Launching the SDG programme, former UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon encouraged young people to take action: “Be a global citizen. Act with passion and compassion. Help us make this world safer and more sustainable today and for the generations that will follow us.” BE OPEN strongly believes in the creative potential of younger people and their ability to look at the world with fresh eyes and to come up with ideas no one has found before.
BE OPEN’s latest competition DESIGN TO NURTURE THE PLANET aimed to bring the talent and creativity of the global community to focus on SDG2: Zero Hunger. Under the umbrella of zero hunger, SDG2 is not only about ending hunger, but also achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. The competition called for innovative solutions that can contribute to how we transform our food systems to end food insecurity and create better conditions for an equitable and environmentally prosperous world.
The objective of the competition is to recognize and promote top design projects developed by the younger creative generation that are able to tackle the tasks set by the United Nations’ SDG Programme; to produce new ideas with the potential for true impact.
In addition to the First, Second and Third Prizes of €5,000, €3,000 and €2,000 accordingly, allocated by the expert jury, the competition offers two more prizes: the Public Vote prize and the Founder’s Choice Prize.
The public vote was held online on the competition website and helped select the awardee of the Public Vote Prize of €2,000 out of 50 short-listed candidates with highest scores from the jury. We congratulate Karl Balevsky from Sofia, Bulgaria; Karl submitted his project DropCrop that received more than 5,600 likes from the voters.
In order to accumulate water for agricultural purposes in arid areas, the DropCrop system uses the simplest act of nature – the difference between night and day temperatures that is generally quite significant in arid areas. The condensation within a household, prompted by our everyday activities, may be enough to support cultivating greens in an efficient greenhouse designed by Asian traditional examples and technologies. The system allows collecting condensation drops on natural surfaces and channel them through pipes into the greenhouse, providing additional watering.
Founder of BE OPEN, international philanthropist and businesswoman Elena Baturina expressed her highest regard for the winning submission: “To make a positive change a part of our daily lives, it is important to keep it simple, affordable and sustainable. Such little shifts to sustainable future are no less important than national programmes, that is why we are committed to promoting design-thinking and younger generations of creatives, to reveal and celebrate all the creative potential that they have to offer to solve the sustainable development issues globally and locally.”
BE OPEN and the partners of the competition are deeply thankful to all the participants and voters, who have dedicated their time and creativity to this competition, making the issue of food insecurity as well as possible design-driven solutions more visible and therefore more likely to be adopted to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
This is year three of BE OPEN’s involvement with running competition programmes that collect ideas and projects to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Goals (SDG). Previous programmes held in partnership with Cumulus International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media focused on SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
