Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab

When the climate crisis hits, nonprofits often show up first. Here’s what happens when they’re given the tools to match their passion, technology is powered by humanity, and our greatest challenges become our greatest breakthroughs.

When the climate crisis hits a farming village in East Africa or fires devastate a forest the size of Panama in Latin America, they show up first. These nonprofits have been there for years, earning the trust of farming communities, young people, and local governments. They know the challenges inside out. They have built the relationships, gathered the data, and found solutions. What they don’t have is the technology to distribute and scale those solutions.

That’s what the Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab was built for. It is a partnership between Lenovo and Tech To The Rescue (TTTR), a global nonprofit that helps social impact organizations scale what already works, using technology and AI. The program launched in September 2024 as part of TTTR’s AI for Changemakers Accelerator Program. Lenovo serves as associate sponsor, providing mentorship, AI tools, expert guidance, and skilling curriculum to selected nonprofits.

This Earth Day we celebrate five organizations focused on climate, who graduated from the program. Each one was selected because their work was already proven. They received hardware, AI tools, and direct collaboration with skilled Lenovo technologists.

This is what they built.

nonprofits selected for the Lab

60+

countries reached by the broader program

years collaborating

climate-focused organizations supported

42K

people using solutions from the Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab

7M+

people indirectly benefitting from the Lab

Our goal with the Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab is to help grassroots solutions scale, by making sure they're equipped not only with knowledge, but with the right tools to build.

Santiago Mendez Galvis, EMEA Head of Philanthropy, Lenovo

The Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab is more than just a tech boost. It brings strategic added value to Tech To The Rescue's broader AI for Changemakers program. While the AI for Changemakers accelerator offers mentorship, strategy, and community support to help nonprofits integrate AI into their missions, the Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab ensures that selected organizations have the cutting-edge tools and resources needed to make that integration a reality.

Jacek Siadkowski, Co-founder and CEO, Tech To The Rescue

Brazil Flying Labs

Brazil | Global

When wildfires tear through a forest, the decisions that follow — where restoration starts, where resources go — determine how fast communities recover. Brazil Flying Labs built an AI platform that turns complex satellite imagery into clear answers for the people making those calls. A field manager can ask “Which regions need urgent restoration?” and get a response in seconds, without waiting for outside experts. Previously, teams relied on manual analysis that was slow, costly, and often incomplete. The platform now supports up to 1,000 land managers across São Paulo’s conservation units and indirectly benefits over 15 million people in fire-prone regions. It is being validated across multiple countries through the Flying Labs network.

Participating in the Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab was a pivotal moment for our team. The program strengthened our technical capabilities through access to cutting-edge resources and mentorship, while helping us refine how we apply AI to real-world environmental challenges.

Diego Ferruzzo, Brazil Flying Labs

Reboot the Future

United Kingdom | Global

Reboot the Future helps teachers bring sustainability and values-led education into their classrooms — with a library of over 1,600 resources built for educators who are already stretched thin. Finding the right resource was slow and inconsistent, dependent on manual tagging a small team couldn’t keep pace with. Their AI solution reads and understands each resource automatically, tagging it by subject, age group, and sustainability themes. Teachers find what they need faster. The team focuses on quality instead of cataloguing. The platform supports 22,000 teachers, each reaching around 30 students — a potential reach of 660,000+ learners across the UK.

Working with the Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab has been transformational for Reboot the Future. Lenovo's support helped us design a solution that not only streamlines content management but also makes resources more discoverable for educators. This partnership has laid the foundations for scalable impact for teachers.

Anthony Bennett, CEO, Reboot the Future

Justdiggit

Tanzinia | East Africa

Justdiggit restores degraded land by teaching farmers regreening techniques that actually work. The bottleneck has never been the method — it’s been reaching enough people with it. In their app Kijani, they built an AI tutor that answers farmers’ technical questions instantly, guides them to the right content, and checks their understanding in the field. What previously required a trainer present now happens in a farmer’s pocket in rural Tanzania. Around 1,500 people have already used the solution — before full integration is even complete.

Lenovo gives us something we don't always have: the space to try things, get it wrong, and figure out what actually works at scale.

Carl Lens, Head of Digital Regreening, Justdiggit

Reap Benefit

India

Reap Benefit mobilizes young people across India to take on local civic and environmental challenges. The work is real — organizing waste drives, advocating for clean water, fixing community infrastructure. What hasn’t been real, until now, is how that work appears on a resume. Their AI-powered Skill-Translator engine processes field reports, maps actions to professional micro-skills, and builds each young person a verified Changemaker Portfolio. Employers can see it, educators can recognize it, and the work stops being invisible. To date, 25,000+ young people have access to the system, with 47,000+ real-world environmental actions already processed.

The Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab has been a catalyst in moving us from fragmented data to an integrated, AI-powered ecosystem. This partnership has allowed us to build the internal muscle needed to ensure that grassroots climate action is finally recognized as a high-value professional asset.

Gauthamraj Elango, Tech Leader, Reap Benefit

Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR)

India

WOTR has spent decades improving water security and agricultural resilience across thousands of villages in India. Smallholder farmers needed timely, localized advice on crops, weather, and pests. Traditional extension systems were too slow and too generic to deliver it. FarmPrecise GPT, an AI assistant embedded in their existing app, lets farmers ask questions in natural language and get context-aware answers in real time. The pilot is running with 1,000 farmers in Maharashtra. The potential scale: 120,000+ users across the FarmPrecise app, operating in 8 states.

The Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab has enabled WOTR to transition from exploring AI to actively embedding it within our programs. This support has strengthened our internal capabilities and accelerated innovations like FarmPrecise GPT, helping us bring timely, actionable insights to smallholder farmers.

Crispino Lobo, Co-founder & Managing Trustee, WOTR