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Invention for Sustainable Development Program

Asia

Bangladesh

  • Emergence BioEnergy is initiating an off-grid energy project in Bangladesh to produce sustained energy for a community from biogas and stirling engines.

China

  • Sambotha is modernizing and reviving the economy of Tibetan nomads through innovative livestock management practices and technologies.

India

  • L-RAMP: Indian Institute of Technology (Madras), and Rural Innovations Network are implementing an L-RAMP pilot in Tamil Nadu, India to help local inventors transform their ideas into deliverable products and services to create real improvements in people’s lives.

    • Low-cost irrigation tomatoes
    IDE's drip irrigation is being used by farmers in India to grow crops like these tomatoes.

  • International Development Enterprises - India (IDE) is using Foundation funding to expand its manufacturing, distribution and retail supply chains for its low cost drip irrigation kit throughout India. The Foundation is also providing funds to IDE-USA to replicate IDE-India’s successful distribution model in Central America.

  • SEWA Housing Trust & SELCO-India are partnering on a three-year renewable energy project to adapt technologies to the needs of the poor and distribute them to households in Gujarat State, India. Project components include redesigning technology, creating market-demand, training of women entrepreneurs to launch businesses to sell the technologies, and establishing a revolving fund for small loans to micro-manufacturers, micro-entrepreneurs and end-users.

  • The Ecology of Hope: Uncommon Opportunities for Eco-jobs and Eco-entrepreneurship - a workshop developed by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in India and co-sponsored by The Lemelson Foundation at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa - launched a global database of innovation-based and eco-friendly jobs.

Indonesia

  • Yayasan Dian Desa used a $100,00 grant from The Lemelson Foundation to support a year-long project to provide safe water and sanitation for people in Indonesia's Aceh region who were displaced by the December 2004 tsunami disaster. Additionally, the Foundation awarded $25,000 to Yayasan Dian Desa to aid victims of the earthquake that hit Java island in May 2006.

  • RAMP: Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) is implementing a RAMP to provide impact-oriented facilitation for invention and innovation promotion in Indonesia.

Nepal

Philippines

  • Envirofit International is using Foundation funding for a two-year project to pursue full-scale market development of its direct-injection retrofit kits for motorcycle taxis in Vigan, Philippines, eliminating 3,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide.