SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

Source: Impaakt.com

Problem

Efficiently monitoring and measuring businesses' overall impact on people and the planet is essential to accelerate change, but it’s complicated. Which metrics to use ? Should we rely on data from the companies themselves or do we make our own assessments? How do we avoid green washing and measure the real impact of a company ?

Solution

In 2018, Impaakt launched a peer-review platform to measure the true level of sustainability of major companies worldwide. Thanks to ratings and analyses made by the +20’000 certified community members, they’re building company scores with the goal to create the ultimate resource of objective, quality impact information for investors and consumers.

Impact

Since 2018, 40’000 people joined the Impaakt community. 400k ratings have been made covering the impact of over 1500 companies.

Kitro

Problem

Problem: Every year, roughly 1/3 of the food we produce is wasted or lost. It accounts for around 1.3 billion tons of food waste, and is the equivalent of USD$1 trillion, which would be enough to feed 3 billion people. Much of this waste occurs in the hospitality industry.

Solution

Kitro developed an AI-integrated device that photographs, identifies, and records every food item you throw away in a kitchen. As you throw food away, the device analyses every food item that goes inside the bin, and generates precious data that can then be used to highlight cooking practices that need to change, better make orders, and adapt the daily food offer.

Impact

With its automated food waste management system, Kitro helps restaurants, canteens, hotels and medical centers reduce food waste by up to 60% and save up to 8% of their food profit margins.

Mater Foundation

Problem

Solution

Impact

Problem: In 2019, about 13% of people in Geneva confessed they struggle to put food on the table each month. And the numbers have been growing steadily since 2014. This includes not only undocumented and unemployed individuals, but also underpaid workers, foreigners with official work permits, and even students.

Mater is serving nutritionally-balanced meals of high quality, 5 days a week, to people living in situations of precarity or social exclusion, at Refettorio Geneva, for free. The remaining 2 days, the Refettorio offers a unique culinary experience for the paying clientele. During the whole week, the restaurant also serves as a training facility, and a space for local artists to express themselves.

The Mater Foundation, every year, it’s 20’000 meals for underprivileged people in Geneva, 10 people fed for each paying customer, 5’140 hours of voluntary work, 24 guest chefs cooking for people in need, 10 tonnes of food saved.

Tyre Recycling Solutions

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Problem

Solution

Impact

Each year, there are around 2 billion tires that reach the end of their useful life. End-of-life tires (or ELTs) are difficult to eliminate or recycle due to their complex mix of materials that are all compacted together – notably, natural and synthetic rubber, fiber and wire.

They collect and transform used tires into a precious rubber powder that can be used as a substitute of many material in multiple industries. For example, this powder can be used to build roads, make shoe insoles, and razors or produce fresh new tires.

Every day, TRS receives between 1300-1400 tires at the main factory in Yvonnand, Switzerland. About 5000 tons of rubber powder is sold every year. Currently expanding to other parts of the world, notably in the Middle East and China.

Impaakt

Problem

Solution

Impact

Since 2018, 40’000 people joined the Impaakt community. 400k ratings have been made covering the impact of over 1500 companies.

Too Good Too Go

Problem

According to the government, 2.6 million tons of food are wasted in Switzerland each year, that’s 190 kilos per person (source). It’s estimated that 2/3 of it is avoidable. In addition to the millions of families suffering from food insecurity, food waste accounts for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Solution

Founded in Denmark in 2016, the company developed an app, which allows bakeries, restaurants, supermarkets and other businesses to save food surplus. It’s a triple win: users get food at an attractive price, local businesses sell their surplus close to break-even while reaching new customers and finally, the planet’s resources are better optimised.

Impact

Currently, Too-Good to Go is the world's #1 app for fighting food waste. They have saved over 5 mio meals in Switzerland and about 119 million globally. They have about 2 mio users in CH and 52 mio worldwide, across 17 countries.

Babette

Problem

Our food system can be considered broken in so many ways. Among some of the most commonly known issues, we can cite child labor, animal welfare, and food waste. Numerous practices within the food industry, such as monoculture, mass production and overseas imports have serious social and environmental consequences.

Solution

Babette is a restaurant based in Zurich, which helps people reconnect with food and learn about topics such as organic farming, the complexity of biodiversity, and sustainable gastronomy. All the food is organic, local, and almost always sourced directly from the grower, scraps are reused and waste is limited.

Impact

Babette co-founder and head Chef Andi Handke regularly gives presentations in schools, organises workshops with other restaurants, and even advises the local government on how to create meaningful change. Along with + 150 other chefs around the world, Andi has also contributed to the creation of the Chef’ Manifesto, a hands-on guidebook that consists of practical actions chefs can take to follow the SDGs framework.

Ynsect

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Problem

In 2050, the world population is likely to hit 9 billion people. To meet this demand, industry experts say food production must be raised by 70%. Therefore, it is crucial to rethink the way we produce food, for both animals and humans, increase productivity and reduce the impact on the environment.

Solution

Ynsect transform beetles into premium, high-value ingredients for pets, fish, plants, and even human beings, in vertical farms fully automated by robots. The end product is a natural, healthy and sustainable alternative protein to traditional livestock farming, using 98% less land and 50% fewer resources. It can also be used as a natural fertilizer.

Impact

Each year, 2000 tonnes of protein and fertilizer are produced to meet the demand of the 1 trillion USD agriculture, animal, and human nutrition market. +30% to 300% increase of yields on wheat, corn, or vineyards compared to chemical fertilizer. 60 innovation and impact awards.

Goodvest

Problem

The money that lies in saving accounts is currently massively invested by banks in harmful sectors such as fossil fuel, agriculture or the fashion industry, and for 11 tons of CO2 emissions per year. Today, there’s only 0.2% of all investments that are considered to be aligned with the Paris agreement.

Solution

Solution: Goodvest is a French startup founded in 2020 with the goal of democratizing responsible investing and building the first investment app aligned with the Paris Agreement. To build an investment portfolio, Goodvest experts carefully analyse the entire carbon footprint of companies to make sure both direct and indirect emissions are taken into account.

Impact

Since its foundation in 2021, Goodvest has convinced around 2 200 clients, financing impact-driven firms and saving 10t of CO2 emissions. The start-up already earned 12 awards, including the “Top d’Or” 2022 for the best ISR contract.

GoodPlanet

Source: yannarthusbertrandphoto.com

Source: Linkedin.com

Problem

CO2 emissions, rising sea levels, degradation of biodiversity, and the consequences of climate change keep multiplying exponentially in an alarming way.

Solution

GoodPlanet is a foundation recognised for public utility, dedicated to raising awareness about social and environmental challenges. They provide advice to companies and governments on how to shift towards more sustainable practices such as reducing carbon emissions, putting in place responsible food policies or monitoring social impact on local communities.

Impact

Since its foundation, GoodPlanet supported 61 projects across 22 countries, creating a positive impact for over 270k people. Their programs notably enabled the construction of 20k biogas tanks, the installation of 12k solar cookers and the plantation of 2 mio trees. About 500k people have already visited their exhibition center and over 6mio people have read the GoodPlanet magazine.

Design-a-Thon

Source: Designathonworks.org

Source: Thnk.org

Problem

A big misconception is that only adults are able to drive change. Most education systems aren’t really designed to enable children to design a better world for themselves and for the planet, be part of the change, and take action.

Solution

With the help of facilitators, parents, policy-makers, and impact-driven organizations, Design-a-thon created a unique education model to empower 8 to 12-year-olds to drive change. Students learn how to design, create and present their solutions to address at least one of the 17 SDGs.

Impact

Since its foundation in 2014, the Designathon network has reached about 115k children with the help of 2k facilitators through 45 different countries. Designathon students have already designed over 30k solutions to tackle global challenges. Schools using the Designathon method have observed significant change and municipalities have also started to use children’s solutions.

Fairphone

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Problem

Every year, 1.4 billion phones are sold worldwide and most aren’t built to last or be repaired. The telecom industry is likely to account for 14% of global carbon emissions by 2040. In addition, the mining of key materials to produce lithium-ion batteries, such as cobalt, poses human rights concerns such as child labor and poor working conditions.

Solution

Fairphone is a smartphone company based in Amsterdam, whose mission is to completely change the industry of electronics, putting people and the planet at the core. Since 2013, they’re committed to building the most ethical smartphone on the market. The concept is simple: produce entirely repairable phones from materials sourced as transparently and ethically as possible.

Impact

In 2020, Fairphone sold around 95k devices (+76% compared to 2019). So far, about 11’000 people have benefited from Fairphone social, environmental or economic interventions. Fairphone has also partnered with electronic giants such as Orange or Vodafone to scale their impact. All these efforts earned the company multiple awards including the World’s greenest electronics manufacturer prize from Greenpeace and a feature in Time’s Magazine list of best innovations.

Winnow

Episode - CS

Source: linkedin.com

Source: sustainability.wustl.edu

Problem

Roughly 1/3 of the food produced for human consumption every year, is either wasted or lost. In addition to the dramatic social and environmental impacts, food waste costs the hospitality industry over 100bn annually. Professional kitchens waste up to 20% of food purchased, often equivalent to their total net profits.

Solution

Winnow a tech company founded in 2013 in London, with the mission to run more productive, profitable and sustainable kitchens by cutting food waste in half. Winnow is teaching a machine to scan the food that’s being thrown away, using AI. The device takes pictures of the food as it goes into the bin to train a computer vision model and identify food items in real time.This generates analytics displayed on the Winnow platform, which allows to pinpoint waste and take better decisions

Impact

Winnow has already produced analytics for over a thousand kitchens in over 40 countries, building a massive database of millions of food waste images. Since their foundation, they saved over 36 mio meals, accounting for £42 mio and 61k tonnes of CO2 emissions. Winnow notably helped IKEA UK save 1.2 mio meals and allowed Hilton hotels to save 65’000£ in food purchases.

Thred

Episode - CS

Problem

Too naive, not experienced enough, under qualified. As a youngster, it’s hard to be taken seriously and activate your ideas, as many often underestimate the power of youth to drive change.

Solution

Thred is a new kind of media that is shaped by youth culture and powered by social change. They’re currently UK’s biggest digital media platform for Gen Z, where young, passionate, creative, and curious people can inform themselves about challenges that are relevant and important to their generation. Thred covers topics such as climate change, tech, culture, and entrepreneurship.

Impact

Thred is building a global community of like-minded people and aspiring change makers. As of today, more than 250k Gen Z influencers, activists, journalists, and entrepreneurs willing to build a better future have joined the movement. Thred is available in 17 languages, spread out across more than 180 countries, and is consulting for companies such as Microsoft, Google and the UN.

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