BE OPEN Congratulates the Winners of ‘Better Energy by Design’ Competition Focused on the United Nations SDG7

London, United Kingdom–(Newsfile Corp. – July 5, 2023) – Better Energy by Design was the latest design competition developed by philanthropic initiative BE OPEN. These competitions are open to students, graduates and young professionals in the fields of art, design, architecture and media. The programme aims to encourage creation of innovative solutions by younger creatives, for a more prosperous and sustainable future. The focus of the latest competition was the United Nations SDG7: Affordable and Clean Energy.

BE OPEN strongly believes that creativity is integral in the shift to sustainable existence. Design has a crucial role to play as an instrument or vehicle for the implementation of the UN SDGs. 

As part of the competition, young creatives were asked to reflect on “What can be done to prompt breakthrough of clean energy technologies into our lives?” Entrants were invited to explore how to make clean energy technologies affordable, more efficient or more appealing to energy users.

Elena Baturina, Founder of BE OPEN on the finalization of the project: “I am certain that involving young creative people in developing solutions centred on the SDG agenda is a very wholesome way of raising awareness of sustainability principles and encouraging development of promising innovative ideas able to contribute to achieving them.

“We are continuously impressed by the level of submissions we receive every year for the SDG-focused competitions. They demonstrate not just the hard work, commitment and creativity, but actual ability to research and develop solutions that can make a real difference and inspire change for a more sustainable future for all of us.”

The project received submissions from students and graduates of universities from all over the world. The winners of the First, Second and Third Prizes were selected by the international jury out of all submissions over the categories of Powered by Renewables, Save More Energy, Reducing Energy Gap.

The First prize of €5,000 went to Miguel Acebron, a young architect graduate from the University of Navarra in Spain, for the prototype of BOTIJO: A Fridge That Works with Water and Wind, a new well-researched take on a traditional Spanish porous clay vessel used to cool water. Miguel’s prototype allows cooling the contents of the BOTIJO below 5ºC by boosting the drying of the outer surface with an air flow. The chimney effect creates a current of air that speeds the water evaporation rate and therefore facilitates clay fridge cooling. The BOTIJO is the first passive fridge that preserves medicines and fresh food (meat, fish, dairy products, greens, vegetables, etc.) and offers stable thermal conditions in areas and conditions where energy is scarce or insecure.

The Second prize of €3,000 was awarded to Qin Zhou from School of Design, Zhejiang Sci-tech University, China, for Engershe: Let Heartbeats Generate Electricity. The project researches the feasibility of transforming human kinetic energy into usable electric energy by using the piezoelectric effect of 2D material nanofibers such as MoS2 in clothing, storing it in lithium-ion batteries which also serve as buttons, and further using the resultant electric energy, for example, for wirelessly charging mobile devices in pockets.

The Third prize of €2,000 went to Naama Nicotra, an industrial designer and a recent BA graduate in industrial design from the Holon Institute of Technology, Israel. Naama’s NakedPak is a concept series of “naked” food dishes without any packaging, born from her concern for the climate crisis and love for food. It proposes using natural soluble algae-based bioplastic that could function as a packaging material and could be eaten with its contents, becoming part of the recipe: spices and sauces can be incorporated into the NakedPak natural material, thus producing flavoured packaging that dissolves in boiling water. This solution is meant not only to reduce levels of plastic pollution, but save energy on home cooking and public food services, as well as recycling of packaging, etc.

The Founder’s Choice prize (€3,000) will soon be allocated by the Founder of BE OPEN Elena Baturina, and the fate of the Public Vote prize (€2,000) will be decided by the ongoing online vote.

More about BE OPEN at https://beopenfuture.com.

More about the competition at https://designbetterenergy.com/.

Contact:
Lilia Valieva
press@beopenfuture.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/172295