Press release, 03.11.21 • Cleantech Estonia
For the sixth year in a row, Cleantech Estonia organised the 24-hour Climathon on October 29-30 in Tallinn at Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool and joined the Climathon global movement together with more than 170 cities across the world.
Climathon is a global community of local changemakers and innovators working together to help their cities achieve net zero emissions. This year, the topic was quite broad and any solution that contributes to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030 by 40%, in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 in Tallinn was more than welcome!
This year’s participants had the opportunity to attend several workshops that provided them with new skills and knowledge so that they could elevate their ideas, boost collaboration and boundless ideation as well as receive instant and critical feedback from the mentors to reiterate and advance their ideas. Jip Leendertse from Utrecht University, held a workshop about Transition Model Canvas that supported the participants to form their solutions by using systems innovation approach. In addition, the participants benefited from Studio Leek’s design workshops that gave the participants the tools to ideate, prototype and test their ideas and learned from Vaido Mikheim from Tartu Science Park the best way to pitch their ideas to their audience. Climathon was a great connection for the participants with experts that influence over city plans and policies and benefited from their feedback. Cleantech Estonia’s experts, Erki Ani, Indrek Kelder, Kadri Piho, Karl Pärtel, Triin Viilvere and the EU ClimatePact Ambassador, Cassandra Carr Kaljo were present and supported the teams with their expertise, deep listening, network and knowledge.
To boost creativity and innovation and also enjoy the process and have some fun, during the Climathon the participants had the opportunity to learn about different cultures and enjoy a dance session held by Paris Kontopoulos from Greece who joined the event online, to release some of the tension and enjoy Mediterranean rhythms and also by tasting vegan food from Middle East that Köömen catering had prepared for them.
5 wonderful teams and climate innovative ideas were presented:
WasteLocker - a personalized sorting service, where the customer can track the sorted waste containers with a QR code.
Ringkott - a circular solution for replacing the single use bags for delivery services.
Carbon Pool - a P2P democratized carbon credit marketplace.
Zeropunkt - an app that helps distribute food surpluses to the local community.
FEW - a database of fuel, electricity and waste in renewable vs nonrenewable percentages for companies in Estonia.
The jury decided to give further opportunities to the 3 top ideas: WasteLocker, Zeropunkt and Carbon Pool, by offering monetary prizes and also 3 months of mentorship by CleantechEstonia. Additionally, WasteLocker won an entry to the pre-Accelerator Beamline program and FEW won an entry to ClimateLaunchpad accelerator program. Ringkott, won 75€ gift cards from Ilma Pood, the first zero waste shop in Tallinn and currently in Tartu and Zeropunkt has the opportunity to pilot their idea together with Tallinn City Government. All the participants have the possibility to apply to the New European Bauhaus awards and win 10.000€ seed funding to develop their ideas.
The jury that consisted of:
Erki Ani - CEO at Cleantech Estonia
Lauri Tõnise - Head of ERGO Estonia corporate unit
Merit Valdsalu - Co-Founder and CEO at Single.Earth
Mihkel Kaevats - Head of Green Competence Centre at Tallinn City
Jaagup Ainsalu - Head of Smart Mobility at Tallinn Transport Department
Cassandra Carr Kaljo - EUClimatePact Ambassador
Climathon was organised by Cleantech Estonia, led by Katerina Chantzi, with the great support of ERGO Insurance and Tallinn City Government.
If you have questions about the startups or about the Climathon program, contact the program lead of Estonia, Katerina Chantzi at katerina@cleantechestonia.ee.
Climathon is a city-based programme, created by EIT Climate-KIC, that offers a clear pathway to action and interaction - an opportunity for cities and citizens to co-create local ideas to shared climate challenges. At the core of the programme is an ideathon organised by passionate local organisers; the people who know their cities and climate challenges the best.
#climathon #hackathon
