5 Ideas of Social Businesses Which Will Change Our Lives
by ChangeMakers’ON
Do social innovations have a non-understandable concept or realistic ideas that improve our lives? “ChangeMakers’ON” presents 5 social innovation ideas which have changed or will change our lives.
We can talk about the importance of social business as much as we want, but without real examples, it is difficult to prove their effectiveness. Social innovation ideas will be developed into sustainable social business models during social business and innovation start-up weekend “ChangeMakers’ON”. And how does this look like in practice? “ChangeMakers’ON” presents examples of several social innovation-related businesses and explains their importance:
“AMPY MOVE” — Use your kinetic energy
The purpose of this innovation is to use an alternative source of energy and promote a physically active lifestyle.
As the debate on climate warming and the importance of renewable energy intensifies, energy conservation is becoming increasingly important. We use energy for a variety of things, such as smartphones.
Energy-efficient smartphones have become our daily routine, so we often have to ramble on such phone battery durability which “does not hold” even for one day. As a result, portable chargers are becoming increasingly popular. “AMPY MOVE”, a start-up, located in Chicago. The founders of this starter have created an eco-friendly charger that uses a very unusual source of energy and have to say that it is really inexhaustible! This is the kinetic energy that is created by our own motion.
If you are physically active, the pocket-size “AMPY MOVE” charger will work perfectly for you! After walking 10,000 steps or after jogging for about 30 minutes, you can extend your phone battery within three hours. Isn’t that incredible?
“Enable Talk” is a Ukrainian project that creates more opportunities for deaf people
The purpose of this innovation is to reduce the social exclusion of deaf people.
This Ukrainian student project won first place in the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition in 2012. The Microsoft Imagine Cup is the Olympiad of Technology which differently from athletes only includes young developers of new technologies. To win here is really hard.
“Enable Talk” is a glove with sensors and a mobile device. Sensors recognize hand movements, and the mobile device converts those hand movements into speech.
In the world there are about 40 million people that are deaf, mute and deaf-mute and majority of them use gesture language, but very few people actually know such language. “Enable Talk” seeks to resolve this issue of communication.
This start-up is still in the development process, but there is no doubt that it will have a great success in the future.
“Thinx” — a revolution for women
“Thinx” is a social business initiative that has received a great interest in the controversial advertising campaign at metro stations of New York City. Perhaps a controversial response from the New Yorkers and the government is not unexpected since “Thinx” boldly and clearly communicates on topics that appear rarely in public life.
So what is “Thinx”? This is the underwear line for women. Such underwear are made from a special antibacterial substance that absorbs fluids and prevents unpleasant smells, so women do not have to use hygienic pads or tampons during their periods. The outer bottom layer protects from bacteria and absorbs fluids into the inside layer.
The founder of this social innovation “Thinx” are fighting against the belief in India that women during the menstruation are dirty and cannot show up in public. During the implementation of the idea of “Thinx”, many communication problems have been encountered: how to talk and educate the public on a topic that is considered a taboo? Nevertheless, this social business counts its profit regardless of the difficulties that it had to encounter.
“BlindSquare” — how blind people see the world
The purpose of such innovation is to reduce the social exclusion of blind ones.
“BlindSquare” is the world’s most popular gadget for the blind people. Maybe that is why you did not hear about it. This smart gadget uses GPS and tells its user where he is and what surrounds him. “BlindSquare” is a reliable way for blind people to travel independently, since the gadget can be controlled through the headphones and it has voice commands which lets know beforehand about passages, junctions and other near obstacles.
It is a smart app that transforms lives of individuals and allows blind and partially sighted people to live independently. So far, “BlindSquare” is only available to iPhone owners, but the Android version is coming soon.
“Community Shop” or how to save 30 thousand tons of food
The purpose of this innovation is to combat food waste and reduce economic exclusion.
The “Community Shop”, located in the United Kingdom, saves and sells with a cheaper price about 30,000 tons of wasted food a year. This social network, founded 40 years ago, is targeted at people with low incomes.
“Community Shop” receives food from manufacturers, collects or buys very cheaply from large retailers. Products are written off and discarded for many reasons (e.g. packaging damage, non-standard forms, approaching expiration dates, etc.), but most importantly these food products are still edible. Thanks to the “Community Shop”, products are sold significantly cheaper. This ensures the satisfaction of the needs of people who receive low incomes. Also, such innovation creates profits and ensures that edible food products do not have to be dumped in landfills.
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Original article: https://www.15min.lt/naujiena/laisvalaikis/ivairenybes/changemakers-on-5-socialiniu-verslu-idejos-pakeisiancios-gyvenimus-941-755328
