Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure

SDG 9 works to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Infrastructure is all around us, sidewalks, safe roads, reservoirs and the supply of running water, transportation, financial, technological & data systems. All which creates more jobs and contributes to a thriving economy.

When good infrastructure is in place, entrepreneurs can make existing products or services even better.

Impact Hub Innovation

Innovation takes place everyday at Impact Hub. This month, staff members from across the world gathered for the 2022 Online Makers Festival, an opportunity to share best practices, connect and celebrate our impact.

Part of the 3-day event included the 2022 Innovation Awards featuring six inspirational projects happening across the Impact Hub network. These innovations are a great example of SDG 9 in action!

• Impact Hub Berlin: Building and opening Europe’s first coworking space fully guided by sustainable AND circular principles, being a pioneer in this industry now while still aiming for a planet positive operations management.
• Impact Hub Brasilia:  Lab Financeiro is a program of Impact Hub Brasilia that is a learning technology that seeks to bring a new mindset towards money, through simple language and accessible content. Besides that our solution proposes that the beneficiaries became multipliers of the content in their communities.
• Impact Hub Floripa:  Salto Aceleradora – 10 week long acceleration program, with in person classes, practical laboratories and exclusive mentorships focused on microentrepreneurs.
• Impact Hub Inverness: Rural Lives UK – Quantitative and qualitative research into the experience of financial hardship and financial vulnerability in rural Britain
• Impact Hub Istanbul: Project Zoom aimed at bringing out stories/issues that are generally overlooked, focusing on underreported issues that nevertheless might be impactful for the people they reach out to. With targeted guidance, effective network and financial support, 20 journalists and media experts had the chance to explore a different angle of their work and unveil new exciting stories.
• Impact Hub Shanghai: At the 2021 Budweiser China Innovation Hub, Impact Hub Shanghai recommended Vegatex to enter the pilot. The two parties conducted research and development on the high-value application of Budweiser lees, and successfully upcycled Budweiser lees into plant-based leather, which is of more stable quality and without the need of cleaning. This leather is the pioneering technology and has attracted the attention of many consumer brands.

When we think differently about the systems that contribute to our day to day – from how we build and design to how we teach, research and tell stories – we contribute to more sustainable growth and development.