Laura Cabo Díez
You can feel the nerves in the air. On the 11th December, the nine finalists of the IV Sustainable Innovation Initiative faced a tough jury, but they did so with a desire to make the world a better place. Choosing the three winners, among which are not only employees, but also suppliers and start-up companies, has been a difficult decision but here they are, taking a step forward to make our society and planet a better place. It’s been such a difficult decision that as an exception this year, two additional awards have been granted. Congratulations everyone!
This new call shows that sustainable innovation is an excellent way to improve our business and make the world a better place. “Each year, the Sustainable Innovation Initiative allows us to support employees’ projects in order to make progress in this way. My congratulations to the winners in the IV Edition and a call to all the teams to prepare themselves with a view to the next edition, because your department may be among the next winners”, says Arancha Diaz-Lladó, Director of Diversity and Sustainable Innovation at Telefónica.
The startup company, Wayra Brazil BovControl and the Big Data for Social Good team (LUCA) with “Producing Right!”
With the aim of helping rural producers to improve their effectiveness, taking into account the social and environmental aspects of their properties, the start-up company accelerated by Wayra Brazil BovControl has teamed up with LUCA’s Big Data for Social Good team.
Based on the BovControl platform, which has a base of around 40,000 farms worldwide, to store, manage and analyse the data provided by the “Climate-smart livestock” project, including the estimation of the greenhouse gas emissions and aligning us with the models provided by LUCA’s Big Data for Social Good team and the FAO in Ecuador. In this way, producers are able to improve their productive practices gradually and continuously, creating new business opportunities.
The Internet for All and Acciona.org team with “Electricity and Connectivity for All”
It is a proposal for the creation of a business model comprised of both electricity and connectivity in the homes in the remote areas of Latin America, starting on the shores of the Napo River in Peru.
The objective is to execute a series of pilot projects that enable the sustainable model of electrical microgeneration in homes in isolated areas of the said shores, where Internet for All has already provided mobile internet access solutions and the Acciona.org Foundation is developing its “Luz en Casa Amazonia” (Electricity in Amazon homes) project.
We want to explore the synergies between the two initiatives (connectivity kits, experience, contacts, etc.) to test a simplified joint connectivity solution and optimise the sustainable business model.
The IoT Team with “Drones for Traffic Control”
Telefónica’s global Internet of Things team is going to develop a traffic control and support system through drones and IoT. Thanks to this system, a Government traffic control centre, can direct one or several drones through the mobile network. In this way, they may obtain information in real time on the status of the traffic and carry out monitoring tasks, and also have the option to provide coverage in remote areas in emergencies, for example, when an accident occurs. This will allow the reduction of emissions due to the optimisation of the traffic and the provision of additional tools for the emergency services on the roads.
“The excellent reception to the initiative from employees, suppliers and startups and even the jury itself demonstrates the tremendous potential that sustainability has as a transversal element of our business”, states Arancha Diaz-Lladó, Director of Diversity and Sustainable Innovation.
The IoT team with “Continuous radon gas measurement”
The aim of this project is to help reduce the number of cases of lung cancer. After tobacco, radon is the second highest cause of this kind of cancer in the world. Thanks to the detection of its concentration in closed spaces, actions will be able to be carried out (ventilation, construction techniques etc.) to minimise the impact of this harmful gas on our health. In addition, in the future, the effectiveness of the measures taken and continuous improvement plans will be able to be measured. To do this, the purpose of the project is to develop measuring equipment to check radon levels, connected to a platform that manages this data, controls the alarms and creates a record.
Digital Strategy and Innovation Team, Brazil with “Vivo Financial Assistant”
The initiative aims to build a financial education platform integrated with Aura (Telefónica’s Cognitive Intelligence) to help reduce the economic gap in Brazil through digital education and innovation. In addition to the current functionalities of the virtual assistant, Aura will provide financial content and guidance to help control personal or family budgets in a simple and easy way.
Customers will be able to include information on their salary, expenses, credit cards and bank accounts. The virtual assistant will analyse this data to identify their financial habits and will provide tips on savings plans, as well as how to achieve personal economy goals and it will give suggestions for financial products that are adapted to the needs of each customer.
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