OCN unites the world's ocean data sets and creates products and technology to encourage and incentivize practical citizen data collection. Their Ocean AI and BlueSense platfors use machine learning to centralize, visualize, translate, and provide insights on ocean data from all over the planet in one dashboard. Some use cases for the data include discovery of anomalies and danger zones, holding entities accountable, encouraging healthier business practices, engaging coastal communities, improving conservation efficiencies, and informing policy design. Beyond just creating ways to combine and collect more data, OCN designs products, systems and communities to collect the data necessary to interpret overall ocean health and restore marine ecosystems.
- artificial intelligence
- bioremediation
- citizen science
- conservation
- crypto/ complementary currencies
- data
- nature tech
- oceans
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
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
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
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
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
Earth Species Project is a non-profit research lab and impact organization focused on using artificial intelligence to advance our understanding of animal communication, and ultimately to decode non-human languages. The organization is founded on the belief that understanding non-human languages will transform how we perceive the world and our relationship with the rest of nature. Their work involves developing machine learning models to interpret animal sounds and movements. While "decoding" communications are a long-term objective, the ESP supports other organizations along the way by supplementing animal and ecological research; supporting existing conservation efforts; and contributing to the fields of ethology, bioacoustics, and machine learning by making their research public.
- animals
- artificial intelligence
- bioacoustics
- conservation
- ethology
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
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
Ooooby is an digital platform that functions as a decentralized network for local and small-scale food producers, empowering independent farmers and artisans to sell directly to consumers through strategically placed packing hubs. This approach bypasses traditional distribution channels, giving producers greater control and a larger share of the profits. Ooooby utilizes technologies to enable local producers to set up their shopfront and streamline the ordering and delivery process, offering convenience to customers of fresh, local, and sustainable food options. Their mission is to rebuild a food system centered around small-scale community-oriented producers using ecologically sound approaches to food production and consumption. Ooooby also partners with local institutes to support market gardening education and learning opportunities.
- digital infrastructure
- digital platforms
- marketplaces
- reduced food waste
- sharing economy
- social media / community
Kumu is a digital social mapping tool for visualizing and understanding complex relationships by creating visualizations of data sets of people, systems and networks. Kumu allows users to create interactive maps that represent systems, stakeholders, networks, and nodes between relationships. Kumu's intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality provides a platform for users and groups to build and customize visually appealing maps that can be used to tackle real world problems. By visualizing data in a clear and concise manner, Kumu helps users identify patterns, connections, and potential areas for development.
- artificial intelligence
- data
- digital platforms
- social media / community
Dollar Donation Club is a digital platform designed to facilitate micro-donations to various systemic impact projects around the world. Premised on the idea that collectively pooling small amounts lowers barriers to entry and can hyperfund the massive impact areas with minimum resources, the platform curates a selection of social impact projects across various areas ""acupuncture points of change"" like poverty alleviation, environmental protection, ocean restoration, and animal welfare.They prioritize projects based on their ""Integrated Impact Score"" metric which assesses a project's effectiveness for creating positive and scalable social and environmental benefit, while acounting for how well the solution: Integrates into local cultures and economies; Is resilient to threats of reversal; Results in self-reliance rather than dependence; Is long-term (7 generations deep); Solves root-causes rather than symptoms. Dollar Donation Club offers traceable donation monitoring for donors and gamifies the experience with points, leaderboards, and prizes. It also offers customized campaigns to business to automate giving, impact investments, and reporting.
- crowdsourcing
- impact investing
- philanthropy
- regenerative finance
