Winners by region

Sumando Impactos por Los Cobanos is a project which targets a natural protected area with the only coral reef in El Salvador. It centers on community cohesion and a shared vision to achieve sustainable development. The project is based on the integrated management of solid waste and on the conservation of natural resources in the short, medium and long term, with a holistic approach to human development, strengthening of social skills, upskilling for ecotourism and environmental management. The aim is to promote the sustainable management of natural resources in this sensitive area to both promote sustainable economic growth and prosperity for its inhabitants while preserving its unique ecosystem.

Over the last 18 months we worked with the local community to build a unique local brand identity along with a communication strategy to support environmental behaviour change. We installed a waste segregation system and improved ecotourism potential through ecosystem conservation. This has only been made possible by the integration of a permanent, multidisciplinary and engaged team, working on the continued alliance with local government, the private sector, central government and civil society.

Connected by Nature is an initiative of the NGO “Somos Más Decididos” which empowers children and young students to assume their role as changemakers in caring for the planet through sustainable lifestyles

The team identified their lack of connection to nature and protected areas, due to the lack of direct interaction these children have with their environment. Through our work, children are able to have visceral, first hand experiences with biodiversity conservation through visits and field trips which spark their imaginations, increase their biophilia, develop their knowledge and allow them to interact and be inspired by the organisations and individuals driving this conservation work.

During these educational trips, participants discover the environmental services of reefs and wetlands, they also clean beaches and reforest mangroves, learn about the production processes of plants, as well as the production of home-made cheese and chocolate to understand responsible consumption. This is effectively achieved by linking this to their school curriculum and subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, Ecology and Natural Sciences.

One quarter of Rio's population live in favelas, with social marginalization, inadequate infrastructure, and unaffordable energy supply with prices doubling in the last decade. This low-income population perceives energy services as expensive, unreliable, unfair, low quality and distant from their reality. Revolusolar partners with two favelas to co-create a new affordable, community-based and sustainable energy model, aligned with the traditions of collective action and self-management of these territories. The solution includes solar installations, professional training to local residents as electricians and solar installers, and workshops for childrens on sustainability. In 2020, we're implementing the first solar cooperative in a favela. The financing model includes institutional sponsors and a rental component: the solar beneficiaries pay a monthly fee (part of the savings with the electricity bill). We expect this pilot to be the beginning of a Solar Revolution, aiming for sustainable development of low-income communities through solar energy.

Millions of tons of polluting plastic waste are produced every year in Latin America and the world. Most of this is due to the usage of disposable products. Single-use plastic cups are a great exponent in that group. They are generally utilized for just a few minutes and then become obsolete and take hundreds of years to decompose. After being thrown away, they become dangerous pollutants that affect our ecosystems, endanger our health, and end up in what we drink, in our food, and even in the air we breathe.

Sorui brings about a solution to this problem. This project raises the possibility of replacing disposable plastic cups, with machines that automatically produce and dispense biodegradable cups in situ. This alternative composition is based on algae extracts and disappears entirely in less than two weeks, re-entering the natural cycles of matter and avoiding the current generation of residues.

YAWA is a portable, multifunctional and sustainable technology capable of obtaining up to 300 liter of water per day from atmospheric humidity and mist. This technology can be applied to provide access to drinking water to communities, in agricultural and forestry projects, and for the irrigation of green buildings. Yawa is an alternative that will allow us to prepare for the future in the face of an imminent water shortage that 33 countries will suffer in the world in the year 2040.

AirCare, a web and mobile app, was started in 2015, and aimed to help people 'know what they breathe'. It is currently the highest rated air pollution app in the Google Play Store. Since Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, is known to have air that is polluted up to 20 times over the EU limits, it was very important to help citizens understand the severity of the problem. By using open data from government, volunteer and satellite measuring stations, AirCare displays this in a very simple and understandable way. Once people became more aware, this new knowledge triggered massive nationwide protests, with people blocking streets in many cities in North Macedonia, demanding that the government take serious action for protecting our health. Since then, AirCare has expanded to 12 countries in Europe, reaching over 200,000 users in 6 languages - informing them, connecting them to local events and NGOs, and empowering them to fight for a pollution free future. After all, breathing clean air is a human right!

My company CLEAPL has developed edible and biodegradable straws, cups, laminate and wrapping films from plant by-product materials at the cheapest available market price of 3 €/kg. We have developed the Russian national standard for biodegradable goods and patented and improved the exploitation of native polymers by bio-modifying proteins and polysaccharides with enzymes. Our material is one hundred percent biodegradable under normal environmental conditions, strong, resistant, transparent and has all the properties normally required of plastic. The use of our product reduces a consumer’s carbon footprint by more than 12 times when compared to using plastics of fossil-fuel origin. CLEAPL has received accolades from the Global Food Summit, GenerationS, StartUpBootCamp, FoodTech (Rome) and the Global Innovators Summit (Dubai) amongst many others and has received support and funding from EXPO 2020. Currently, we are organizing the production of straws in Russia and are engaged in the certification of our products from Technischer Überwachungsverein (TÜV).

The organization Enaleia created the Mediterranean cleanup. Mediterranean fish stocks have been steadily declining with fisherman pulling up plastic in their nets instead. Using a network of fishermen and ensuring responsible management of the collected waste into the circular economy, Enaleia trains, empowers and incentivizes old and new fishermen to collect plastic from the sea. This allows fish stocks and the ecosystem to recover, while providing a source of income from plastic brought to shore. They are currently removing more than 1.5 tonnes of marine plastic weekly, and 10 tonnes of discarded fishing gear per year.

As recognised by Goal 17, we need new forms of collaboration to face the challenges of our time. Beyond fighting the symptoms, there is an urgent need for approaches that address root causes. Founded in 2017, collaboratio helvetica is an initiative that catalyses systemic change towards the societal transformation of Switzerland. We cultivate a cross-sectoral innovation ecosystem, run different capacity-building programs and enable others with our knowledge and resources. With our partners, we convene actors from all sectors in Social Innovation Laboratories around the complex challenges contained in Agenda 2030 to co-create solutions. Building on Switzerland’s heritage of dialogue and democracy, we seek to activate its unique potential to contribute to a change towards a more sustainable and ethical future. Beyond contributing to the transformation of our country, we are part of a global movement and a laboratory that can inspire and support other social innovators across the globe.

As more of us live in increasingly urbanised locations, we have found ourselves yearning to spend time surrounded by soil and plants, while breathing fresh air.

Mykor is an innovative biocomposite material developed to reconnect humans to their ecosystem. Mykor materials recreate the feeling of being in nature from within your house as they translate into homeware products, furniture and lighting. Mycelium, the "root" of mushrooms, has been used to bind wood waste with natural dyes. The mushroom strains will bind the waste material, grow in the span of four weeks in the right environmental conditions, involve minimum use of water and air-dry naturally. These materials are fire retardant, insulating and sound-absorbing and are available in a range of attractive colours. As an application for these materials, I have designed sound-absorbing tiles and also worked with an architect, to develop mycelium insulation for architecture. For the last few months, I have been designing and prototyping a commercial range of everyday products, from vases, wine chillers and lighting to furniture. Produced with local waste and inherently carbon-neutral, these products can be grown wherever needed and are easily decomposed back into the soil.

The Philippines which is both a mega-diverse country and a biodiversity hotspot has an 80% funding gap for conservation. Down the line, the implications are huge - an average of four forest rangers man protected areas spanning thousands of hectares. Though biodiverse locations may be labelled as protected on paper, it is hard to realise effective conservation because of these resource gaps

Masungi Georeserve, launched in 2015, is a privately-led conservation and sustainable development project focused on a karst landscape about an hour and a half away from the capital of Metro Manila. These unique limestone formations and the forests on them, serve as refuge to wildlife and site-endemic species in a rapidly urbanising area.

Building on two decades of restoration work, we aim to achieve conservation using the holistic three-pronged approach of protection, education, and sustainable development - primarily through geo-tourism. By doing so, we wish to keep Masungi and other landscapes/habitats alive for generations to come.

In India, water pollution adversely affects more than 50% of the population, most of which depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Every day, almost 13,500 million liters of industrial wastewater enters rivers and other water bodies with only a fraction of it adequately treated. Our combined approach of technology & community-level interventions has been adopted to address this. Worldwide, enzymatic processes are replacing many of the harsh and toxic chemicals in textile, paper, pharma and other chemical manufacturing. The major drawback is the cost of enzyme production. Working since 2015, we devised an affordable method to obtain enzymes, which would eliminate chemicals and significantly reduce loads on industries for effluent treatment. Our process reduces the cost of biocatalysts by five-fold, making biological processes an affordable alternative to toxic chemical processes, thereby significantly reducing water pollution at source and making river water more accessible and usable for other purposes.

In parallel through my project with Kesar Seva, we plant medicinal plants and produce organic fertilizer helping more than 1000 farmers revive the fertility of their land. This program aims to impact one million farmers in the future with a vision to replicate this model throughout the nation.

Small holder (SH) farmers, comprising 80% of India’s farming community and some of the most vulnerable to climate change impacts, lose crops worth approximately US$ 19.4 mn ( ~ 40% in the entire supply chain) on a daily basis due to post-harvest losses caused by lack of infrastructure for storage, limited technical know-how on good agricultural practices, inadequate markets and poor logistics.

S4S deploys Solar Conduction Dryers (SCD) to SH farmers to process fruits and vegetables and buys back processed produce from them. Our SCD is an electricity-free solar-powered food dehydrator that reduces moisture content in agro-produce so that farmers can preserve their produce for up to 1 year without using any chemicals, thereby preventing significant food waste, contributing to overcoming malnutrition and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. S4S trains landless female farmers to become agri-entrepreneurs, equipping them with the right combination of training, technology, access to finance, and market linkages.

S4S is currently working with over 3000 farmers and has 270 installations in 3 states to date. Dehydrated S4S products made by the farmers, are serving over 700 food industry clients like Sodexo, Marico, Indian Railways, Capital Foods, Nestle, Unilever and others and is supported by the Government of India.

Recube Circular Solutions is a social enterprise that seeks to revolutionize the way we consume every day. We aim to eradicate single-use disposables in the food and beverage (F&B), fast moving consumer goods, entertainment & e-commerce industries through our reusable systems. We provide a 360 degree service and have partnered with over 150 brands (including inter alia: Burger King, Starbucks, Bacardi) and 75 events (including: the Cricket World Cup 2019, U2 Mumbai Concert, VH1 Supersonic to name a few.)

In the F&B sector we manufacture durable packaging made out of crop waste which is usually burnt and a major cause of air pollution. At events we set up unique collection points to collect back packaging, sterilise it and put it back into the circular economy. We also set up water refill points to provide unlimited free water to eliminate the usage of plastic bottles. The pandemic has successfully helped people understand the importance of health and hygiene but it has also accelerated an increase in the consumption of single use plastic bottles. Therefore we have started Refillable which is a service where home & hygiene care liquids are packed into reusable and refillable aluminium and rice husk bottles and together with a mobile refill truck, affordably delivers products to the consumer's doorstep. We have already diverted over 5 million disposables from the landfill by helping 150 companies go zero waste in 1 year.

Indonesia is estimated to generate over 64 million tons of waste annually, and at least 20 percent of plastic waste ends up in the ocean. Moreover, an excessive number of waste scavengers exist across the nation. Their income varies between US$ 50-100 monthly, which is considered low as compared to the national level.

Wastehub.id connects the user to an effective and responsible local waste collection area, to efficiently buy and sell recyclable waste. We began in 2019 at Jurangmangu, Tangerang and have to date have educated more than 23,247 visitors, including volunteers and scavengers. The amount of waste managed is currently 2,437 kilograms in total. Our work is divided into several programmes such as waste management consultation (providing knowledge of best practices, managing the entire cradle-to-cradle waste process); scavenger development (providing soft skills to improve their lives); event waste management, and more recently, we are developing an integrated recycling platform with a technological approach.

Zahin’s venture, Quantum Polychemics Biotechnology produces non-toxic, organic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) based biopolymers which are fully programmable and translational. Formed in alignment with UN SDG 9 & 14 with the vision of redefining traditional material science approaches in tackling plastic pollution, this initiative aims to be an impetus for kickstarting the era of a bio-based circular economy in Bangladesh. The project currently uses jute dust, the discarded by-product of jute plants from the factory mills, to synthesise bioplastics using precision nano-engineering in a bioreactor. The polymer product dissolves in liquid in 10 mins and degrades in the soil in just under a month and is used for the production of polybags, bio-bins and bio-packaging which has eliminated jute going to landfills in the region. Robust waste collection practises have been adopted for maximising yield while assisting in uplifting numerous unemployed men and women in the factory areas, since commercialisation has taken place. Furthermore, the economic status of over 100 jute farmers has been improved.

We mobilize upcycled innovations through heySTARTIC with a focus on accelerating corporate’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and consumer behavior-change. heySTARTIC collects used and rejected packaging in partnership with corporations and stakeholders at the grassroots level and upcycles this waste into beautiful highly saleable products - with many corporations buying finished products back from our handicrafters to be used as their dedicated line of corporate gifts/merchandise. To date we have sold more than 5,000 products and art installations made of waste packaging. Examples include turning cement sacks into artificial leather, sachet packaging into woven textile, milk carton cardboard into lining material, plastic bags into crochet, amongst many other applications. These sustainable fashion products are also available for sale to end-users, along with public workshops to raise people’s awareness. To date heySTARTIC has held over 50 workshops, training over 1000 people in waste issues and has empowered 11 pioneers from underprivileged communities to be crafts (wo)men, resellers or independent sellers, and even facilitators of these workshops - all while more than doubling their monthly income.

Takachar’s goal is to increase the amount of waste biomass transformed into marketable products around the world, and reduce the pollution associated with open-air biomass burning. Takachar enables rural farmers to earn 40% more by converting their crop residues into fuels, fertilizers and value-added chemicals like activated carbon (AC) on-site. By choosing activated carbon (AC) as the starting market, Takachar brings this value chain to the doorstep of farmers and hence reduces air pollution associated with crop residue burning.

MyH2O Water Information Network was established to tackle inaccess to clean drinking water in rural China. Through a nationwide collaborative youth volunteer network MyH2O collects clean water data and diagnoses water problems on a case-by-case basis, with the goal to connect data-driven water resources and solutions to the underprivileged communities in need and improve their overall health. The network has grown to over 100 field teams covering 3800+ datasets in close to 1000 villages across 26 provinces and has successfully delivered clean water stations to tens of thousands of villagers in China.

Nowadays, marine and freshwater ecosystems have become increasingly fragile due to various kinds of pollution. In China, around 1.32 to 3.53 million tons of garbage is discharged at sea annually, primarily originating from cities. This waste eventually converges into the growing 3.5 million square kilometers of garbage currently accumulating in the Pacific Ocean trash vortex.

To resolve this issue, I founded ORCA-TECH in 2017 and have developed a series of autonomous electric boats adaptable to different water conditions to clean trash from freshwater surfaces at origin - before it reaches the sea. Water health status data is also collected by these artificial-intelligence boats.

To date our boats have been deployed and have serviced aquatic ecosystems in more than 30 regions around the world producing thousands of HD maps and water status data for analysis. Over one million people benefit from our technology and our ability to clean and monitor aquatic ecosystems smartly, economically and safely.

GreenPap® by MeForest Initiative™ is a mobile and web-based platform seeking to establish a paradigm shift from sporadic tree planting to more purpose-driven tree growing, recommending the best tree species to plant as per the climatic conditions and soil composition of an area. This recommendation includes the economic value of the trees at hand, thus not only impacting communities socio-economically but also ensuring they become more climate-resilient. GreenPap® enables users to virtually plant trees via our Green Ambassadors, as well as analyzing and visualizing data to monitor tree survival rates across the country, through the use of drones and satellite imagery.

The platform has been acclaimed by the Kenyan Ministry of Environment and Forestry for its contribution towards attainment of over 10% tree cover by 2022 as per Article 69 (1)(b) of the Kenyan Constitution. Grants received from Microsoft & SkyWatch have largely propelled transition into machine learning and AI, including access to satellite data-sets to better monitor tree survival.

Gjenge Makers Ltd is a sustainable, alternative and affordable building products manufacturing company. They produce eco-friendly pavers that are made of a composite of recycled waste plastic and sand. They have partnered with different manufacturers of plastics bottle tops and seals in the beverage and pharmaceutical industries in Kenya, from whom they collect offcuts and scraps. This is amalgamated with discarded single use plastics that our informal waste collectors deliver to us.

Energy poverty is one of the biggest challenges faced in Africa with over 600 million people living in the dark. Meanwhile hydrocarbon-based electrical generators and cookers currently used by many households in urban communities contribute to air pollution which is affecting millions in Nigeria every day. My cause is a personal cause- in 2013 I lost my aunt who was seven months’ pregnant to indoor air pollution. This pushed me to pursue researching energy use in Nigeria and developing the technology Just Add Water - a device that uses conformer solar cells and water to generate hydrogen via reversible fuel cells. The apparatus is designed to produce electricity and cooking gas for households without any cost of refueling - simply the addition of water. We understand that clean water is often scarce in Africa, especially in rural areas, so we developed our technology to perform better with household grey water. Our solution is in its pilot stage, currently serving 26 households in Nigeria and 5 businesses. We believe this technology will revolutionize Africa’s energy and will help eliminate our heavy dependence on the fossil fuels causing so much damage to our planet.

With a vision of creating a waste-free world, Wastezon provides households and recycling actors with cutting edge technologies for efficient waste collection, sorting, and traceability. Our technology assists the recycling actors to outsource their raw materials while on the other hand helping households get rid of their e-waste by selling it. To date, Wastezon has registered, via its mobile application: 150 e-scrappers, 162 households, and collected over 416 tons of electronic waste (e-waste) - which is equivalent to 2826.42 metric tons of avoided carbon dioxide emissions. Our next step is introducing a win-win solution, “Wastezon Smart Bin,” that responds to both households’ waste collection needs and the growing demand for fertilizers or compost. Our Wastezon Smart Bin offers automated sorting, tracks waste decomposition, sterilizes the waste odor, and provides real-time information to enable effective waste material circularity.

I grew up along the coast of Angola, amidst the mangroves and feel deeply connected to the beautiful biodiversity this ecosystem had to offer - from migratory birds to fish, crustaceans and molluscs. But since my childhood, many developments started to appear in these sensitive ecological areas resulting in a sharp decline in species along with the invaluable ecosystem services mangroves offer, leading to an increase in floods. For the last few years I have been leading public awareness campaigns about the importance of mangroves, along with cleaning and reforestation activities with the help of thousands of volunteers. My project, OTCHIVA (wetland) has sensitized the locals our massive cleaning and restoration campaign, spanning many months has resulted in the steady increase in the flamingos and crabs population, and has restored the communities' subsistence fishing life. The visceral impact of my work has influenced local government to join the project. My work was publicly praised by the Vice President of the Republic of Angola during his speech for the National Independence of Angola in November 2019. In January 2020, I was called to be received in an audience by the same Vice President who personally praised my activity, and sought to learn more about my restoration and protection of the mangroves. My dream is to see the mangroves in Angola definitively protected, to reinstate the resilience of our coastline, as well as the well-being of all species that depend on mangroves, including ourselves.

Eco Star is focused on the efficient collection of recyclable materials (paper, plastic and metal) and works hand-in-hand with recycling factories. Kuwait is very wealthy, but does not have many sustainable solutions in the field of recycling, with 90 percent of waste going directly to Kuwait’s eighteen growing landfills. Kuwait also lacks functioning green areas and has air pollution problems. In exchange for waste, Eco Star works with agricultural companies to give plants and trees to individuals and organizations, thereby encouraging the increase in green cover in Kuwait.

Innovating Green Technology (I.G.T) is presenting an innovative modular system with a photovoltaic powered UV disinfection scheme aiming to develop an integrated alternative water management plan for the MENA region. This system can be implemented in households, factories and local communities to solve wastewater issues - using solar power to transform and disinfect wastewater into water safe for irrigation. This system can treat up to 400 litres per day to serve traditional farming communities, as well as aquaponics/hydroponics oriented projects. The project will assess the technical, social, environmental, and economic feasibility of deploying specific technologies in a pilot showcase for both the private and public sectors of local communities for application internationally. The plan will also include the study of long-term effects of water and food security on human health and will serve as a model for sustainable water management and reuse in the region. The technologies to be deployed are: 1) Demo rooftop rainwater harvesting unit for domestic water supply; 2) Decentralized wastewater treatment units to treat domestic wastewater for supply of irrigation water; and an integrated composting unit for enhancement of agricultural production; 3) Irrigation network and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system for water monitoring and efficiency.

Ploro is all about using recycled plastics to manufacture building elements that contribute to better thermal, humidity and sound insulation of homes and shelters. By using two of the most used plastic types (polypropylene and polyethylene) we managed to manufacture outdoor rooftop tiles, indoor floor tiles and hollow wall blocks that provide better insulation properties, while recycling these polymer resources. Ploro's very first released product is outdoor rooftop tiles, that have been tested by different accredited laboratories in Amman, Jordan. We have refined a specific formula using plastic additives in certain amounts to adjust the quality of our products to suit the application needed for construction - thus Ploro can take in recycled plastic from a wide variety of different sources with the outcomes always having the required quality for application. These products not only save plastic from going to landfill, the ocean and incinerators, but provide better insulation, thus saving energy and carbon emissions. They also save time, effort and money regarding the construction process - all in an environmentally friendly manner.

NABATIK is a platform that gives everyone the accessibility to plant trees anywhere in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The process is made possible by digitizing the local nurseries and farms in order to allow customers or businesses to reach them easily. The platform also helps the nurseries and farms with logistics in order to optimize their operation and minimize their costs.

Using our platform, we encourage businesses to engage their Corporate Social Responsibility and offer them solutions to offset their carbon footprint by rapidly planting trees using our tools. We also help businesses measure their impact (such as carbon dioxide absorption, air quality improvement and energy conservation to name a few) thereby incentivising them to plant more and gain more carbon credits.

Cellular connectivity has become one of the main life essentials due to its role in many critical services such as education, agriculture, healthcare, and many other sectors. Almost half of the world’s population still lack the infrastructure needed for appropriate internet access. This issue is commonly termed the "digital-divide." The majority of areas that suffer from this are rural areas, especially in developing countries. To overcome the digital-divide, expensive, energy consuming, and non-environmentally friendly infrastructure is often rolled out. The purpose of this project is to propose a software tool that can provide green and environmentally-friendly solutions that can improve the cellular connectivity in any given area. In particular, given the population density distribution, distance to the nearest urban city, and the available renewable energy solutions, the tool provides the optimal wireless infrastructure design with a minimized carbon footprint - using drones and cellular infrastructure that relies almost solely on renewable energy.