eCircular at the Global Climathon
The Global Climathon
On the 25th of October was Global Climathon Day. The idea of this hackathon initiated by EIT Climate-KIC is to tackle climate challenges by engaging people to take climate action.
The Climathon is taking place every year in more than a hundred cities all over the world and brings together communities to work on local climate challenges. Cities identify their issues and challenges. They collaborate with citizens and the economy to develop innovative solutions. Everyone who is interested: students, experts on the climate topics and design thinking methods, but also companies are invited to join and work together for climate action.
eCircular at Climathon Wuppertal
Since one of the local challenges in Wuppertal was addressing waste prevention in urban areas, eCircular was attending the Climathon to support the ideation process and provide as well as receive insights into possible solutions. According to the motto “Let‘s make Wuppertal clean again”, it was the participants‘ task to develop creative approaches for the challenge of littering in Wuppertal.
A first analysis of the status quo in Wuppertal through observation and interviews with citizens but also research into best practice built the base for the ideation process. A brainstorming for solution was followed the guideline “refuse, reduce, reuse” to gather ideas how to solve the local and global problem of waste pollution.
The team “CleanWup” won Climathon Wuppertal 2019. The teams idea is tackling waste challenges through gamification, arts and social media campaigns. The feasible, direct and emotional approach of this solution convinced the jury and will hopefully be transferred into practice.
eCircular at Climathon Lund
Climathon in Lund addressed the impact of the construction industry and one challenge focused on plastics in this industry. As it is the second largest consumer of plastics worldwide (24% of the production of plastics) worldwide and mainly uses plastics, which are challenging to recycle, it was the goal of this challenge to reduce the climate impact of plastics in the construction industry.
eCircular at Climathon Graz
The Climathon in Graz also addressed waste prevention. The “Zero Plastic Waste” challenge aimed to find solutions for the issue of plastics waste pollution using Graz as a testing area for ideas that potentially could be upscaled. The usage of plastic with a focus on single-use products should be reduced and optimized to prevent environmental pollution and to lower the impact on climate change through different lines of actions: from innovative technologies and smart manufacturing to eco-design and new business models, as well as by behavioral change of consumers and new standards and policies. There will soon be a more detailed report about the Climathon Graz on this blog so stay tuned for more insights.
Key insights
The feedback from the Climathon showed great enthusiasm for the topics at hand. Action is being taken and the topic of waste prevention is addressed globally. Let‘s hope to see more creative solutions coming up and bringing change soon to fulfill the eCircular vision of reaching a carbon-neutral material system by 2050!
If you want to stay updated on further developments and get insights from other events, join our LinkedIn group via the button below.