The EarthTech Inaugural Summit took place in February 2020 on Makepeace Island – Richard Branson’s private home in Australia. Its purpose is to push highest order thinking as attendees collectively discussed and strategised how to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through the use of globally scalable technology. Attendees also heard from finalists of the EarthTech Challenge who pitching their award winning ideas and provided critical feedback and connections as they launch globally.
EarthTech Summit – February 2020
Through the course of the EarthTech Summit experts, investors, business leaders and academics met and mentored the 10 finalist teams from across the world including Uganda, Nigeria, India, Philippines, Australia and Bangladesh. The finalists’ solutions, all addressing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, included innovative emergency and sustainable housing, waste management solutions and medical devices.
The winning team, Safewheel, presented emergency electric ambulance vehicles, offering affordable access and doorstep medical services to villagers living under $5 per day, with a 300% faster response times than existing solutions and a 50% cost reduction in rural services. The solution addresses the Sustainable Development Goals of Good Health & Wellness (#3), Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (#9) and Decent Work and Economic Growth (#8).
Commenting on the win, Faysal Islam said: “We’re so happy to have won the EarthTech Challenge and we are confident that with the new connections we’ve made in Australia, Safewheel will continue to grow and expand internationally. Our idea started in response to personal stories of people without access to medical services and our ambition is to be serving 1.7m people annually in 5 years, in Bangladesh alone. Imagine the potential impact if such units were used in remote communities across Asia, Africa and South America.”
Artist Programming at EarthTech Summit
The arts are an integral part of the EarthTech Summit. We were lucky enough to work with established and emerging artists throughout the three day summit, and incorporated dance, story, sculpture, music into the event.
Star Dome
Art of String Theory
Our Winged Emu, embraces our sky from the binary star system, known as Sirius (the tip of where our wings meet), through the Head, Hunter (Orion Star Constellation), through Hyades, the bent knee, to Our 7 Sisters (Pelaides) who represent the foot of our Winged Emu.
The Star Dome on Make Peace Island was created to acknowledge our 7 Sisters, the foot of our Winged Emu. Our 7 Sisters are our Creative Ancestors and responsible for creating many sacred sites, foods, trees, etc and pathways hear and ta our Sky Space.
Also, please everyone remember this is my story through my mother’s people and my own initiative experience, other tribes have similar though different stories for this same area of Sky Space, and the various star constellations I have shared hear, represent different teachings.
Projection Art
Möbius & Lyndon Davis
A collaboration between a predominate local indigenous Artist Lyndon Davis and Möbius was projected onto the main building at Makepeace Island over the course of the three nights. It featured traditional painted artworks from Lyndon, overlaid with divine geometric patterns put into motion.
The EarthTech Finalists
Safewheel - Faysal and Anas
EarthTech Winner - Cohort 1Safewheel
Is an affordable emergency medical service provider to the rural people of Bangladesh. With our environment friendly mini electric tricycle ambulance, we provide affordable ambulance and doorstep medical service to villagers living under 5 USD PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) per day. Our response time is 300% faster, and our service charge is 50% cheaper than all the existing ambulances operating in rural areas of Bangladesh.
eWays - Isabel and Adria
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1eWays
In 2018, 50 million tonnes of electronic waste were generated globally, and only 35% were officially collected and recycled. Their chemicals and materials are very pollutant to our near environment or the overseas countries they get sent to. However, a large percentage of the thrown away devices could be either refurbished or have their parts or materials extracted without damaging the ecosystem. eWays is the platform that connects you with local companies and organizations that are already doing that near you. This way this global problem is solved locally but scalably, by upcycling your devices into the circular economy.
Newdigit Technologies - Derick and Authority
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1Newdigit
Our idea is to use water and solar cells to generate energy that can be used for both electricity and cooking. Our solution address Energy poverty, Climate change and the death caused by indoor pollution from the use of hydrocarbon base electrical generators. Our technology is a solar cell with embedded system that breaks down water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used to produce electricity via fuelcell we designed, and to cook via Micro Burner.
Cubo Modular - Earl and Zahra
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1Cubo Modular
In our country (Philippines), over 20 million people live in inadequate slum housing and are left vulnerable to typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Current construction methods are slow to keep up with demand while accelerating production leads to further environmental damage. Our solution: the CUBO® Modular System, the first engineered bamboo building platform in the world. We use engineered bamboo, a highly renewable resource that takes only 3 years to grow and has strengths up to 14x greater than concrete and hardwood. The result: house kits that can be assembled within hours with prices starting at USD200 per square meter.
Ecoplastile - Franc
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1EcoPlastile
EcoPlastile is a registered Ugandan social enterprise that addresses the challenges of urban waste management (plastic pollution), chronic youth unemployment, deforestation and climate change. We are committed to environmental excellence that is integrated with a business‐wide approach to sustainability. EcoPlastile works with marginalized youth and women to collect plastic wastes, uses an innovative plastic extrusion technology called “Waxy 2 technology” to recycle and transform post-consumer waste plastic into durable, and long lasting plastic lumber profiles that substitutes wooden timbers. Plastic lumbers and poles are affordable alternatives to timbers, hence reduces the need for building materials manufactured from wood, helping to preserve forests and cut down on deforestation and further mitigate climate change.
Vixta - Kyra and Aldrich
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1Vixta
The Plantable Bio Bag is a single-use bag that may be used as an alternative to single-use paper and plastic bags. It is made from agricultural wastes and has seeds embedded within the bag that will grow into plants after the bag is disposed. Prototypes have already been produced with different variations in material. Experiments have already been conducted that prove the feasibility of the bag. In its current state of production, experiments and trials are still being conducted in developing the best version of the Plantable Bio Bag.
Hobeei - Mariam
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1HoBeei
HoBeei is solving the problem of inequality and poor savings through the reduction of waste and hoarding. We have observed there people struggling to afford what others no longer use in their homes but hoard anyway and often end up disposing wrongly. We aim to connect such people to reduce inequality and improve savings.
NeoPerk - Satyendra and Vama
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1Neoperk
We aim to develop a soil testing device which will give quick and accurate results. This will reduce the time required by conventional soil testing methods and also avoid the need for treating the soil sample with chemical reagents.
Get to Sleep Easy - Nic and Nikhil
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1Get To Sleep Easy
We’re alpha-testing the first device which maps patients’ movements, breath and heart rates non-invasively, for a reasonable price. It costs us $60 to make our Smart Sensor System (current solutions cost $6000), and alerts medical professionals + caretakers (95% of elderly people live in the community) of problems like falls, pressure sores, or even if someone’s stopped breathing. Though these complications seem superfluous, they’re the most common causes of hospitalisation. With a rapidly aging population, and a rise in NCDs like heart disease and diabetes rising, affordable devices like ours which alert/prevent complications could save thousands of lives, and billions to healthcare-budgets.
Cydee - Monika and Prebin
EarthTech Finalist - Cohort 1Cydee
We at Cydee Technologies Pvt Ltd are aimed at making developing countries safer. Nobody deserves to feel unsafe! We aim at achieving this with our novel lighting concepts. With our novel analysis and design methodology, we optimize illumination as per international standards. Our Unique Patented Lighting concept can help in 40% Energy and 44% Monetary savings. We provide Lighting Subscription Model, With Payment on per sq. ft. of quality illumination in indoor and outdoor commercial and public spaces.