World Challenge is an annual global competition that honors entrepreneurial, grassroots innovations that benefit communities while protecting the planet: see summaries of two of this year's dozen finalists below. Created in association with Shell, Newsweek and the BBC, World Challenge awards a $20,000 grant to the winner and $10,000 each to two runners-up to help them advance their projects. You can be a part of World Challenge by voting for the 2011 winners between now and November 11 at: www.theworldchallenge.co.uk
Fewer than half of the 2 million vehicles taken off the road in the U.K. each year are disposed of in an environmentally sensitive way. Thousands are abandoned in car parks, whilst others are towed to unregulated scrapyards, where their chemicals seep into the soil. The British company Giveacar has turned this problem into a double opportunity for good. It picks up old vehicles, scraps them in an ecologically responsible manner and makes about $200 per car from auction or scrap. It then donates the profits to the charity of the donor’s choice. So far, the program has scrapped some 4,000 vehicles and raised over half a million dollars for 400-plus charities.
Eco-savvy food lovers demand locally grown edibles to ensure freshness and reduce the carbon footprint of their food. Eating sustainably whilst living in a densely packed metropolis isn’t easy, but Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm is making it possible for New York City dwellers. Its farm—over 40,000 square feet of rooftop agricultural land – grows tomatoes, herbs, greens, beans and other vegetables according to organic, planet-friendly principles and sells them to local people and businesses. An urban green space, the Rooftop Farm also enhances the environment, improving air quality, cutting the heat island effect and providing a habitat for bees, butterflies and other insects.
You wouldn’t think that a small cooking fire could have a harmful global environmental impact —but you’d be wrong. Black carbon from cooking fires accounts for nearly a fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming. Ugastove is working to replace the traditional African three-stone cooker with a more modern, efficient stove, designed and built by a Ugandan entrepreneur. Each of these cleaner-burning stoves is expected to save an average of a ton of carbon emissions a year. And because they require less fuel than traditional cookers, users will burn less wood, saving money and easing the impact on local forests.
Vava Coffee has a double vision. It wants to create a sustainable business—and a sustainable livelihood for those with whom it works. Using Kenyan coffee beans—among the world’s best—the company works with small holder farmers teaching them to boost yields and cut costs by using the remnants of processed beans as a mulching material and fuel. It also aids Nairobi’s underprivileged, including former street kids and women who are widows or HIV positive, by hiring them to produce its recycled paper and cloth packages providing them with a living.
Can the ancient art of papermaking help to solve the thoroughly modern problem of pollution? El Nafeza Foundation, an Egyptian nonprofit, believes it can. Headquartered in Cairo, El Nafeza repurposes agricultural waste (some 10.5 million tons are burned or dumped each year, polluting the air and water), transforming the dross of rice straw, banana leaves and sugarcane into beautifully designed, handmade paper. Not only does the foundation recycle two tons of waste each month, it also trains disabled and disadvantaged people (including deaf and mute individuals) at the same time, providing them the ability to make a living and sustain themselves.
Plastic bags are a major eco-problem, littering city streets, finding their way into once-pristine rivers and crowding our landfills. In Cambodia the founders of FunkyJunk came up with an innovative solution: recycle the bags into beautifully designed fashion accessories and home wares. The organization has reclaimed over 80,000 plastic bags from streets and fields so far and repurposed the plastic into bright, stylish goods, from chic woven sunhats to floor cushions. The production process is highly sustainable: everything’s made by hand, using no electricity or chemicals. Another boon: The artisans who make FunkyJunk products are forging a sustainable livelihood for themselves.
It’s not enough for companies to “do no harm”: today’s challenges require they heal the planet too. Guayaki, which started as a project by two Californians who wanted to help restore South America’s rain forests, knows that well. Specializing in free-trade, organic, rain forest-harvested yerba mate (a species of holly), the tea maker is all about sustainability. By partnering with Paraguay’s Ache Guayaki people, it’s providing growers with a renewable source of income. And because yerba mate grows best in the shade and is a carbon-subtracting crop, Guayaki’s “market-driven restoration” business plan is helping to regenerate the rain forest and inhibit climate change, as well.
Celine Frers
Until recently, poor farmers living near the Shiva Community Forest in Nepal were wrangling with some outsized—and dangerous—pests. Rhinos and other wildlife from the forest were causing major damage to rice and wheat crops. Shiv Forestry found a solution that was elegant in its simplicity: plant crops these animals don’t like—chamomile and mint, specifically. Not only did this tactic dramatically cut human-wildlife conflict, but the mint and chamomile, both grown organically, also brought farmers more income than the previous crops. In fact, essential oils extracted from the herbs fetch a price that’s up to eight times higher, helping to raise the community up.
Mongolia’s snow leopards are endangered—but they are also a danger to the country’s poor, rural herders. The big cats attack their herds, leading to livestock losses that severely hamper their ability to support their families—and drive them to poach the leopards simply to survive. Snow Leopard Enterprises came up with an alternative that gives herding families a new source of income. It trains women to produce handmade wool products and provides them with the equipment they’ll need, then sells their wares internationally. In exchange, herders promise not to kill leopards. So far, 350 households in 28 communities have signed on.
Shunran-no-Sato was a typical Japanese rural village: beautiful, serene and on the brink of extinction, due to the aging of its population and the defection of many of its young people to the cities. That’s a problem faced by villages the world over—but Shunran-no-Sato found a sustainable solution that tapped available resources: ecotourism. Villagers opened their traditional-style homes as guesthouses, featured edible wild plants in the cuisine they serve travelers and engaged them a slew of cultural and agricultural activities, from participating in local festivals to rice-harvesting. The effort is bringing young people back as visitors—and, perhaps, as future community members.
Mamallapuram in South India isn’t spinning straw into gold, fairytale-style, but it’s doing something almost as amazing: turning garbage into fuel. The historic town is a major draw for travellers and home to many restaurants and hotels—venues that generate about three tons of food waste a day. Previously, all of it ended up in open dumps. But Hand in Hand trained and employed local people to collect the waste, rustling up about a ton of it each day. The garbage is then converted into methane, which is used to generate electricity, helping to cut the town’s need for power and keep it cleaner, too.
Electronic trash is a scourge of the 21st century. Just 2 percent of American garbage, it’s a whopping 70 percent of its toxic waste. Recycla is attacking the problem in Chile, where millions of high tech gadgets are thrown out each year, crowding landfills and poisoning the soil and water with carcinogens like lead, mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls. So far, it’s recycled over 6,000 tons of e-waste—and reaped a triple reward: keeping toxins out of the waste stream (and having them properly processed) and retrieving valuable materials like copper and aluminum, all whilst providing employment to socially marginalized individuals.
