Loliware is the world’s first seaweed resin company providing products to replace single-use plastics. Loliware is a woman-owned firm partnering with experts in regenerative aquaculture from Maine to New Zealand to expand the ‘blue economy’ with its proprietary SEA Technology® resins. Made from compostable seaweed, Loliware’s Ocean Blue straws, utensils and other products are currently used by famous chefs, restaurant chains and eco-chic hotels. Their new category of materials are “Designed to Disappear”, offered to help advance our planet to a plastic-free, decarbonized future.
The Indigenous Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Working Group is a program focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and Indigenous knowledge systems. The project’s interdisciplinary team of experts includes 37 co-investigators and collaborators who come from eight universities and 12 Indigenous community-based organizations in Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Most of the team members are Indigenous. They are motivated to expand the definition of intelligence by collaborating with Indigenous communities to integrate their knowledge systems with the AI research and development ecosystem to develop more integrated and practical approaches to building the next generation of A.I. systems.
- artificial intelligence
- indigenous peoples
- traditional ecological knowledge
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
Throughout the years, Husqvarna has developed and manufactured high performing products that are sold in more than 100 countries, mainly through their network of over 25,000 authorised dealers. Husqvarna has become a leader in products that create and maintain green spaces, producing a broad range of power products for professional landscaping and tree care in parks, forests, sports arenas, playgrounds, private gardens and spaces. Husqvarna's new feature for robotic lawn mowers, rewilding mode is the first of its kind in the world, designed specifically to increase pollination.
- agricultural tech
- conservation agriculture
- nature tech
- regenerative annual cropping
Waterbear is a digital streaming platform that hosts short films, stories, documentaries and original content to empower communities to make positive change in the world. Topics cover a breadth of topics in the environmental and humanitarian space. Waterbear is also home to a network of more than 100 NGO partners as well as brands. Members can join their communities directly through the platform, by taking action for the causes they care about most. Waterbear is free to access, and uses data to measure impacts based on member viewing.
- digital platforms
- marketplaces
- media
- streaming
Energy Web is a nonprofit organization using blockchain technology to accelearte the global energy transition through a open source decentralized digital infrastructure that connects grid operators, customers, and energy assets (like solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles) to create a more flexible and efficient energy system. Energy Web is focused on developing an ecosystem of users and application developers and infrastructure providers to work jointly to identify and assess blockchain use cases in energy across security, transparency, and efficiency. It has build an open source IT infrastructure upon which these use cases can be implemented and used to educate regulators and other stakeholders.
- blockchain
- cloud
- digital assets
- digital ledgers
- digital platforms
- edge computing
- marketplaces
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
KMX’s technology facilitates a separation and recovery of pure water, lithium and other rare earth minerals a from industrial brine and waste-streams at low temperature and pressure. By using its proprietary membrane distillation technology for mineral recovery and water separation, KMX's technology targets water scarcity and contamination and offers a new method of promoting clean water and wastewater treatment. In addition, separation of Lithium, which is a critical element for batteries used in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies, as well as other rare earth minerals, through brine and waste is a far more sustainable approach than traditional lithium extraction methods which are energy-intensive and have negative community and environmental impacts.
- circular economy
- critical minerals
- industrial waste
- renewables
- water
Hunome is a digital platform designed to help people understand complex issues by bring together diverse perspectives for multidisciplinary sensemaking. Its platform is designed to bridge fragmented information and siloed perspectives into clarity, and supports environments for people to spend the time in dialogue developing perspective, openness, accountability, and collective sensing around complex topics. It uses data to transparently show interactions, "thinking paths," and how decisions are informed. Hunome recognises 16 different "knowtypes." These encompass knowledge derived from experience, research, observation, intuition, aesthetics, and creative exploration. Exposure to diverse ideas can spark creativity and lead to new solutions for global challenges.
- city planning
- collective
- decision-making
- digital platforms
- market research
- sense-making
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
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
Flourish Science is a well-being and AI startup co-founded by psychologists from Stanford University and a designer and serial entrepreneur previously at Google and C3 AI. Utilizing a B2B2C model, Flourish Science offers a science-based app and organizational programs that helps employees and students develop and implement small habits for happiness and well-being. Flourish's proactive, personalized, and social approach seeks to provide an effective method to improve users' daily mood, social connectedness, and overall life satisfaction.
- artificial intelligence
- data
- digital platforms
- health tech
- marketplaces
- welltech