AVPN Announces 18 Grantees of USD 5 Million Sustainability Seed Fund 2.0 and the Sustainability Solutions Lab Resource Hub

The Fund will continue to support grantees in scaling their technology-led climate change solutions, while the Lab will enhance visibility and capacity building for grantees from SSF 1.0 and 2.0

SINGAPORE, Sept. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- AVPN, the largest network of social investors in Asia, announced the grantees of the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund (SSF) 2.0, which is a USD 5 million catalytic initiative supported by Google.org, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as the strategic and outreach partner. AVPN will award 18 non-profit organisations with funding to implement and scale innovative technology-led solutions that tackle pressing climate and sustainability challenges in the Asia Pacific region. Building on the June 2024 launch of the APAC Sustainability Solutions Lab, which received an additional USD 2 million grant  from Google.org, the Lab will now serve as a resource hub for grantees from both APAC SSF 1.0 and 2.0. It will provide capacity building support to grantee partners and increase their visibility, enhancing the impact of their innovative solutions.

The Asia Pacific region is home to seven of the world's ten most climate-vulnerable countries, where climate change poses an 'existential threat'^[1] and the potential to cause long-term impact to future generations. Weather events in APAC in 2022 affected more than 50 million people directly, with an upwards of USD 36 billion in economic losses^[2]. The failure to adapt to growing climate risks has posed significant economic and social threats. While technology has emerged as a transformative force to offer innovative avenues to address these challenges, climate technologies remain severely underfunded.

Building on the success of SSF 1.0 Fund, the APAC SSF 2.0 seeks to nurture and amplify solutions that harness technology to address urgent climate impact areas such as renewable energy and decarbonisation, climate adaptation, waste management and/or circular economy, air quality, water preservation and biodiversity protection. The grantees, based across the Asia Pacific region, will leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and application software in their climate solutions. Grantees include:

• Australia - Cool.org
• India - INREM Foundation, CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), Institute for Financial Management and Research, Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust 
• Indonesia – YAKKUM Emergency Unit, Gringgo Indonesia Foundation, Perkumpulan Jaringan Pantau Gambut 
• Japan - Social Innovation Japan, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies 
• New Zealand - Wildlife.ai Trust
• Singapore - Imagine H2O Asia 
• South Korea - Coalition for Our Common Future 
• Thailand - Asian Institute of Technology, Sathira-Dhammasathan 
• The Philippines - University of the Philippines Public Administration Research and Extension Services Foundation, Inc., Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) 
• Vietnam - Vietnam Rural Industries Development and Research Institute (VIRI) 

The Fund will support grantees' efforts in scaling their solutions, provide networking opportunities and capacity building, fostering and simplifying solutions that harness the power of technology for climate adaptation and mitigation to ensure a positive and lasting impact in Asia.

Additionally, AVPN will offer selected grantees of APAC SSF 1.0 and 2.0 access to the Sustainability Solutions Lab. The Lab will provide technical capacity building support, develop impactful case studies, create opportunities for dialogue and hold roundtable discussions with stakeholders. Its goal is to enhance grantees' impact, build their capacity, and to create a supportive ecosystem. By increasing the visibility of successful grantees, the Lab will enable them to showcase how advanced technologies tackle key sustainability issues and effectively communicate their solutions to social investors, government, and other key stakeholders, thus facilitating the scaling of their innovations.

Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of AVPN, shared, "At AVPN, we recognise capital – financial, human, and intellectual – is crucial for initiating and advancing climate innovations often overlooked by traditional funding mechanisms. Through APAC SSF 2.0, we aim to channel resources into the early stages of the Continuum of Capital to support these grantees. By mobilising these resources, we can support and unlock the potential of their innovations to help the region adapt and respond to climate impacts. Done right, this not only drives the development of transformative solutions, but ensures their expansion and adoption in the regions that need them the most."

Andrew Ure, Managing Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Southeast Asia at Google, said, "The Asia-Pacific region faces significant vulnerabilities due to climate change. However, amidst this challenge lies tremendous opportunity. Organisations, social investors, and researchers across the region are uniting to develop innovative solutions, leveraging technologies like AI to address this critical issue. We are proud to support social impact organisations like AVPN in the region to foster scalable solutions and accelerate collaborative efforts. Together, we can build a more sustainable and resilient future for the region."  

Stephanie King-Chung Hung, Chief Information Officer and Director General, Information Technology Department at Asia Development Bank said, "Advanced  digital solutions are pivotal in boosting resilience and adaptive capacities in the face of climate challenges. Our support for the Fund underscores the importance of targeted financing in promoting these innovations. We are committed to helping communities, especially those most vulnerable, thrive amidst environmental pressures by facilitating the development and broader implementation of vital climate solutions."

About AVPN
AVPN is the largest network of social investors in Asia, comprising over 600 funders and resource providers across 33 markets. Our mission is to increase the flow and effectiveness of financial, human, and intellectual capital in Asia by enabling members to channel resources towards impact. As an ecosystem builder, AVPN enables its members to connect, learn, act, and lead across key pillars and improve the effectiveness of deployed capital, bringing local field needs, regional expertise, and policy insights to the forefront. For more information about AVPN and our work, please visit our website and read our latest Annual Review 2022/23.

About Google.org
Google.org, Google's philanthropy, brings the best of Google to help solve some of humanity's biggest challenges combining funding, product donations and technical expertise to support underserved communities and provide opportunity for everyone. We engage nonprofits, social enterprises and civic entities who make a significant impact on the communities they serve, and whose work has the potential to produce scalable, meaningful change.

Annex: Information on Grantees

Australia

• Cool.org – The not-for-profit education organisation will use the support from AVPN to develop Cool AI. This initiative focuses on developing an advanced, data-driven tool to aid educators in crafting customised lessons on environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

India

• CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) – The Indian national institution, focused on designing, planning, constructing, and managing human habitats, will use machine learning technology and satellite imagery to simplify the estimation of the carbon sequestration capacity of lakes, which can enable local governments to take proactive and corrective actions.
• Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust – The organisation, which works to strengthen grassroots collectives of women in the urban informal sector, will  develop an AI-powered model for climate resilience in Ahmedabad. AI will be used to identify Urban Heat Islands and suggest targeted solutions. By working closely with local women, especially those in urban slums, the project aims to devise community-centric strategies like cool roofs and routes.
• INREM Foundation – The research, innovation and policy advisory organisation will develop AI-enabled open digital solutions to enhance the agency of community representatives to access data on Water contamination, and find local solutions to their problems. This will empower 125,000 Water Quality Champions across villages of India and build an inter-connected Water Quality Network.
• Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) - WELL Labs – WELL Labs: Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods is a centre based at the IFMR Society, a not-for-profit society set up to provide research-based inputs to industries and the government in the areas of finance and economics. IFMR will unlock multiple foundational datasets and make them easily accessible to key stakeholders through various use cases and multiple mediums - Application Programming Interface (APIs) or tools. The tech stack will lead to stakeholders being able to devote more attention to human aspects of rural development challenges rather than time spent reckoning with bad data.

Indonesia

• Gringgo Indonesia Foundation – The organisation, focused on revolutionising waste management and fostering sustainability by leveraging cutting-edge technology, will deploy innovative waste processing units and optimise waste collection to significantly reduce landfill dependency and environmental pollution. This will generate valuable by-products and empower communities through education and job creation, ultimately fostering a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future for all.
• Perkumpulan Jaringan Pantau Gambut – The non-governmental organisation focusing on research, advocacy, and campaigns for the protection and sustainability of peatlands in Indonesia aims to revolutionise peatland monitoring and fire prevention in Indonesia. By leveraging advanced data visualisation and AI-driven tools, this initiative seeks to significantly reduce the frequency and severity of uncontrolled peat fires, contributing to the protection and sustainability of Indonesia and the vital peatland ecosystems.
• YAKKUM Emergency Unit – The organisation with a mandate on inclusive emergency response and building community resilience through community-led disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation will create a collaborative partnership model where the locally-led water irrigation system will use smart mist technology with the internet of things to improve access to water resources, save time, and support inclusion. This will save farmers' time and efforts when irrigating the farmland and enhance the community's resilience during droughts and other climate impacts.

Japan

• Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) – The independent, non-profit environmental policy think tank will scale up the URBAN RIG technology, previously piloted in Thailand, to address Iriomote Island's marine plastic waste issue in Japan. This innovative solution converts plastic waste into valuable resources like oil and charcoal, aligning with local environmental regulations. By expanding URBAN RIG's operations to Japan and scaling up its existing work in Thailand, IGES aims to reduce waste volume, create economic opportunities, and promote sustainable practices on both islands.
• Social Innovation Japan – The non-profit organisation focusing on creating social innovation initiatives, education and leadership programmes, and community building for impact plans to significantly improve their "mymizu" community-driven, crowdsourced technology platform and user experience, in order to accelerate the shift away from single-use plastics towards a circular economy.

New Zealand

• Wildlife.ai Trust – The independent charitable organisation that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate wildlife conservation will create a user-friendly, affordable camera that empowers biologists and nature enthusiasts everywhere to track wildlife across vast areas and over time.

Singapore

• Imagine H2O Asia – The water solutions accelerator and NGO, with a mission to make innovation more accessible to water and climate-stressed communities in the Asia-Pacific, aims to make innovation more accessible for utility operators and other decision makers committed to managing and mitigating pollution faster and cheaper. It will design and co-finance technology pilots that empower climate-vulnerable communities in South Asia and Southeast Asia to address groundwater contamination, ecosystem health, and saltwater intrusion.

South Korea

• Coalition for Our Common Future – The 'Think and Do Platform' dedicated to achieving Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth will equip the project development teams to increase the accuracy and speed of the carbon mitigation and adaptation projects, and will power the building of a transparent information exchange platform, among others, which will act as a medium for matching supply (tech and finance) and demand (carbon credits).

Thailand

• Asian Institute of Technology – The Postgraduate institution will support system development, data verification and knowledge sharing platform that integrate the hotspot data from various satellite sources, calculate emissions based on these hotspots, and perform effective data management; use AI to focus on differentiating the land use types, developing the inventory, and creating the online knowledge-sharing platform; and conduct training and workshops for government officials. 
• Sathira-Dhammasathan – The non-profit organisation and a learning community that promotes the skills of everyone to live in peace and harmony will address water management challenges in Bodhisattva Valley and ensure the success of reforestation efforts through: developing Water Master Plan, designing innovative water conservation solutions. providing tree inventory management capacity building, and knowledge sharing with the national and international community.

The Philippines

• Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) – The non-profit organisation geared towards capacity-building, promoting sustainable practices, and achieving social impact plans to scale up the green skills model through: geographic expansion into neighboring ASEAN countries, scope expansion by updating and broadening the green skills curriculum, and technological expansion by incorporating advanced delivery methods like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and AI technologies.
• University of the Philippines Public Administration Research and Extension Services Foundation, Inc. – The non-stock, non-profit organisation that undertakes programmes and projects related to research and community extension will revolutionise paratransit systems in developing countries by addressing fossil fuel dependence, poor energy efficiency in public transport operations and the need for inclusive and just transition. This will include smart contracts and blockchain-based energy accounting, and establishment of an open and real-time system for monitoring public transport demand and supply and service quality indicators.

Vietnam

• Vietnam Rural Industries Development and Research Institute (VIRI) – The organisation focusing on the sustainable development of rural industry and for improvement of living standards of disadvantaged people in a sustainable manner will develop seaweed farms along the coastal lines of Vietnam with high technology seedlings production, regulated farming community and co-ops, and appropriate co-operation from local authorities. The seaweed development shall bring good lifes for local people while contributing to decarbonisation efforts and to the adaptation of climate change.

Read more about APAC Sustainability Seed Fund (SSF) 2.0.

source: AVPN