Making clean fuel from used diapers, this startup just bagged first prize at world’s largest green startup competition

Climate change is damn real and some concerned people are working harder than ever to tackle it. There are also numerous startups that use technology to encourage sustainable progress and help reverse environmental damage in the process. ClimateLaunchpad is the world’s largest green startup competition, which recognises such startups and their contribution. This is the sixth year of the competition and it has now announced the list of its 2019 winners. Without a doubt, these startups feature some of the best green and innovative ideas. 

Meet the green champions

Leafy Ke – making fuel from used diapers

When we talk about startups, innovation is the name of the game. No one can better exemplify it than the Kenyan startup Leafy Ke that won the sixth edition of ClimateLaunchpad. The startup figured out a way to generate fuel from used diapers, which is achieved via some advanced techniques to make fuel gel. Additionally, this fuel burns cleanly which means there’s negligible CO2 production, thus lowering the risk of death by Carbon-di-oxide poisoning cases at homes. The startup sells its fuel to informal settlements for €1.2 per litre.

Maclec – innovative hydrokinetic turbine technology

Coming in second is Maclec, a startup from India that pitched its innovative hydrokinetic turbine technology. The startup’s hydrokinetic turbine can be installed in a half-submerged manner, even in a shallow and slow moving stream. The modules used for construction can be tailored locally and it is capable of generating 1 kW to 500 kW in a single module. As one might have guessed, multiple modules of a particular capacity can be set up as arrays to build a MegaWatt scale power plant.

Enerdrape – world’s first geo-thermal panel

The third spot in the competition is claimed by Switzerland’s Enerdrape. The startup has developed the first geo-thermal panel. This panel efficiently captures heat in existing indoor environments located underground and transfers it into renewable energy that can be used for heating and cooling buildings. This idea provides a much-needed alternative to the conventional ways of heating and cooling buildings to reduce negative impact on the environment. 

Female Founders Award

This year, ClimateLaunchpad presented the Female Founders Award to highlight start-ups that benefit from female leadership. The award was presented to Multus Media from England by Lisa Ann Pinkerton, chairwoman of Women in Cleantech & Sustainability. Multus Media is developing a cheap, animal-free and sustainable culture media that is aimed at replacing meat and help reduce climate change. The research by the company is also said to help grow mammalian cells in research settings. 

“Women leading start-ups are tackling some of the biggest challenges the green economy faces in the coming years,” says Pinkerton. “But somehow we still see women entrepreneurs woefully underrepresented in this space, and dramatically underfunded. This award highlights the great work women are doing for the climate and encourage others to start green businesses themselves.”  

ClimateLaunchpad: Enabling entrepreneurs 

Multiple startups are working towards enabling a better tomorrow with their sustainable and highly innovative ideas. However, without ClimateLaunchpad, which is the world’s largest green business ideas competition, their hard-work might fail to be recognised globally. Established as in 2014, ClimateLaunchpad is part of the Entrepreneurship offerings of EIT Climate-KIC.

Frans Nauta, founder of ClimateLaunchpad says, “The climate crisis is the single biggest business opportunity and job creator of our time. We are witnessing a global green wave of scalable sustainable businesses spread across the globe.”

Image Credits: ClimateLaunchpad

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