Sustainability Squad — two boys’ Web3 education project is global success
Two boys chat confidently about how they are incorporating Web3 and virtual reality into their own global educational project with a focus on kids’ own interests and sustainability.
Kaeden Patel may only be 13 but he and Vasco Connor, 12, both defy their ages as they speak passionately about The Sustainability Squad, a company they set up which is going from strength to strength.
Kids from around the world interact, exchange ideas, and learn with a focus on sustainability but it is also a platform for them to develop their own interests whatever they may be.
The process of learning is based around 12 cartoon characters that have a connection to cricket which is another of Kaeden’s interests and he is an aspiring player. It has been monetised through the selling of merchandise on Shopify while Kabuni has played a key role in its formation and now members can earn KBC through taking part in tasks.
The way that Kaeden and Vasco met and have gone on to become best friends as well as business partners typifies the strengths of The Sustainability Squad.
Amazingly the two have still never met in person but that is because the project is about using virtual reality and online meet-ups to tackle environmental issues.
“I came up with the basic idea and then Vasco joined early on and we developed it together, so it has been the two of us pretty much from the beginning,” said Kaeden. “I’ve always been interested in sustainability and having my own business.”
And this isn’t even Kaeden’s first project. Born in Canada he along with his sisters set up ‘give a free lunch’ where they would have fundraisers for charities to help hungry people.
His family moved to the UK when he was nine and it was last year while being homeschooled that he connected with Vasco, who lives in Singapore, through Kabuni.
“I was homeschooled for a year — from January 2023 to February this year — and I came up with the idea of the 12 characters who were all doing their own thing. Vasco joined and we got together with more people coming on board as the team developed,” said Kaeden.
“When Vasco joined it was all about building a website, we had a Shopify account and now we have a functioning website so that took up until last summer. We had teaching and now we are building a game with Kabuni helping us. We have 10 team members including us, we have a 3D modeler, an illustrator and several coders, with Vasco one of them so we have a lot of people who can help out and learn from the experience.”
Kabuni’s influence
Kaeden’s dad Nimesh Patel is the founder of Kabuni, a community-based blockchain system, and that was where he connected with Vasco using VR headsets.
“Kaeden you sent me a letter when I received my headset — welcome to Kabuni campus — that was the first time that I knew who he was, I got the headset and then we connected, we are good friends outside of being my business partner which really helps as well,” said Vasco.
“Kaeden and I have online meetings Google Meets, Facetime, we don’t meet in person we have to schedule, we work around the times and we structure it pretty well. With the new team members we have kept that organisation going, that’s how you get work done.”
Kaeden continued: “We use Remio VR headsets and chatted that way before we had any calls together — that is how we first met. To take the sustainability squad forward we have used Shopify, loads of websites — Microsoft Learn, Codecademy that is more interactive and more practical. We’ve used AI to help us with character descriptions Midjourney and ChatGPT.”
They have a clear structure in place, with daily programmes and a strategy for the future. “Each Sunday I come up with new tasks for the week for everyone, we have a Google meeting saturday where we go through what we have all done for the week and then we come up with the tasks for the next week,” said Kaeden. “With Vasco I talk about it all as well as we are the cofounders, so we do the tasks that we need to do to take it forward together and we plan what everyone else needs to do.
“I’m back at school now but this was an education opportunity and I want to move it forward so that it is something we can actually make money from.”
Explaining the Remio VR headsets Vasco jumped in: “I love Remio VR, you are not actually looking at people’s faces, you are looking at a cartoon avatar that looks pretty funny and you can customise it.
“I’m homeschooled, I’ve been that way pretty much since kindergarten and when I met Kaeden he was also being homeschooled so at that point we were having the same learning journey. The Sustainability Squad has been a crucial part of my daily life, every day I have my lessons and I am giving a certain amount of time to it as it is an essential part of my life right now.”
Kids are now joining The Sustainability Squad following posts about it on platforms like Linkedin. “When they join we give them a presentation, we try not to make it like we give them a role, we take their interests and that makes it into a role to make it more fun for them,” said Kaeden.
Kabuni is an important support for the project and now there is an opportunity to build up wealth on a learn to earn basis. “I have been doing stuff for Kabuni for about eight years so I have been earning Kabuni coin over time,” said Kaeden. “We have a reward system so when kids join The Sustainability Squad there are tasks every week that are rated out of three and you get a certain amount of Kabuni coin for each task.”
Vasco added: “We are both part of Kabuni, we have Kabuni coins and a wallet — the coins for the work that we have done with The Sustainability Squad. It has evolved around Kabuni and when it gets really big which I am assuming it will, then at that point I think that Kabuni would be taking a quarter or a third of the credit. This isn’t a bad thing as we are proud of Kabuni, we are Kabuni ambassadors, that is part of our company.”
