Freegle is an online platform for exchanging stuff. The platform pair speople who have stuff they don't need with people who need stuff they don't have. This promotes reuse and keeps things out of landfills and incinerators. Freegle has over 2.7 million members across the UK.
- digital platforms
- marketplaces
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
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
Giveth is a community focused on Building the Future of Giving using blockchain technology. Our intention is to support and reward the funding of public goods by creating open, transparent and free access to the revolutionary funding opportunities available within the Ethereum ecosystem.
- blockchain
- charity
- crowdfunding
- daos
- digital assets
- digital ledgers
- governance platforms
- philanthropy
- web3
Openversum is a watertech company which has created an all-in-one biodegradable drinking water filter removes pathogens, pesticides, heavy metals, and micropollutants, lowering the risks of recontamination. Its mission is to provide water goods and services to disadvantaged rural areas and thus empower local communities to have a positive impact on public health. The organization offers a microfranchising model to train entrepreneurs to locally manufacture and distribute filters. Openversum continually measures the impact of its initiatives to refine and improve its model.
- bioremediation
- education
- health and education
- public health
- water distribution efficiency
Tent Partnership for Refugees, or Tent.org, is a global network of over 400 major companies working together to integrate refugees into new communities. Businesses from various sectors like consumer goods, hospitality, and technology join Tent.org to hire refugees, support refugee entrepreneurs, and provide essential services through job prep & employment. Their goal is to empower refugees economically and create a more welcoming and inclusive world for those displaced by war or persecution.
- digital platforms
- human resources
- marketplaces
- social media / community
Plastic Bank is a for-profit social enterprise whose model is designed to reduce plastic pollution and alleviate poverty in developing countries. It does this by establishing plastic collection centers where communities exchange plastic waste as currency for income and life-improving benefits such as income, zero-interest loans, education, or other social benefits. Exchanges are recorded through their proprietary blockchain-secured platform, enabling traceable collection, secured income, and verified reporting. The collected material is processed into Social Plastic® feedstock for reuse in products and packaging. The company re-invests the majority of its profits into collection benefits, development and maintenance of recycling infrastructure, and technology development for material traceability for a greater social, environmental, and economic impact.
- blockchain
- community
- credits
- digital platforms
- digital wallets
- fintech
- plastics
- pollution
Ecovative is a biomaterials company that develops sustainable alternatives to traditional plastics and other environmentally harmful materials using mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. Ecovative’s AirMycelium platform grows more than 400 tons of furniture, goods, and packaging annually with clients in CPG, housing, packaging, fashion, food, beauty, sports, and more. The platform uses AI to optimize mushroom mycelium for scale, density, elasticity, and other industrial parameters. Ecovative's products are fully biodegradable and compostable, offering a more sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics.
- biofabrication
- biomaterials
- biotech
- digital platform
- manufacturing
- mycelium
- mycotecture
Fairphone is an electronics manufacturer that produces smartphones and headphones, focusing on social and environmental improvments across the entire mobile device value chain: mining, design, manufacturer, and lifecycle. They are focused on circumventing the use of conflict minerals and mining practices by prioritizing ethical sourcing of materials and fair labor practices and using recycled materials wherever possible; on designing for modularity, circularity, longevity and easy repair; and on reducing electronic waste. They also prioritize transparency, openly sharing information about suppliers and working conditions, enabling new relationships between people and their products, and prioritizing user data controls.
- circular economy
- electronics
- mobile devices
- modularity
GreenWave has trained and supported over 120 farmers and hatchery technicians throughout New England, California, New York, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. GreenWave works with farmers to launch and scale their businesses through services that mix training with innovation. Their high-and-low touch training ranges from an online seed-to-sale Ocean Farming Toolkit and region-specific workshops to hands-on internships and participation in our farmer support network. GreenWave's innovation program works to scale markets in four shovel-ready sectors - food, agriculture, bioplastics and Blue Carbon - as well as disseminate the latest farm, hatchery and blue tech design throughout their farmer network.
- agricultural tech
- coastal wetland protection
- coastal wetland restoration
- conservation agriculture
- edtech
- education
- nature tech
CivicAI explores how AI can enhance collective intelligence in relation to climate crisis mitigation and adaptation. CivicAI sees opportunities in several key areas, which have been illustrated in more detail through 3 distinct use cases. To address the climate crisis, CIVICAI works to increase the capacity for communities to organise and adapt to a new reality. This requires better tools and methods for mobilising large groups of people to take action, reducing associated costs, and advancing the value of collaboration.
- artificial intelligence
- cloud
- data
- digital assets
- edge computing
- social media / community
Coral Vita is a company that works on restoring coral reefs by growing resilient corals and transplanting them to degraded reefs. They operate commercial land-based coral farms, using microfragmentation techniques to cultivate a diverse range of coral fragments which accelerates coral growth up to 50 times faster than natural rates and and assisted evolution, which trains corals to be resistant to the effects of climate change such as ocean acidification. Along with cultivatation of coral, Coral Vita also partners with local communities, eco-tourism operators, corporations, foundations, governments, mitigation banking, and other restoration organizations to design and accelerate projects supporting the restoration of vital marine ecosystems.
- agricultural tech
- coastal wetland restoration
- conservation agriculture
- coral
