SOStainable Holbox APP

Holbox is an island in the Mexican Caribbean considered a natural reserve and a touristic gem. This fragile paradise is exploited to its limits and threatened to disappear due to lack of coherence, balance & sustainable tourism. For example, Waste production is estimated to be up to 1600 tons per year. This equals to fill more than a half of an Olympic swimming pool per year. Nowadays, the waste ends up in an open pit located on the island. Its 3,000 inhabitants and up to 20,000 tourists per weekend during high season call for help, community, technological solutions, kind talent and change.

These issues reveal key social and environmental challenges, including: 1. Deficient waste management 2. Limited access to potable water and electricity, 3. Lack of wastewater treatment and 4. Degradation of health as consequence of environmental pollution. Mexican Talent around the world teams up in 2021 to develop the SOStanible-Holbox APP, a virtual infrastructure tool for enhancing, helping and promoting sustainable practices in Touristic destinations.

 The APP provides for:

            1. The local Community and tourist: best practices on sustainability, products and services from recycled materials, awareness on carbon & water footprint, job opportunities in the waste management and hospitality sector. The APP can be also used to report inappropriate behaviors that compromise the environmental situation of Holbox.

            2. The Hospitality sector can access to a technology market and consulting services to select the most suitable solution or technologies to prevent environmental pollution. The APP also offers tailor-made trainings for enhancing social responsibility, environmental awareness and proper waste management on-site.

Our paradise is sinking in its own waste! We want to keep Holbox alive!

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Our solutions address 4 folds of the waste management challenge at the hospitality sector in Holbox:

• Increase awareness and knowledge on environmental protection and waste management through webinars, trainings, seminars, in order to properly implement circular economy strategies at the hospitality sector.
• Developing new skills on sustainability and circular economy, provide access to BAT that address environmental challenges, while reporting the reporting the incorrect or inappropriate behaviors that compromise the environmental situation of Holbox.
• Generate new job opportunities in the Waste Managemnt and Hospitality sector
• Reduce the environmental stress by racing awareness on carbon and footprint on the island.

The SOStenible Holbox APP is a virtual infrastructure tool for enhancing, helping and promoting sustainable practices in Touristic destinations. It also provides simple and accessible information on waste management for the hospitality sector and the community living on the island and furthermore in tourist destinations. 

The SOStenible-Holbox APP encompasses 2 levels of users:

In the first level the community (tourist and inhabitants) can allocate best practices, job opportunities in the waste management sector, merchandise and services from recycled products, as well as a user-friendly carbon & water footprint. Some further services include waste collection and sorting points on the island, touristic and gastronomy alternatives with low-carbon impact, interviews and podcast on circular economy, culture and sustainability best practices. 

The second level focuses on the Hospitality sector, where technology market and consulting are available to dispatch the most suitable solution for their need. Such as: selecting the right size for a water desalinization plant. The Hospitality sector can also access to the different tailor-made trainings for enhancing social responsibility, environmental awareness and a proper waste management on-site. 

The APP can be also used to report inappropriate behaviors that compromise the environmental situation of Holbox. 

There are 3 direct target populations:

• Holbox inhabitants: Bolster a higher quality of life for the 3,000 inhabitants of the island by providing knowledge and technology that ensures electricity, drinking water, correct waste management and a healthy environment for them.
• Holbox tourists: Offer a socially and environmentally responsible infrastructure to the up to 20,000 tourists visiting the island every weekend (during high season).
• Hospitality sector: Provide knowledge and technology to improve the proper operation of restaurants, hotels, animal shelters, municipal markets and stores by ensuring electricity, drinking water and correct waste management, currently uninsured aspects.

There are 3 indirect customers:

• Farms which are interested in organic fertilizer or soil amender, a sub-product from the biogas plant.
• The cosmetics and self-care industry, which is interested in the glycerol, a sub-product of the biodiesel plant
• The transport sector on the island, such as the ferry and golf car monopolies, as they can use the biodiesel or biogas from our plants. It should be noted that each ferry uses up to 40L of diesel per trip and there are up to 35 trips a day.

SOSteinable Holbox APP is a meeting point for private, public and social actors. It provides products, services and knowledge to improve the current electrical, water supply and waste management infrastructure at Holbox. Our goal is to promote sustainable tourism and communities. We will directly impact on SDG 9, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 17. Through the technology market and trainigns we can contribute to secure supply of drinking water, electricity and waste management, promoting circular economy principles while protecting the natural ecosystem. We will impact on SDG 3, 6, 7, 8, and 14.

We are 3 associations of Mexican talent around the world and a Mexican company. We have selected Holbox as our pilot plant as it is an island in the Mexican Caribbean considered a natural reserve and a touristic gem. This fragile paradise is exploited to its limits and threatened to disappear due to lack of coherence, balance & sustainable tourism. Holbox has 3000 inhabitants and receives up to 20000 tourist per weekend. All together produce up to 1600 tons per year. The waste ends up in an open pit located on the island. Therefore, our SWOT analysis, business model, market study and discussions with the Association of Hotel in Holbox shows the urge for APP as a tool for enhancing, helping and promoting sustainable practices in Touristic destinations while solving the huge environmental challenges. We have the market, the need and the solution.

We are aiming to create an integral and circular solution where local population and organizations can be enhanced by external expert organizations. The local population will provide the insight regarding the problems they are suffering and their culture, and expert organizations will provide training in sustainable solutions and technologies. By fusing these two aspects, we can improve and continue building infrastructure and education based on the foundations that are already laid instead of imposing alien solutions. 

The SOStainable Holbox APP provides for:

            1. The local Community and tourist: best practices on sustainability, products and services from recycled materials, awareness on carbon & water footprint, job opportunities in the waste management and hospitality sector. The APP can be also used to report inappropriate behaviors that compromise the environmental situation of Holbox.

            2. The Hospitality sector can access to a technology market and consulting services to select the most suitable solution or technologies to prevent environmental pollution. The APP also offers tailor-made trainings for enhancing social responsibility, environmental awareness and proper waste management on-site.

Holbox has 3.000 inhabitants with up to 20.000 tourist during high season.

In three years, we expect to serve 2.000.000 tourists and in five years 45.000.000 tourist that will represent the 100% of international tourists that Mexico received in 2019.

We have selected specific KPIs such as  Waste sorting per hotel or restaurant, volume of “waste” revalorized per month, biogas, biodiesel and soil amender sold per month, which reduced greenhouse gas emissions as it substitutes diesel and chemical fertilizers, trimestral calculation & comparison of water & footprints per hotels. The APP it self will give us key data on it.

We are 3 associations and 1 company:

* RGMX-Clúster sustentabilidad: 10 members participating directly in this proyect, outr of 30 members.

* GIES: 1 member out of 10 members

* MEXSCOT: 1 member out of 20 members

* KFG Umwelt Consultoria: 5 members

KFG Umwelt Consultoria S.A. de C.V. is an EPC company that develops Biogas and Biodiesel projects for revalorizing waste and producing renewable energy. They will develop the Waste Management System. They  have 20 years of experience in this sector.

GIES is an Engineering association and they provide advice on the engineering solutions and they will review the Waste Management System. They will also check the Biogas and Biodiesel projects. They know the local mentality and provide connections with decision takers and stakeholder in Holbox and the state of Quintana Roo, where Holbox is located.

MEXSCOT provides specific expertise on social responsibility. They will suggest and select the carbon & footprint calculator, identification of practices, products and services from recycled products.

Cluster Sustainability from RGMX-EUROPE-: Mexican experts and expats in Europe on sustainability with a transdisciplinary expertise ranging from finances to software. They also provide connections and know-how through webinars on SDGs, best practices in Europe and sustainability. They will be responsible for developing and providing the training and certification programs for the hospitality personnel in order to increase or reinforce their knowledge on waste management and environmental protection.

We do not discriminate due to gender, race, religion, political believes, or any other reason. Our team is currently comprised by 10  women and 7      men ranging from 20 to 50 years old with a wide range of academic, professional and cultural background.

We consider MIT Solve an excellent social responsibility escalator platform as we think the main challenge for our project is how to “engage” people in our project. We also think that we might be able to present a different approach into technology-base solutions that enhance the development of resilient ecosystems. We also consider that a good understanding of the technology and the social responsibility is the key to successfully develop a project. We find in MIT jury team both elements.

We our manily a technical team with social responsability view. It is our first time approaching potential investor and therefore we need help on how to prepare a portfolio to approach them (pitching to investors). It will also be good to explore alternatives on how to develope helathy accounting practices as we wll be 4 institutions involved. We currently have a NDA and a Agreement of collaborationg. However, we havent discuss the practicalities on who will pay what and who will direct profit and how that profit can be distributed. 

We are also open to connect with APP developers that could help us.

Local Government at State level (Quintana Roo), Municipality (Lázaro Cárdenas) and on the island (Holbox), including Environmental Ministry and Policy  makers. However, this year is election year in Mexico and there is no space for environmental projects in the politician agenda. We need to approach them in 2022.

A biogas plant allows us to revalorize organic waste from homes, hotels, restaurants and the agro-industrial sector to produce fertilizer and/or soil improver, as well as renewable energy such as biogas. In this way we contribute to decarbonization of agriculture by 1) avoiding the use of fossil fuels such as diesel in vehicles, replacing it with biogas and 2) reducing the consumption of chemical fertilizers.

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