Inna Braverman is a 2019 finalist of the WE Empower United Nations Sustainable Development Goals challenge and an innovative entrepreneur generating green electricity in Israel using ocean waves . In the following article, WE Empower Intern Jordan Leiter highlights Braverman, her company Eco Wave Power (EWP) and shows how it promotes gender equality and other sustainable development goals.
Inna Braverman is the co-owner, CEO, and founder of Eco Wave Power (EWP), an organization supporting affordable and clean energy through the development & implementation of its globally patented and innovative technology.
The technology generates clean electricity from waves. Braverman’s company supports and promotes the sustainable development goals by providing a path to affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), creating innovative technology and infrastructure (SDG 9), and taking climate action (SDG 13) via the previous two SDGs. EWP’s technology was hailed as “pioneering” by the Energy Ministry of Israel and the company received an Efficient Solution label from the Solar Impulse Foundation and was awarded funding by the Horizon 2020 & ERDF EU programs. However, EWP is not just focused on Israel as the company is “set on implementing its innovative technology worldwide” with a mission to “expand global renewable energy production by making wave energy an integral part of the renewable energy mix.”
However, EWP acts as more than an innovator in the green energy business. The company also promotes gender equality by taking significant efforts to hire and promote women in key positions within the company. Research shown that women are still largely underrepresented in the technological sector. According to C40, women only represent 17% of employees, 4% of software engineers and 1% of leadership positions in the combined science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector. Only 3% of venture capital partners are women, and just 14% of start-up investors (or “Business Angels”) are women. Research also shows that start-ups led by men receive over 16 times more funding than those led by women, and survey data suggests that this disparity is gender-based. Hence, Braverman works to close the gap in STEM through equality of representation.
In addition to placing women in key roles in the company, many of the heads and managers of some EWP subsidiaries are women. In Braverman’s words: “I truly believe in inspiring and empowering other women, and I really hope that my work with Eco Wave Power will inspire other women to do the same.”