Winners by region

Finance for a Sustainable Future aims to change the way capital flows help shape our societies by addressing the knowledge gap of junior investment analysts on sustainability. Finance for a Sustainable Future promotes skills to assess sustainability exposures of potential investments as core competencies for the new generation of finance executives, and raises awareness about the importance of engaging young finance professionals in the debate about the future of finance. A core project of the initiative is an educational programme for 30 finance students and young professionals from across Europe with 2 days of lectures and workshops led by industry experts. Currently in its first year, the programme has garnered support from leading international companies and financial firms and will take place in August 2018 in Prague, Czech Republic. 

In the Ecuadorian Amazon, when bananas are harvested, significant plant waste is generated (stem, rachis, leaves). These wastes can be used to create an effective biofilter that can remove pollutants from water, including toxic hydrocarbons released by the extractive industry. Thus,  clean water can be recovered to improve the lives of local people. The banana plant waste can also be used as a substrate on which to cultivate edible fungi to enhance food security. The banana is cultivated in several parts of the world, so this idea can be replicated elsewhere. Further more it will generate employment and economic opportunities. I am currently working on the physical and chemical characterization of banana crop residues, specifically the Dominico harton type. I am also isolating strains of edible fungi of the genus Pleurotus as part of my initial investigation.

The Ekomuro H2O + project is an innovative rainwater harvesting system, modularly developed using 54 reused 3l plastic bottles which, interconnected, create a vertical pressure resistant water tank occupying a minimum space. We intend to change of attitudes and promote a culture of water saving. By preserving water, people will recognize it as a strategic natural resource that strengthens resilience, reduces water-related risks and vulnerabilities and supports climate change adaptation. In addition, with the reuse of plastic bottles, we will help to raise awareness about the proper disposal of plastic waste in order to mitigate the environmental impacts that they have on our planet.

Coral Vita is created a global network of innovative land-based coral farms, using breakthrough methods developed at the Mote Marine Lab and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology to grow corals up to fifty times faster while strengthening their resiliency to climate change. The land-based farms are scalable, allowing Coral Vita to grow millions of corals from a single site. Coral Vita’s business model supports restoration efforts, and by taking a community-based approach we integrate local actors to promote long-term reef stewardship.

ChimpFace uses chimpanzee facial recognition and mapping technologies to investigate when and where wildlife trafficking occurs. ChimpFace works with researchers, investigators, and citizen scientists through a free cell phone app to collect photos of chimps in the wild, for sale online, and in captivity. The app examines chimp photos for recognition and determines when and where we have seen an individual chimp before, alerting authorities of potential criminal movements. This tool will be especially useful in three primary situations: 1) surveying the internet for photographic evidence of live chimp trafficking; 2) monitoring the trade in live captive chimps; and 3) studying wild chimp populations. We’ve built a prototype, have seen preliminary success identifying two chimps seized in Nepal, and already have plans to expand this technology to include more animal species.

Majik Water uses novel technology combined with locally-adapted design to harvest clean drinking water from the atmosphere and deliver it to people and communities in our world’s driest places, starting in Kenya. Our technology uses solar thermal energy and sponge-like desiccant materials making it possible to get water in a low cost, energy efficient way. Desiccants are materials that adsorb water from air, and release water when heated. The desiccant we use is a material which is safe, non-toxic and abundantly available. How it works: i) Air is pulled into the device using solar powered fan; ii) Desiccant material absorbs water droplets from air; iii) Desiccant is exposed to heat (generated by solar), releasing the moisture as water vapour; iv) This water vapour is condensed into water and filtered with activated carbon; v) The clean water is stored in a tank and accessed via a gravity fed tap system which does not require a motor.

With wild tiger populations nearly wiped out, traffickers are now slaughtering jaguars to falsely sell their parts as tiger on the Asian market – and the world has no idea. My documentary, MADIDI, will follow three individuals who are investigating this new jaguar trade sweeping South America, uncovering the powerful forces responsible for it all. After MADIDI reveals this little-known issue to the public, the film’s impact campaign will bring NGOs, journalists, celebrities, and government officials together to fight against jaguar trafficking before this iconic animal is gone forever.

Atmospheric CO2 must decrease to 350ppm. Some Governments and Businesses are tackling climate change but not fast enough, leaving it to non-profits, often small underfunded groups fighting David vs. Goliath battles that I’ve experienced through Plastic Tides. Businesses drive our economy and society, and must work collaboratively doing ‘more good’, not just ‘less bad’. Regenerative perennial agriculture, Tropical forests, educating girls, plant rich diets and renewables are the best approaches to reversing climate change. We must integrate these into the food we eat, the materials we use, and the products we put on our bodies. The body care industry is 135-Billion-dollars. ANATO educates about regenerative agriculture and ocean conservation via consumer products that are healthy and affordable. Our body care’s ingredients— tree-crops— sequester carbon and provide ecosystem services. Rooted in multifunctionality and minimalism, we offer tools for the Zero Waste Voyage making sustainability, practical. Our enterprise is regenerative by design.

My big idea is to produce organic agricultural products as part of a broader sustainable development strategy. I will develop and implement a number of practical measures to promote environmentally friendly agricultural production that supports human health and conserves natural resources. Specifically, I will develop clean and safe agricultural inputs such as organic fertilizers and herbicides which can compete with and displace the toxic chemicals which are currently in use across Yemen. Simultaneously, I will engage farmers, land owners and other stakeholders to promote environmental awareness and responsibility. I hope that my project will avert further pollution of the environment whilst generating economic opportunities and bossting human health.

The “Protection of Water Dams in Jordan” project aims to protect the environment by increasing vegetation coverage in the catchment areas of two dams that supply Amman (the capital of Jordan) and Al-Karak with water. Both the Wadi Almujab and Wadi Al-Karak dams are facing increased accumulation of sand and other sediments. This has diminished their storage capacities, threatening vital supplies of water to agriculture. Without the dam water, farmers will be forced to tap precious limited groundwater resources – an unsustainable scenario. This project will seek to raise the dams’ water levels through non-traditional methods. Jordanians and Syrian refugees will be employed for a total of 75,000 working days to increase vegetation coverage in the catchment areas. The project will thus create new job opportunities, enhance social inclusion and foster a sense of shared responsibility for the maintenance of the dams and their catchment areas. Moreover, it will improve the efficiency of the aforementioned dams.

The waste crisis is a serious threat to environmental, animal and human life around the world. Therefore, I have been working for five years on waste sorting from the source and implemented many campaigns to clean the seas and nature. The process of sorting waste from the source is the responsibility of the individual in the community. It is a sound start to solve the problem of waste accumulation in the environment and depends mainly on the consciousness of the emerging generations, especially schoolchildren. I propose integrated waste management as a means to delivering the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable developments. Waste sorting is essential. Every country must embrace waste as a source of wealth. Remember “a healthy environment means healthy people”.

Humanity is in a critical situation. Our society is failing to recognize the indispensable role of nature in supporting our health and wellbeing. Nature underpins our civilization. Many developing countries are ravaged by war and conflict. They face huge challenges in meeting the immediate needs of soaring populations, including increasing numbers of displaced people. Rising demand is placing severe pressures on natural resources such as freshwater. These problems, exacerbated by climate change, have distracted people and their governments from the essential task of conserving nature. Through “A Guide for an Ideal Nature”, I intend to promote environmental awareness in my community and share tips and instructions for caring for the environment. Additionally, I will collaborate with women to conceptualize and implement a number of projects aimed at implementing the guide.

Women in Energy and Environment (WEE) is a forward-looking organization focusing on women in the Middle East and North Africa. WEE is a member-driven organization in which diversity, innovation and creativity are valued and the members are the key resources. WEE is dedicated to supporting women in their current roles and building a supportive community for them. WEE seeks to advance the role of women in the MENA region in leading the green industry while demonstrating the positive environmental, social and economic impacts of women.

My project, “La Tricyclerie” (Tri-cycling), has been running for two years and is based on three elements: waste sorting, the food cycle and a tricycle (pushbike). The idea is to use a bicycle trailer to collect organic waste from restaurants and offices in the city (Nantes). This waste is then composted locally to benefit urban and peri-urban agriculture (and farmers). The project combines several environmental objectives that support a sustainable, less polluted, more autonomous city, and better soil protection. It’s an easy and previously untapped solution for managing organic waste in densely populated areas at the community level. My aim is to strengthen the links between urban and rural areas, and between people and their plates, in order to promote responsible consumption. The project creates jobs, benefits citizens, businesses and institutions alike, and can be replicated elsewhere. It has quickly proven its worth and has united the community by addressing several important issues: food and nutrition, waste, urbanism and transport.

Pangolins are the only scaly mammals in the world but unfortunately, they are the most trafficked mammals the world over with over one million pangolins estimated to have been trafficked within the past decade. Pangolins are considered to be luxury meals in China and their scales are used in Asian traditional medicine thereby fuelling international trafficking from Africa to Asia. Conservation efforts to help save these species in Central Africa are hampered by lack of data on their populations, trade and strongholds. This project proposes to conduct applied pangolin research in protected areas in Cameroon suspected of having populations of pangolins. This applied research will focus on pangolin populations, bush meat trade and threats to pangolins in these protected areas. This will be accompanied by pangolin sensitization in Cameroon by way of organizing activities in collaboration with other organizations to celebrate the World Pangolin Day in the second Saturday of February.

Health Accord is a health micro-insurance program which uses trash as monetary asset in enabling poor slum residents without medical insurance to pay for health coverage, medications and other clinical services. With Health Accord; the communities, especially women, pay for healthcare services using trash as an insurance fund. This way, Health Accord empowers the community to enhance environmental sustainability and the local sanitation by shifting from conventional methods to innovative solid waste disposal solution. Health Accord long term goal is to craft a model with the power to protect planetary health by locally disrupting the cycle of poor health and ecosystem destruction that exists in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa where unmet needs result in unsustainable resource use. Through an incentive system of healthcare rewards to communities that engage in recycling in exchange for healthcare, and education, Health Accord links healthcare to environmental protection.

Children are good at radio. Radio is good for children, and listening to children on the radio is good for everyone. So how is it that children have been forgotten in environmental advocacy through radio programming? In Zambia, they represent roughly 40% of the population, yet less than 1% of broadcasting on climate change and the environment involves children. The strong institutional basis for inclusion of children’s rights in the national climate regime has yet to align with an emerging mechanism for championing children’s issues in the sector. For example, Zambia’s National Adaptation Programmes of Action rarely, if ever, reference the unique vulnerabilities of children. Similarly, they often fail to draw on the practical knowledge and capacity for meaningful change that children offer. Voice4Climate envisions building a Kids FM Radio Station to create opportunities for child-led issue-based dialogue, participation, active citizenship, and advocacy on Climate Change.

Somalia has been suffering from almost 3 decades of prolonged conflict and unrest. Environmental issues have never been taken care off. There has been massive destruction for environmental resources such as wildlife trafficking, desertification for being the largest charcoal export in the world to Gulf of Arab, land degradation, allegations for dumping of toxic waste into the oceans and illegal finishing by foreigners. I have made some progress in establishing the Somali Institute for Environmental Peace (SIEP), a non-profit Institution using academic knowledge and skills to conduct both pure and applied research for educating environmental phenomenon and human behavior to better understand the relationship between environmental degradation and human livelihoods for environmental peace. This idea came to my mind after I discovered that there has never been a single research institution for environmental issues in Somalia. I believe environmental research and education are essential tools in achieving sustainable development.

Jacigreen offers an innovative, eco-friendly solution to the problem of water hyacinth in Africa and the devastating degradation of cropland caused by chemical fertilizers. The invasive alien species hyacinth grows very rapidly in the waterways of the Niger River. Although not inherently harmful, initially purifying the waterway in which it grows, water hyacinth becomes a problem once it reaches a certain maturity by suffocating aquatic life. Jacigreen introduced a plant-based purification mechanism to help manage fresh water sustainably and improve access to drinking water.

Mangrove E-Patrol links on-line and off-line mangrove conservation through a designed e-map. To protect the mangrove from further destruction and monitor its changes, we have established patrol teams nationwide, recording the ecological information as well as exposing and handling destructive events. Based on this, we are developing an online map that can be linked with WeChat to further encourage public participation in patrol. WeChat has a wide user group in China, so everyone could be a user and a creator of the map. Public users can upload location, photos and descriptions to the map to present the first-hand information related to mangroves in real time.

For the very first time, sustainable waste management system will be implemented with the help of mobile application namely “ENVLee” (to be developed). Smartphone users will be able to open account on it with their personal details which could be only accessed by the user and app administrator. The app will allow the user to input the number of waste (in case of organic) or kilograms of processed organic waste (fertilizer). Accordingly, they will be rewarded with points/stars. As soon as the points/stars reach sufficient level, the user will be contacted for waste collection. “Project ENVLee” team will collect the waste from the user’s house. The team will take that to recycle companies or fertilizer distributing companies depending on the kind of waste collected. These companies will pay according to the weight. A percentage of the money will be sent to the user through an online or mobile payment system.

Helpusgreen® has pioneered the concept of ‘flowercycling®’, which aims to prevent the Ganges river from becoming a religious sewer by up-cycling the critical temple waste (16% of total river pollution). The floral waste that emerges from temples and mosques in Uttar Pradesh, India, is collected by self-help groups of, predominantly female, manual scavengers who, in turn, hand-craft and produce patented organic fertilisers, natural-incenses and biodegradable packaging materials. Since the Ganges River is considered sacred and holy, its cleaning will not only provide predictable and disease-free livelihoods to manual scavengers, but also a life of dignity, respect and social acceptance. It is worth noting that India’s 1.6 million manual scavengers collect human excreta from dry latrines and sewers on a daily basis (FSG 2016), and carry it away on their heads for disposal at the outskirts.  Helpusgreen® will revolutionize the way India handles the ‘million ton flower waste disposal' and brings hope to revive the lifeline of 420 million people: the Ganges River.

I want to create a collaboration space that connect local artisan, makers, and marginalized communities in rural Indonesia with designers and young professional to create product from waste and build community business. We will optimize furniture industry, fashion industry and agricultural industry waste to develop new product that have high economic value. We will create crafts, fashion products, home decoration, and plastic packaging substitutes. Simultaneously, the space acts as a business accelerator to encourage the local community to build sustainable enterprises with the help of professional mentorship. The makerspace will be built in 4 regions in Indonesia that have different characteristics and cultural backgrounds. We will develop a replicable framework which can to be applied in other regions.

Used cooking oil (UCO) pollutes the environment when disposed of improperly. It is one of the least recycled waste products in households, mainly because UCO collection from individuals is not yet well developed in most countries. Most commonly it is poured down sinks, clogging drainage systems and adding substantial costs for cleaning pipes and treating wastewater. My idea is to develop a green business model based on making soap and detergents from used cooking oil, aiming to: 1) increase UCO recycling rate; 2) produce environmentally friendly cleaning products; and 3) help create sustainable communities and circular economies (local material, local produce and local use). Once validated and established, this model can be adopted and implemented by municipalities with benefits for the local communities. Moreover, the project has the potential to stimulate people’s involvement in UCO collection by offering them an end product that can be used directly in their households.

The "Smart SolarWind Tree" is a smart installation that simultaneously generates the energy of the sun and wind in an urban environment. We have developed for this project a clever anti-vandal self-cleaning solar panel made of impact-resistant polycarbonate and a new type of modular wind generator Savonius with air pockets. Recently we made a 6-meter sample in the form birch tree with our partners. At night, the installation illuminates the place around the tree with energy-saving LED lamps, in the absence of people, multi-coloured energy-saving LED ribbons are used to decorate the city at night. In the winter, a smart tree warms benches so that people can sit comfortably and it can heat the sidewalks around the tree so that people do not fall during the glaze ice.

Green roofs are eco-friendly infrastructures in the city of Quito, Ecuador. Selecting native plants suitable for green roofs is the key to making these infrastructures a success and ensuring that they are welcomed by citizens, authorities and industry alike. The use of native plants makes the city greener and restores the bird and insect biodiversity that has been displaced by urbanization. The project focusses on propagating and experimenting with different native plant species on green roofs to see how they fare.