Four female entrepreneurs who created environmentally-friendly tech products will see their visions turn into realities in cities all over the world.
The winners of the second Women4Climate Tech Challenge 2020, hosted by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, span the UK, Israel and the United States. Projects judged by mayors and senior city officials across the globe addressed urban sustainability, food, waste, water, urban farming and air quality solutions.
The winners include:
- Lorena Gordillo Dagallier of the UK, who created a mobile air quality sensor network that raises awareness about personal exposure to pollution. Her “open-seneca” model also develops pollution maps that can be used to inform policy and urban development.
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- Anai Green of Tel Aviv, who invented a fabric called “Lumiweave.” The environmentally-friendly textile acts as an umbrella or canopy that both lets in light and creates shade using solar organic PV cells.
- Meiling Gao and Vivian Bi of California, who won for their “Clarity” initiative, a smart, low-cost air monitoring system that provides real-time air quality data both indoors and outside.
Green, who will see her product come to life in Tel Aviv-Yafo in Israel, said the climate-focused competition was “a unique opportunity to bring technology, design and urban stakeholders together.”
Dagallier’s “open-seneca” project was snapped up by Stockholm, Sweden, and Lisbon, Portugal, and Gao and Bi’s product will be implemented in Los Angeles.
“When women have the chance to innovate, invent and lead, our economies, our families and our environment are better off,” said LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who also serves as chair of C40, an international organization.
The challenge, he added, “puts the power of saving our planet in the hands of women — bringing bold solutions to our cities and placing them at the forefront of our global effort to combat the climate crisis.”
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