Empowering the People
It is well documented that a major reason for inhabitants of underdeveloped nations remaining impoverished is that a large quantity of their time and resources are spent on sourcing basic services — walking many miles to fetch water, chopping down wood for cooking/warmth and collecting food. Provision of these basic services in a reliable and sustainable manner allows communities to divert their time away from these survival tasks to ones of a more economically beneficial nature, such as education or entrepreneurship.
One of the United Nations (UN)Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)is for universal access to affordable, clean energy by 2030 and will be my focus during my time at the UNLEASH Innovation Lab 2017 in Denmark. Although I have had exposure to a wide range of renewable energy technologies, the enterprise idea I intend focusing on is in energy provision through waste to energy technologies utilizing either organic or plastic wastes to generate electricity and or liquid fuels. This would solve two primary problems, namely inadequate waste management and provision of consistent, renewable energy. The format I envisage implementing such systems would be through a community led rent to own model where once the system had been installed and training provided, the capital cost would be repaid through profits generated through the sale of energy and possibly waste “gate fees”.
This has been an idea of mine for some time but to which I have struggled to dedicate sufficient effort towards and this is one of the primary reasons I am excited about partaking in the Unleash Innovation Lab 2017; this also illustrates part of the value that this event offers. There are undoubtedly 1000’s of potentially viable, innovative ideas among young people world-wide with the potential to have a major positive impact on peoples’ lives. An event such as this is an ideal way to bring together like minded individuals with a common goal to work towards and thereby facilitate progress in the development of these innovative ideas, which would otherwise go by unexplored.
The Unleash Innovation Lab 2017 will undoubtedly be far more than merely a lip-service event where people talk a lot but no notable progress is achieved. This is demonstrated by the quality of the organisation leading up to the event as well the input required from participants and the fact that the objectives have been well defined, thereby giving participants a clear aim during the event.
I am convinced that this event will make a significant step towards the achievement of the UN SDGs and I feel honored and privileged to be a part of it.
