Asia & the Pacific 2018 Finalists

Abhishek Banerjee

Qube: A Revolution in Building Materials

Qube is a social enterprise whose mission is to change the world, one brick at a time (www.plastiqube.com). The company is currently developing construction bricks made out of plastic waste called "Plastiqube", thus addressing the issue of plastic waste disposal and also empowering the workers subjected to abysmal working condition in the traditional burnt-clay brick sector in India. Our vision is to set up a sustainable, profitable and eco-friendly social enterprise aimed at protecting the environment from plastic pollution and changing the way the world thinks about building materials and recycling of plastic waste. 

Annisa Hasanah

Ecofun Go! Green Action with Ecofunopoly Games

Ecofunopoly is an interactive board game that promotes environmental sustainability. This game was created by Ecofun Indonesia, a social enterprise that focuses on environmental education and science communication through gamification. “Ecofun Go! Action” is a green campaign which uses Ecofunopoly board game and the Ecofun App to develop games, facilitate creative learning, and monitor green behavior. In this project, we will develop an updated game, run several playing experiments with children and build Ecofun Mobile App. The app will be our new innovation in a mission to reduce carbon emissions using our board game. These two tools will help the players to learn and monitor their carbon footprint at the same time. Combining the board game and mobile app will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of tracking and measuring environmental impacts, especially carbon footprint. For more information visit http://ecofun.id/ or Instagram @ecofunopoly.

Arpit Dhupar

Chakr Shield

Chakr Innovation has devised a new technique to control emissions from diesel generators. The Chakr Shield is a technology that causes minimum backpressure on the diesel generator. The device is able to control up to 90% of particulate matter from diesel engines, with no impact on the engine’s efficiency. The carbon produced is used to create ink pigment. This pigment is non-toxic and is of same quality as the ink used in industries. Chakr in Hindi means cycle, and Chakr innovation are completing the cycle of carbon.

Ipsita Gupta

Project Patradya

India is a country of 1.2 billion people where over 15,000 tons of plastic waste is generated everyday. Daily users of plastic are increasing exponentially and hence, the consumption. Over 40 billion plastic utensils are produced each year, only to end up in landfills and oceans. The hundreds of years that plastic takes to decompose, further aggravates the toxic impact it has on the environment and its carcinogenic and non-biodegradable nature, makes it one of the most dangerous threats to all life on earth. Plastic takes more than four hundred years to decompose. We saw this as an opportunity to create a larger impact in society by targeting the untouched issue of disposable utensils and came up with "bio-edible" bowls. In order to add on the beneficiaries, we chose a community of Afghan refugee women to manufacture these bowls and hence provide them with a sustainable and dignified livelihood.

Miao Wang

The Better Blue Project

Better Blue is a global network consisting of divers and diving centres. It aims to build an eco-evaluation system to redefine the diving industry and empower every diver to become advocates and practitioners in marine conservation. Within one year Better Blue built a reliable community of active divers in over 10 cities and supported them to conduct more than 180 offline events in over 30 cities. Better Blue provides consulting services to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) in Greater China and its global charity partner, Project AWARE, to help them better integrate Chinese divers’ resource and motivate action for ocean conservation.

Mush'ab Nursantio

Biteback: A healthier, more sustainable alternative to palm oil made of edible insects

Biteback is an Insect Bio-refinery company aiming to meet an increasing global demand for palm oil by creating a healthier and more sustainable alternative. We have developed a processing technology that allows us to extract more than 90% of fats of insect body mass and refine them into various desirable products like cooking oil, butter, fatty alcohol, and biofuel. Darkling beetle larvae (Zophobas morio) reproduce so rapidly that they out-do palm oil in yield by up to 40 times within the same area of land, can be scaled vertically, and fed by using biomass from agro-industry waste streams. The fatty acid properties posses an advantageous combination of rich unsaturated fats and healthy fats including omega 3, 6, and 9.

Natalie Kyriacou

Kids' Corner

Kids’ Corner is an inclusive digital classroom inspiring children and educators to participate in wildlife and environmental conservation and sciences through a range of curriculum-approved learning technologies, games and programs. Kids’ Corner offers a suite of educational resources for children, including workshop-based environmental programs, animation videos, fact sheets, infographics, reading materials, teachers-notes, games and home activities. Kids’ Corner provides children with an enjoyable and creative way of learning about wildlife and the environment. Kids’ Corner breaks down complex issues into easy, fun, positive and actionable concepts that can be used in any setting. Kids’ Corner is dedicated to inclusive learning, and will be available online and offline, as well as in homes, schools and hospitals.

Prathima Muniyappa

Transforming Invasive Species into Furniture

The project ‘Anantara’ addresses the dual challenges of forest degradation and limited economic opportunities in the Western Ghats in India by helping indigenous forest communities create luxury designer furniture from a rapidly invasive plant (Lantana Camara). Anantara is a collective of award winning designers who work closely with the indigenous communities. We provide the training, marketing and partnerships that ultimately leads to livelihood creation and the restoration of the degraded forest areas. By leveraging the power of design to transform a threatening plant species into luxury furniture, it incentivizes the forest communities to harvest lantana and check its rapid spread. Our solution addresses the issue of endemic poverty by increasing the income of forest communities. We convert collector-only economies into craftsmen communities whose culturally rich, value-added activities positively reinforce forest ecosystems.

Tang Guanhua

Establishing China's first Environmentally Friendly "Intentional Community"

As the saying goes: where there's a will, there is a way. Ideas drive human behaviour. Thus, in 2013, I proposed the idea of an “intentional community” to address social and ecological issues. An intentional community enables people with common ideas to live together, which is unusual in China where most people don’t even know their neighbours! An intentional community of people sharing ideas, values and beliefs, can together to pursue non-material, spiritual goals. In the absence of profit-motives, they will redirect their energy towards the goal of increasing public welfare. An eco-community is also a kind of intentional community. For construction, energy, food, and other daily necessities, the community utilizes sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies. This voluntary and autonomous action is the most powerful approach to sustainable development.

Yaseen Khalid

ModulusTech

In places experiencing large and rapid influxes of displaced people, housing shortages are faced. More than 100 million people were estimated homeless in 2005 and in Pakistan alone, there is a shortage of more than 9 million housing units today. As a result, displaced people are forced to live in shelters and camps with inadequate living conditions, exposing them to social and health problems. This project aims to solve these problems through an innovative low-cost house that can be assembled in as little as three hours. To achieve the objective, modular flat-packed houses were designed with inbuilt utilities, in accordance with international standards of living. The prototype utilizes a sustainable, highly energy-efficient design with a low carbon footprint. Using which, it is possible to build large cost-effective housing colonies within a month. The project is targeted towards humanitarian organizations, providing benefit to people living in adverse conditions.