Emily Cummins

20 year-old Emily Cummins is an ethical inventor and entrepreneur whose latest invention – a sustainable fridge – is set to change the lives of people in the third world. The idea, developed during her self-funded gap year in Africa, was conceived as a solution to help combat global warming.

Emily decided to take refrigerator technology ‘back to basics’ and create a refrigerator that ran off sustainable energy. By using a medium such as sheep wool, which would hold water, the sun’s energy would be strong enough to cause the water to evaporate.  She created an inner cylinder to transfer the heat, leaving a completely dry and cold compartment.

As the technology is so simple Emily realised that her sustainable fridge would be perfect for use in the third world; it could be used to keep AIDS drugs and other medicines cool, as well as storing food and water.

Emily is now developing a second generation refrigerator which can cool to lower temperatures, and has recently visited Africa again where she began to teach people how to produce her first model.

She said, “The biggest problem I had was coming up with the idea, the problem. Once you find that, you can then start looking at other products, researching and developing.”

Emily has received a string of awards, including British Female Innovator of the Year award 2007 and the Diamond Award for Exceptional Creativity at the British Female Inventors and Innovators Awards. In addition, Emily was named the Technology Woman of the Future 2006, and is an Ambassador for the Make Your Mark campaign.