I enjoy seeing connections everywhere. And this summer I definitely had one of those aha moments, where dots from people I'd met, events I'd attended, things I'd observed suddenly connected into a picture. Great initiatives exist out there. The challenge is connecting them to each other, to funding, and to the people who need them. This made me reflect on my role in this, and how I can help facilitate it.
I have always been convinced that there were great initiatives out there that we didn’t know about. But up until now, I didn’t realize how valuable connecting the dots between them was. How critical and not obvious was having the right person in the right organisation to scale these initiatives, at the right time.
When innovation means a rope, a curtain, and a cooperative
In June, I attended a discussion titled “Urban Comfort and Social Justice | Sharing experiences between India and Switzerland” at the University of Geneva, organized by Noé21, the University of Geneva, and the City of Geneva. Given the heat wave we were experiencing, I thought it was more than appropriate to join this conversation and learn from non European experiences.
I got to listen to Vivek Gilani from Fair-Conditioning about tech-appropriate (based on criteria such as needs, low maintenance, produced locally and not supply-chain dependent) solutions to cool homes in India during heat waves. Especially in neighborhoods with temporary housing, where people have no other choice but to take sleeping pills to be able to sleep through the night as the temperatures can be higher than outside because of the roof material. Vivek’s initiative developed “above-roof curtains” for example. It protects from the heat during the day by reflecting the sunlight, working as a survival blanket and is folded at night, either manually by pulling on a rope or via a motorized mechanism. Both the blankets and the system are produced locally by a cooperative of female workers and the material comes from recycled snack packaging. It is made of a multilayered plastic, which can on average reduce 4 degrees of temperature. In addition, the curtains are easy to maintain and to take down if the house is rebuilt or has to be vacated overnight. In terms of affordability, Vivek explained how micro-financing was used to allow affected individuals to pay for the installation and maintenance with a 0 loan interest rate.
The potential of innovations
This is another example of what I came to understand can also be called “innovation” lately. My thoughts and preconceptions about innovations could be another post. Let’s just say I used to think that innovations were 1. tech-related 2. material / tangible 3. invented and created from scratch. After attending the Climate Action Accelerators Days at the Graduate Institute, I realized that innovation could "simply" mean to reinvent practices and self-reflect on improving experiences and systems through habits, relationships and resources allocation (See the Dr. Xavier Raingeval presentation during the Lightning Talks on rethinking shoulder surgeries and anesthesia supply chain). One doesn’t need to work in a garage in Silicon Valley.
The innovation doesn’t stop there though, to spread it to as many people as possible, Vivek’s team are not patenting anything, on the contrary they are currently looking to share their blueprint so anyone can replicate it and share their expertise with other organisations with similar needs in other regions.
The connection challenge
Simple at first glance, yet unique and completely revolutionary to me in how adaptable, tailored and self-sustainable this was. The challenge in this case, didn’t even seem to be funding, rather how to connect with grass-root organisations across the world. Worldwide communication and connectivity can seem obvious in today’s world thanks to the numerous satellites in space, or the fiber cable below oceans and internet access, however, it is when we take a closer look at remote regions with less resources that we observe that it's more complicated than that.
The key word here, is “seem”. It seems the necessary information is available to anyone in need of it. And we might argue that it is indeed the case in Switzerland, if one speaks one of the 3 national languages or English and can afford internet plan (overlooking Romanche). However, I think we fail to understand that Switzerland is the exception. For most people access to information even if it published on a website, as critical as it can be, appears unbelievably difficult and involves a set of skills, literacy, structure, network and device and money which is invisible. And this is where I thought about how I could use my own network, knowledge and resources to bring awareness and connect my dots to help connect the other dots of such great projects. I still haven’t figured it all out, but writing it down is a first step. Maybe it already exists and I’m not aware of it, but couldn’t we create an accessible platform where grassroots organisations worldwide could share their challenges, innovations and good practices?