From the 25th – 26th of October, our lighthouse cities, Trondheim and Limerick, participated on the Global Climathon day. Such events aim at bringing together citizens, cities and local economies to develop local solutions to climate challenges. Both cities invited their citizens to join and cooperate with like-minded people who want to have an impact on finding new ways to help the city transition to achieve more sustainable urban ecosystems and lower their carbon footprint.
As part of +CityxChange, Space Engagers hosted the first Limerick Climathon focusing on climate challenges faced by Limerick city. The event generated a lot of interest and innovative ideas by bringing together +CityxChange partners, university students, entrepreneurs, local government and community groups who worked in teams to develop solutions. One of the key successes of the Climathon was the co-design experience embedded in the event structure, something we hope to repeat next year. The contributions of +CityxChange partners including Limerick City and County Council, the University of Limerick, Future Analytics Consulting, Integrated Environmental Solutions, GKinetic, and Smart MPower, as well as Trondheim +CityxChange project manager, Dirk Ahlers, contributed strongly to the collaborative nature of the Limerick Climathon. The winning team, ReStory, will receive supports to develop an online portal for sharing stories on underused buildings and how to bring them back into use.
The city challenge of this year’s Climathon for Trondheim was: Citizens in Positive Energy Districts. 26 participants from 13 different countries joined Climathon Trondheim 2019. In 24 hours, they learned about the complexity of this year’s city challenge, were formed into 6 teams, talked to various mentors, got tips on pitching and design thinking and even tried some Bollywood dance. At final pitch, each team got 5 minutes to present their ideas to the jury. The winners are Nabosol (co-sharing and crowdfunding platform for solar panel installations), Co-using (community housing, a shared work and living space to reduce the climate impact from the building sector) and WeCare (the League of Energy with neighbourhoods). Click to view the program.
