Winners by region

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Imagine if one invention could convert automobiles from polluters into air purification devices. Our Pariyayantra Air Filtration System purifies air as a vehicle moves, without consuming any power. A pilot project sponsored by the Government of India is currently in progress and the results are highly encouraging. Our system does not consume any electricity like other air purifiers, and is mounted on the roof of the vehicle. When mounted on buses, it works the same as six indoor air purifiers. It occupies little space on the bus rooftop, with a weight of 18 kilograms, and does not add any extra load on the vehicle engine even while running. The device is designed to match the aesthetics of the vehicle, and any moving vehicle fitted with it will become an air purifier too. The filters are biodegradable and have already been installed in 30 buses, collecting 1.5 kilograms of dust in just 10 days, with 77 percent of the particles captured being smaller than 10 microns.

Indonesia produces 170,000 tonnes of waste per day and 69 percent ends up in landfill or in the rivers and ocean surrounding our islands. Only 31 percent of this waste is managed and recycled. After successfully leading World Clean-up Day in Indonesia in 2018, which attracted 7.6 million volunteers through a public selection process - working with 300 students, community managers, business people and government representatives to make changes in waste regulations and start awareness campaigns - I founded the 10 islands project. If we can focus on making a positive change in 10 islands, then we can use our experience to help other islands. We aim to gather ideas, opinions from local people, community and government, to work together on a grassroots, bottom-up strategy to tackle waste.

Electric vehicles charging can lead to increased fossil fuel-based energy generation by spiking power demand. In Thailand, for example, the majority of electricity is generated from hydropower, oil, and gas sources. EV in Thailand can cut a driver’s carbon footprint by 70 percent compared to a gasoline vehicle, and a further 25 percent through the use of solar-powered EV charging stations. Evergo is a blockchain-based system which increases proliferation of solar-powered EV charging stations. It provides an economic incentive for homeowners to invest in solar solutions as they can get an extra source of income by sharing their excess generation. The system tracks energy trading and diversifies the energy mix for charging solutions, using blockchain to ensure transparent and secure energy accounting and connecting excess solar generation from roofs of 'prosumers' to EV chargers.

The Farm and Culinary Lounge established The Cacao Project, which aims to combat deforestation by reviving barren lands through tree planting, creating economic forests and nurseries, promoting fair trade and reforestation, while empowering farmers with higher incomes. This cultivates resilient and climate-smart livelihoods, positioning farmers for sustainable success in San Fernando, Camarines Sur, in the Philippines.

Green Box is a youth-driven engagement lab nurturing sustainability leadership in Pakistan. We are developing the ‘Sustainable Impact Partners Program’ to engage tertiary level students across Pakistan to receive 100 credit hours of training on sustainability leadership skills, peer mentorship and access to exclusive digital simulations based ‘Footprint©’ curriculum. They are encouraged to co-develop evidence-based, innovative projects addressing local environmental sustainability challenges. In the first annual cohort, we are working on projects ranging from developing low-cost enzyme impregnated strips to assess local water contamination levels, conducting research on climate change impacts on modern slavery incidence, developing eco-friendly office stationary using community waste, to crowdsourcing real-time data for monitoring environmental impacts of local systems and holding policymakers accountable for their actions.

Our gecko- inspired reusable paper can be used for more than 100 cycles of writing or printing followed by erasing with no change in quality, unveiling a great potential to reduce inefficient use of conventional paper. The surface allows one to write on it using conventional pens, ball-point, sketch pen and marker pen, and even conventional laser jet and inkjet printers. The ink can be removed by wiping with a wet cloth and the paper is all set to be used again. Manufacturing paper requires huge quantities of water: ~5 litres of fresh water for making only 1 A4 sheet. 5,000 hectares of forest is cut down every day to fulfil our requirements of paper.By 2020, global production of A4 sheets is expected to exceed 25 trillion per year, demanding 60 million hectares of forest, equivalent to the area of France, to be destroyed. Our novel rewritable and reprintable surface is made of environmentally benign and degradable material, unlike other paper-replacements till date, possessing serious environmental threat.

Our enterprise addresses growing concerns around the sanitation issues of spitting in public and liquid waste. Our innovative solution curbs the menace of paan or tobacco spitting and the rising deaths due to communicable diseases like Tuberculosis (TB) and Swine Flu. Similarly, organic liquid waste is mostly disposed of in sewage or dumped in open areas, causing air, land and water pollution. We provide the world's first spit pack for TB, Swine flu patients and Paan Consumers and organic liquid disposal bin. It solidifies spit, liquid or vomit and converts it into hybrid fertiliser in 10 seconds, made up of food grade and Environmental Protection Agency verified biodegradable material. The world's first spit pack comes in three sizes: a pocket pack for individuals; the mobile pack for cars, buses etc. and a commercial pack for public places which can take in 2500-2800 spits. We have already gauged demand in hospitals, hotels, corporates, public institutions and individuals. We are converting waste to value. We are providing these organic hybrid fertilisers to farmers for agricultural use at a cost of 4Rs/kg helping increase seed sprouting and seeding development.

Green Energy Mobility aims to tackle the worst air quality in South Asia in Nepal, and make public transportation a quality alternative to private vehicles - especially for women safa-tempos (small busses) drivers. The vision is to help women own and upgrade their electric vehicles through low-interest financing from commercial banks.

Saathi Pads has developed 100 percent biodegradable and compostable sanitary pads for women, made from banana fiber - one of the most absorbent natural fibers and abundant in India. Unlike wood pulp or cotton, it is an agricultural by-product and does not require additional land usage. Our all-natural pads are comfortable, and do not contain bleach or chemicals to minimize skin irritation and release of toxins into the environment upon disposal. They degrade within 6 months of disposal, 1200 times faster than conventional pads, eliminating the need for incineration. We eliminate each woman disposes of 60 kilograms of pad waste in her lifetime. We have already saved 10 metric tons of plastic waste and project that, by 2023, Saathi will reduce plastic waste by 9,212 metric tons. In rural communities, 1 in 6 women miss about a month of work each year due to lack of access to modern feminine hygiene products. Saathi has already reached more than 6000 women and will increase access to pads for 1.5 million women by 2023.

Ecotourism as a way of preserving marine biodiversity and promoting sustainable, socially responsible businesses in my hometown in Timor-Leste. Fast growing coastal communities work as both farmers and fisherman. Men fish from canoes, while women and children collect crabs, mollusks and sea urchins by the seashore. Everyone helps with the cultivation of corn and vegetables in small plots of family owned land, and the harvest cycle is important to our traditional religion. But at sea it is harder for fisherman to fill their nets due to destruction of coral reefs where fish breed and unrestricted spear-guns hunting. Though technically protected under Timor-Leste law, the beautiful sea turtle is also sometimes hunted, and their eggs dug up. Our Ecotourism project will preserve marine biodiversity and promote sustainable, socially responsible business models, providing local communities with training and capacity building.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.