As communities across the nation and globe face the complex problems of climate change, flooding, erosion and waste management, a small college in western Michigan is making a big impact on the world’s ‘wicked problems’ by furthering pioneering solutions to the world’s most resistant challenges.
Hosted by Grand Rapid’s Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD), the annual competition known as Wege Prize inspires college and university students around the world to collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to redesign the way economies work, igniting game-changing solutions for a positive future.
Many of the competition’s 1,750-plus student participants to date – whose winning teams have collectively won more than $435,000 in total cash during the competition’s 11-year history – are creating innovative solutions for a more positive future by advancing business models refined by insights gained from Wege Prize’s multidisciplinary judges. The competition teams’ real-world solutions to environmental, energy, waste, hunger, agricultural and other challenges are progressive design-based models that support a regenerative, circular economy and help mitigate environmental instability, economic stress and social inequities.
Some of these ground-breaking solutions include:
• A sustainable leather alternative made from banana waste that is being used for wallets, coasters, eyewear cases and more, reducing carbon emissions by 90 percent and water use by 95 percent in comparison to conventional leather production.
• An energy-efficient charcoal cooling facility that alleviates Rwanda’s post-harvest tomato losses without a reliance on electricity, reducing food spoilage by extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables for up to 15 days, which helps to stabilize food supplies.
• An innovative, energy-efficient biodigester system that transforms poultry waste in Mozambique into clean energy and biofertilizers, a strategy that enriches soil, increases crop
yields and reduces pollution.
“This competition gave a platform, time and space to come together and think on a possible solution that can bring us to work together,” says Anthony Ilalio Mbunju, team lead of second-place 2024 Wege Prize winner Senene Farm, which is taking on Tanzania’s child malnutrition by increasing the production of the Senene insect as an alternative protein source through a rearing facility that creates a more circular production cycle. “At the global level we want to contribute to be part of the solution that isworking to make sure that we are ensuring food security – Wege Prize forces you to define what you need, who you are going to collaborate with.”
This year, Wege Prize drew an unprecedented pool of more than 120 teams, narrowed down to 90 participating in Phase 1 from 31 countries, bringing to light a full scope of new design solutions that promote sustainability and drive the circular economy into the future. Among these innovations are methods for addressing water scarcity in agriculture by developing a biodegradable hydrogel from agro waste, and creating alternative construction materials from existing plastic waste with a circular approach. Of the 2025 Wege Prize program’s now 30 selected five-person multidisciplinary teams in Phase 2, 15 soon-to-be-announced semifinalists will further develop their solutions to critical problems
as they vie for a winning spot in the competition’s $65,000 cash prize pool.
Gayle DeBruyn, a KCAD professor and Wege Prize organizer says whole-systems design thinking promotes sustainable solutions that support a circular, regenerative economy. “Positive environmental change happens when we work together,” says DeBruyn. “We’ve seen young people make a real impact on how economies work and the planet’s natural environment by encouraging and helping refine their creative solutions to pressing global issues, moving our economy from a linear to a regenerative, circular economy.”
Current and past Wege Prize participants continue to make a difference working with companies that are leading the way in pioneering approaches to environmental, energy and other challenges. For instance, one of the first Wege Prize team members Kelsey Groesbeck, now director of building science at architectural group TowerPinkster, recently garnered the 2023 U.S. Green Building Council of West Michigan’s 2030 Leadership Award Winner and 2023 Zweig Group Rising Stars award for her work in advancing regenerative, circular economies.
Colin Webster, a learning content manager with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in the United Kingdom and a core judge since Wege Prize began more than a decade ago, says designers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers are at the forefront of advancing the circular economy. “If we think in that circular way, then we move much closer to a world where we are using these resources the way we should be using them,” he says.
About Wege Prize
Wege Prize, a West Michigan-born concept developed by Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University’s (KCAD’s) Wege Center for Sustainable Design with the support of The Wege Foundation, is an annual competition that ignites games-changing solutions for the future by inspiring college students around the world to collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries and redesign the way economies work. To learn more, go to wegeprize.org.
About KCAD
Located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) is committed to creating lasting impact in West Michigan and beyond through collaborative partnerships, cultural innovation, and an educational model that prepares students for leadership in design, the visual arts, and art history; provides innovative, collaborative education that fosters intellectual growth and individual creativity; and promotes the ethical and civic responsibilities of artists and designers, locally and globally.
For more information, please visit kcad.edu.
About The Wege Foundation
Planting seeds that develop leaders in economicology, health, education, and arts, and enhance the lives of people
in West Michigan and around the world. For more information, please visit wegefoundation.com.
Feature Image Courtesy of: Wege Foundation
<p>The post University Students Advance Circular Economy with Real Solutions first appeared on CCR-Mag.com.</p>
