Winners by region

In the Middle East and Africa, almost 1,000 tons of waste is produced every day, around 50 percent of which is predominantly plastic and biomass waste. We asked ourselves how to help reduce this waste, while also creating a viable businesses opportunity. My company Rugsal Trading tackles the waste crisis in Africa with two solutions. We make coconut husk briquettes as an alternative for burning coal, to combat deforestation in Sierra Leone. In addition, we make eco-friendly biodegradable paper bags from banana leaves to tackle plastic pollution. Today we have produced more than 250,000 eco-friendly bags and more than 120 tons of clean and smokeless briquettes from coconut, saving thousands of our mothers, wives and sisters from health risks by providing them with clean and affordable fuel, while saving more than 15,000 trees.

The Wildlife Protection through Community Based Natural Resource Management in Eastern Angola project aims to develop a model for communities in one of the last wildlife hubs in eastern Angola, as a tool to activate wildlife conservation and help protect one of the last wild places on earth. Unlike existing models, this is tailored to the needs, believes, culture and aspirations of the local Luchaze people, as they are part of the decision making and the structuring of the model.

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.

In third world countries, people have other pressing priorities to worry about before thinking about conservation issues or their consumer impact on the environment. Painting positive murals in the public space gives good energy to the area. It creates a platform for all passers-by to appreciate and to connect with the surrounding nature on a personal level. I believe that appreciation is one of the most important building blocks for unity with the earth and inspiration for kindness we act on. Through pride comes unity. I plan to travel through Africa creating educational and inspiring conservation murals in public places in small towns and along main roads, which spark conversations about the importance of nature in our daily lives.

Growing up, I often thought to myself: Why not nurture and raise more young people to be conscious of the environment at a young age, so that their collective action will help address global environmental challenges? My Green Generation Initiative seeks to address challenges such as deforestation, climate change and environmental injustices, by nurturing young environmental enthusiasts to take action on climate action, zero hunger, quality education, and life on land. I achieve this through greening schools, environmental education, planting fruit trees for food security, and inculcating a tree growing culture among people for forest cover increment through an adopt a tree campaign, and through working on food forest establishments in schools.

I have an unwavering passion about waste management and improving the circular economy. I founded the Let’s Recycle Network - an innovative social benefit initiative that rewards individuals, households, and institutions who we refer to as ‘subscribers’, for recyclable waste collected, which we re-process and sell. This initiative aims to give our subscribers a direct opportunity to generate value in the form of cash, food items, household items, for recyclable wastes collected. The waste includes: Empty water sachets, used polyethene bags, empty water bottles, empty aluminium cans and tins, used papers and paper packaging, metal scrap and metallic waste, damaged glass and bottles, and old tyres. Our vision is to become a sustainable solution to the dynamic challenges of wastes and pollution in the Nigerian environment.

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.

The “Plant the Forest” project aims to engage more people in reforestation efforts through their website. The “Plant the forest” educational gaming project turns actions in virtual reality to tree restoration in real life. You can grow your own virtual forest and, in parallel, new forests planted by our volunteers will emerge.

We face a severe plastic problem today - thousands of marine animals are dying and if we continue in this way, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. Our solution is a complete biodegradable bioplastic made by a very special bacterium. We work based on three principles: First, we produce bioplastics using bacteria. Bacteria use bioplastic is an energy reserve – so, we make them produce it constantly. Then, we extract the bioplastic from the bacteria and transform it into biodegradable bioplastic resin, with a multitude of applications. Third, we feed the bacteria with organic waste such as food waste, animal waste or sewage sludge. In this way, at VEnvirotech we move from waste to value for a cleaner world.

Noor Medical’s fundamental vision is to ensure that a reduction in post-surgical infections becomes a reality for the hundreds of millions of patients affected by health-care associated infections and surgical site infections. In African countries, infection is the most frequent complication in surgery and up to 20 percent of women who have a caesarean section develop a postoperative infection. Our pioneering product, the Hybriclave, is a hybrid solar thermal-electric autoclave which can utilize a multitude of energy inputs to achieve medical instrument sterilization conditions - independent of the electricity grid or polluting costly backup generators. Our current product development cycle is focused on integrating second life e-bike batteries with low-cost solar PV panels to provide even more flexibility for medical staff to operate our efficient unit at night in full independence of other thermal energy inputs traditionally used with off-grid autoclave devices, including those that use charcoal or cooking gas.

Enaleia is a social enterprise with a vision to revolutionize the fishing sector by tackling the twin problems of overfishing and plastic pollution in the sea. In the last decades, Europe’s fish stocks have declined by 30 percent, while 8 million metric tons of plastic are thrown into the ocean annually. During our first project, we established Greece’s first professional fishing school, creating 30 jobs and motivating 10 new fishing boats to work with us. Our e-learning training program aims to attract and train more people in professional fishing, and Enaleia has also educated more than 130 fishermen in sustainable fishing. More than 60 participants have so far collected 2.5 tons of marine plastic monthly, which has been upcycled to create new products. We aim to incentivise fishermen to catch less fish and collect more plastic, and our goal is to collect 100 tons of plastic from the sea per year.

Sustainable Development and Water for All produces Aqualuz, a UN-recognized device that costs only US$125 and will reduce the problem of water infection through a rainwater-harvesting system from the semi-arid areas of Brazil. Applying the UNICEF and WHO recommended principle of solar water disinfection, they have developed Aqualuz as the only technology in the world for cisterns. It only needs sunlight to make rainwater suitable for consumption.

Inspired by the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Genecoin was created. Its mission is to take advantage of blockchain and machine learning technologies to track the biodiversity used in products, allowing companies to gain confidence, legal certainty and transparency along their supply chain - and to map the origin, journey and impact of their supplies in an accessible and trustworthy manner. Furthermore, Genecoin aims to use blockchain as a tool to comply with Brazilian law, improving traceability. Combined with implementation of smart contracts, this will allow the distribution of revenue along the entire supply chain to ensure all stakeholders to be compensated in a fair, equitable and transparent way. Our platform was developed in partnership with local communities and is currently working alongside with the largest Atlantic Forest private reserve.

The textile industry is the second most polluting industry. Green Hug aims to create a sustainable brand and a green movement. As co-founder of Green Hug, our 100 percent sustainable clothing line makes clothes out of garbage: 50 percent from PET bottles, 50 percent from recycled clothing. Compared to conventional clothing, our environmental impact is reduced up to 90 percent. Our brand seeks to inspire young people to be part of the change. Our T-shirts are made from 100 percent recycled materials, saving 1,865 liters of water, 9kw of energy and 2.86 kilograms of carbon dioxide per garment. We support Mexican artisans through our online, and deliver all our orders in a 100 percent recycled cardboard box with an informational label that you can plant back into the soil. We have developed a story for children inviting readers to adopt a tree and we deliver an adoption certificate.

In nature there is no such thing as something which has no value. That's why garbage in nature does not exist – it is a human invention and it is up to us to stop generating it, while improving our quality of life. Today our lifestyle of consumerism is making us stressed and sick – and pushing us into ecological overdraft. By incorporating a series of simple strategies in everyday life, a person can generate between 50 percent and 90 percent less rubbish. With these strategies, I started the Trash Foundation. My life has changed from taking an hour each day in getting ready for my day, to taking only 15 minutes. I went from taking 40 minutes to work to 10 minutes by using my bicycle, which helps me keep in shape and avoid getting sick. By using conscious decision-making about our lifestyle choices, we can all be part of the change. We are a community, and our partners contribute to the organization with a monthly payment. We send our community information and tips so they can start their own transition at home. We have already implement 14 socio-environmental training courses to empower young people from all regions of Chile, and published two books in English and Spanish that have been around the world.

GoodLands is working to bring nature conservation to the scale and impact of Catholic healthcare and education, as the largest global network of its kind. They are bringing the most powerful technology for large-scale property planning and sustainability - Geographic Information Systems - to the Catholic Church.

We are building a global network of musicians and youth volunteers to deliver environmental education through the catalytic power of music. The neuroscience is clear: music activates more regions of the brain than even language does. This power can and must be used for the good of the earth and its people, especially in times of great division like those we are experiencing. We foster a global community in which the memorable, emotional, and unifying power of music contributes to the balance between humankind, nature, and society. We produce media, develop classroom resources, and lead live events and workshops. Our content reaches millions over radio, TV, online and also face-to-face, in nationally relevant genres and languages. Our music is composed to deliver a message while holding attention and inspiring an emotional response, without only preaching to the choir. To sustain this global movement at the national level, we identify talented youth leaders and empower them with structures, resources, and strategies to lead eco-musical revolutions. They maintain relationships with artists and broadcasters, offer solar-powered video screenings and activations like tree planting and waste clean-ups, produce local songs and videos.

The Circular Economy Club is the non-profit international network of over 3,500 circular economy professionals and organizations from over 100 countries. Our vision is to live in an era where all cities function through a circular model, setting the end of an age of waste. The Club’s mission is to bring the circular economy to cities from Accra to Delhi, Quito to Amsterdam - by building strong local networks to design and implement circular local strategies, embed the circular economy in the education system and help circular solutions scale. The Club is managed voluntarily by a team of 37 worldwide volunteers and supported by 50 mentor, who have given 130 hours of free mentoring to start-ups and students, and by 200 organizers who voluntarily bring people together to design and implement local circular economy strategies in their cities. The circular economy is an alternative to the linear economy, where all products and services are designed with the intention to avoid waste, and used materials flow back into the system by being resold, shared, refurbished or recycled. When Organizers sign up to the program, they receive toolkits and communications materials, exchange knowledge with the rest of organizers globally, and they are able to coordinate their local communities.

The extraction and consumption of fossil carbon to run our daily lives accounts for over 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, driving climate change. By not viewing fossil fuels and feedstocks through a “circular economy” lens, companies “throw away” approximately US$50 billion each year in potential profit from what could be made with waste carbon dioxide such as methanol. HI-Light is a solar-thermal chemical reactor technology for converting carbon dioxide into fuels like syngas or methanol. The technology seeks to achieve a kind of artificial photosynthesis inside a factory or a power plant – combining sunlight, carbon dioxide and chemicals to photo-catalytically produce renewable fuel. Our technique makes carbon dioxide capture and conversion more economical. The current conversion of carbon dioxide into useful chemicals by weight is a very small percent of the close to two billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted by power plants in the United States alone. HI-Light’s “reverse combustion” technology converts carbon dioxide into high-value hydrocarbons, increasing its value as a commodity. The unique design feature of our reactor is the optimized light delivery coupled with opto-thermal heating to reach elevated temperatures where reaction rates are higher.

Lebanon is in the midst of an acute ongoing environmental crisis. Yet dangerous chemicals and hazardous substances contained in house-care products, dish and laundry soaps, multi-purpose cleaners, shampoo, deodorant, face-wash, makeup remover, face and hand creams - are not being carefully disposed of, due to lack of proper wastewater treatment. SAVVY ELEMENT aims to primarily design safe and green chemical solutions while reducing the use of harsh substances that contribute to greenhouse emissions and hazardous waste. Our active ingredients and materials are native to their country of origin, extracted and produced using eco-friendly, low-energy and low-water intensive techniques. Our model supports local farmers and fair-trade businesses, ultimately creating jobs. Our products are hazard free, limiting the instances of skin allergies and respiratory problems and lastly, we create workshops and open events to raise awareness about sustainability and safe consumption of eco-friendly cosmetics, cleaning agents and basic aid products including preventative immunity-boosters, and pain relievers. Today, SAVVY ELEMENT’s products are being sold at a weekly eco-market and we have received requests from eco- stores to sell our products.