Impact Snapshot
April 2023
In this April Impact Snapshot, read about EHF Fellows in action creating environmental, social and economic impact.
Fellows in action 🎬
Cameron Smith has been named a finalist at this year’s NZ Hi-Tech Awards in the Hi-Tech Inspiring Individual category.
Cameron is the founder of not-for-profit Take2, which teaches coding in NZ prisons to help people in prison find meaningful employment upon release. He recently launched Take2 Elevate, a paid apprenticeship to kickstart formerly incarcerated individuals’ careers and increase diversity within the tech industry.
CarbonCrop, in which Fellow Alexey Rostavshop is on the Board of Directors, received three nominations: Hi-Tech Start-Up Company of the Year, Hi-Tech Innovative Services Award, and Most Innovative Deep Tech Solution. CarbonCrop is focused on encouraging Aotearoa NZ native reforestation, which benefits wildlife and biodiversity, and helps landholders across Aotearoa to access carbon credits.
Kara Technologies (founded by Fellows Sahar Izadi, Farmehr Fahour, and Arash Tayebi) has also been named a finalist in the Best Hi-Tech Solution for the Public Good category. Kara Technologies is a platform for those with hearing difficulties, using AI and realistic avatars to deliver content in sign language.
The winners will be announced on 23 June.
Boyd Multerer, well known as being the technical brains behind the Xbox Live architecture, founded Kry10 Limited after his relocation to Wellington through EHF.
Kry10 is building a new operating system and software stack for mission-critical connected devices; and Boyd has set his sights on the automotive industry as one that would benefit from the new system. Most of the world’s major car-makers are often adapting technology that’s more than two decades old, so Kry10's platform creates the path for software updates that are secure from hackers, and can contain any bugs so that they don’t destabilise other systems.
Boyd has acknowledged that he probably wouldn’t have been able to develop this new software system anywhere else but from Aotearoa NZ, with the ‘hotbed’ of talent here within the mathematically intense branch of computer science called ‘formal methods’. Kry10 sees Aotearoa as the proving ground for future development and growth in this new system, and is now close to its first big enterprise deal; which would be a huge success story for Aotearoa NZ’s tech industry.
EHF Fellow Lovina McMurchy has also partnered with Boyd to grow Kry10 internationally, and is establishing an office in Seattle, USA.
Boyd’s journey to settling in Wellington and his work was recently featured in NZ Herald.
Thabiso Mashaba, who is based in Tolaga Bay and is working with Lily Stender and the Tolaga Bay Innovation team, pitched an idea of turning slash waste into biochar and charcoal products at the Startup Weekend Tairāwhiti. After forming a project team with other participants at the Startup Weekend (all of whom are from East Coast communities), the ‘Slash for Cash’ team won second prize.
Sasha Lockley was engaged as one of two mentors for the team and guided the team through their 54-hour business development journey by giving them insights on business modelling and financial modelling.
The Slash for Cash team plan to continue with the project and their activated biochar will be sold to the forestry industry and landowners to apply to the land to heal the eroded soils. The activated biochar will also be sold to the general public to use in home gardens, and their smokeless charcoal briquettes will be sold to use for cooking, BBQs, and heating up homes, as clean energy.
The team is working towards a 6-month pilot that will be spread across Tolaga Bay, Ruatoria and Wairoa, and will entail teaching unemployed community members various skills to convert slash into the sellable product and operate the business, with plans to scale.
Cleanery, Co-Founded by Mark Sorensen, featured in Kia Ora Magazine’s April Business Enterprise section. (Kia Ora Magazine reaches 1 million+ domestic travellers each month, as the in-flight magazine for Air New Zealand.) Cleanery uses a plant-based cleaning powder that dissolves in water, removing single-use plastic packaging, which helps to reduce plastic pollution.
Last year, Cleanery products were available in fewer than 10 stores around Aotearoa NZ, but are now available in more than 1500 stores across Aotearoa and Australia. The next step for Cleanery is to launch in the US.
Alex Lee, Co-Founder and Director of Doc Edge International Documentary Film Festival, spoke with ‘The Shape of Dialogue’ about the inception of the festival in 2004 to bring independent documentaries to a New Zealand audience, and enhance the documentary industry and culture in this country. He talks about the impact that documentaries can have on shaping people’s views of the world, through authentic storytelling.
He also speaks about why Doc Edge was the only film festival in the world last year to show The Unredacted.
Doc Edge will run from 24 May to 9 July at locations around the country, with a diverse range of films that explore topics such as social justice, environmental challenges, human rights, arts, and much more.
Elizabeth McNaughton, Co-Founder and Director of Hummingly, an organisation that supports communities and organisations during times of stress and uncertainty, spoke with Sir John Kirwin and Dr Fiona Crichton. Using her expertise in disaster response, she highlighted strategies for coping with the after effects of disaster, and offered advice on how to support the wider community through tough times.
Matthew Shribman from AimHi Earth has published an online guide explaining green skills. With simplified and easily digestible explanations, the guide is useful for companies, charities, politicians, and the general public wanting to broaden their understanding on what exactly ‘green skills’ means. Matthew is a champion for educating and upskilling organisations, influencers and citizens around the world to combat the climate and nature crisis.
Simone Woodland, the Director of Mōhua Ventures Ltd (Tākaka Cohousing), a community-led collective and regenerative housing development, is designing a co-vacation and soft landing pad for global citizens in the new Connect Hub building in Mōhua (Golden Bay).
The Connect Hub building is designed to inspire wellbeing, and will be a collaborative resting place for global visitors and the local community, and will offer an opportunity to create authentic connections.
This month, a Fellow-led post-Welcome Experience co-vacation saw 14 Fellows visiting the landing pad, to deepen their bond with each other, and their connection with the natural surroundings of Aotearoa.
Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom and Eric Dahlstrom, founders of SpaceBase, have signed a partnership with the government of New Caledonia for the upcoming Space for Planet Earth Challenge (focusing on methane emissions). SpaceBase continues to demonstrate the benefit and impact of using Aotearoa NZ as a launching pad for a prototype to show the value, and then scale globally.
Photo Credit: © NeoTech*Images have been provided by Fellows or sourced from the Internet. EHF does not claim to own the images.