YWCA Metropolitan Chicago seeks to advance the marketplace in a way that benefits all Chicagoans, recognizing that innovative public-private-social change partnerships can drive economic growth in neighborhoods and the entire marketplace. The YWCA will identify advanced manufacturing opportunities that can be established within local communities to leverage existing community assets.

Curated Archive 2016

This project supplies alternatives to the open fire 3-stone cooking method common in Africa. Their community-driven efforts address multiple environmental threats on local scale and provide new modes for income generation.

AquaFresco is reinventing the $50B cleaning market, including laundry, carwash and industrial cleaning. We developed a novel water recycle system, cutting 95% of water and detergent use. With this technology, our customers can use just one batch of soapy water to do cleaning such as laundry for 6 months.

The Bamboo Project aims to integrate domestically grown lightweight materials into the Haitian construction industry by demonstrating the structural, aesthetic and ecologically resilient nature of bamboo. This creates a model which can be deployed in areas suffering from deforestation and threatened seismically and climatically worldwide.

breathe.airship aims to create breathing spaces in cities that are affected by air pollution all over the world. The project is a prototype to link technology with natural environments and create awareness on the importance of clean air and healthy environments.

Build Change is working in Colombia to create an environment wherein homeowners, government, and private sector, can easily work together to retrofit (strengthen) existing vulnerable homes, saving lives in the next earthquake, and contributing with safety and improved construction practice as former slums continue to develop into vibrant, urban neighborhoods.

BHM supports community-based backpack medics who administer village health care services in Burma, grassroots education projects that empower the youth of Burma and projects that promote cross-cultural sharing and collaboration for refugees from Burma living in the U.S.

Communitere builds capacity and community for holistic recovery in developing world post-disaster scenarios. Our inclusive design, maker-oriented ethos lifts all stakeholders in a process resulting in a locally-owned resource for those impacted by disaster to design and rebuild their own communities, and provide access to world-class advanced technology and design.

CommuniTree is a simple but practical, well-executed approach to tackling three interlinked problems: deforestation, climate change, and poverty. The project ingenuously connects the dots around CO2 reduction and the generation of sustainable, local economies.

Concern America is an international development and refugee aid organization that works with economically impoverished communities around the world to develop long-term solutions to poverty.

Cooperación Comunitaria has envisioned and is implementing a comprehensive model to radically improve these marginalized populations' living conditions by working with communities to rebuild their homes.

ORGANIZATION NAME: Thinkplace
LOCATION: based in Australia; implementation in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa

SUMMARY: The Economics for the Anthropocene (E4A) project seeks to displace the growth-insistent macro-economic framework which is destabilizing the Earth's life support system(s).

ECOTIERRA is a certified B corporation working to create a sustainable agricultural economy across the Andes cordillera, with plans to replicate their model in Cote d’Ivoire and Colombia. The company works as a matchmaker, connecting investors to coffee and cocoa cooperatives throughout Peru.

EggPlant aims to eliminate the concept of waste and the pollution from traditional plastics by reusing wastewater as raw material to get advanced high performance bioplastic and smart bioplastic-based solutions, thanks to its innovative proprietary technology, through a zero-waste process.

Using solar cooling & freezing technologies, Emergi developed a solution to address the challenges in Liberia's energy sector, which is polluting, unreliable and expensive. Our strategy is to provide clean, reliable and affordable energy to increase agricultural production, people's livelihood, Liberia's socioeconomic development & food security and reduce environmental deterioration.

Evrnu has developed a proprietary technology that goes far beyond standard garment recycling to deconstruct used cotton textiles at the molecular level, creating a range of multi-purpose regenerated cellulose fibers far stronger and more durable than the original fabrics.

Fordlandia is a initiative producing and promoting Amazonian wild rubber products. Wild Rubber is a sustainable source of income for the marginalised forest communities who can make living from the forest and in doing so protect their environment from logging and farming.

LOCATION: the Philippines and potentially Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, South Sudan,Haiti

Glasswing International—an NGO with a long, proven track record of well-designed social and development programs in the region—has designed a highly effective program to protect and re-integrate these children into their communities, schools, and families.