BE OPEN names the last winner of DESIGN TO NURTURE THE PLANET, international competition to support the UN sustainable goals

The organizers are certain that creativity is key and developing these solutions requires design thinking, in-depth research and analysis, creative use of multifunctional components, and the application of ecological and sustainable design principles.

The competition offered five prizes overall: in addition to the First, Second and Third Prizes of €5,000, €3,000 and €2,000 accordingly, allocated by the expert jury, the winner of the Public Vote prize was selected by an online vote of the general public and the Founder's Choice Prize awardee got selected by the Founder of BE OPEN, international businessperson and philanthropist Elena Baturina.

The last of the five prizes in the amount of €3,000 goes to Kate Diab from Canada for the BAC-CYCLE project. The solution consists in facilitating more agricultural food production in cities by building in into a sustainable self-sufficient cycle of growing, processing, distribution, consumption and then recycling food in densely populated areas. It strives to cut the costs of having to transport food waste out of cities by creating space-saving local recycling facilities that use natural bacteria to turn waste into an excellent eco fertilizer. The by-product of bacteria processing organic matter is methane which can easily be forwarded into power generation.

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 focused on SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production.