One of the new things that was new at PICNIC this year was the first Green Challenge. $500,000 euros were given by the Dutch Lottery for the best idea to help the environment. It was inspired by a visit last year by Bill Clinton, challenging them to come up with a way to solicit new ideas. They received almost 450 submissions from 50 countries.
Some of the top topics were:
You won't get people to stop consuming, so let's get the to consume better, Richard Branson, member of the Green Challenge board.
Solar Lampion, Damian O'Sullivan
New design for a lantern that would be both aesthetic and mobile. Challenge was to use existing technology for new design. Uses 30 solar panels to create the light and right now also lasts 3 hours. Was nice, but didn't really think it answered the real question posed by the Green Challenge.
Sustainable Dance Club
Change the world by clubbing. Kind of cool way to make dance floors into an energy supplier for dance clubs. Make as many clubs as possible and change the way young people think. One club creates 450,000 kg of carbon/year. They're opening their first club in Rotterdam next year. Of the three entrants I saw, this one was the best in terms of answering the question about sustainability and I think they took a kinda' cool approach to the question.
Green Thing
Free, online community for people that want to change their lifestyles to be more green. Move people from something they have to do to something they want to do. They create a monthly thing, that gives you a way to do something simple to do. For example, in the UK that you should walk once this month. They'll also give you something fun to read, hear, etc., while you walk. Content will be created by artists, etc. Each month you'll also get a new icon that you can collect. They'll also develop a "green youtube" for people to share their successes.
Unfortunately, I had to leave before the presentations were completed, but I'll be putting information up about all 5 finalists sometime over the weekend.
I'm at the press event tonight and the winning entry was a project called Qurrent, that helps to optimize the energy usage in the house by running the appliances automatically at the most energy effecient time. I'll put up more details and links over the weekend.
For its first year, they created a pretty remarkable program and I'm sure they'll continue to expand it throughout the years. For anyone who might be interested, I'll make sure to post information about next years event when it's available.
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