forty-square meter room brighter than a fluorescent lamp by at least 55 to 60 watts. A Liter of Light seeks to provide low-income communities ...
Discarded in heaps along roadsides and riverbanks, rice husks are considered waste in many countries heavily dependent on rice as a staple product. However, the Center for Rice Husk Technology (CRHET) is challenging this notion by creating a rice husk gasifier stove that uses rice husks to provide clean and low-cost fuel. Gas produced from just one kilogram of husk can generate an equivalent of 1,920 kilocalories of energy. These stoves, created and developed by ...
Solvatten is a patented portable container that uses nothing but solar energy to purify contaminated water from the micro-organisms which cause water-borne diseases. It is a simple, reliable and affordable way to provide clean water at the household level. A Solvatten unit holds 11 liters of water. The outside of the unit is made of black, heat-absorbing plastic and the unit opens out to reveal transparent surfaces which let in the sun’s energy. A special indicator shows when the water is ...
The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is dedicated to providing innovative solar energy solutions to those living in energy poverty. SELF uses a unique “Whole Village Model” to ensure benefits and development in health, food and water security, enterprise, and community. The fund has completed projects in over 20 countries, all involving unique and creative applications of solar power. Current and past projects include implementing solar power for drip irrigation in Benin, health care in ...
Kopernik is a self-described “technology marketplace” dedicated to providing simple, life-changing technologies to communities in need across the developing world. After over a decade working in International Development, Kopernik’s founders were inspired to start the organization when they became frustrated by the lack of innovative solutions for developmental problems. Already active in eleven countries, Kopernik works continually to meet its goal of providing time-saving technologies designed specifically for developing communities so that the recipients might ...
The Praekelt Foundation is dedicated to developing and implementing mobile technologies for social good. As a sister company and non-profit arm to Praekelt Consulting, a leading international force in branding and communications, the Praekelt Foundation has a unique proximity to the most innovative and cutting-edge technologies and communications systems in the world today. It was in 2006 that Praekelt Group founder Gustav Praekelt first realized that the technology and platforms developed by Praekelt Consulting could ...
Partners in Health (PIH) is dedicated to fighting Haiti’s cholera epidemic - the world’s largest in recent history - by implementing a national program of oral vaccine rollouts and other interventions. The organization aims to reduce mortality and stop the spread of the disease while simultaneously helping to establish a sustainable health system in Haiti.
Leading world health organizations have all emphasized the importance of utilizing oral vaccines as expediently as possible in areas where cholera ...
The Thames Hub vision is a bold new approach to future infrastructure development in Britain. The Thames Hub, a £50 billion project devised by architects Foster and Partners (fosterandpartners.com), planners and builders Halcrow (halcrow.com) and economic consultancy group Volterra (volterra.co.uk), aims to revolutionize Britain's largely inadequate national transport and energy infrastructure. The proposed Thames Hub project would be comprised of an international airport, railway terminus, and freight depot and port, all of which would be ...
The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is an NGO that helps to conserve the Amazon by working in direct partnership with the indigenous people. Founded in 1996 by ethnobotanist Dr. Mark Plotkin and renowned conservationist Liliana Madrigal, ACT has spent the last decade and a half forming partnerships and empowering Amazonian indigenous peoples to protect their land and culture through grassroots conservation.
Unlike traditional conservation models, ACT has been committed to remaining agile, focused, local and empowering. ...
Blue Ventures works on developing networks of locally managed marine protected areas (LMMAs) in the southwest Indian Ocean, catalyzing coastal conservation by demonstrating the lasting economic benefits of sustainable fisheries management. Blue Ventures LMMA programs focus on three zones along Madagascar’s west coast, where they work to train and support communities throughout these LMMAs to monitor their natural resources and implement management systems that will enable them to stop or reverse the severe decline in ...
Ecotrust works to build innovative software and analytical tools that visualize and map ecosystems and human uses in groundbreaking ways, bridge differing perspectives on land and ocean use, and implement balanced management decisions in a more inclusive and transparent way. Ecotrust’s overall goal is to improve marine and land use planning to build resilience in ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Their core software framework is called Madrona, which allows anyone to build ...
Forest Trends’ water initiative aims to bring effective and equitable investments for watershed services solutions at scale in order to widely realize this innovative and critically important approach to the global water crisis. Investments in watershed services (IWS) foster efficient use and management of the worlds’ natural infrastructure through the use of market-like mechanisms. The concept of IWS is not new, but Forest Trends wants to work towards making IWS reach its full potential. They ...
The Mitsubishi Air-Lubrication System (MALS), developed by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Corporation, is a technology designed to reduce the skin-friction resistance on the hull of a ship by sending air to the bottom of the hull to create a layer of air bubbles between the hull and seawater. Accelerating the development of innovative technologies to reduce CO2 emissions from vessels is essential to cope with rising fuel costs and improve the environment. The simplest way ...
The Global FISH Alliance promotes sustainable fisheries and aquaculture practices through the application of a system-wide approach that balances economic, environmental, governmental, and social components essential to enhancing livelihoods and biodiversity. G-FISH launched the Spiny Lobster Initiative in 2009 – through this initiative, G-FISH works with local stakeholders in Honduras to improve the safety and management of the spiny lobster fishery and to support divers and their livelihoods.
G-FISH has partnered with more than 30 local ...
LanX is a South Central Pennsylvania prototype of a local securities offering and trading platform aimed at channeling growth capital to local small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), particularly those that are committed to sustainability and job creation in their local communities. To create jobs and sustainable local economies, local capital markets can be used because they operate similarly to a utility or social purpose business.
Local communities are at a competitive disadvantage compared to larger ...
Promethean Power Systems is a for-profit enterprise based in Boston, MA seeking to create a cost-effective refrigeration solution for emerging markets. India, the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk, struggles with undependable cold-chain supply networks that result from a lack of reliable grid electricity and the high capital and operating cost of diesel refrigeration units. Much of the raw milk produced by India’s $14 billion dairy industry spoils before it can be collected and ...
Founded in March 2011 at Columbia University in New York, Radiator Labs seeks to commercialize a low-cost, easily installable radiator retrofit for steam heat. Approximately 20% of the heat produced by steam systems is wasted due to overheating and the difficulty of directing steam within the heating system. Radiator Labs’ system controls how much heat gets transferred from a radiator to a room to increase the comfort of building interiors and eliminate energy waste. The ...
Solar Mosaic is an online marketplace where people can come together to invest in solar projects that benefit communities and investors. Technological advances have made solar energy an increasingly affordable way for Americans to increase energy independence, hedge against rising fuel costs, cut carbon emissions and create local jobs. Solar Mosaic uses crowd-funding to aggregate capital and generate competitive returns for investors while also underwriting and contracting the financing for solar projects.
Although estimates put the ...
The Womanity Foundation is an independent private foundation established in 2005 based in Switzerland and registered in the United Kingdom and Afghanistan. It aims to empower girls and women to shape their future and accelerate progress within their communities, with a vision to contribute to their equal and full social, economic and political participation.
Statistics show that when 10% more girls go to school the country’s GDP increases on average by 3%, still 1 in 5 girls ...
Energy storage, more than energy capture, is the challenge that prevents us from utilizing the sun’s immense energy potential. Although we receive from the sun in 2 days the same amount of energy that 3 trillion barrels of oil produce, materials that use the sun’s energy cannot transport it or store it for long term use. Solar Thermal Fuels offers a potential solution to the solar energy storage problem in the form of a material ...
ToughStuff is a social enterprise that operates as a commercial entity to bring clean, safe, affordable, renewable energy to low-income people. Its micro-solar energy solutions for off-grid communities are helping to increase living standards, improve health, protect the environment, build enterprise and contributing to employment in these areas. All ToughStuff products are of high quality, affordable, and durable with a 10 year expected lifespan. A flexible, highly robust mini solar panel serves as the power ...
Solidarium is an organization that provides a link between local Brazilian sellers and artisans, and larger retail companies in the U.S. These sellers, which are 95% women and 5% men, come from poor communities and have likely only sold their goods locally, never having traveled outside of their communities. Solidarium creates market channels that allow locally produced goods to be sold abroad in order to stimulate higher incomes for the people producing these goods in ...
MIT’s Climate CoLab created a product called biochar that can be used as a sustainable natural fertilizer, and can also back local currency. The product is made from a mixture of soil and the left over charcoal after the woodgrass in dry biomass is burned. The Climate CoLab’s push for change hinges on the idea that “climate, nature and economies must recover together.” Their main goal is to reverse climate change using fast systematic change, ...
The $300 House Project uses an integrated approach to development to provide affordable, livable housing for the poor. The project stemmed from a Harvard Business Review blog post by Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar, who sought to rethink the problem of affordable housing by designing a radically inexpensive, durable house model.
After accumulating a network of leaders in fields such as finance, design, and sustainability, the project leaders held a contest to choose the top sustainable ...
Founded by major marine industry associations and companies, Green Marine is a marine industry initiative that encourages ship owners, shipyards, ports, and terminals to reduce their environmental footprint. Marine transportation provides an environmentally sustainable alternative to trucking or rail. The voluntary program includes rigorous verification to ensure concrete and measurable actions
The Green Marine action plan addresses nine major environmental issues with transparency and continuous improvement: Aquatic invasive species, Air emissions, Greenhouse gases, Cargo residues, Oily ...
“Valuing the Ocean” is a project coordinated by the Stockholm Environmental Institute and supported by the Okeanos foundation. It gives information about six threats to the global oceans, what can happen if all these threats act together, and the economic consequences of taking action (or inaction) on these threats. It provides recommendations and decision support for managers and decision makers about how to deal with the complex, inter-connected, and multi-scale reality of our global marine ...
Fauna & Flora International Natural Value Initiative’s goal is to engage the finance sector with biodiversity and ecosystem services. The Initiative is trying to do this by working with six investment companies from around the world. All together, they have developed a toolkit, the Ecosystem Services Benchmark, which companies can use to analyze and articulate their dependence on biodiversity and ecosystem services, potential risks to their business models, and the extent to which the company ...
Coming from a farming family in California, CEO Greg Ryan Jr. saw the benefits of recycling water as a priority and opportunity for entrepreneurship. Pasteurization Technology Group seeks to revolutionize the disinfection of wastewater using a patented “two-for-one” technology, eliminating toxic chemicals and intensive electricity usage in the process.
The “two-for-one” system combines wastewater disinfection with the generation of renewable energy, creating the most energy-efficient and lowest-cost solution available. Utilizing biogas, typically wasted exhaust heat is ...
Transportation is a huge obstacle for people with disabilities, who are often unnecessarily disconnected from their communities. The idea behind the Kenguru car is to allow people in wheelchairs to gain mobility and independence in their communities. The car is a small, efficient, closed body type wheelchair-fitting vehicle that provides very easy and quick access to its interior, so that wheelchair users don’t have to rely on the expensive and inefficient add-ons to mini-vans. With ...
The Center for Ocean Solutions’ Mobile Marine Protected Areas is a collaboration of Stanford University including researchers at Hopkins Marine Station, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
Overexploitation of living resources has been an ongoing problem hindering sustainability of the earth’s oceans. The diversity of the habitat thought have been the basis of life itself is quickly being devastated. The loss of predators has had a top down effect on the ...
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international nonprofit marine wildlife conservation organization that was established in 1977. The SSCS considers at risk wildlife such as whales, dolphins, and tuna to be their clientele. SSCS prides itself on direct action tactics to enforce international conservation law. Using three seafaring vessels, a helicopter, and more than one hundred volunteers, they are able to intercept domestic and foreign illegal fishing operations. This year alone, SSCS was ...
The Sea Around Us research and outreach project was established in July of 1999 at the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia. The Sea Around Us project is devoted to assessing the impact of fishing on the world’s ecosystems. Since their beginning, the Sea Around Us team has published or co-authored about 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals. In addition to the scientific community, the Sea Around Us members have reached the public through ...
International Development Enterprises India (IDEI), works to provide irrigation solutions to small farmers- smallholder farmers constitute 75% of India’s farmers and often remain trapped in an ongoing cycle of hunger and poverty due to small allotments of land. IDEI has played an important role in researching and developing low cost, scaled to small plot size, environmentally friendly irrigation technologies. Among these technologies are the treadle pump, which is a foot operated water lifting device, and ...
The Mazingira Institute based in Nairobi, Kenya, focuses on food security, specifically in an urban setting. A national study done in Kenya found that urban and peri-urban households of all income levels raise crops and animals, in order to meet their food needs, by farming in any of the residential and open spaces surrounding them. It was also shown that a majority of these new urban farmers were women. Mazingira believed that a project focused ...
Globe/Hedron is an innovative rooftop farm designed to grow organic fish and vegetables using aquaponics in an urban environment, leading to an increased production of healthy food in urban environments as well as an increase in the production of food in the same location its consumed, reducing transportation and energy costs. It also addresses the issues of overpopulation - Globe/Hedron acknowledges the lack of space in many urban environments, so instead of exacerbating this problem, ...
The Phipps Center for Sustainable Landscapes is a new education, research and administration facility that is part of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Conservatory is a nonprofit public garden with a mission to advance sustainability and worldwide biodiversity through action and research.
The Center is one of the greenest buildings in the world, having been designed to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. It will “generate all of ...
The Living Building Challenge integrates the built world with the natural world. It is a holistic green building program that promotes the highest possible level of environmental performance through the creation of projects that “operate as cleanly, beautifully, and efficiently as nature’s architecture”. The Challenge accepts projects of all sizes; from smaller scaled projects in the form of individual structures, to larger scaled projects of entire neighborhoods and communities. For a project to attain certification ...
The Kéré Architecture group is founded on the idea that good education and training are the basis for any social, professional, and economic development, and that a strong social consciousness and a focus on cultural, economical and ecological building solutions can vastly improve education conditions.
The group designed a secondary school complex that is inspired by the traditional rural homes in Burkina Faso. They have maintained a strong focus on sustainability, designing the school with the ...
Founded in 1998 in Caracas by Alfredo Brillembourg, the Urban-Think Tank (U-TT) takes an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable architecture and urban planning. One of their current projects, the Centro de Acçao Social por Música (CASM), is a proposed self-sustaining community center to be built in the midst of one of São Paulo’s largest favelas. Much of the informal housing on this land was previously destroyed by mudslides and the building would add reinforcement to this ...
With global urban population on the rise, public transportation is becoming an ever-increasing necessity for urban dwellers. Internet-based and mobile map applications have provided detailed directions from a point of origin to a destination for years, but until now they have been limited to either driving or walking directions. OnTheBus is seeking to break this limitation.
OnTheBus is a mobile application for Android devices designed to guide users to their selected destination using public transportation routes. ...
With a 103-year history of building high quality, unique sports cars, the Morgan Motor Company first ventured into the area of alternatively powered vehicles in 2007 when they created their first hydrogen fuel cell car. The Worcestershire-based company’s most recent endeavor is the Morgan +E prototype, a fully electric sports car geared toward motoring enthusiast.
The prototype itself is hand built from sustainable materials. A redesign of their sports car chassis enables it to contain all ...
With worldwide urban population on the rise, the need for viable, sustainable public transportation is an ever-increasing issue. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is one of the most cost-effective, efficient options for urban areas, but there currently is no standard by which these systems can be graded or regulated to ensure quality and viability. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) is seeking to help alleviate this problem by creating a BRT best practice standard ...
Holomic LLC emerged from the groundbreaking mobile optical microscopy research conducted by Dr. Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA’s BioPhotonics Laboratory. Fueled by the belief that diagnostic tools should be portable and cost-effective enough to be used anywhere they are needed, Dr. Ozcan and his researchers have created modified microscopes, cytometers, and other diagnostic devices that can be attached to ordinary cell phones and used in the field.
This already award-winning technology uses lens-free attachments that allow cell ...
Located in the Dana Biosphere Reserve in Jordan, the award-winning Feynan Ecolodge has been servicing adventurous, eco-conscious tourists since September of 2005. Relying completely on solar power (and candlelight), the lodge is a highly unique and inspiring hotel. Almost all waste is recycled, locally-made clay jars are used in place of plastic containers, and jift (a by-product of olive pressing) is used as a sustainable heat source in the winter. The building itself was intelligently ...
The current method for administering vaccinations, the syringe/needle (S/N) system, poses many logistical difficulties including transport, vaccine deterioration/waste, and high system costs. Created by Gijsbert van de Wijdeven, the Bioneedle Technology Group aims to replace the S/N method with an easier, less wasteful, more cost-effective system.
Recognized by WHO as a breakthrough medical technology, Bioneedles, or “tiny, biodegradable mini-implants,” come prefilled and contain vaccines in a thermally stable environment. They are administered via sub-dermal application and ...
Village Earth is a non-profit organization that aims to improve social and political empowerment, community self-sufficiency and independence in order to relink communities to resources that help stimulate human welfare. The strategy is to provide financial support, networking, training, research and advocacy to intermediate and grassroots organizations in an effort to strengthen their impact on their communities.
Village Earth’s goal is to build an international network of organizations, funding agencies, academics, and technical experts with the ...
Say NO-UNiTE to End Violence against Women is UN Women’s global advocacy and social mobilization platform to address and prevent violence against women and girls through an interactive, multi-lingual website and proactive social media outreach. Say NO-UNiTE was created to raise awareness, build partnerships, and spark action to end violence against women, all while expanding the global network, spotlighting the work of grassroots partners, and focusing on supporting strategic prevention efforts. To maximize its reach ...
WHY VELObill?
Traditional utility bills are difficult to read and full of unneeded information. Consumers lack the relevant information that will help them manage utility costs and make smart decisions about consumption.
VELObill makes it easy and rewarding to use Green Button data. With just a few clicks, consumers can view their utility usage, measure whether it is high or low, compare it to that of their peers and examine ways to save money. With this useful ...
Experts suggest that 30% of urban traffic is caused by drivers looking for parking spaces. In order to combat this problem and reduce emissions, Streetline is using wireless mesh sensor networks to connect parking spaces with mobile parking applications. Streetline’s Smart Parking platform detects the presence of cars through its network of low power wireless sensors to provide real-time data and analytics to cities, universities, private parking operators, transit agencies, and drivers. Drivers can use ...
Wastewater Treatment Plants for Agricultural Reuse is a project dedicated to reducing the use of groundwater for irrigation by replacing it with treated wastewater. This wastewater not only contains nutrients that would help to yield better crops, but using it for agriculture will allow fresh, uncontaminated water to be redirected to consumers rather than food production. Most Mexicans and Latin Americans are affected by water shortages. The project has already attracted 35 interested agricultural groups, ...
The Lavatory Cooking System was created by Camilla Josephson while studying at Linkoping University in Sweden. The Lavatory Cooking System is a project that creates jobs for Indian shantytown residents while simultaneously creating a sustainable school environment with healthy meals cooked on site each day. The idea was born out of Camilla’s classroom project focused on creating self-cleaning nano-coating in order to develop a no-flush toilet. Though the original project transformed, it still incorporates the ...
The Navdanya Foundation was created in 1987 by Dr. Vandana Shiva as an initiative to conserve and renew biodiversity by offering farmers an alternative to farming with purchased seeds and agrochemicals. The Navdanya Foundation strives to preserve the health of the earth and well being of Indian farmers by protecting the seed – seeds have been inherited from ancestors and produced by nature, but have more recently been taken over by industry. The foundation was ...
Ubiquitous Energy, Inc. is commercializing a portfolio of technologies that enable seamless deployment of light-harvesting functionality in the form of products and surfaces we interact with every day.
Their ClearView PowerTM technology is the world’s best approach for invisible, high-performance photovoltaic coatings. ClearView PowerTM enables everyday surfaces to convert ambient light into useful electricity without impacting the way they look. These coatings are compatible with products such as windows and electronic displays. The energy captured from these light-exposed surfaces ...
Humblefactory.com is a design laboratory that develops tools, materials, manufacturing techniques, and design frameworks for small-scale designers to create more useful, capable products using the local resources available to them. Alchematter is a platform being developed by The Humblefactory which allows designers around the world to share and remix designs for open source objects.
Alchematter allows designers from around the world to tap into the global collective expertise and remix or adapt these designs to fit ...
StatPlanet is an interactive and visualization software produced by Statsilk.com. The StatPlanet application can be used to create user-friendly interactive maps and
visualizations, empowering organizations to better communicate and disseminate information and to better analyze data based on their needs. Through StatPlanet, users are no longer passive recipients of information – they are able to interact with graphs, maps and tables. StatPlanet was designed for non-technical users, but has features that will interest more advanced users ...
The Gender Equality Project Foundation (GEPF) works with large corporations to foster equal opportunities in the workplace by building a community committed to greater accountability in gender equality. GEPF’s best ambassadors are its seven pilot companies that worked with the foundation to streamline its approach, as well as the additional ten multinational companies that are part of its growing community.
GEPF has found that commitments to assist the growth of gender equality did not necessarily translate ...
Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies (ET3) is a company based out of Colorado that is dedicated to the promotion of “Space Travel on Earth,” a network of sealed tubes that could propel people and commodities throughout the world safely, sustainably, efficiently and extremely quickly. The ultimate vision of the company is a global system that would carry 90 percent of the goods and passengers transported greater than a 30 mile distance.
This network would be designed with ...
Eco Marine Power (EMP) is an innovative marine renewable energy technology company based in Japan. It is committed to designing, developing and promoting eco-friendly power and propulsion solutions for ships and vessels that are intended to reduce fossil fuel consumption, lower pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as cut costs for the shipping companies that use these technologies. The system will usher in an era of sustainable shipping with not only a positive impact ...
The Coalition for Sustainable Rail is a partnership between the University of Minnesota and the non-profit Sustainable Rail International, dedicated to the refinement of solid biofuel technologies for use in the world's first carbon-neutral higher speed locomotive. The Coalition for Sustainable Rail will take a locomotive from 1937 and turn it into the world's first test bed modern steam engine, which will run on biofuel. The Coalition drives research, lending economic viability and real-world applicability ...
The AguaClara Program is a research program at Cornell University that produces engineering designs for reliable and sustainable municipal-scale water treatment plants.
The AguaClara program has avoided many of the challenges to sustainability faced by community-sized treatment plants by developing a suite of water treatment technology that is able to meet US EPA standards for drinking water without the use of any electricity or high-tech equipment that depends on overseas supply chains. The gravity-powered design is ...
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is used to determine how well nations are supporting their residents to live good lives today, as well as ensuring suitable conditions for the happiness of future generations. It uses global data on experienced well-being, life expectancy, and Ecological Footprint to generate an index that shows which countries are most efficient at producing long, happy lives for inhabitants. The index considers for what matters most to the future of humanity- ...
The California Academy of Sciences is a scientific institution located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Their mission to “explore, explain, and protect the natural world” is promoted through leading-edge research around the world and through educational outreach on a local level. It has a four-story rainforest, a coral reef ecosystem, a massive digital planetarium, an extensive African Hall with many different species displayed, a two and half acre living roof, and many other rotating exhibits.
In ...
Awaaz.De was founded in India in 2010 by Neil Patel and Tapan Parikh as a knowledge sharing system. This revolutionary network allows organizations to circulate information among people using voice applications over their mobile phones. More than 4 billion people around the world do not have access to the Internet, but Awaaz.De targets these communities and extends access to various types of voice-based information including agricultural advice, health information, and banking services.
Awaaz.De essentially provides a ...
Currently, the use of microscopy for healthcare is limited almost exclusively to highly-equipped medical settings. Created by Professor Dan Fletcher of the University of California Berkeley, CellScope's mission is to "fundamentally change healthcare delivery by using mobile phone-enabled microscopy to link patients with doctors no matter where they are in the world.
CellScope recognizes that in developed societies, reaching a doctor's office outfitted for microscopy services often takes time and comes at a weighty price. Rural ...
The CoBRA Scheme is a battery and bulb recycling initiative, aimed at reducing the number of batteries and low energy light bulbs entering landfills by using a team of community volunteers. So far CoBRA has rescued 50 tons of hazardous waste from landfills and the number of volunteers is constantly growing. The CoBRA Scheme concentrates on collecting and transporting waste to central “bulking up” facilities where it is more effective for industry to pick up ...
Movement for a Sustainable World is an initiative of the Social Media Department of Katerva. Its goal is to boost web-based advocacy campaigns to such a degree that leaders become accountable to the people and work for the global good. The approach utilizes web-based advocacy sites, like 350.org and Avaaz.org, along with a universal and specific demand, viral communication techniques, and a focus on strategic cities to increase the impact of these web-based advocacy campaigns.
Movements ...
Oikos St. Gallen is a student organization for sustainable economics and management. Oikos was founded at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland in 1987 as a means of integrating discussions of sustainability into the courses at this business university.
Oikos St. Gallen focuses on several different goals, including:
Increasing awareness of the challenges and opportunities related to sustainability among economics and management students;
Fostering students’ abilities to analyze trends and to implement sustainability-driven innovation;
Creating institutional support for these ...
Liquid Metal Battery Corporation (LMBC) is an energy storage company that aims to universally reduce the cost of electricity in the industrialized world and beyond by commercializing a new battery technology. Their initiative plans to create a cost-effective, reliable, grid-scale battery that will lead to the integration of renewable energy, alleviate grid congestion, and reduce power plant activity. The key features of the battery are its long lifespan, low cost, scalable design and flexibility in ...
Embrace aims to improve maternal and child health through an innovative technology delivery method that reaches some of the most vulnerable populations. Their strategy involves identifying new products with the greatest probability to improve health outcomes in developing countries and enhancing their manufacturing and delivery processes to get those products to the people who need them most.
Embrace distributes and provides training on the Infant Warmer, an inexpensive medical technology that gives thermal support to premature ...
Communication for Change (C-Change) is a cooperative agreement with partners in the US and developing countries that aims to increase the efficiency and sustainability of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) in order to improve health and development. SBCC is the implementation of interactive evidence and theory based communication processes and strategies to assist individuals, communities, and societies when addressing controversial change. C-Change proposes to address the allocation of health and development communication skills in ...
The World Happiness Report aims to promote sustainable development and world happiness through a new metric system developed by professors Jeffrey Sachs, Richard Layard, and John Helliwell. The co-authors saw a need to shift development indicators away from economic growth and toward measures of happiness and wellbeing. The first World Happiness Report, published in April 2012, fills an international gap in data analysis by providing a complement to existing development indicators.
By looking beyond GDP and ...
YikeBike is an organization dedicated to providing an alternative source of transportation to solve the problem of congested transport in crowded cities. Bicycles remain the most popular transport device in the world after 120 years with unchanged design. After observing the shortcomings of traditional two wheel bikes, the creators of YikeBike set out to create a sustainable alternative inspired by the Segway to help commuters move around urban cities.
The YikeBike model is effectively the world’s ...
Asthmapolis was developed to improve the management of asthma for both patients and health care professionals. Despite recent advancements in understanding the disease, mortality rates from asthma have ceased to fall. Using specialized inhaler sensors that are linked to mobile and internet applications, Asthmapolis has created a way to objectively track asthma flare-ups in real time and record the location in which they occur.
As part of the Asthmapolis push for smarter management of asthma, the ...
Alive & Thrive aspires to facilitate change in the way that governments, NGOs, and donors understand infant and young child feeding in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. They also hope to ultimately assist in fostering a shift in the way these countries implement and support early child nutrition programs.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2009, Alive & Thrive (A&T) is a 6 year initiative that acknowledges very early age as the most vulnerable ...
Ossian Agro Automation Private Limited is an organization dedicated to improving the process of irrigation, first in India and then globally. Created as a solution to irrigation problems, Ossian developed several affordable irrigation pumps that can be electronically controlled based on an alarm clock timer. Nano Ganesh is an electronic modem that enables farmers to regulate their irrigation pumps at any time through mobile phones. While computers are expensive, this remote is one quarter the ...
MIT SENSEable City Lab designed a program called Forage Tracking to make informal waste recycling cooperates more efficient through the introduction of digital materials. Named for the microeconomic theory of optimal foraging, this program tests the effect of communication technology on recycling cooperatives in Sao Paolo, Brazil. With 500 informal waste recycling cooperates in Sao Paolo employing 60,000 people that collect over 90% of the recycling material, these cooperatives are vital to the sustainability of ...
An American CleanTech Company, PURETI Inc, has designed and commercialized one of the most advanced forms of photocatalytic titanium dioxide technology. Photocatalytic titanium dioxide, often referred to as photocatalytic oxidation (PCO), is an innovative technology activated by light that naturally breaks down organic matter, which has environmental and health benefits. PURETI’s most valuable form of photocatalytic oxidation is a titania and water based solution, which is a spray that can be applied to various forms ...
OMEGA is an acronym for "Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae." Microalgae are among the fastest growing organisms on Earth and the best oil producers. They can grow on our wastewater and CO2 and as they grow, they remove pollutes from the wastewater that are currently released into coastal waters and they sequester carbon that otherwise contributes to global warming. The algae themselves can be made into biofuels, fertilizer, food, pharmaceuticals, nutriceuticals, fine chemicals, cosmetics, ...
The Theme Pavilion was designed by Soma Architecture Firm for the Yeosu Expo 2012 in South Korea. This major landmark not only represents the Expo’s theme of “The Living Ocean and Coast”, but it incorporates the use of natural resources through a sustainable climate design and biomimetic purpose with the building’s exterior. The Soma design combines climate engineering with innovative architecture and kinematics to inspire not only tourists, but biomimetic researchers as well.
Unlike many recent ...
HopeLab is a nonprofit that uses the power and appeal of technology to improve children’s health. Re-mission, a video game designed for young people with cancer, was released in 2006 and was the first video game proven to encourage healthy behaviors that support long-term, successful cancer treatment outcomes. Re-mission 2 is a series of mini games designed to take advantage of online and mobile gaming technologies and offers a variety of play styles.
The success of ...
Foldit focuses on solving challenging biochemistry problems by building a symbiosis between computers and people. This project allows people with little prior experience to quickly develop biochemistry expertise through interaction with a video game. Players collectively solve three-dimensional puzzles that have direct implications for existing scientific problems, creating experts in protein structure prediction. This new collective intelligence has already led to four major published findings over the last year and a half.
The video game that ...
Eni-MIT Alliance Solar Frontiers Program/Paper PV has developed a new vapor printing processing in order to make solar cells available in materials other than smooth plastics, glass, and silicon. Their vapor printing process requires only low-energy input and earth-abundant elements. Additionally, Paper PV’s polymer vapor printing invention avoids potential damage from high temperatures and solvents and thus enables organic solar cell manufacture on entirely new classes of substrates including tissue, tracing, and wax papers, newsprint, ...
Working with Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APCI) and Fuel Cell Energy (FCE) Corporation, researchers at the National Fuel Cell Research Center of University of California Irvine are demonstrating the world’s first tri-generation high temperature fuel cell system (HTFC) operating on anaerobic digester gas to produce renewable electricity, heat and hydrogen fuel. The tri-generation concept locally produces electricity, heat and hydrogen fuel with ultra-high efficiency and ultra-low emissions from renewable, waste and fossil hydrocarbon fuels. ...
NanoTune Technologies’ revolutionary energy storage will have many benefits including a fast charge, lack of heat waste, reliable performance under extreme conditions, and a battery life longer than existing battery technologies, all of which give NanoTune’s product the potential to revolutionize the energy storage industry and change the way people interact with their devices. NanoTune electrode technology for energy storage focuses on ion separation using liquid phase ionic electrolyte to produce scalable low cost energy ...
Greenway Grameen Infra (GGI) works to implement unique heat transfer technology that uses biomass, an easily available and potentially sustainable resource, in an effective and convenient way for rural energy consumers. The lack of effective products on the market contributes to poverty since users have to rely on inferior products (such as traditional stoves and kerosene lamps) that are expensive, unhealthy, and unsafe. The provision of appropriately designed and user-desirable products can improve many of the ...
Safe World for Women is a women-led NGO working with grassroots groups to promote women’s empowerment and sustainable development, tackle the root causes of poverty and oppression, and bring positive social and economic change at a global level.
Through their website, the organisation highlights important issues impacting women and children, campaigns for rights defenders and profiles the work of grassroots organisations - Safe World Field Partners.
Safe World for Women is an advocacy organisation with a global ...
Ted Givens, design partner at 10DESIGN Architecture Firm, has been working with a research team to create a tornado proof house. The company recognizes the problem that most people do not react to the effects of natural disasters until after damage has occurred. 10DESIGN has a plan for a house that uses hydraulic arms to raise and lower a portion of the house during flood or storm weather. When a storm nears, the hydraulic arms ...
ReCitizen, L3C is a global membership organization based in Washington DC. It launched in November of 2012.
ReCitizen provides crowd technology for citizen-led renewal, enabling green, social, and restoration entrepreneurs/activists to launch projects and enterprises; bypassing obstructive institutions. Their goal is to create a network that regenerates communities and jobs, restores natural resources, and enhances real democracy worldwide.
Most community renewal activities are controlled by top-down redevelopment agencies, private developers, planning departments, and other entrenched institutions. Local ...
Gram Power is a young energy technology startup out of University of California – Berkeley working with the bold mission To Electrify India - Intelligently.
The national electricity grid of India loses nearly 60% of its power due to theft, pilferage and technical losses, as compared to ~7% losses in developed nations. This is the situation, when over 300 million people in India are living off the grid! Most of this population lives in remote rural ...
The GROW BIOINTENSIVE Agriculture Centre of Kenya (G-BIACK) is a community based not for profit organization in Thika, Kenya that promotes biointensive agriculture, which is a form of ecological agriculture where no chemicals are used. The practices used allow for biointensive planting for increased volume and yields. It is already helping thousands of small scale farmers to raise their own food and increase levels of food security through the following practical solutions: small livestock production, ...
Of the 145 million metric tons of fish harvested annually worldwide, nearly 8 million metric tons come from the oceans. Today, marine fish populations are in serious trouble due to overfishing, ecosystem degradation, and inept fisheries management. Unless significant changes are made to how seafood is harvested and consumed, many popular fish species could be commercially extinct by mid-century. This is where Future of Fish comes in: they launched and support a group of networked ...
Bee Guardian Foundation (BGF) is an organization established in 2009 that hopes to empower and enable whole communities to work together to protect the world’s diverse bee species through raising awareness about the importance of all 250+ species in the UK. Bees are keystone species within the earth’s eco-system- they play an extremely important role in maintaining biodiversity and food security. We are dependent on many different species of bees to pollinate at least one ...
Liquid Robotics is a data service provider headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Liquid Robotics has invented and patented a revolutionary vehicle for ocean exploration and data collection called the Wave Glider. The Wave Glider is a marine robot that utilizes the natural energy of waves for propulsion and solar power for navigation and communications. This vehicle uses the space between the surfboard-sized float above water and glider tethered six meters below the surface to create forward ...
The Reef Check Foundation is the worlds largest reef monitoring network. The Reef Check Foundation is a non-profit that started in Southern California in 1996 with a mission to empower local communities through grassroots research, conservation, and education to protect and rehabilitate reefs worldwide. Their conservation efforts are made possible by partnerships with NGOs, local governments, and an extensive volunteer network with over 30,000 citizen scientists in 90 countries and territories. The Reef Check Foundation ...
Expanded and Sustained Access to Financial Services program (ESAF) was created to build a more inclusive financial sector that increases the sustainable access to financial services for Palestinian households and businesses. ESAF is funded by the US Agency for International Development and implemented by international organizations in partnership with regulators, industry associations, financial institutions and educational institutions as well as the private sector.
The microfinance industry in Palestine is resilient and most microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) operate ...
Maplecroft has created The Climate Innovation Indexes (CII), composed of the Maplecroft Climate Innovation Index US 100, Maplecroft Climate Innovation Index Leaders, and The Maplecroft Climate Innovation Index Benchmark. Maplecroft assesses companies based on “management, mitigation, emissions reductions, innovation and adaptation” and then uses this data to create the CII’s. Innovation holds the greatest weight when calculating the indexes. The companies included in Maplecroft indexes are publicly owned companies with over $1 billion in market ...
The Savory Institute is an organization dedicated to promoting large-scale restoration of the world’s grasslands by implementing Holistic Management. Holistic Management was developed 40 years ago by biologist Allan Savory as a way to save the savannah and its wildlife of Southern Africa from desertification.
While many scientists have put their time and resources into unsuccessful tools for combating desertification, such as technology, fire, and resting the land, The Savory Institute’s unique approach taps into the ...
This project, entitled Using Sensors for Irrigation: Converting Knowledge into Economy and Sustainability, aims to combat the issue of increasing water scarcity by making water use in agriculture more efficient. The project has developed low-power wireless sensor networks to help farmers make irrigation decisions. The sensors are linked to a website that graphically displays the collected irrigation information, which the farmer can use to control the automatic irrigation valve connected to the system.
Traditional automated irrigation ...
WikiCell Designs is a technology that was developed to eliminate the use of plastic packaging for food and beverages. WikiCells are tasty edible packages for a variety of foods ranging from yogurt to cocktails. Invented by Harvard professor David Edwards, with the help of designer Francois Azambourg and a team of scientists and designers in Paris, the first WikiCell was exhibited in 2010.
WikiCells are composed of a soft skin suspended in a gel which uses ...
Rice University’s NanoSponge is a porous and elastic solid designed to be superhydrophobic (difficult to wet) yet oleophilic (attracted to oil) at the same time. The material has mass absorption capacities far better than any other known material. The NanoSponge is composed entirely of carbon nanotubes with a small number of boron atoms. This unique combination gives the NanoSponge a variety of extraordinary multifunctional properties, making it an ideal material for many possible applications.
The NanoSponge ...
The Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE) is primarily an educational and activist organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to advance the idea of a steady state economy as the sustainable alternative to economic growth as a societal and political pursuit. CASSE’s website advocates, “Perpetual economic growth is neither possible nor desirable. Growth, especially in wealthy nations, is already causing more problems than it solves.”
CASSE may be the only ...
10 Design is an architectural and landscape design firm working with the developing Chingfu Photonic Technical College in the city of Fujian, China. Because the city of Fujian is rapidly developing, this new college institution will help provide trained, experienced workers to enhance the town’s production of LED technology. 10 Design, lead by design partner Ted Givens, will be responsible for MLP design, the architectural design of 5 of the 9 buildings in the first ...
amee wants to solve an important problem by bringing big data and analytics together to enable transparent and consistent environmental insight to drive bottom line benefits. amee supports the proven view that being sustainable is better for business and making sustainability transparent will create financial improvement. Ultimately, amee helps all UK businesses better understand the risks and costs they face in managing finite environment resources such as energy, water, and waste. Through a clearer understanding of ...
WaterCredit, an initiative of Water.org, puts microfinance tools to work in the water and sanitation (watsan) sector. WaterCredit is the first comprehensive program of its kind that connects the microfinance and watsan communities to scale up access to credit and capital for individual- and household-based watsan needs. Through WaterCredit, Water.org aims to channel and redeploy financial resources more efficiently, enabling increasing numbers of people to meet their water and sanitation needs through demand-driven, market-based services.
Under ...
SHFT.com is a multi-media platform that was launched with the mission to encourage a more sustainable approach to consumer lifestyle and behavior through video, design, art, and culture. The organization was founded by film producer Adrian Grenier and actor-filmmaker Peter Glatzer in hopes of creating positive environmental change through consumer decision-making.
The idea was conceived because the founders both desired to better the world by making sustainable decisions in the marketplace, but the execution was daunting. ...
5 Stone Green Capital LLC (5SGC) is an innovative organization on a mission to end homelessness for veterans in Virginia and eventually, all over the world. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awarded 5SGC 6.8 million US dollars to pursue a prototype to end homelessness for US veterans. By working with partners Ridgewood Technology, Womble Carlisle LLP, and La Cite Development, 5SGC has developed a solution to address homelessness for US Veterans based on five ...
The EcoService Foundation was founding in November of 1990 as Hungary’s first ever eco-consulting office. The foundation’s primary tasks include environmental counseling and education. The organization also sells environmentally friendly products.
Recently, the EcoService Foundation began an Eco-Household Training initiative. This initiative includes a series of workshops aimed at helping urban Hungarians learn to make their households greener. The workshops are typically six weeks long and include topics such as: avoiding, reusing, and reducing waste; energy ...
The International Models Project on Women’s Rights (IMPOWR) Research Database is an on-line collaborative information network created to facilitate the exchange of knowledge on issues related to gender-equality laws and women’s rights. By providing access to information, this initiative empowers the global community of human rights advocates assisting their efforts for the effective implementation of gender-equality laws worldwide.
Supported by the American Bar Association (ABA), IMPOWR aims to accelerate and enhance gender equality and women’s rights ...
A Single Drop for Safe Water (ASDSW) is a non-profit organization whose vision is to build self-reliant partnerships that plan, implement, and manage community-driven clean water and sanitation solutions using sustainable organizational strategies, WASH Education, and appropriate technologies.
Since its inception in 2006, ASDSW has made a significant impact on the water and sanitation practices of the Philippines with projects that include:
Water testing for more than 9,500 sources;
Bio-Sand Filters for household water treatment for at least ...
Blue Planet Network is an award-winning international nonprofit headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with a mission to exponentially increase the impact of safe drinking water and sanitation programs for people around the world. Eradicating poverty is impossible without clean water and sanitation. Sustainable, safe drinking water allows children - especially girls - to go to school, empowers women to work and become community leaders, and enables communities to grow. Clean water helps communities help themselves ...
Dogwood Initiative is pioneering a model to put control back in the hands of the public, bringing together citizens and First Nations to reclaim decision-making power over their natural resources. The Dogwood model combines large-scale citizen engagement and recognition of aboriginal land rights with a non-partisan political approach and a commitment to improvement through sophisticated testing and analytics.
Begun in British Columbia, Dogwood stands out for its commitment to sharing what it learns with other ...
Appropedia dreams of a “sustainable world without poverty – a world of prosperity, quality of life and a stable climate, through sharing wisdom and best practices and through application of appropriate technologies.” Their aim is to find collaborative solutions to today’s most pressing sustainability and international development issues. They do this by providing a forum where individuals, organizations, governments and societies to communicate.
Appropedia is an open-knowledge wiki: a type of website that allows anyone to ...
Cuipo(pron. “Kwee-po”) is a social enterprise whose mission is to preserve and protect the world’s endangered rainforest one meter at a time through green education, brand activation and product licensing. In 2007, realtors Tom Murray and Gus Hurst witnessed deforestation first-hand in Panama and decided to save the rainforest in a novel way. They created Cuipo’s Save a Meter web platform, which empowers individuals to purchase, protect, and view one square meter sections of the ...
Biochar Solutions, Inc. is creating a franchise network that ‘up-cycles’ low-value biomass into energy and engineered carbon negative soil amendments. Through the sale of flexible, packaged solutions that include process equipment, proprietary licenses for material upgrading, and collectively branded products and services, Biochar Solutions facilitates the transfer of shared knowledge across its network.
Fundamentally, Biochar Solutions turns carbon liabilities into carbon assets. Biochar Solutions’ uniqueness lies in its focus on regional distribution, a flexible process platform that ...
Nanu Planet, is a non-profit, socially conscious web game developed by the “green, grim” project. The story develops as we learn about the people living inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of a divided planet. In this manner, the game addresses the history of the divided Korean Peninsula with its ongoing struggle for peace. Nanu Planet was developed to be a thoughtful game that helps bring about awareness of the DMZ, recognize difference amongst people, and ...
Commercial buildings in the United States waste approximately one third of the energy they consume and squander about $36 billion annually. According to the U.S. Green Business Council, buildings also emit approximately 39 percent of carbon dioxide in the United States. Powerzoa Inc. aims at measuring, managing, controlling, and reducing the energy consumption of commercial buildings by providing businesses a centralized and lightweight energy management system.
Powerzoa’s technology integrates three pieces to create its system: (1) Zoa hardware, (2) a software subscription ...
The Lowline hopes to convert the Williamsburg Trolley Terminal located beneath Manhattan’s Delancey Street into an extraordinary subterranean public park. The Williamsburg Trolley Terminal was only in use for 45 years, from 1903 to 1948, when streetcar service was discontinued. For the last six decades, the terminal has sat devoid of purpose. The Lowline project aims to revitalize the space by turning it into a park that includes everything from farmers’ markets to art exhibitions.
The ...
Dan Austin, Nicolas Arauz, and Jared Austin launched the organization 88 Bikes in 2008, with the goal to provide a sustainable, joyful, and empowering form of transportation to young people in developing countries. Their pilot project to fund 88 bikes for Cambodian children was an outstanding success. The pilot led to further engagement in African countries, and the organization expanded its endowment locations globally to orphanages, ashrams, and schools.
The principle of 88 Bikes is ...
¡Échale! a tu casa, is an assisted self-build program that provides sustainable community development through social housing production. For an affordable price, program participants can improve their home or build a quality home in just one month – a process that would otherwise take 10-15 years. In Mexico, 5.7 million families live in overcrowded houses made of unstable or dangerous materials. Some 25.8 million people, or almost a fifth of Mexico’s population, do not live ...
The Backpack Farm Agriculture Program (BPF) is an internationally recognized social enterprise aggregating packages of “green” farming inputs and conservation training exclusively to smallholder “commercial” farmers with 2-5 acres of land earning their primary income from horticulture production. The technical program, packaged as an all-in-one backpack of green agriculture inputs (85% organic and biological) needed for smallholder farmers to standardize both the quality and quantity of agriculture production during an annual growing season, to mirror ...
The system is simple; join, take, ride and return
Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) is a public bicycle transportation system that operates in the District of Columbia and in Arlington County, Virginia. In operation since September 20, 2010, the system has approximately 1, 400 bicycles at 165 stations. CaBi is owned by the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Arlington County Commuter Services and is operated and maintained by Alta Bicycle Share Inc. The CaBi system has already exceeded ...
Human survival depends on preserving the oceans; SeaOrbiter was developed to increase understanding of this unknown frontier and its role on our planet.
SeaOrbiter is fostering the emergence of a new relationship between humans and the sea by raising awareness of the pivotal role the oceans have on our planetary health. SeaOrbiter is an exploration vessel, submarine observation platform, allowing continuous monitoring and study of the marine ecosystem. Beyond the primary physical and chemical parameters of the ...
... EyeNETRA envisions satisfying the demand for eye care and vision correction in the developing world, which is estimated to reach up to 2.4 billion people.
Through a radically innovative and affordable mobile eye diagnostic device, EyeNETRA has made eye care accessible for those living in the developing world. The Near Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment (Netra-G), also known as the “EYE Phone,” is a state-of-the-art technology developed at MIT Media Lab that consists of a clip-on eyepiece and software app for smart ...
Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan has formed the Community Based Rangeland Rehabilitation project (CBRR) aiming to improve local livelihoods through sustainable ecosystem management in the arid steppe of Jordan. This area was once thriving with pastoralists and wildlife. Population growth, political borders and conflict, and climate change are among the factors that have degraded the quality of Jordan’s natural rangelands and exhausted the ecosystem.
Jordan has a deep history of pastoralism and is believed to have ...
