SocialSolver launches a new innovation challenge to introduce sustainable energies in cocoa production

Phil Black - PII Editor 05/04/2022

223 1 minute read

Listen to this article

This engineering for sustainable development alliance, founded by the NGO Ayuda en Acción and the open innovation platform ennomotive, challenges engineers around the world to improve efficiency, quality and environmental sustainability in the cocoa drying process.

Social Solver was born to improve the quality of life of vulnerable communities through technology, and in 2021 has developed projects in Honduras and Mexico.

This new challenge aims to help rural families in the department of Nariño in Colombia where Ayuda en Acción works to strengthen and modernize their productive and industrial capacity. The profitability of the small cocoa parcels of these indigenous families is too low, so they lose competitiveness in the market and continue to live with very limited resources.

Currently, cocoa is dried in greenhouses and ovens that use fossil fuels, such as propane, which are expensive and environmentally damaging. We are now looking for sustainable drying systems using renewable energy or biofuel available in the region.

Social Solver offers a prize of EUR 5,000 to the winner and the possibility to participate in the realization of a pilot project together with Ayuda en Acción in Colombia.

About Social Solver

Social Solver is an organizational alliance, founded in 2021 by the NGO Ayuda en Acción and the open innovation platform ennomotive. Its ultimate goal is to revolutionize the impact on development cooperation projects using digitization, open innovation and engineering.

To date, Social Solver has developed an innovation project in fish conservation for the Mamugah community in Honduras and a plastic collection and recycling project in Chacahua, Mexico.