Finalists of the Bai Xian Alumni Initiative Award 2018
Our two finalist teams for the Bai Xian Alumni Initiative Award 2018 (AIA), Fairshare Cashmere and INNOWAT, gave their presentations at the BXAI Summer Program 2018 in Beijing. Working under the themes of: (1) Environment and Sustainability or (2) Social Innovation, both teams delivered carefully considered action plans addressing important issues faced by Asia’s communities, environments, and economies.
Our two finalist teams for the Bai Xian Alumni Initiative Award 2018 (AIA), Fairshare Cashmere and INNOWAT, gave their presentations at the BXAI Summer Program 2018 in Beijing. Working under the themes of: (1) Environment and Sustainability or (2) Social Innovation, both teams delivered carefully considered action plans addressing important issues faced by Asia’s communities, environments, and economies.
Fairshare Cashmere was crowned the winner of the 2018 AIA and was awarded a cash prize and seed funding to take its idea forward.
Fairshare Cashmere was crowned the winner of the 2018 AIA and was awarded a cash prize and seed funding to take its idea forward.
The finalists of the 2018 AIA were:
The finalists of the 2018 AIA were:
FAIRSHARE CASHMERE
Project leader:
- Nimrat SALEEM, BX Alumna, Indian, Master of Business Administration at Hitotsubashi University ICS
Project members:
- Adil Hamid MALLA, Indian, Master of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University
- Danish Ahmed MIR, Indian, Master of Sustainability Science at United Nations University
- Naveen TRIPATHI, BX Alumnus, Indian,Master of Business Administration at Hitotsubashi University ICS
The overall mission of Fairshare Cashmere is to support local Kashmiri artisans and enhance their financial wellness in a socially responsible manner. Through a multifaceted approach aimed at revolutionizing the cashmere trade in Kashmir, India, the organization hopes to empower and uplift local Kashmiri communities by creating sustainable job and education opportunities for those involved in each stage of cashmere production. Fairshare’s work will involve streamlining processes; providing relevant skills training, healthcare, and insurance to
artisans; improving efficiency and quality through the use of technology; and introducing innovative concepts to modernize product offering. By extending the global reach of premium cashmere products from Kashmir, Fairshare will also raise awareness of the region as the birthplace of cashmere, eventually increasing the global market share of Kashmiri cashmere and ensuring sustainability of the trade in the long run.
INNOWAT
Project leader:
- XUE Weiqi, BX Alumnus, Chinese, PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Project members:
- ZENG Qian, BX Alumnus, Chinese, MPhil in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
- HAO Tianwei, Chinese, Assistant Professor at University of Macau
INNOWAT Limited enables municipal wastewater treatment plants to produce sulfated polysaccharides (a valuable and widely used industrial feedstock) during wastewater treatment as a way to generate profit and transform waste into resource. Through the use of innovative technologies and modular recovery equipment developed by INNOWAT, wastewater treatment plants are able to produce additional revenue (which covers approximately one-third of their operational costs) and also help alleviate the global shortage of sulfated polysaccharides. The added revenue may also be directed to the upgrading and development of these treatment plants to improve water quality. Currently working with wastewater treatment plants in Mainland China, INNOWAT plans to install its equipment in five plants and achieve an annual production of 2000 tons of industrial sulfated polysaccharides (equivalent to a market value of US$5.5 million) by 2023.