The 2018 Flourish Prize Winners
Announcing the 17 winners for the 2018 Flourish Prizes
It is with great excitement that we announce the 2018 Flourish Prize winners.
These 17 winners were selected from 503 stories submitted in 2017. The prize-winning stories were vetted by our professors, story editors, and a distinguished jury of Fowler Center partners and previous Flourish Prize winners.
Our 17 winning stories this year come from 16 schools across nine countries and represent positive, business innovations from across the globe. We are excited to celebrate every one of these businesses, professors, universities, and students over the next month and during our 2018 Flourish Prizes virtual celebration, taking place online the week of May 7–11.
We’d like to thank our jury for their dedication in helping determine our 2018 winners as well as our team at the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit for all of their support. Most of all, we’d like to thank our professors for continuing to inspire and encourage students all over the globe and for using AIM2Flourish as a pathway to teaching business for good and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Congratulations to all of our winning students, professors, and business leaders!
The 2018 Flourish Prize Winners
Global Goal #1 — End Poverty: Comproagro
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Small Farms Reach New Markets
In Colombia, the online commercial platform Comproagro products platform eliminates intermediaries in the process of buying and selling agricultural products by bringing together small farmers and allowing them to reach different markets and customers. Comproagro is the business idea of 16-year-old Gina Alejandra Jimenez who saw a better future for her community through this innovation.
Professor: Gustavo A Yepes Lopez at the Universidad Externado de Colombia
Global Goal #2 — End Hunger: Too Good to Go
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: How to Efficiently Cut Food Waste
In France, Too Good to Go is a mobile application that helps food shop owners sell their unsold products, and helps customers buy high-quality food that would otherwise be thrown away. The company is a hyper-local environmental social enterprise committed to reducing food waste. They help avoid 1,500 tons of CO2 emissions and cut 600,000 tons of food that is wasted in the UK restaurants.
Professor: Odile Verdure Labielle at the Toulouse Business School in France
Global Goal #3 — Good Health and Well-being: Dial4242
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: When Emergency Summons, Dial 4242!
In India, Dial4242 is essentially “An Uber for Ambulances” to provide a simple, cost effective, and transparent solution to ambulance services. Just like you book a cab, customers can book the nearest ambulance, track the ambulance in real time, get the pricing on the app, and review the trip. The app has been tested in 2G, 3G and 4G environments, works seamlessly in low data connectivity areas, and also offers a 24x7 call centre for customers without internet connectivity
Professor: Preeti Rawat at the K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research in India
Goal Goal #4 — Quality Education: Simply Play
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Innovation in Childcare Services
In the United Kingdom, Simply Play is an out of school care service that operates across West Lothian county, Scotland as a professionally-run and operated social enterprise and charity with 80 employees. The innovations include a personalized approach for each child and a flexible booking system that lets parents plan their childcare to meet their needs. As a registered charity and social enterprise, all of the income generated goes back into improving the business and services.
Professor: Alec Wersun at the Glasgow School for Business and Society in Glasgow, Scotland
Global Goal #5-Gender Equality: IKEA Switzerland
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: IKEA Promoting Gender Equity
In the past 13 years, IKEA Switzerland has achieved a nearly 50/50 ratio between men and women in top management positions to address the company’s significant and gender imbalances. A better balanced team produces better results and higher productivity, as more competencies are brought to the table. IKEA Switzerland supports this progress with internal initiatives like the IKEA Group Diversity and Inclusion Approach, IWON (IKEA Women Open Network), and the IKEA Group Gender Equality Plan.
Professor: Nadene Canning at the Business School Lausanne in Lausanne, France
Global Goal #6 — Clean Water and Sanitation: Vestergaard
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Bringing Safe Drinking Water to Vulnerable Populations
In Switzerland, Vestergaard is a social enterprise that specializes in the manufacturing of textile-based products. One of their most successful innovations, the LifeStraw, is a portable filtration device that has provided safe drinking water to communities in 64 developing countries, as well as to populations that have been stricken by natural disasters. This ingenious hand-held device is able to remove virtually 99.9999% of bacteria and 99.9% of protozoan organisms from contaminated water. As well, the LifeStraw is gaining popularity in the outdoors market among hikers and mountaineers.
Professor: Chris Laszlo at the Weatherhead School of Management-Case Western Reserve University in the United States
Global Goal #7 — Affordable and Clean Energy: Pollinate Energy
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Towards a Brighter Future
In India, Pollinate Energy is a social business that sells essential products to people living in India’s urban slums via a distribution network of local door-to-door salespeople known as “Pollinators.” Products include solar-powered lights, water filters and clean cook stoves. Pollinate Energy was created primarily to address the negative impacts of kerosene lamps. Apart from the health benefits of avoiding kerosene, the solar lights are far less expensive to operate, representing a saving of 3–6% of income for a household.
Professor: Gitanjali Bedi at Monash University in Australia
Global Goal #8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth: Fairtrasa
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Escaping Poverty and Producing Fair Trade
Based in Switzerland, Fairtrasa partners with small-scale urban farmers from Chile, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Mexico to get products to market and bring them into the world food supply chain. Founder Patrick Struebi created a farmer development model that supports small-scale farmers to become agro-entrepreneurs. Through this partnership, and by providing resources, training, and direct market access, Fairtrasa’s small-scale farmers become organic and fair trade certified, and are able to bring their fruit and wine to the global market.
Professor: Charles Wankel at St. John’s University in the United States
Global Goal #9 — Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: Estructuras Metálicas Solana
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Life-Giving Metal Sheets
Estructuras Metálicas Solana is a Mexican company dedicated to the manufacture of sheet ceilings for various companies and industrial factories. One of its main products is the creation of green roofs that reduce pollution, decrease workplace temperatures, and provide habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators. A key innovation that makes these ecological roof ecosystems possible is the careful selection of vegetation, taking into account factors such as the location of the installation, the climate, the water requirement and its level of maintenance, as well as an aesthetic and functional design.
Professor: Crishelen Diaz at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) in Mexico
Global Goal #10 — Reduced Inequalities: Kempenhaeghe
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: No Outsiders (Anymore)
Kempenhaeghe, a Dutch organization with a hospital, a residence, and a school for people with epilepsy, decided to create a new community in Sterksel, the village next door. In this new part of the village, clients with epilepsy can live their life in society as normally as possible alongside their neighbors are part of one community. As well, this expansion helps preserve the village’s traditional beauty and well-being for everyone’s benefit by bringing in new businesses, services and a school.
Professor: Ron Fry at the Institut Français d Appreciative Inquiry in France
Global Goal #11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities: Empress Green Inc.
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Self Sustaining Farm in Urban Environment
United States-based Empress Green Inc, founded by husband and wife Asher Landes and Zaro Bates, is an urban farm consulting company currently managing a 4,500 square foot, self-sustained, green space atop a parking garage in Staten Island, New York. The move to sustainable local farming decreases dependency on supermarkets and foreign imports for food that can be grown locally. The movement of crops around the world also causes pollution from the trucking and shipping industries. Empress Green Inc.’s success
shows that it is possible to produce food locally without a massive amount of land.
Professor: Deepa Aravind at the City University of New York — College of Staten Island in the United States
Global Goal #12 — Responsible Consumption and Production: terra20
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Explore a Better Way
The Canadian company called terra20 was founded in 2006 by Bill Stewart and Steve Kaminski to make eco-friendly, sustainable products easily available to mainstream consumers. The goal of terra20 was to enable people to be able to buy healthy and sustainable products, while also making connections between customers and the vendors featured in the store. In essence, terra20 has created a one-stop shop where people are able to easily find and purchase products, for both home and personal needs, that are free of harmful chemicals. terra20 is a modern retail supplier that uses a system of ethical standards when selecting potential products. This allows customers to trust and be confident that the products are both healthy and sustainable, making a healthy lifestyle more easily accessible to all consumers.
Professor: Ruben Burga at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Global Goal #13 — Climate Action: All Nepal Biogas Company Private Limited
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Biogas as a Solution to the Energy Crisis
All Nepal Biogas Company Pvt. Ltd., established in 2005 at Banepa city, about 20 km east of Kathmandu, is one of the biogas companies in Nepal that has been providing installation and training services to its customers. Biogas is the process or technology that produces energy in the form of methane gas from agricultural waste, manure, sewage, food waste, and other organic waste materials. This gas is then transported through a pipeline into normal gas stoves used for cooking and lighting purposes. Biogas is one of the best alternative renewable sources of energy from locally available materials to fulfill the demand for cooking energy where there currently exists no option other than firewood.
Professor: Narayan Manandhar at the People’s Campus in Nepal
Global Goal #14 — Life Under Water: Amor a Mar
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: New Mindset for Seafood Consumption
In Mexico, Amor a Mar is a new app that allows consumers to buy the best sea products directly from local producers and fishermen in the coasts of Baja California, México. Every single kilogram of seafood that is extracted from the ocean is treated responsibly, and is fished specifically for the consumer. The main goal of Amor A Mar project is to switch customers’ consumption habits by asking them the question “What do you need tomorrow?” and “How much fish are you having this week?” It aims to reduce both massive fishing, give proper working conditions to local fisherman and provide the best seafood quality.
Professor: Consuelo Adelaida García De la Torre at the EGADE Business School Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico
Global Goal #15 — Life on Land: Soil Technologies Corporation
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Applied Biological Wisdom: Regenerative Agricultural Solutions
By using the intelligence of micro-organisms, Soil Tech in the United States provides sustainable eco-agricultural alternatives to chemical inputs. Soil Tech’s innovations are living, microbiological soil applications, which increase biodiversity in soils, leading to healthier ecosystems while lessening or eliminating the need to use degrading chemical compositions to treat turf and other land. These products are helping to reverse land degradation and prevent water pollution from run-off. In its hometown, Soil Tech provides stable, full-time jobs to employees who can feel good about the work they do each day.
Professor Dennis Heaton at the Maharishi University of Management in the United States
Global Goal #16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: American Prison Data Systems
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: APDS is Changing Corrections for Good
A Certified B Corp in the United States, American Prison Data Systems (APDS) developed a technology platform that grants access to educational material to incarcerated people to reduce recidivism, decrease violence, and improve staff safety while reducing costs for the public. APDS uses sturdy tablets with 24/7 monitoring control and military grade cases that securely connect to a server with educational content curated by APDS from their publishing partners.
Professor: Kristina Kohl at the Bard MBA in Sustainability in the United States
Global Goal #17 — Partnerships for the Goals: Greyston Bakery
Read the AIM2Flourish Story: Helping the People of Yonkers Thrive
Based in the United States, Greyston Bakery makes brownies so that it can hire people, not the other way around. Their Open Hiring™ model creates access to employment for those facing structural barriers, enrolls new hires in programs to support their greater fulfillment both within the workplace and outside of it, and partners with the local community to deliver services essential to greater overall prosperity. Greyston’s triple-bottom line approach to business has innumerable positive impacts, both within the organization as well as on the community where it is located. In support of the UN Global Goals and the B Corps Inclusion Challenge, Greyston is now developing a program to share the Open Hiring model with other organizations.
Professor: Kristina Kohl at the Bard MBA in Sustainability in the United States
AIM2Flourish is an initiative of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management — Case Western Reserve University. Learn more at AIM2Flourish.com.
