The high cost of electricity is spurring demand for alternative power source. Beyond solar-powered lights, there is the saltwater-powered lamp invented by Engr. Aisa Labastilla, a 2019 TOYM and 2025 LIF Global Sustainability awardee, as well as entrepreneur and professor at De La Salle Lipa.

SALt (Sustainable Alternative Light) Go, as the lamp is called, was born more than a decade ago, when Labastilla was still working with an environmental non-government organization and spending time with families in remote, unelectrified island communities in the Philippines.

“I lived among people whose nights depended on dim and dangerous kerosene lamps. I saw mothers trying to cook through smoke-filled rooms, children struggling to study in poor light, and families spending what little they had just to keep a flame alive for another night,” recalls Labastilla.

That sparked an idea.

“It was difficult to accept that in a country surrounded by seas, many communities still lived in darkness. That was when I began asking myself: what if the very water around them could become part of the solution? From that question came the first spark of the SALt Lamp, an innovation rooted not in convenience, but in empathy,” says Labastilla.

Lives changed

The SALt lamp, which can be ordered in online stores, is a plastic capsule with an LED light and power block inside. When a spoonful of salt mixed with water is poured inside the capsule and comes into contact with the power block, a chemical reaction ensues that generates electricity via redox (reduction–oxidation). The salt corrodes the anode or reactive metal releasing electrons which flow through a circuit to power the LED.

Labastilla’s invention put her on the global spotlight. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in 2015, she had the honor of meeting former United States president Barack Obama and Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

But the most memorable reaction to the SALt Lamp came from the very first beneficiaries of her innovation, the informal settler families living under a bridge in her hometown in Lipa, Batangas.

“When we showed them that a lamp could turn on using only saltwater, they stared in disbelief. Then their faces slowly changed into smiles, wonder, and hope. Their eyes lit up before the lamp fully did,” Labastilla remembers.

“That moment reminded me that the most meaningful applause does not come from conference halls or world stages, it comes from people whose lives are changed in the quietest corners of society.”

Not giving up

Like any invention, the SALt Lamp has its birth pains. Scaling the product is a challenge for Labastilla’s social enterprise.

“Turning an idea into a physical product is a difficult journey, especially when it involves manufacturing. Unlike software, you cannot build it with code alone. You cannot just bootstrap. You need materials, machines, factories, logistics, testing, and constant refinement, all of which require substantial capital and patience,” says Labastilla.

“For us, the hardest part was simply producing the first product. It took four years of setbacks, learning curves, and relentless determination before we could bring the SALt Lamp to life,” she adds.

“There were many moments when it would have been easier to stop. But when your mission is to bring light to those left in the dark, giving up is never really an option.”

Labastilla continues to promote SALt Lamp to give people an option to save on electricity cost.