Climathon Stories

Cities and Citizens to be Recognized on World Stage for Transformative Climate Solutions

On 31 January 2020, five cities and ten winning teams will take center stage at the Climathon Global Awards, presented by EIT Climate-KIC.

Climate-KIC
Author
2019
Year
Happy hackers.jpg

On 31 January 2020, five cities and ten winning teams will take center stage at the Climathon Global Awards, presented by EIT Climate-KIC. Together, the top finalists will be celebrated for their climate action solutions tackling urban challenges at the ChangeNOW International Summit for Change in Paris. It will be the debut of Climathon's most promising solutions to the world.

The Climathon Global Awards represents the culmination of an international movement that brought citizens and cities together to co-create and solve the local climate issues. EIT Climate-KIC is proud to announce the nominees for the most transformative ideas that are securing a resilient future for humanity and improving the everyday lives of communities across the globe.

Climathon Global Award Nominees: Cities Track

Awarded to forward-thinking municipalities with a systemic action plan in place

Dublin, Ireland

  • Climate Challenge: Water management, retrofitting, extreme weather
  • Solution: Working with Communities in Greening Dublin - The project will assess the viability of integrating natural water retention measures into community green spaces to address flood risks in Dublin. Improved management of surface water will deliver improved air quality and reduced noise pollution while increasing local biodiversity and community cohesion.
  • Find more information here.

Khartoum, Sudan

  • Climate Challenge: Human behaviour, extreme weather, food
  • Solution: Documentation of Local Climate Knowledge - In Sudan, there has never been any holistic documentation of local climate knowledge, despite the city’s experience in coping with extreme weather events for centuries. The project aims to document and disseminate Sudanese climate knowledge to develop robust climate solutions based on local knowledge and practices, thus stimulating active and sustained community participation.
  • Find more information here.

Miami, USA

  • Climate Challenge: Mobility, human behaviour, urban transition
  • Solution: Wynwood Living Street - This project pilots a new type of public space for the city of Miami: The Woonerf, a shared pedestrian-friendly streetscape. The creation of a comfortable, walkable urban space is critical to combatting greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging alternate modes of transit for citizens. The project embeds science in public space design to address impacts of climate extremes on the urban environment.
  • Find more information here.

Penang, Malaysia

  • Climate Challenge: Extreme weather, water management, human behaviour
  • Solution: Nature-Based Climate Adaptation for the Urban Areas of Penang Island - The project implements nature-based solutions to reduce climate change impacts and threats to human life, infrastructure and property while strengthening social resilience and building institutional capital. This community-focused approach includes a strong knowledge-transfer component to ensure the methodology can be adopted in the future by other cities in Malaysia.
  • Find more information here.

Salvador, Brazil

  • Climate Challenge: Waste management, food, water management
  • Solution: Sustainable Schools for a Resilient Salvador - The project applies three nature-based solutions to public schools: school gardens, a composting system, and water recycling installations. It serves as a climate education area for children, positively impacts the eating habits of citizens, and promotes social cohesion as people come closer to engage with the project.
  • Find more information here.

Climathon Global Award Nominees: Citizens Track

Awarded to a citizen or team who won their city’s Climathon between 2015-2019 

Blitzer4Future - Vienna, Austria

  • Climate Challenge: Mobility
  • Solution: In Vienna, there are several traffic areas with a high frequency of single-occupancy commuters. Blitzer4Future is a comprehensive, carpooling campaign that makes use of roadside installations in congested areas. These installations reward carpoolers with positive feedback while providing solo travelers with information on sustainable transportation alternatives.

Blocktricity Asset Management - Paris, France

  • Climate Challenge: Climate finance
  • Solution: Blocktricity Asset Management bridges the gap in energy funding to help finance cheaper energy projects such as improved energy efficiency for batteries, PV panels, or the ‘Internet of Things’. The blockchain solution drastically changes the way of funding impact projects so that environmental transitions can prosper on the smallest scale.

Carbon0 - San Francisco, USA

  • Climate Challenge: Human behaviour
  • Solution: Carbon0 is an AR location-based game that takes players on real-world missions like cultivating plants and algae. Users take selfies after completing every mission and are encouraged to share their accomplishments on social media. The goal is to motivate citizens to reduce their carbon footprints while promoting a more sustainable lifestyle.

CloseBy.ch - Zurich, Switzerland

  • Climate Challenge: Human behaviour
  • Solution: Traveling to exotic destinations is now a thing of the past. With closeBy.ch, stunning places are just around the corner. The platform allows users to search for potential travel destinations in Switzerland side by side to their well-known sibling. It produces key metrics for each trip including the time, money and CO2 saved.

Co-using - Trondheim, Norway

  • Climate Challenge: Human behaviour
  • Solution: Co-using is a new social order that structures society based on activity levels, common interests, and daily space utilisation. Citizens cohabitate in modular dwellings and pay by the amount of time and space they take up. The benefits include reduced commute time, reduced rent, and increased social engagement. 

Edible Roofs - Zurich, Switzerland

  • Climate Challenge: Food
  • Solution: Edible Roofs is a platform that matches public rooftops suitable for urban gardening with citizens interested in renting such spaces. The aim is to reinvent our food systems and reconnect people with their food. By fostering biodiversity, reducing CO2 emissions and connecting communities, it’s a great start towards a more self-sufficient Zürich.

Soap to Soap - Cairo, Egypt

  • Climate Challenge: Waste management
  • Solution: The programme recycles single-use hotel soap bars and transforms them into a variety of hygiene products for citizens who do not have access to proper sanitation services. By involving rural women in the manufacturing and sales processes, Soap to Soap promises to reduce poverty while increasing women empowerment.

UrBnBee - Liège, Belgium

  • Climate Challenge: Food
  • Solution: UrBnBee is a collaborative platform that links citizens who own fallow spaces (roofs/cellars/gardens) and potential users who would like to exploit them sustainably through gardening, beekeeping, fungiculture, or horticulture. By sustainably exploiting urban spaces, UrBnBee aims to improve overall health and well-being and to strengthen the social ties of neighborhoods.

WhatPackage - Tallinn, Estonia

  • Climate Challenge: Circular economy
  • Solution: WhatPackage is an international service for package-free shops that enables package-free delivery from door to door. The platform boasts a reusable deposit container system and sustainable delivery. This tool helps shop owners increase their sales by about 30%, reduce packaging waste and the average family's carbon footprint from 1500 kg to 80 kg of CO2.

Woola - Tallinn, Estonia

  • Climate Challenge: Circular economy
  • Solution: Woola is an e-commerce package filling made from sheep wool. It’s lightweight and 40% cheaper than plant-based package fillers. Plus, it has the potential to significantly decrease the production, consumption and landfill waste of environmentally harmful materials like Styrofoam and bubble wrap.

On Global Climathon Day 2019, thousands of citizens across 145 cities joined the movement to transform and decarbonize our communities! By 2022, the programme aims to unite over 1,000 cities, 100,000 participants, and 1 million citizens to come together to develop local solutions to climate challenges. We would like to congratulate the top finalists and thank all the Climathon participants over the past five years. Join EIT Climate-KIC for the Climathon Global Awards at the ChangeNOW Summit in Paris to see the winning solutions in action.

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