Oct 28 2015
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is supporting a new competition to identify innovative technologies that reduce carbon emissions and bring them to market quicker.
The Decarbonathon is a competition created at the initiative of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, which aims to develop innovations that mitigate CO2 emissions arising from cities in order to fight global warming.
Several global organisations have been involved in this event, including ENGIE, NPL's Centre for Carbon Measurement, Climate-KIC and the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI).
Participants are invited to propose solutions in several areas: sustainable mobility, energy efficient buildings, sustainable energy production and consumption. Their solutions should be applicable at city level by municipalities or by private citizens in a short period of two to five years.
Registration is open until 22 November 2015. The selected teams, coached by experts, will have three weeks to refine their project ideas before the final hackathon will be held on 14 and 15 January 2016 in Paris. Following further coaching by science and business experts at the event, teams will have 10 minutes to present their projects and convince the jury.
The winners will benefit from publicity around the project and direct contact with potential investors. They will also be eligible for a start-up acceleration program of two to six months with the support of partners of the event, to get these new technologies on the market quickly, in addition to prizes including electric bikes and eco-friendly trips.
Gérard Mestrallet, Chairman and CEO of ENGIE, said:
"With our partners, we are fully committed to support this initiative of Young Global Leaders, which demonstrates our involvement to bring out the most advanced solutions in terms of energy efficiency.
"Within the ENGIE group, we aim to stimulate innovation in all its forms; we have therefore launched dynamic policy on the matter, either to develop new ideas internally or to support innovative start-ups. After a first hackathon on 'smart energy applications' in 2014 and a second on drones this year, this 'Decarbonathon' is particularly important to us, as it deals with the fight against climate change, on which the Group is fully committed. As a partner of COP21, we would indeed mobilise all energies to find solutions to reduce CO2."