Daniel Sato

The Manchester Report, a join venture between the Manchester International Festival and The Guardian, is an effort to address climate change by inviting scientists, engineers, campaigners and members of the public to submit their climate-saving ideas.

The top 20 ideas were presented to a panel that was chaired by Lord Bingham, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the most senior judge, until 2008, and included Dan Reicher, director of climate change and energy at Google.org; Bryony Worthinton, director of Sandbag.org; Chris Goodall, editor of carboncommentary.com; and Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

According to Ian Katz, deputy editor of the Guardian responsible for environment coverage, “The ideas heard in Manchester ranged from the wackier edges of science fiction to well-advanced products poised to roll off production lines.” Ideas included giant algae stomachs, and idea similar to that of Invent Your World Competition winner Javier Fernandez-Han, energy bonds and ships that increase the whiteness and size of clouds.

You can view brief descriptions and video pitches of each idea here.

The Guardian is also encouraging its readers to vote on their favorite idea out of the panel’s top ten.

Which idea is your favorite? What do you think is the best way to use technology to address climate change?

Social Entrepreneurship on Change.org

One of the main causes on the change.org site, the Social Entrepreneur cause features a blog, maintained primarily by Nathaniel Whittemore, founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University. Check out the group’s about page for background info on all things social entrepreneur related.

Social Earth

Features a large video library, SocialEarth:Video, on social entrepreneurship topics. “Listen to speakers from Mohammad Yunus to Jacqueline Novogratz and browse topics from Green to Microfinance. SocialEarth:Video is a simple, user friendly platform to disseminate knowledge that really matters.”

NetSquared

An initiative of TechSoup Global, NetSquared “enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.” This is done through monthly meetups (in the real world), prize-based challenges and projects, conferences, community blog and presence on most major social networking platforms.

Sometimes, the most complex problems can be solved by the simplest of solutions. Often times though, great design makes a well thought out solution only appear simple.

Such is the case with the Peepoo Bag, a plastic bag that serves as a toilet for both liquid and solid human waste.  Simple right?  But in fact, a great deal of technology went into the design and production of the bag.

Peepoo bags break down into carbon dioxide, water and bio-mass and can be used as fertilizer in 2 – 4 weeks.

According to the Peepoople web site, “The Peepoo bag is in the form of a slim elongated bag size 14 x 38 cm.  Within the bag there is a thinner gauze that measures 26 x 24 cm. The inside of the Peepoo bags is coated with a thin film of urea.”  The gauze can be used to prevent contact with any excrement.  The urea is what works to neutralize and hygienisize the feces and urine, ultimately resulting in high value fertilizer stored in a biodegradable bag.  The creators of the bag hope to see small, informal economic systems form around the Peepoo bags, as fertilizers can often be both expensive and scarce.

Equally as important as the creation of a new commodity, the use of Peepoo bags helps to minimize the risk of water contamination, as water is only required when washing after use.  How important is clean water?  Currently, one child dies every 15 seconds from contaminated water and 80% of all illnesses in developing countries are water related.  By placing sanitation away from water sources, you eliminate the problem at the source, and turn what had been a deadly contaminant into the aforementioned commodity.

For more information about the Peepoo bag, visit peepoople.com.