Alumni in the News

D.C.’s First Commercial Rooftop Farming Company Launches With a Garden Above Oyamel

For its pilot farm, Up Top Acres is working with ThinkFoodGroup to grow microgreens, herbs, and edible flowers on the rooftop of the building that houses Oyamel. Everything they grow will be used on the menus of José Andrés’ downtown restaurants, including Jaleo, Zaytinya, Minibar, and China Chilcano. Grina got connected with Andrés after helping the restaurateur with a garden at his house.
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/blog/20678381/d-c-s-first-commercial-rooftop-farming-company-launches-with-a-garden-above-oyamel

Alumni in the News

Brand Love : tonlé

tonlé designs and makes comfortable, wearable clothes that are as original and beautiful as the people who make them. We adhere to principles of transparency, fairness, and waste reduction in everything we do, from the big stuff like wages, down to the little things like the materials in our buttons.”

https://www.mynewneighbour.ca/blog/brand-love-tonl

Alumni in the News

The Woman Who Turned Her High School Science Project Into A Global Solar Nonprofit

Eden Full Goh discovered the potential of solar power when she was just 10 years old. She had come across a book in the library that taught her how to build a small solar-powered car. Once she took the book home and built it, she was hooked. She wanted to see what else she could do with this incredible source of energy.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lyndseygilpin/2015/10/28/the-woman-who-turned-her-high-school-science-project-into-a-global-solar-nonprofit/#240d87fa4cb8

Alumni in the News

An Anti-Waste Kitchen Takes Root in Alameda

Dana Frasz deals in the currency of imperfect produce: crooked carrots, oranges with peels dotted with black spots, and potatoes shaped like snowmen.
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/WhatTheFork/archives/2015/10/20/an-anti-waste-kitchen-takes-root-in-alameda

Alumni in the News

Ground zero feedback helps DayOne Response respond to disaster

Tricia Compas-Markman was in Haiti after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160,000 people when she finally realised her idea to change the world was a winner. “Even after a year, people were still living in tents, still affected by cholera, still very much affected by the earthquake,” the engineer and entrepreneur recalled.
https://www.afr.com/business/retail/ground-zero-feedback-helps-dayone-response-respond-to-disaster-20151006-gk269w

Alumni in the News

Mobile Phones for Recognizing Counterfeit Medicine

The high cost of pharmaceutical drugs affects patients, health care providers, hospitals and governments throughout the world. The pharmaceutical industry is reported to be worth $300 billion a year and in the United States, close to half of the population is using prescription drugs at any given time.
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/mobile-phones-recognizing-counterfeit-medicine/

Alumni in the News

MEET TED BARBER, PROSPERITY CANDLE

A fair-trade certified company, Barber and his staff fulfill orders for consumers and for companies as corporate gifts, and they ship their products wholesale to other outlets. A feature on their website allows people to design their own candle, choosing the fragrance, the strength and the “vessel”—such as a hand-blown glass bowl or a striped earthen pot. Attached to every candle is a picture and a bio of the woman who made it.
http://www.eastworks.com/2015/10/meet-ted-barber-prosperity-candle.html

Alumni in the News

A zero waste business policy is now easier to implement than you think

Beyond Laundry is one company trying to achieve this ideal. Founder Susan Carpenter Sims bills it as a community laundry center that uses a “synergy” of solar power, water- and energy-efficient machines, rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/oct/01/circular-economy-ellen-macarthur-foundation-zero-waste-solar-power

Alumni in the News

PITAYA Plus outlines mission to turn America’s smoothies hot pink

It’s flaming pink, packed with fiber and magnesium, fruity, but not too sweet, and growing like crazy in the frozen smoothie pack market, says Chuck Casano, who is on a mission to do for Pitaya what Sambazon did for açai berries and KonaRed is doing for coffee fruit: turn something many Americans have never heard of into a household name.
https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2015/09/17/PITAYA-Plus-outlines-mission-to-turn-America-s-smoothies-hot-pink

Dreaming Out Loud
Alumni in the News

Urban Farmer Wants to Grow a Washington, D.C. With Zero Food Deserts

The coolest project that I’ve worked on is at our urban garden space in Washington, D.C. It has a beautiful backdrop, a brilliant work of public art that covers an entire historic church. We are working to make it into a model of a highly productive, community-centered hub of agriculture.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/christopher-bradshaw

Alumni in the News

Selling solar to keep Tanzania connected

Solar PV has already begun to take off in East Africa, with companies such as M-Kopa and Juabar providing solar panels to hundreds of thousands of homes since the start of last year, while solar kiosks are springing up across the region to enable customers to charge their mobile phones.
http://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/selling-solar-keep-tanzania-connected

Alumni in the News

‘Drinkable book’ filters filthy water and makes it safer to drink, researchers say

Imagine a book that has pages you can tear out and use to turn raw sewage into drinking water. Each page is implanted with silver or copper nanoparticles that kill bacteria when water passes through them. And each page is printed with a message in your local language: “The water in your village may contain deadly diseases. But each page of this book is a paper water filter that will make it safe to drink.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/19/drinkable-book-filters-filthy-water-and-makes-it-safe-to-drink-researchers-say/?utm_term=.67f9e045de89

Alumni in the News

Incubators evoke little CSR interest

Piyush Jaju, founder of ONergy, which sells solar equipment to rural households, said it is difficult for incubators to get CSR funding. “Companies do not like to mix what they do for profit and what they do with a social motive. For CSR, companies are focused on charity. Changing that mindset is very difficult,” said Jaju. “ We cant rely on this as a source of funding,” he added.

https://www.livemint.com/Companies/3i29jaTAU1eF5KIV6Z8rwO/Incubators-evoke-little-CSR-interest.html

Alumni in the News

22 of the Most Fascinating Social Good Startups Changing the World

DayOne Response develops and supplies innovative solutions for disaster relief. One solution is the DayOne Waterbag, which is a lightweight reusable personal water treatment device that provides all the essential functions for water purification. According to co-founder Amy Cagle, DayOne Waterbags have been deployed in over 20 countries, and the company has provided over 7 million liters of clean water in less than a year.
https://thedailybanter.com/2015/06/22-of-the-most-fascinating-social-good-startups-changing-the-world/

Alumni in the News

SMEFunds Reached 500,000 Customers with Solar and Clean Cook Stoves.

Green Energy & Biofuels, GoSolar Africa and SMEFunds made a renewed commitment to double its efforts by increasing access to wide range of Clean technologies capable of reducing endemic Energy Crises in Nigeria. SMEFUNDS – GEB & Gosolar Africa is leading the one of the fastest and largest network of Entrepreneurs championing the widespread adoption of Solar Systems, Clean CookStoves and Biofuels in Africa.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/SMEFunds+Reached+500%2C000+Customers+with+Solar+and+Clean+Cook+Stoves.-a0415491828

Alumni in the News

Why Does Your Chocolate Taste So Bad?

The Maya Mountain business, founded five years ago, is made up of a network of 309 farms in the region. MMC buys wet cacao beans from local farmers, ferments and dries the beans, and then sells them, mostly to small-batch chocolate-makers like Dandelion. The premium beans go for $5,600 per metric ton, which is approximately $2,600 more than the current world market price for cacao beans, and Maya Granit, managing director for MMC, says approximately $3,300 of the sale of each metric ton goes directly to the farmer. She believes HCP’s designation put Belizean cacao on the map.
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/06/05/why-does-your-chocolate-taste-so-bad-335178.html

Alumni in the News

Why entrepreneurs are suddenly finding the beauty in ugly produce

Two college-age entrepreneurs have settled on juice as a “pretty good vehicle for addressing food waste,” creating a purpose for the most misshapen specimens. Georgetown University students Philip Wong, 22, and Ann Yang, 21, launched Misfit Juicery at Mess Hall in the fall as a solution for perfectly good produce going to waste. No one has to know, after all, that the carrot was crooked before it was cold-pressed into liquid.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/why-entrepreneurs-are-suddenly-finding-the-beauty-in-ugly-produce/2015/05/22/3d2134e8-fe68-11e4-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html

Alumni in the News

More info than you ever wanted to start your vertical farm

Starting a vertical farm is a difficult but exciting proposition. Luckily JJ Reidy, CEO of the Urban Pastoral Collective, has helped us come up with a step-by-step approach to do just that. Why would such a talented social entrepreneur share his secrets? He just shrugged it off when I asked him about risks. “It’s about owning who I am; a cultivator.”
https://urbanverticalfarmingproject.com/2015/05/26/more-info-than-you-ever-wanted-to-start-your-vertical-farm/

Alumni in the News

Philly Startup Hires Marginalized Staff and Delivers 300 Pounds of Laundry on Bikes–Successfully

Not only do they worry about their environmental footprint, but also their ability to create jobs in disadvantaged communities. Half of Wash Cycle’s staff comes from vulnerable backgrounds — that is, they have been formerly incarcerated, on welfare, or homeless.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/eshachhabra/2015/05/26/philly-startup-hires-marginalized-staff-and-delivers-300-pounds-of-laundry-on-bikes-successfully/#463cd488630b

Alumni in the News

How Solar Is Lighting the Way for Recovery in Nepal

Giri, who was born and raised in Nepal, is the CEO of Gham Power, a solar company that’s been operating in Nepal for the last five years. After the earthquake, Gham Power’s employees sprung into action to deploy solar power systems that could power lights and mobile charging stations for relief workers and the displaced.
http://prospect.org/article/how-solar-lighting-way-recovery-nepal

Alumni in the News

Coordination Efforts to Provide Access to Energy Vital to Support Nepal’s Post-Earthquake Recovery

“We took everything in our stock – panels, batteries, lights – but very soon we realized this was just a drop in a bucket. We needed to form a coalition with others,” says Gham Power’s Chief Executive Officer Sandeep Giri describing the immediate relief efforts he and his staff put together when the earthquake shook Nepal on 25 April, 2015. Gham Power is a solar company based in Nepal that builds rural micro-grids and solar systems.
http://www.uncdf.org/article/1422/coordination-efforts-to-provide-access-to-energy-vital-to-support-nepals-post-earthquake–migration

Alumni in the News

Tracing the Fish on Your Plate Back to the Sea

For decades, José Barrios has made a living pulling flounder and abalone out of the frigid waters off Chile’s central coast using nothing more than nets, an iron hook, and his strong back. Today, the 56-year-old fisherman also taps into satellite networks and the cloud to earn the best possible price for his catch.
Barrios is one of about 250 Chilean fishermen who have signed on with Shellcatch, a San Francisco startup seeking to profit from the growing demand for sustainable seafood.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-21/shellcatch-s-seafood-tracking-system-helps-fishermen-earn-more

Alumni in the News

EcoZoom Cooks Up New Solution for Food Preparation

Like most people in developed countries, Phil Ferranto didn’t realize that so many people around the world didn’t have access to clean and efficient cook stoves. But in 2011, Ferranto co-founded EcoZoom, a company that brings more sustainable products to homes in developing countries.
https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/05/ecozoom-cook-stove.html

Alumni in the News

Solar energy’s Canadian bright lights: 3 entrepreneurs helping the developing world

Canadian entrepreneurs are helping bring solar power to a growing number of Africans living off the grid.
More than half a billion people in Africa don’t have access to electricity, according to Lighting Africa, a program run by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation to improve access to energy. By 2030, that number is expected to reach about 700 million.

The need for light in those communities forces people to turn to cheap, dangerous sources like kerosene lamps and candles.

But some Canadians are stepping in to create affordable, clean energy alternatives:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/solar-energy-s-canadian-bright-lights-3-entrepreneurs-helping-the-developing-world-1.3067116

Alumni in the News

Solar energy’s Canadian bright lights: 3 entrepreneurs helping the developing world

Canadian entrepreneurs are helping bring solar power to a growing number of Africans living off the grid.
More than half a billion people in Africa don’t have access to electricity, according to Lighting Africa, a program run by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation to improve access to energy. By 2030, that number is expected to reach about 700 million.

The need for light in those communities forces people to turn to cheap, dangerous sources like kerosene lamps and candles.

But some Canadians are stepping in to create affordable, clean energy alternatives:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/solar-energy-s-canadian-bright-lights-3-entrepreneurs-helping-the-developing-world-1.3067116

Alumni in the News

Assured Labor Raises $6.75M, Has Connected Workers With 100K Jobs In Latin America’s Informal Sector

David Reich started the company in 2008 to make informal labor markets in Latin America faster and more transparent for low-skilled workers. It was a social enterprise meant to connect workers, who often had little more than a feature phone, to evaluate or sign up for work opportunities by text message.
https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/22/assured-labor-raises-6-75m-has-connected-workers-with-100k-jobs-in-latin-americas-informal-sector/

Alumni in the News

Solar power company to relocate to Greensville County

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced on Monday afternoon that 510nano Inc., a developer of renewable energy projects and technologies, will invest $11 million to relocate its headquarters from North Carolina and establish a manufacturing operation in Greensville County.
https://www.tidewaternews.com/2015/03/18/solar-power-company-to-relocate-to-greensville-county/

Alumni in the News

Creating a Clean Water Economy

The name “Kouzin Dlo” literally translates to “water-selling cousin.” In local parlance, the word cousin signifies someone from your community, someone you trust. “Wherever I go, people shout ‘Kouzin Dlo! There goes the lady who sells the clean-water product,’” says Manouchka Badio, a Kouzin Dlo employee whom Laporte recruited. “The experience has been really good, not just for me, but for my community.”
http://now.tufts.edu/articles/creating-clean-water-economy