The Climathon is a global 24-hour hackathon which will take place simultaneously in more than 120 cities around the world on 28 October 2016. This is close to the themes we tackled at Ecovillages in May.
On this day the City of Zurich will provide challenges related to local energy, food and climate change adaptation problems. The 24 hour hack will run from Friday, October 28 to Saturday, October 29 at Impact Hub Zurich - free registration here.
During Friday evening there will be several workshops about coding, design, hardware and business models, one of which I hope to facilitate. I’m looking forward to hacking once again at this great venue and doing some work on a highly compelling topic. For some hack-spiration check out make.opendata.ch projects and these links:
The Climathon is focusing on the challenges of climate change in your city. If you have already an idea in mind for a local climate change solutions you are welcome to work on it during the Climathon.
1st Challenge
In order to address climate change, cities will need to adapt to new climate conditions (especially heat hot spots in urbanised areas). How can the city of Zurich improve the quality of life for its citizens in the heavily constructed outdoor spaces (squares, parking spaces etc.), which are subjected to an increase of heatwaves and rising temperatures in summer due to climate change.
The idea is to create cost-effective and simple solutions that can be easily moved and removed. Solutions should be able to be implemented without construction and planning measures.
2nd Challenge
How can the City of Zurich motivate homeowners and renters to save energy and implement renewable energy solutions in their homes and businesses?
Solutions should focus on the following:
Motivating homeowners to change to a climate-friendly heating system
Convincing homeowners to retrofit their buildings in an energy-efficient way
Creating new incentives for homeowners and renters to save heating energy and electricity
The priority focus of the solutions should lie in innovative business models and the removal of complexity in switching to climate-friendly sources of energy.
3rd Challenge
How can citizens and households of Zurich be encouraged to buy and eat more climate-friendly food (less CO2 emissions) and to reduce food-waste.
Solutions should focus on the following:
Making use of existing product information about food so citizens can reduce carbon footprint when shopping
Avoiding food-waste in the households due to easy to use solutions
4th Challenge
How can the individual reduction of greenhouse gases for a defined track be measured and reported and how can citizens be motivated to adapt their behaviour due to that collected information?
The idea is to track and report the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of a person due to walking, using public transport or bicycle instead of using a motorised vehicle. Solutions should include measures to motivate people to reduce their carbon footprint.
While the Climathon is now “sold out” (tickets are free, but were limited to 100 participants) there is still a waiting list, and the possibility will exist to interact virtually with participants on this forum. So follow #climathon and stay tuned!
