Hong Kong is well-known as a shopping paradise for the latest hi-tech goods, electronics and gadgets. However, this time we are not going to preach you about conscious consumerism telling you to think twice before getting a new iPhone. In fact, Hong Kongers’ enthusiasm for new technology and it’s vibrant business environment actually set up a good base for many social and environmental entrepreneurs to tinker away with their start-ups.
Just recently, I read a local news story about a Hong Kong-based Japanese-French technician (who considers himself an artist) who developed special robotic boats which claimed to help with clean-up at the site of a massive oil spill. In 2013, there was an oil spill incident in Hong Kong close to Lamma Island and it caused huge maritime oil pollution problems. As the old saying goes ‘many heads work better than one’, and Harada, the young technician, envisioned an alternative oil-cleaning technology that runs on cheap materials and is fast and open-source that can be freely adapted and improved by others. And this is how the story of Protei began.
The purpose of his robotic boats startup, Scoutbots, is to further research and develop Protei, a DIY wind-powered shape-shifting sailing boat that can collect ocean data and help clean-up oil spills by transporting the necessary clean-up equipment. Against all odds, the project aims to reverse the norms of most business priorities, which maximise profit upfront. For Harada’s initiative, profit-making and nature protection are weighted with equal importance. It’s clearly stated in Scoutbot’s philosophy.
‘we believe that we need a healthy environment to nurture people, so can be creative with meaningful technologies that have a positive environmental impact, while making money’.
In the long run, Protei will hopefully be a basic model for entering a new market with automated boats that serve to clean up after maritime disasters. Even with Hong Kong’s oil spill incident last year, great ecological impacts were left behind: “locals fish and swim in the water and there are mussels on the seabed that are still covered in oil”, Harada commented in the same news article from a local newspaper.
Like many others, Harada’s story has been something we can look up to: a good use of technology and creativity for inspiring action. The most trying part of his story is that Protei is not a static patented object solely for profit making, it’s evolving with many people’s efforts and ideas put together. There is even a local social media group with young people and poly-technic students working out how to protect the ocean with open technologies as a community.