On 17 February 2023, the winners of the Sustainable Business Idea Competition – jointly organised by the Edinburgh Earth Initiative and Edinburgh Innovations – were announced. Aimed at empowering young people, especially the students and alumni of The University of Edinburgh, to contribute towards sustainable living, the competition had four different categories: Responsible Computing, The Future of Energy, Health in a Warming World, and Sustainable Land and Seas.
The group comprising of PhD students Mousa Zerai, Ruyi Wang, Zafar Iqbal, and Khalid Hanbashi were announced the winners in the Responsible Computing category for their brilliant idea of a peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading platform for the creation of virtual power plants (VPPs) based on a domestic aggregation of household storage capacity. At the heart of their idea is the premise that through the implementation of a VPP, power can be produced and used locally – thereby significantly reducing energy distribution losses and enable a reduction in the carbon dioxide emissions.
Sebastiaan Schalkwijk’s ingenious concept of shallow water solar panels, where solar panels are mounted on water bodies just below the surface, won in The Future of Energy category. Schalkwijk’s idea addresses the inefficiency of solar panels and boosts the transition towards green and clean energy.
For the category of Health in a Warming World, Safiya Cummings walked away with the top prize for her idea of Healing Landscapes. With environment and architecture as the scaffolds, Healing Landscapes is a curated concept of using plants and space to encourage a healthier population around business and residential zones, while simultaneously catering to specified health needs. This merger of health, aesthetics, and environment has the potential to radically improve the dynamics of space.
Terra Firma – proposed by Krystal Ng, Annie Liu, and George Huster – was the winner in the Sustainable Land and Seas category. Probing into the possibilities of utilising the power of fungi as a sustainable alternative to fertilizers, their project seeks to reduce global fertilizer use, without compromising on the overall yield – thus paving the way for sustainable agriculture.
All the business ideas were judged on the parameters of desirability (the level of appeal to customers), viability (the idea’s economical value and ability to make an impact), feasibility (the availability of resources to realise the idea to fruition), and sustainability (the idea’s potential to create an environmental and/or social impact).
The winners in each category were awarded £1000 in recognition of their achievements to enable them to develop their projects and ideas further.
We are now accepting entries for the next round of the Sustainable Business Ideas Competition. Find out more here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-innovations/for-students/funding-support/sustainable-idea-competition/
Edinburgh Earth Initiative joins Edinburgh Innovations in extending warm congratulations to all the winners!
