7 iconic designs solving real-world problems

Access to clean drinking water still remains a critical and prevalent global issue. Currently, there are approximately 800 million people worldwide that suffer from waterborne diseases. And as a result, close to 6,000 people die every day.

LifeStraw® is a 10-inch plastic cylinder that can filter out or kill 99.99 percent of bacteria, parasites and viruses found in dirty water. It uses textile filters, iodine beads, and a charcoal filter to clean the water and can be produced with just a few dollars.

Most LifeStraws are freely distributed by NGOs as part of public health campaigns or in response to natural disasters and emergencies. For example, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2011 Thailand floods and the 2016 Ecuador earthquake.

The standard LifeStraw can provide clean water for one person for approximately one year.

As technology advances, the global digital divide widens. As a result, education becomes stunted, and millions of children are left behind. While computers may be seen as a luxury item to many, they're still an essential tool for accessing 21st century knowledge and skills.

The $100 Laptop, later known as the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), was launched by Nicolas Negroponte in 2005. The low-cost laptop was designed to give resource-constrained and offline communities access to communication technology.

To date, more than 2.5 million laptops have been distributed globally to help improve education.

Although Negroponte is no longer a key player in the computer market, the company created an entirely new global market for affordable educational laptops, giving children a better chance at breaking the poverty cycle.

Being able to generate your own solar power has never been easier. But, the inherent problem of energy storage means that we're still reliant on the massive power grids. And subsequently, non-renewable fossil fuels.

Tesla Powerwall is a home battery allowing owners to collect and store clean energy for later use. The system consists of a solar panel installed on the roof, a battery to store surplus energy, and an inverter to convert solar power into electricity for your household appliances.

The design is sleek, compact, easy to install and maintain, and most importantly, offers increased independence from utility grids and fluctuating electricity prices.

Not only does the Powerwall make switching to clean energy easier, it also provides more security to those living in remote locations or areas vulnerable to power cuts due to extreme weather.

(Powerwall 2.0 pictured)

Creator Elon Musk also believes the Powerwall will eventually aid the development of remote communities. He speculates the batteries will help people to “leapfrog” the need for existing power systems, in a similar way that landline phones in rural parts of the world are now obsolete.

Kiva.org is the world’s first global crowdfunding website that connects people through interest-free micro loans. The platform allows users to easily browse a wide variety of requests and then loan money directly to the borrower of their choice.

By lending on Kiva, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school, or access clean energy. For some, it’s a matter of survival, for others, it’s the fuel for a lifelong ambition. Once a lender’s money has been paid back, the money can either be withdrawn or lent again.

Since 2005, 1.7 million Kiva lenders have lent more than $1 billion to 2.6 million loan receivers in 83 countries around the world.

Approximately eight million tons of plastic are thrown into the oceans every year. That’s the equivalent of 320 billion plastic bottles. Or in consumer terms: 45 plastic bottles thrown into the ocean by every person in the world, every year.

The oceans’ largest rotating currents, called gyres, concentrate most of this plastic into five large areas around the world.

The Ocean Cleanup technology is the first system designed to passively clean up plastic pollution from the world’s oceans. Natural forces move the passive system faster than the plastic, which allows the plastic to be captured in the system's centre.

Research indicates that over 5 years a full-scale roll-out, a fleet of approximately sixty 600m systems, could clean 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The patch is estimated to contain approximately 80,000 tonnes of plastic, which is equivalent to that of 500 Jumbo Jets.

In 2018, The Ocean Cleanup launched its first system into the North Pacific. After 4 months in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, System 001 returned to port due to structural malfunction. After extensive root-cause analysis and system upgrading, the system plans to be back in the patch later this year.

For decades, drones were an unwelcome presence. They brought fear, destruction, and took countless innocent lives. While in recent years they have become more of a positive influence in our lives, there is one initiative that’s leagues ahead. These drones don’t carry bombs or bullets, but hope.

Zipline is the world’s first commercial drone delivery system flying critical medical supplies, like blood and medicine, to emergency situations. The initiative aims to put every single one of Rwanda’s 12 million citizens within a 15-35 minute delivery range of any essential medical product.

Within minutes, the health workers receive confirmation that their order has been received and dispatched. Shortly afterwards, the drone arrives and the package is gently delivered by parachute, landing in a designated area.

All over the world, street addressing is irregular and incomplete; finding an address and communicating it is still an imperfect science. At best, poor addressing is expensive and frustrating. At worst, it limits access to basic services, hampers development, and restricts social mobility.

what3words is addressing rethought. The simple yet ingenious system has divided the world into a grid of 3 x 3m squares, and assigned each with three unique words. Using just three words, such as “fans.remix.unwind”, you can find and share an exact location anywhere in the world.

So far, what3words is being used by the postal services of Mongolia, Djibouti, Tonga, Saint Martin, and Côte d’Ivoire, with many more on the way. Three-word addresses are also being used by the UN, the Red Cross, and other emergency response and humanitarian organisations around the world.