SeaFreight Labs advises Habitat for Humanity in crowd-solving shelter breakthroughs

First challenge solicits ways to make homes more earthquake- and typhoon-resilient

SeaFreight Labs today announced that it will be serving as Project Advisor for four global challenges for Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org), a global housing nonprofit. In this role, SeaFreight Labs will provide coordination, facilitation, promotion and support services to Habitat to help drive each project to one or more impactful innovations. The challenges will be designed and judged by staff at Habitat’s Terwilliger Center of Innovation in Shelter. All the challenges will be executed on the proven platform of SeaFreight Labs’ strategic partner, InnoCentive (www.innocentive.com).

The first challenge of the engagement is seeking low-cost methods to retrofit homes without foundations in the Philippines. The aim is to make these homes more resilient in earthquakes of magnitudes of up to 7.2 on the Richter scale or typhoons with winds of up to 250 kph. The prize is $US25,000. Habitat’s Terwilliger Center estimates that there are over 1.6 million homes in the Philippines without proper foundations. An innovation in response to this challenge could benefit tens of millions of people living in earthquake- and/or typhoon-prone areas.

“Habitat is always looking for innovative ways to improve shelter for the 1.6 billion people living in inadequate housing around the world,” said Patrick Kelley, vice president of Habitat’s Terwilliger Center. “These challenges will dramatically expand and diversify the network of people thinking about how to do this. Core problems of housing will gain visibility around the world from curious people of all walks of life.”

“The ‘magic’ of crowd-solving is that it benefits from diversity of experience and background,” said Harry Sangree, Founder and CEO of SeaFreight Labs. “We are excited to assist Habitat on this important work and to bring these challenges to the seafreight and maritime communities. Perhaps someone in our industry will have the special perspective that sparks the innovative idea to help Habitat improve housing around the world.”

Participation in this project is a direct result of the recent SeaFreight Labs decision to join the Pledge 1% movement (www.pledge1percent.org). Stated Sangree, “Steve Jobs said, ‘the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.’ The 1% Pledge and these Habitat for Humanity challenges are efforts to this end.”