Summary

Nexleaf is a non-profit technology company that provides organizations, governments, and manufacturers sensors that are designed to provide real-time monitoring and data collection. Sensors are paired with cell-phone-based technologies to access important information from remote locations.

Program goals

Nexleaf serves and partners with rural households, local health clinics, nonproft organizations, academic and government researchers, and health agencies. The versatile, sensory technology has impacted various low-income communities solving the most pressing issues related to public health and the environment. 

Key program components

Nexleaf engages with several projects around the world, implementing the sensory technology in various communities that address water and sanitation hygiene (WASH), vaccines, wildlife conservation, and clean cookstoves.

The ColdTrace technology is a wireless sensor that is installed in both clinics and mobile storage facilities. The sensors provide real-time data that monitors temperature, power, and GPS location. It produces SMS messages and PDF reports that can be accessed remotely on a global, shared database and can be retreived at any given time. 

Features of ColdTrace include:

• Generates SMS alerts about equipment failures and medicines reaching critical temperatures.
• Uploads temperature traces via SMS or cellular network.
• Continuously tracks GPS location coordinates.
• Cellphone’s display and keypad facilitates extensive local configuration including communication and upload intervals.
• ColdTrace database keeps a constant log of temperatures in clinic refrigeration units and allows for analysis of failure rates across local, regional, and national areas.
• Web dashboard supports remote configuration, device status monitoring, data visualization, and sharing with donors, NGOs, ministries of health. 
• Can integrate with existing logistics management information systems in order to oversee and provide alerts about cold chain equipment at each stage of the distribution.

ColdTrace is transforming the cold chain industry by providing low-cost sensors that produce real-time data used to monitor vaccines' productivity, track the location of vaccines, and make informed decisions by relevant stakeholders.

The sensory technology is also being used in rural India to monitor how frequent people use clean cookstoves. Clean cookstoves rely heavily on biomass as the main source of fuel and are designed to significantly reduce carbon emissions and indoor air pollution by 70%. The sensory technology allows program implementers to monitor frequency in usage. This information can then be used to address program deficits, local concerns, and program expansion. It also provides users with real-time data of low carbon emissions. This data can be used to access carbon markets and receive carbon credits as an alternative source of income. 

Nexleaf teachnology is being implemented in Indonesia to address water and sanitation hygiene (WASH). Using SMS-enabled technology, impoverished communities can communicae with their water sanitation providers. Users can share questions and concerns that can be access on a shared database. This useful channel allows users and providers to access a thread of interactions that include pertinent problems and solutions. The technology was designed to promote community engagement and active participation. Through this medium, users and providers can help improve ervices and disseminate important information.