What’s the design in a nutshell?
Temboo is the only no-code platform for environmental engagement. Community members, non-profit organisations or institutions can view, analyse, and generate insights from the collected environmental data on the platform in real time. From there, individuals and communities can build arguments for behavioural change, volunteer engagements and even reforms to better their local environments.
Why is it needed?
We all know that making the world a better place starts with the individual, but it sure is easier to do it collectively. What if we all could do our part to strengthen the common argument for change and environmental consciousness?
The Temboo platform was built to completely remove the barriers to building an environmental monitoring system. Through talking to community-based organisations, environmental nonprofits, government agencies, and people in local communities, the Temboo team noted the technical tasks needed to get valuable data and encourage citizens to actively participate in creating change and how they could improve them.
How does it work?
The Temboo platform is an easy-to-use software that can be tailor made for client’s needs. Behind the scenes, the system can automatically develop codes that can generate data from sensors in clients' preferred format. For example, instead of writing code themselves to set up a wireless sensor that reads soil moisture every 10 minutes, Temboo does it for them.
From there, organisations or citizens can capture data on soil, water, air quality etc. and upload it to the platform. This not only gives a thorough overview of a specific project or area but also allows community members to follow changes and ask for help from other members if needed.
The data can be used for multiple things –– like comparing air quality to other municipalities or generating reports to apply for grants or policy changes. It also helps communities get more educated on their local surroundings and hopefully sparks an interest in educating and advocating for change.
"It’s a monitoring solution with a community twist – designed within a framework for giving people agency to be a part of a larger solution."
How does it improve life?
The Temboo software is built to actually engage communities around environmental issues by empowering anyone to collect information about their environment. It’s a monitoring solution with a community twist – designed within a framework for giving people agency to be a part of a larger solution. Over time, it has the potential to empower citizens to invest in their own communities for a more resilient future.
What’s the impact to date or projected impact?
From urban air quality and combined sewer overflow prevention to Black Lives Matter advocacy and flood mitigation, Temboo has a large client portfolio and is helping communities from all over the world. Over 200 universities around the world use Temboo in classrooms and research including MIT, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Manchester. They’ve also been covered in the New York Times and been part of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas.
