Commonplace is a digital platform for citizen/community engagement and co-design. Commonplace's enables communty leaders, organizations, and projects to reach their communities, engage them around ideas, suggestions, concerns, analyse their feedback, and collaborate on future ideas. Its tools support surveys, communications, geolocated sentiment mapping, translating diverse voices into key themes, dashboards and reporting capabilities. The platform aims to promote dialogue also speeds up projects by getting local buy-in faster. Commonplace has supported over 3500 projects across 8 million visitors and 60+ themes, from development consultations, to wind and solar farms, community services, infrastructure, local planning, transport, and many other areas.
- civic engagement
- community consultation
- development
- participatory governance
Pol.is is an open source platform that facilitates group decision-making by allowing large numbers of people to share ideas and opinions on a topic. Polis' real-time system gathers the contributions of large groups, and then leverages advanced statistics and machine learning algorithms to analyze the collective input and surface points of consensus and where areas of dissent occur. Unlike some social media platforms, Pol.is aims to encourage constructive dialogue and bridge-building rather than amplify existing divides. Pol.is helps groups identify common ground and reach collaborative solutions in areas like policy development, market research, and community planning. As an open-source tool available to all, Polis is already adopted by various groups including governments, academics, independent media outlets, and everyday citizens. Anyone can access, modify, and contribute to the Pol.is code base, ensuring transparency and fostering continuous development.
- democracy
- digital platforms
- gift economy
- governance
- participatory decision-making
Silicon Ranch is a solar energy company that approaches, constructs, and manages solar project development designed for community impact and environmental stewardship. They offer a platform called Clearloop to help businesses offset their carbon footprint through solar energy investments. Beyond generating clean power, Silicon Ranch works collaboratively with local communities to create jobs and boost the local tax base to ensure the region's long-term economic health. Installations also focus on regenerative land management practices, designing strategically placed interconnected solar panels to maximize the capture of sunlight and integrate with sheep grazing or pollinator-friendly plantings to improve soil health and biodiversity. Throughout the Southeastern US, Silicon Ranch makes solar a force for positive change, owning and operating all projects to benefit both the environment and the communities they partner with.
- concentrated solar power
- distributed energy storage
- distributed solar photovoltaics
- energy storage optimization
BackMarket’s digital marketplace for refurbished electronics helps coordinate stakeholders to close the loop on e-waste and open up access to reliable tech for all. The platform connects buyers and sellers of smartphones, laptops, TVs, wearables, gaming, e-mobility, and countless other devices from all the leading manufacturers. Promising “better than new,” it partners with certified refurbishers to repair electronics for resale, at a ~70% lower price than new. The digital platform helps coordinate discovery, customer service, payment, logistics, tracking, a 25+ point quality assurance verification of authenticity, functionality, security, data erasure, battery, testing, cleaning, and more; and manages partners to refurbish products. Refurbished devices reduce an average of ~90% raw material extraction, emissions, water use, and waste relative to new devices.
- circular economy
- digital platforms
- e-waste
- electronics
- mobile devices
- refurbishment
Socialbnb is an online platform that allows people to book accommodations that support social and environmental projects around the world, and connect travelers with local communities in ways that directly support local economies and causes. Each overnight "Impact Stay" supports a social or ecological project and travelers can also book "Impact Trips," which are multi-day trips that combine socialbnb accommodations with activities. Socialbnb currently has 6 different types of projects: Nature conservation, animal welfare, education, health, equality or sports.
- digital platforms
- marketplaces
- rentals
- sharing economy
- travel
Notpla is a biotech company focused on fully biodegradable packaging solutions derived from seaweed and other plant-based materials. Notpla’s product portfolio includes a range of solutions, from a completely edible seaweed-based capsule for water consumption, as well as alternatives for single-use containers and shipping materials, and plant-based coatings that can replace plastic film and extend the shelf life of perishable items.
- biodegradation
- biotech
- circular economy
- material science
- packaging
- plastics
Biohm is a research and development company working on broader applications of biotechnology that harmonize cultural and natural systems. Driven by the simple philosophy of allowing nature to lead innovation, Biohm's biotechnologies, which are patented in almost 60 countries, combine mycelium technology, organic refuse biocompounds, bioremediation and triagomy into high-performance materials, products and systems designed for local contextualization, social connection, and global scale.
- biopolymers
- biotech
- circular economy
- construction
- green chemistry
- material science
- open source
- plastics
Ascend Elements is company focused on large-scale EV battery recycling, providing solutions that help recover valuable materials from used batteries and e-waste, which are repurposed into new battery components through their proprietary Hydro-to-Cathode® technology. This closed-loop system results in up to 90% lower GHG emissions compared to than traditional methods, by reducing batteries going to the landfill, reducing reliance on virgin materials, enabling a cleaner manufacturing process, and lowering the environmental impact of battery production-- essential for driving the broader energy transition.
- batteries
- circularity
- electric vehicles
Empower.eco is a global marketplace platform for plastic waste, using technology for transparent recording and rewarding of plastic deposits. By giving plastic a marketplace value, the platform incentivizes stakeholders to contribute, fund, account for, source from, and monetize plastic circularity. The platform helps create an economic foundation for scaling the network effects needed to enable plastic circularity and ecosystem restoration.
The Buy Nothing Project is a global network of hyper-local gift economies, founded in 2013. It uses a digital platform and mobile app to enable people to give away for free unwanted items and skills within local communities, fostering connections, circulating value, and reducing waste. The network transacts around 2.5 million gifts per month over 230,000 communities, 10 million neighbors with 13,000 volunteers.
- circular economy
- community
- localization
- mutual aid
Materiom is an open biotech platform facilitating the discovery and sharing of recipes for sustainable and regenerative biomaterials derived from natural sources. By democratizing access to knowledge and fostering collaboration, Materiom accelerates the development and adoption of environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional petrochemical-based materials.
- biopolymers
- biotech
- circular economy
- green chemistry
- material science
- open source
- plastics
Oneka is a desalination technology company focused on creating environmentally friendly solutions for converting seawater into freshwater. Oneka's desalination systems aim to minimize energy consumption and environmental impact while providing clean drinking water to communities around the world.
- desalination
- energy
- renewables
- tourism
