✦ Greenstone Project: EKOA. The Sustainability Knowledge-Sharing Framework, in progress

🌐 Website: https://ekoa-framework.org

Role: Founder & Lead Researcher - EKOA Framework 

Duration: 2 Years Skills: Systems Thinking, Policy Design, Global Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability Frameworks, Data Analysis, Project Management

The Core Problem Schools continuously generate brilliant, student-led sustainability solutions, from water filtration to composting, but struggle to keep them alive. When student teams graduate or priorities shift, months of research are often abandoned in forgotten digital folders. This forces schools globally to "reinvent the wheel," repeating the same research and implementation phases for identical problems rather than building on existing successes.

The Solution EKOA is a comprehensive system designed to capture, measure, and scale student-driven environmental initiatives. Developed initially at Green School Bali and supported by rigorous data analysis through Syracuse University coursework, the framework ensures that effective sustainability solutions are documented and shared for global institutional adoption.

The Four Pillars of EKOA

• Measurement: Establishing clear, data-driven baselines to definitively prove a project's impact rather than relying on assumptions.

• Implementation: Transforming successful initiatives into actionable, documented blueprints that other schools can easily adapt and put into practice.

• Student Execution: Positioning students not just as idea generators, but as the primary drivers of research, measurement, and hands-on operational work.

• Institutional Policy: Encouraging school administrations to take ownership of proven, student-tested solutions, embedding them into long-term operational targets and formal school policies.

Current Reach & Future Vision: The framework has moved beyond its initial pilot phase into a five-region global trial spanning schools in New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Ireland, and the UAE. With over 30 additional institutions expressing interest and preliminary conversations with UNESCO's greening education initiatives underway, EKOA aims to fundamentally shift how educational institutions sustain, share, and scale environmental action.

✦ Quest Project: Mycelium-Based Microplastic Filter, 2022-2023

Role: Lead Innovator | Researcher | Public Speaker
Timeline: 1 year (Initiated as an 8th-grade capstone project)
Skills: Environmental science, biomimicry, lab testing, public speaking, sustainable design, field implementation

Overview:
As an independent research project launched in 8th grade, I explored the use of mycelium-based filters to remove microplastics and agricultural contaminants from water systems. This year-long initiative was born from a desire to merge natural systems with low-tech environmental innovation.

Scientific Development:

• Developed biodegradable filters using mycelium grown on coffee waste, a local and sustainable substrate.

• Designed the filtration system to target microplastics, pesticides, and chemical residues.

• Partnered with a Jakarta lab to test effectiveness results showed 100% filtration success in lab conditions.

Field Implementation:

• Deployed prototype in a Balinese Subak irrigation system, in collaboration with Sungai Watch, a leading waterway conservation NGO.

• Worked directly with farmers and field monitors to track real-world performance.

Communication & Impact:

• Delivered a 10-minute TED Talk-style presentation to a public audience, presenting my process, data, and key takeaways.

• Collected, analyzed, and documented experimental data independently at age 13, refining the filter over several test iterations.