Game-Changing Sustainable Solutions Announced for Wege Prize ’22

Design competition Wege Prize has announced its semifinalists for 2022, with teams of students from 17 countries including Zimbabwe, the Philippines, India, and Canada offering powerful ideas for a circular economy.

Addressing everything from hunger and climate change to social  equity and pollution, the solutions advanced by 15 teams of students around the world offer a glimpse of the  impact and benefits of Wege Prize, the competition they are vying to win this year. 

Wege Prize, the international student design competition to create circular solutions to today’s “wicked problems,” is an agent of change for these lofty ambitions. For its 2022 edition, the judges for Wege Prize — organized by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) — have completed multiple  rounds of feedback to narrow down its original field of 30-plus teams to 15 worthy semifinalists who now advance into the competition’s third phase. 

At this point in the competition, the teams have received extensive feedback from expert judges and have  further developed their innovative ideas, including plastics-degrading microbes, mobile hydroelectric  generators, agricultural waste streams captured to boost community health, and aquaponics systems that  save water and support ecological health and biodiversity. 

The advancing teams have emerged from a global field of students in almost 100 areas of academic study at 70 universities and colleges from an astounding 29 countries. “In addition to their global makeup, we are very  pleased with the strength of their concepts that hold real potential to power a transition from our current  linear economy—in which we take, make, and dispose—to a circular economy that’s regenerative by design,”  says Gayle DeBruyn, KCAD professor and Wege Prize leader.  

“The quality of entries for Wege Prize has increased substantially in recent years, and this year’s field is the  strongest yet,” says Colin Webster, a returning competition judge based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and an education program manager for U.K.-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation, known for it work to accelerate the  transition to a circular economy.

About Wege Prize

Wege Prize was established in 2013 to solve the most complex, layered problems. The competition requires  teams of individuals capable of working across the barriers that too often divide us — to drive systems-level  change. “KCAD’s prize offers a powerful and accessible platform for any college or university student in the  

world to develop tangible solutions that often find real-world acceptance and application after the  competition concludes,” says DeBruyn, who speaks frequently on design thinking. 

Examples from recent Wege Prize teams have included Rutopia, whose ideas for eco-sensitive tourism were  covered by top editors at Forbes, among others, and who continued on from Wege Prize to win the  prestigious $1 million Hult Prize. Another Wege Prize team, Hya Bioplastics, brought its process for making  disposable food packaging out of waste to a prominent incubator that advanced their business.

Meet the Teams Accepted Into the Next Phase of the Competition

AquaPro  

Tackling water pollution with an innovative aquaponics system to grow Tilapia fish, vegetables and  duckweed, reducing fertilizer application in growing organic crops, slashing water usage by 90% and  maximizing crop yield – while cutting water pollution – to contribute to the circular economy.

CirCon  

Delivering an alternative solid waste and agricultural produce drying method with the use of  renewable energy (solar concentrators) in an innovative new drier design. 

CleanFire  

Growing plants primarily using waste from various processes as their nutrients, then harvesting the  plants and generating energy with waste streams.  

Decarbonize Our Built Environment 

This team addresses climate change and the building and construction industry by reinventing the  mass timber supply chain. 

Decomp 

An organic plastic waste disposal solution using proprietary plastic-degrading microbes to facilitate  the degradation of plastics in weeks, as opposed to the hundreds of years that plastics take to  naturally degrade.  

Dir Innovation Hub (Hulubeje) 

A hybrid and movable hydroelectric generator that can produce 5 to 10 kW electricity by using small  rivers and streams for a rural community. 

Footprint  

Making good use of discarded fabric – without downcycling — by using large-scale hyperspectral  imagery to sort blends and colors, remove buttons and zippers, and more. 

Green Promoters 

Reducing the effects of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, the team is creating an organic product that is both a pesticide and a fertilizer. 

Neocycle   

Rare earth elements in laptops and catalytic converters are recycled and captured in a novel and  sustainable synthetic biology approach for circular element extraction, recovery and usage.

PlasticFree Squad 

This team is replacing single-use plastic containers with biodegradable containers made of bagasse, a  byproduct of the sugar industry abundantly available in India.

Robust  

Processing banana fiber waste into affordable and environmentally friendly textiles and paper bags.

Scup Aquaculture 

Launching a technological innovation with multiple-use platforms to support offshore wind farms, aquaculture possibilities, and fish biodiversity.

Tizu Organics 

Producing inexpensive organic biofertilizer, made with mountain microorganisms and food wastes  from local Tanzanian markets — otherwise wasted tomatoes, spinach, cabbages and more.

Waste to Power 

An organic waste disposal system designed to cut 70% of methane gas emitted to the atmosphere – caused by simple mismanagement of solid waste – creating organic fertilizer and affordable energy.

Wild Fruits Powered (WFP)  

Utilizing tamarind fruits otherwise left to rot, the concept creates nutritious natural juices and funds  a community project using tamarind pulp residue to make fertilizers and support local reforestation. 

Thanks to the continuing financial support of The Wege Foundation, Wege Prize 2022 has opened these  unique opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students around the world and has  helped advance the ideas and solutions behind the circular economy.  

“We’re impressed with the international,  collaborative and cross-disciplinary nature of the student teams under consideration as semi-finalists, hailing everywhere from the African Leadership University in Rwanda, to top U.S. schools like Brown and Yale, to Eastern Michigan University, right here in our home state.” —Martha Meiers, program coordinator for Wege Prize

More details about Wege Prize 2022 will be revealed in the coming weeks on wegeprize.org.

About Wege Prize

Wege Prize, a West Michigan-born concept developed by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State  University’s (KCAD’s) Wege Center for Sustainable Design with the support of The Wege Foundation, is an annual  competition that ignites games-changing solutions for the future by inspiring college students around the world to  collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries and redesign the way economies work.

About KCAD

Located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD)  is committed to creating lasting impact in West Michigan and beyond through collaborative partnerships, cultural  innovation, and an educational model that prepares students for leadership in design, the visual arts, and art  history; provides innovative, collaborative education that fosters intellectual growth and individual creativity; and  promotes the ethical and civic responsibilities of artists and designers, locally and globally. For more information,  please visit kcad.edu.

About The Wege Foundation

Planting seeds that develop leaders in economicology, health, education, and arts, and enhance the lives of people  in West Michigan and around the world.