Brian, 24, Texas - I’m excited to present you with a program that celebrates the last two Nobel Peace Prize concepts: environment and microfinance.

Electronic waste like cell phones pollute the environment (up to 35,000 gallons per phone) and microfinance has been proven to be an effective poverty alleviation tool. In response to these issues and as a fundraising technique, we created the Recycle to Eradicate Poverty program.

In one sentence, we recycle used cell phones to fund microfinance loans to the poor.

At www.onemillioncellphones.com, we allow anyone who has access to the Internet to get pre-paid baggies and make a difference. After entering in your information, we send as many baggies as you want to you so that you can in turn distribute them among events, in offices, to pass out, etc. Each person simply puts their cell phones inside a baggie and places it into their mailbox. 

Using this process, we hope to beat the One Million Cell Phone Challenge. Recycling one million cell phones across America will save 350 trillion gallons of water (enough to stop Niagara Falls for 72 years) and allow 100,000 women to rise from poverty through microfinance (enough to fill the brand new Dallas Cowboys Stadium).

Andy Posner, 24, USA - Van Jones and others are showing how a green collar economy can solve both social and environmental problems. My idea is to take that one step further by using the power of micro-credit and targeted green entrepreneurship training and mentoring to ensure that the green businesses of tomorrow are started by women, people of color, and low-income individuals, all of whom have been traditionally left out of the old, “grey” economy.

By providing affordable loans of $500 to $10,000 and combining them with additional support and training, my initiative will create jobs, a more vibrant, inclusive green economy, and solve environmental problems through the power of entrepreneurship.

I am working with experts in the fields of business skills and green job training to create a curriculum to support the entrepreneurs. In addition, I have spent the last five months laying a groundwork for the creation of a micro-finance program in Providence, Rhode island–a city with both high unemployment and poverty rates.

Working collaboratively with a number of community partners, a “buzz” has already been generated in the community. The impact of this program will be that all entrepreneurs with great, green ideas will have the chance to realize their dreams.