crowdfunding

In the Danish city of Odense, a unique solution has been devised to make household heating needs greener. According to the report, the heat generated by servers in the local data centre is not wasted: instead of pumping it out into the environment, the data centre's cooling is connected to the local district heating system. This means that the incoming water, at 27 degrees Celsius, is heated by the heat generated by the data centre, so that it is fed back into the system at around 70 degrees Celsius.

XZERO is a planned sustainable community that can provide a low-carbon lifestyle for 100,000 residents in balance with nature.

Circular Glasgow is an initiative of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. It is a movement to inspire businesses of all sizes to innovate and become future-proof by adopting circular strategies.

Connecting companies across the city, they help them to open up new revenue streams, increase competitive advantage and realise financial savings using a range of practical initiatives.

Two key initiatives include the Circular Hub and Circle Lab:

The aim of this project is to offer a methodology providing a framework for simulating scenarios, as well as a set of indicators and tools for evaluating and analysing the sustainable performance of players involved in the logistics and transport of fresh products in order to estimate the sustainability of new urban food delivery systems, particularly to meet a growing demand for ecoresponsible products and services.

GoFundMe is the World’s #1 Personal Fundraising Website. Based in San Diego and Menlo Park, GoFundMe was launched on May 10, 2010 and has quickly become the World’s #1 fundraising site for personal causes and life-events.

Indiegogo is a way for people all over the world to join forces to make ideas happen. Since 2008, millions of contributors have empowered hundreds of thousands of inventors, musicians, do-gooders, filmmakers—and other game-changers—to bring big dreams to life.

Kickstarter helps artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators find the resources and support they need to make their ideas a reality. To date, tens of thousands of creative projects — big and small — have come to life with the support of the Kickstarter community.

Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. We celebrate and support people looking to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities. By lending as little as $25 on Kiva, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school, access clean energy or realize their potential. For some, it’s a matter of survival, for others it’s the fuel for a life-long ambition. 100% of every dollar you lend on Kiva goes to funding loans.

Lending Club is the world’s largest online credit marketplace, facilitating personal loans, business loans, and financing for elective medical procedures. Borrowers access lower interest rate loans through a fast and easy online or mobile interface. Investors provide the capital to enable many of the loans in exchange for earning interest. They operate fully online with no branch infrastructure, and use technology to lower cost and deliver an amazing experience. They pass the cost savings to borrowers in the form of lower rates and investors in the form of attractive returns.

M-PESA, a mobile phone-based system for person-to-person payments and money transfers. M-PESA – M stands for mobile phone, and PESA is a Swahili word for money. We in the developed world take money transfer for granted, as is usually a very simple transaction, using an easily accessible service. But in a country like Kenya, where financial services are so heavily under-developed, it is very difficult, risky and expensive to send or receive money.