ISM Students Win Global Environmental Sustainability Competition for Kultibado, a Food Waste Web App

Two Grade 11 students, Hailey Yap and Yume Yorita, are making waves in the global sustainability space after being named the Oceania and Southeast Asia Regional Winners of The Earth Prize 2025 for their innovative web app, Kultibado. This app aims to reduce food waste by bridging the gap between farmers and consumers.

The Earth Prize is an environmental sustainability competition for teenagers offering $100,000 in prizes to the most impactful projects addressing critical environmental issues. With the goal of empowering the next generation of environmental leaders, the competition provides a global platform for the youth to share and scale their solutions. The Earth Prize features seven Regional Winners representing Africa, Asia, Central & South America, Europe, Middle East, North America, and Oceania & Southeast Asia–which Hailey and Yume have been selected for. What an amazing feat!

A Vision Rooted in Purpose

“At 13, I learned that my father had coronary artery disease (CAD). While working with students in Tondo, I discovered that many missed classes due to poor nutrition. These events fueled my curiosity about the connection between health, food systems, and sustainability,” Hailey shared. Yume said that it was seeing the fluctuating prices for produce at the supermarket that sparked her interest in learning more about these issues. “The existence of middlemen and the various inconsistencies in our current food system made me wonder whether this problem was being addressed, or if it was just being ignored and accepted as a part of everyday life,” she questioned. As both of them learned, a large portion of agricultural produce goes to waste due to these supply chain inefficiencies, leading to severe consequences from food waste emitting methane to farmers suffering significant economic losses.

Driven by their shared desire to tackle these challenges, Hailey and Yume designed a marketplace-web-app that enables farmers to connect directly with consumers and cooperatives, allowing farmers to join nearby cooperatives through the app, and cooperatives to list products for corporate and individual buyers. By eliminating middlemen, Kultibado helps farmers earn more while providing fresh and affordable producers to buyers at a lower price. At the same time, it empowers cooperatives to sell surplus and visually-unappealing produce, addressing food waste, methane emissions, and access to nutritious food all at once.

Learning from Local Leaders

The development of Kultibado was strengthened through the wisdom and experience of fellow Filipinos. “Through our journey, we also met, connected with, and learned from incredible Filipinos, who prompted us to think innovatively and multidimensionally,” said Hailey and Yume. They collaborated with local organizations in different industries including restaurants, advertising & development agencies, telecommunications companies, and agri-business social enterprises. These partners helped them understand real-world challenges in our existing food systems, refine their web app, and explore ways to bridge the digital divide for farmers across the Philippines. “Through these interactions, we realized just how much of an impact one inefficient system can have not just on economic sustainability, but also on environmental and social sustainability,” Hailey and Yume shared. Additionally, they also had the opportunity to test their model, which reduced produce costs by 72%.
 

Shaping a More Sustainable Future

While both students acknowledge the challenges their generation faces in solving inherited environmental issues, they remain hopeful. “From my perspective, while we are constantly reminded that we must change how we live, our reliance on ingrained habits demands more intentional effort than what our existing approaches address,” Yume shared. Hailey added, “Living sustainably goes beyond the individual. It requires a fundamental shift in how we organize our world.” Truly, the power to shape the future lies in the decisions made today. 

As the Oceania and Southeast Asia Regional Winners of The Earth Prize 2025, and with Kultibado now set for implementation, Hailey and Yume are optimistic about the future of sustainable food systems in the country. Their success highlights the potential of young innovators to contribute meaningfully to environmental sustainability and serves as an inspiration for their peers to engage in creating solutions for a better world.​ Congratulations, Hailey and Yume!

The Earth Prize 2025 Global Winner will be selected from the seven regional winners on April 22, 2025. If you’d like to learn more, or show your support by casting a vote for Kultibado, follow Hailey and Yume’s journey here.

 

All photos courtesy of Hailey Yap and Yume Yorita.