No Waste Challenge winners announced

July 15, 2021

Today, our partner What Design Can Do announced the 16 winners of their global No Waste Challenge.

The winning projects all have innovative strategies to reduce waste and its impact on climate change. Together, they suggest inventive ways for us to reconcile what we want with what the planet needs.

Production and consumption
Among the winners are solutions that focus on the production process. Sustrato (Mexico), for example, combines traditional craft, contemporary design and waste from the pineapple industry to develop sustainable bioplastics. Modern Synthesis (UK) makes use of a similar waste stream — this time from apple farms — to feed microbes that grow fully circular fibers for the fashion industry. Meanwhile, working to clean up the construction sector are Carbon Tile (India) and Packing Up PFAS (Netherlands). These projects offer innovative building materials that remove toxic pollutants and carbon dioxide from the environment.

Nyungu Afrika, winner of the No Waste Challenge

Disrupting throwaway culture
Moving away from the factory floor, other winners seek to uproot entire value systems. These projects are looking to prevent waste by addressing the underlying problem of consumerism. Reparar.org (Argentina) is a service which connects individuals to local cobblers and repair shops, working to promote a culture of care and the right-to-repair. Project R (Japan), is a community centre that empowers citizens to learn about circular techniques and lifestyles. Another disruption to throwaway culture is Nyungu Afrika (Kenya). This social enterprise hopes to make low-cost and biodegradable menstrual products the norm across Africa. 

Selecting the winners
An international jury of 12 leading experts in design, entrepreneurship and climate action selected the winners from 85 shortlisted entries.

Liz McKeon, Head of Climate Action portfolio at the IKEA Foundation, was on the jury. She says: “I was impressed by the many great young entrepreneurs and creatives from around the world who submitted designs to tackle the root causes responsible for waste, and their determination to find solutions. Even those who were not selected as winners will contribute just as much to creating a liveable planet for the many.”

Launching ideas into action
The No Waste Challenge is What Design Can Do’s third Climate Action Challenge in partnership with the IKEA Foundation. Open to creative entrepreneurs everywhere, it attracted 1,409 submissions from more than 100 countries.

The winning teams will receive €10,000 in funding, and access to a development programme co-created with Impact Hub Amsterdam. The programme begins with a week-long bootcamp. This is tailor-made for the special blend of change-makers present among participants.

You can view all projects on the Challenge platform: nowaste.whatdesigncando.com 

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What Design Can Do
http://www.whatdesigncando.com/

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  • 🚍🌱🚖 Transforming road transport for #PeopleAndPlanet. Decarbonising transportation is essential to decarbonising society. There are an estimated 1 billion polluting vehicles on the world’s roads, accounting for approximately 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Making the shift to electric vehicles is necessary and urgent. That’s why the IKEA Foundation recently announced a $100 million investment in Drive Electric Campaign’s new Leapfrogging Partnership: a philanthropic effort to supercharge the transition to zero-emission vehicles in emerging markets across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Nearly 40% of the world’s transportation demand is committed to electric vehicles by 2050, driven by smart government policies and business commitments supported by Drive Electric Campaign’s network of partners. But clean transport and its benefits – from workers saving money on fuel to children breathing cleaner air – are not yet equally distributed. The goal of the Leapfrogging Partnership is to accelerate access to clean, affordable electric vehicles all over the world. #DriveElectric #ElectricVehicles #AirPollution #EnergyTransformation #RoadTransformation
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🚍🌱🚖 Transforming road transport for #PeopleAndPlanet. Decarbonising transportation is essential to decarbonising society. There are an estimated 1 billion polluting vehicles on the world’s roads, accounting for approximately 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Making the shift to electric vehicles is necessary and urgent. That’s why the IKEA Foundation recently announced a $100 million investment in Drive Electric Campaign’s new Leapfrogging Partnership: a philanthropic effort to supercharge the transition to zero-emission vehicles in emerging markets across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Nearly 40% of the world’s transportation demand is committed to electric vehicles by 2050, driven by smart government policies and business commitments supported by Drive Electric Campaign’s network of partners. But clean transport and its benefits – from workers saving money on fuel to children breathing cleaner air – are not yet equally distributed. The goal of the Leapfrogging Partnership is to accelerate access to clean, affordable electric vehicles all over the world. #DriveElectric #ElectricVehicles #AirPollution #EnergyTransformation #RoadTransformation
🚍🌱🚖 Transforming road transport for #PeopleAndPlanet. Decarbonising transportation is essential to decarbonising society. There are an estimated 1 billion polluting vehicles on the world’s roads, accounting for approximately 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Making the shift to electric vehicles is necessary and urgent. That’s why the IKEA Foundation recently announced a $100 million investment in Drive Electric Campaign’s new Leapfrogging Partnership: a philanthropic effort to supercharge the transition to zero-emission vehicles in emerging markets across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Nearly 40% of the world’s transportation demand is committed to electric vehicles by 2050, driven by smart government policies and business commitments supported by Drive Electric Campaign’s network of partners. But clean transport and its benefits – from workers saving money on fuel to children breathing cleaner air – are not yet equally distributed. The goal of the Leapfrogging Partnership is to accelerate access to clean, affordable electric vehicles all over the world. #DriveElectric #ElectricVehicles #AirPollution #EnergyTransformation #RoadTransformation
🚍🌱🚖 Transforming road transport for #PeopleAndPlanet. Decarbonising transportation is essential to decarbonising society. There are an estimated 1 billion polluting vehicles on the world’s roads, accounting for approximately 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Making the shift to electric vehicles is necessary and urgent. That’s why the IKEA Foundation recently announced a $100 million investment in Drive Electric Campaign’s new Leapfrogging Partnership: a philanthropic effort to supercharge the transition to zero-emission vehicles in emerging markets across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Nearly 40% of the world’s transportation demand is committed to electric vehicles by 2050, driven by smart government policies and business commitments supported by Drive Electric Campaign’s network of partners. But clean transport and its benefits – from workers saving money on fuel to children breathing cleaner air – are not yet equally distributed. The goal of the Leapfrogging Partnership is to accelerate access to clean, affordable electric vehicles all over the world. #DriveElectric #ElectricVehicles #AirPollution #EnergyTransformation #RoadTransformation
🚍🌱🚖 Transforming road transport for #PeopleAndPlanet. Decarbonising transportation is essential to decarbonising society. There are an estimated 1 billion polluting vehicles on the world’s roads, accounting for approximately 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Making the shift to electric vehicles is necessary and urgent. That’s why the IKEA Foundation recently announced a $100 million investment in Drive Electric Campaign’s new Leapfrogging Partnership: a philanthropic effort to supercharge the transition to zero-emission vehicles in emerging markets across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Nearly 40% of the world’s transportation demand is committed to electric vehicles by 2050, driven by smart government policies and business commitments supported by Drive Electric Campaign’s network of partners. But clean transport and its benefits – from workers saving money on fuel to children breathing cleaner air – are not yet equally distributed. The goal of the Leapfrogging Partnership is to accelerate access to clean, affordable electric vehicles all over the world. #DriveElectric #ElectricVehicles #AirPollution #EnergyTransformation #RoadTransformation
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🚍🌱🚖 Transforming road transport for #PeopleAndPlanet. Decarbonising transportation is essential to decarbonising society. There are an estimated 1 billion polluting vehicles on the world’s roads, accounting for approximately 15% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Making the shift to electric vehicles is necessary and urgent. That’s why the IKEA Foundation recently announced a $100 million investment in Drive Electric Campaign’s new Leapfrogging Partnership: a philanthropic effort to supercharge the transition to zero-emission vehicles in emerging markets across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Nearly 40% of the world’s transportation demand is committed to electric vehicles by 2050, driven by smart government policies and business commitments supported by Drive Electric Campaign’s network of partners. But clean transport and its benefits – from workers saving money on fuel to children breathing cleaner air – are not yet equally distributed. The goal of the Leapfrogging Partnership is to accelerate access to clean, affordable electric vehicles all over the world. #DriveElectric #ElectricVehicles #AirPollution #EnergyTransformation #RoadTransformation
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Our food systems are not working for people and the planet. We must transition to an approach that respects the environment and ensures the wellbeing of people now and in the future. 🥕 At the World Circular Economic Forum our Programme Manager, Annelies Withofs, talked about the Circular Food Systems for Rwanda programme which supports farmers, entrepreneurs, and businesses to shift towards #RegenerativeAgriculture and circular systems. Learn more about the programme via the link in our bio 🔗 #ClimateCrisis #ClimateSolutions #SustainableFoodSystems #wcef2024
@ikea_foundation
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Our food systems are not working for people and the planet. We must transition to an approach that respects the environment and ensures the wellbeing of people now and in the future. 🥕 At the World Circular Economic Forum our Programme Manager, Annelies Withofs, talked about the Circular Food Systems for Rwanda programme which supports farmers, entrepreneurs, and businesses to shift towards #RegenerativeAgriculture and circular systems. Learn more about the programme via the link in our bio 🔗 #ClimateCrisis #ClimateSolutions #SustainableFoodSystems #wcef2024
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