Giving Compass' Take:

• Eco-business reports on the latest sustainable innovations of 2019 that range from car-charging roads to reusable heat.

• Are there opportunities for you to support or advance entrepreneurship in your community?

• Here are five ways cities can drive sustainable innovation.

At a media workshop held by the World Bank and Eco-Business in Singapore earlier this year, it emerged that news consumers are growing tired of the doom and gloom in climate reporting, and are turned off by the constant flow of news about the impending end of the world. They want solutions.

With that in mind, Eco-Business hunted for some innovations that gave us a bit of hope this year.

  • Car-charging roads
    This year, Sweden opened a road that charges your electric car while you drive it. The road is embedded with an electric rail that can charge e-vehicle batteries as cars pass over it.
  • River rubbish shepherds
    The Great Bubble Barrier, co-invented by Dutchman Philip Ehrhorn, shepherds plastic detritus to the side of rivers using bubbles instead of physical barriers, which can harm wildlife.
  • Reusable heat 
    What if the waste heat produced by ovens, computers and airconditioning exhausts could be converted into electricity? Researchers from Hong Kong University found a way to reuse low-grade heat waste by developing a low-cost energy recycling cell, which is bendable and stackable.
  • Fake sunflowers
    Invented by Ximin He and her colleagues at the University of California, artificial sunflowers known as SUNBots mimick the sun-loving behaviour of plants to harvest solar energy.

Read the full article about sustainability innovations by  Robin Hicks and Nikki Wong at Eco-Business.