How these projects in North America and Latin America are innovating beyond their hemisphere
The five honorees in North America and the honoree from Latin America illustrate the diversity and scope of the problems being solved across the western hemisphere. Some are standout local and state initiatives, such as climate-proofing homes in California and improving access to healthcare in the rural Midwest; others are exceptional innovations with global reach, such as breakthroughs in food tech and copper mining. Latin America Winner. A new approach to copper extraction, Ceibo Copper is an integral part of the technology we use every day, but producing it at scale is a growing challenge. Santiago, Chile–based Ceibo has developed a way to extract copper from other ores using sulfide leaching, an approach that works faster than other leaching methods and can recover up to 80% of the copper in a given ore. Designed to fit within existing copper mines, the technology uses five times less water than other methods, with one-third to half of the carbon emissions. Toward the end of 2025, the company began operating a demo plant on site at the Compañía Minera San Gerónimo in Chile, running continuously for six months and producing its first copper cathodes within 90 days. North America Winners ChompSaw, ChompshopOriginating as a master’s degree project at UPenn—and with a boost from a 2024 Shark Tank appearance—ChompSaw is a child-safe power tool that allows kids aged three and older to shape intricate 3D designs out of cardboard. It operates with a high-speed, oscillating hole punch that “chomps” through cardboard without sharp blades and has a protective safety guard. It teaches spatial awareness to young learners to create the next generation of inventors and problem-solvers. Since selling out multiple times in the 2024–2025 holiday season, the company has positioned itself as a classroom tool, offering a free curriculum on its website with downloadable instructions for building complex objects like airplanes, puppets, and puck slingshots. Climate-resilient homes, Home