“Sistema Biobolsa: Addressing Challenges of Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture and Waste Management in Mexico” a case authored by Indu Perepu from IBS Case Research Center won the third prize in the oikos case writing competition 2019.

The case chronicles the innovation in Bio-digester technology in Mexico led by Alex Eaton (Eaton) and Camilo Pages through a social enterprise ‘Sistema Biobolsa’. It describes how the two social entrepreneurs created an innovative waste and resource management system by re-imagining 150-year old biogas production. The innovation brought together high-quality membrane, durable modular parts, and anaerobic bio-digesters that transformed animal waste into renewable energy (bio-gas) and organic fertilizer.

Eaton expanded Sistema Biobolsa to Kenya, Colombia, Nicaragua and India. Still there were many issues that Eaton needed to address. He needed to improve distribution to reach out to more than 4 million small farmers in Mexico. He was looking at making a huge impact to address the issues of global warming and climate change. Can a small venture in Mexico address these big global problems?

The first prize winners in the competition were from Portland State University, Portland, USA and the second prize went to authors from  Catholic University of the Sacred Heart – Milano, Milan, Italy and ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain.