First-ever women-owned bank in India, ocean plastic cleaner, AI for social impact
What’s Good This Week presented by Social Enterprise Alliance
1. First-ever ocean plastic cleaner will tackle Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The first-ever machine to clean up the planet’s largest chunk of ocean plastic is due to set sail. It’s heading to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, halfway between California and Hawaii, where it will commence collecting the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic rubbish amassed there by ocean currents. The system uses a combination of huge floating nets (dubbed “screens”) held in place by giant tubes, ironically made out of plastic, to suck stubborn waste out of the water. It will then transfer this debris to large ships that will take it to shore for recycling. The beginnings of this intricate system will launch from San Francisco Bay within weeks and will start working by July, with plans to keep extending it thereafter.
2. Google Assistants jumps on the Good News train
You’re not the only one feeling run down by the news of the day. The folks at Google apparently believe we could all use a dose of good news, at times, too. The company today announced it’s testing a new Google Assistant feature called “Tell me something good” that will allow users to hear a summary of more uplifting news stories. The stories will focus on people who are “solving problems for our communities and our world,” says Google. The feature arrives at a time when many people are feeling overwhelmed by the news, much of which is negative and troubling.
3. Meet the Company Using AI to Become the Amazon for Social Impact Products
An AI-enabled app that helps you discover, shop and support social impact products
All over the world, there are passionate brands that are working to fight hunger, protect animal rights, preserve the environment and more. Meet Miigle+, its mission is to help you find those brands, effortlessly. Miigle+ is an AI-enabled app that helps you discover, shop and support social impact products and sustainable brands making the world a better place whether you’re shopping online or in a store. It’s hard for consumers to find ethical and conscious brands because these brands are typically smaller and don’t have the marketing budgets to compete against the bigger traditional brands and rise above the noise. That’s essentially because they are relying on the same saturated marketing channels as traditional brands where as Miigle provides a direct marketing channels solely for socially conscious brands and consumers.
4. How women in rural India turned courage into capital
When bankers refused to serve her neighbors in rural India, Chetna Gala Sinha did the next best thing: she opened a bank of her own, the first ever for and by women in the country. In this inspiring talk, she shares stories of the women who encouraged her and continue to push her to come up with solutions for those denied traditional financial backing. Watch the Ted Talk.
5. The CEO of Girl Rising is Making the World a Better Place for Girls, One Story at a Time
Girl Rising is a film that became a powerful movement and gave filmmaker Christina Lowery the role of a lifetime. Now the CEO of a globally recognized non-profit with connections to Michelle Obama and support from Meryl Streep, Alicia Keys, Priyanka Chopra and Freida Pinto, Lowery’s work is to show communities the power of education, get girls in school and keep them there. The reason:
Educating girls is the single most powerful way to end global poverty.
The original film, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, aired in more than 170 countries to over 400 million viewers, and now the multi-faceted organization has programs around the world in some of the most difficult places to be a girl.
