Wilkes Center awards $250,000 Climate Launch Prize to Build up Nepal
Kathmandu-based company is transforming the construction industry in South Asia by replacing polluting coal-fired bricks with eco-brick technology that reduces CO2 emissions and makes homes safer while cutting construction costs.
\University of Utah
image:
Björn Söderberg, co-founder of Build up Nepal, tests a machine.
Credit: Jonas Gratzer/Build Up Nepal
Build up Nepal replaces polluting coal-fired bricks with eco-friendly ones and makes safe housing affordable for poor communities. Their interlocking Compressed Stabilised Earth Bricks can be made using locally available materials, with minimal cement, and are compressed, not fired.
Nepal is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, but poor families cannot afford disaster resilient homes, most of which are built with bricks. The coal-fired brick industry is responsible for 37% of CO2 emissions from combustion in Nepal, on top of dangerous air pollution and poor working conditions. Build up Nepal trains local entrepreneurs to make climate-friendly eco-bricks, build safe, affordable homes, and create jobs in low-income communities.
"Winning the Wilkes Climate Launch Prize is an honor, and a huge boost for our mission,” said Björn Söderberg, co-founder of Build up Nepal. “It will help us scale up eco-friendly bricks to replace polluting coal-fired bricks, and bring safe, affordable homes to marginalized families affected by climate change and natural disasters.”
The 2025 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize highlights top global ideas for combating climate change. Each year, by elevating and honoring innovative climate solutions, this University of Utah prize aims to accelerate worldwide progress and encourage technological advances, with the goal of developing effective climate change solutions quickly for the benefit of people and ecosystems worldwide.
Build up Nepal was selected from among six finalists that presented their ideas at the 2025 Wilkes Climate Summit in May.
The runners-up for the 2025 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize are Roca Water, a company in Alameda, California, and De Novo Foodlabs, based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Roca Water uses electrochemistry to recover valuable materials from wastewater, reducing pollution and climate emissions while returning resources to productive use instead of losing them. De Novo Foodlabs uses precision fermentation technology to create scarce, valuable nutrients and compounds that are difficult to source traditionally, developing next-generation nutritional solutions.
The 2025 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize received over 1,100 submissions worldwide, more than five times the number received in 2024 (See an interactive map of applicant locations). The finalists were evaluated by a team of independent expert judges for scalable impact, feasibility and potential for co-benefits to communities, economies or ecosystems.
A Build Up Nepal entrepreneur makes eco-bricks in Jajakot
Creit
Brand Brewers/Build Up Nepal
Build up Nepal trains local entrepreneurs to make climate-friendly eco-bricks, build safe, affordable homes, and create jobs in low-income communities.
Credit
Build Up Nepal
No comments:
Post a Comment