Working together to find solutions for a climate-friendly and sustainable city - that was what the Climathon Germany 2020 was all about. At the same time, the climate hackathon took place in around 145 cities worldwide on 13 and 14 November. This year the HFT Stuttgart and the Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation (WRS) took part as challengers in the large virtual event organised by the Impact Hub Germany and the Climate-KIC.
Around 500 researchers, teachers, students, creative people, entrepreneurs and committed citizens took part in the event in Germany, and more than 25 participants virtually joined together in teams in two Stuttgart challenges. Their goal: to develop ideas for urban climate innovations in the region and to master a challenge, a challenge for the region.
The HFT contributed one of 14 challenges throughout Germany together with the WRS:
How can citizens and companies become active participants in regional climate protection projects, even with small financial investments?
Dr. Dirk Pietruschka, Head of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technology (zafh.net) at the HFT Stuttgart and Professor of Economics Dr. Tobias Popovic, Professor at the HFT Stuttgart and expert in the field of sustainable financing, developed this tricky task for teams and provided professional impulses with the WRS.
"The question is how new technologies can be financially supported in order to reduce the CO2 footprint," explained Dirk Pietruschka. "Many climate-friendly technologies are becoming very interesting, especially economically, such as charging infrastructures for e-mobility or investments in renewable energies, and yet there are still too few regional and local projects," he said. HFT economic expert Tobias Popovic emphasized that more and more citizens are looking for a way to invest their savings in a meaningful way and thus want to contribute to investing in sustainable and climate-friendly projects in the region.
How to motivate citizens and companies to invest sustainably in climate protection projects was the subject of a feverish sprint of ideas by two teams. Robin Schmücker (WRS) and Irina Kohlrautz (HFT, M4_LAB) supported the teams as coaches and sparring partners to accompany them in the process of developing ideas and solutions together. This resulted in 2 concepts for a possible green investment platform.
After this marathon of ideas each team presented its solutions in a video. Now it is up to the jury, which also includes HFT researchers Dirk Pietruschka and Tobias Popovic, to choose a winner of the challenge within one week. The winning team will then compete in the Climathon Germany against the other German cities along the Ruhr and from Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and Leipzig. Will the winning team of the Challenge of the HFT and the WRS become the Germany winner on 27.11?
Further links:
impacthub.de/events/climathon-2020.html
Contact person for questions at the HFT Stuttgart:
Prof. Dr. Tobias Popovic(tobias.popovic(at)hft-stuttgart,de) Dr. Dirk Pietruschka(dirk.pietruschka(at)hft-stuttgart.de) Irina Kohlrautz(irina.kohlrautz(at)hft-stuttgart.de)