A Philippine high school in Tagbilaran, Bohol has been chosen as one of the 30 finalists of the UAE’s Zayed Prize.
Bohol Wisdom School (BWS), under the Global High Schools category, will compete against two other high schools in the East Asia & Pacific region, namely UWC ISAK Japan (Japan), and Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy (China).
“The school hopes to mitigate the loss of fish in the Philippines, while learning about water quality, food waste fertilisers, and tech innovation. The project will deliver benefits to students and the local community for the next 20 years, impacting 1,000 students in the first five years alone. Outside the school, the project will help fish farmers increase productivity,” BSW said in the Zayed Prize website.
BWS stands a chance to win a grant of up to USD100,000 or approximately PHP5.2 million.
The winners will be announced during the Prize’s Awards Ceremony at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) next January.
This year, the Prize received a remarkable 4,000 applications, marking a significant 68.5% increase in entries compared to the previous cycle, while attracting submissions from a record 151 countries, representing over three-quarters of the world’s nations.
According to a statement of the award organizers: “Most entries focused on ecosystems’ resilience and affordability of solutions, underscoring a clear case for the economic benefits of sustainability innovation, while many of those solutions leverage next-generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive impact.”
Below are the complete finalists for each category:
The ‘Health’ category finalists are:
• Mamotest (Argentina), an SME that has an innovative approach to medical imagery through the use of teleradiology centres in underserved areas.
• Medic Mobile (United States of America), an NPO that combines R&D and technical design to capture health data for primary healthcare.
• Project Andiamo Ltd (United Kingdom), an SME that ensures scalable and transportable solutions by combing innovative 3D printing with advances in machine learning to automise processes for custom medical devices.
This year’s Food finalists notably focused on supporting the circular economy through key undertakings such as food waste reduction and waste-to-energy, while also tackling climate change by promoting local inclusion and reducing pollution. More broadly, food security was also top of mind this year with finalists highlighting ways of enhancing argi-tech and improving rural and farmer livelihoods through innovative solutions to sustainably strengthen supply chains, mitigate production challenges, and overcome logistical hurdles.
The ‘Food’ finalists are:
• Safi Organics (Kenya), a fertiliser production SME working to tackle the challenges of rural farmers having to contend with expensive or inappropriate fertilisers that lead soil acidification and yield loss.
• S4S Technologies (India), an SME that is committed to empowering rural women and harnessing new technology to reduce food waste and improve income for farmers.
• Tecnologías AgriBest (Mexico), an SME that deploys biotechnology to improve farmer crop yield and facilitate cost savings.
Meanwhile, Energy category contenders presented a diverse array of technical solutions to improve energy access and efficiency. This ranged from energy storage and solar home systems to electrical grids and water solutions generated by the sun, addressing the rapidly growing power needs of various communities, from urban to rural.
The ‘Energy’ category finalists are:
• ME SOLshare Ltd (Bangladesh), an SME that created an interconnected microgrid for peer-to-peer energy exchange to enable a more efficient distribution of electricity across rural communities.
• Planet Ark Power (Australia), an SME that utilises AI and IoT through the first fully two-way electrical grid to reduce energy costs.
• Tongwei New Energy (China), an SME that integrates smart aquaculture and solar photovoltaics to enhance food security through an innovative business model.
On their part, Water category finalists presented a range of added value innovations that leverage modern technology to achieve ‘clean water for all’ and reduce waterborne diseases and deaths for communities around the world.
The ‘Water’ category finalists are:
• Boreal Light GmbH (Germany), a designer and manufacturer SME that creates affordable solar water desalination systems for off-grid communities in Africa.
• OffGridBox Inc (United States of America), an SME that deploys microfiltration and UV sterilisation for water purification and desalination through solar.
• Wateroam (Singapore), an SME committed to tackling the global challenge of contaminated water through portable water filters to serve disaster-hit and rural communities.
The Global High Schools’ finalists are:
The Americas: Iniciativas Ecológicas (Venezuela), Instituto Iberia (Dominican Republic), and Liceo Arturo Alessandri Palma (Chile).
Europe & Central Asia: JU Gimnazija “Bihać” (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Liceo Europeo (Spain), and Romain Rolland Gymnasium (Germany).
Middle East & North Africa: Eastern Mediterranean International School (Israel), Gifted Students School (Iraq), and Umm Al Arab (United Arab Emirates).
Sub-Saharan Africa: Daddies Firm Foundation School (Ghana), Lighthouse Primary and Secondary School (Mauritius), and Sharia Assembly of Uganda (Uganda).
South Asia: The BlinkNow Foundation (Nepal), Hira School (Maldives), and Man Kuwari Hansa Higher Secondary School Barela (India).
East Asia & Pacific: Bohol Wisdom School (The Philippines), UWC ISAK Japan (Japan), and Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy (China).
In the Health, Food, Energy, and Water categories, each winner receives USD600,000.
The Global High Schools category has six winners, representing six world regions, with each winner receiving up to USD100,000.
In 2019, Muntinlupa National High School brought home victory from the 2019 Zayed Sustainability Prize at the World Future Energy Summit, part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, where they won a grant of $100,000 (PHP5.2 million) for their Revitalized Algae Microfarm Project (RevAMP).
