ClimateLauchpad Puts Climate Change Solutions Front & Center At Grand Final

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By Kyle Field

Climate change solutions often seem so distant into the future or so large that they can only be implemented and funded by entire nations. Global problems are so large that most people have a hard time just wrapping their minds around the problem, let alone conjuring a solution. But the Climate Launchpad team has a different approach to the solution.

Climate Launchpad

They believe that each and every one of us has the power to innovate and to create solutions to solve climate change. To help the best solutions rise to the top, the Climate Launchpad team has created the world’s largest cleantech business idea competition. The Climate Launchpad competition inspires innovators to create functional, attainable solutions to climate change.

Climate Launchpad

Climate Launchpad is focused on action. As part of the competition, entrants are paired with a trainer and are given 3 months of coaching to help shape up their idea for the market. Regardless of whether they are selected as finalists or not, this experience moves the idea forward and helps entrepreneurs craft products that are not only cool or interesting, but that will both make an impact on climate change and have a better shot at succeeding in their respective marketplaces. After the initial coaching period, national finals are held, with three finalists being selected from each country.

Those country winners move on to the Climate Launchpad / Climate KIC Grand Final event in Cyprus, where they hear from keynote speakers and industry experts. These speakers are intended to inspire leadership teams and bolster their pitches and company strategies, whether they win or not. The finalists then give a final pitch to the Climate Launchpad jury to determine just how ready the products and solutions are for the market.

To get an idea of what a final pitch looks like and to hear from some of the ideas from last year, check out this video from one of last year’s finalists, Sponge. Sponge has created a hydrophobic (water repelling) and oleophilic (oil loving) barrier intended for oil production platforms that has great potential to reduce the impact of operational and incidental oil discharges.

As one of those very same 2016 Climate Launchpad finalists said last year:

“If solving climate change would always be this much fun, we would have solved it decades ago.”

Below is a peek at some of the 105 finalists that will compete in the Grand Final this year:

◊ BOTANICA from Spain has developed ceramic heating panels that save energy using microwaves technology.

◊ Burgs Foods from the Netherlands is tackling the growing global demand for animal protein by making insects part of our staple diet. As a side benefit, cutting animal protein from diets has the potential to slash global emissions.

Urbantransitioners from Finland builds toilets that collect urine and produce fertilizer sold to farmers for a different take on waste management.

◊ Residential Biogas of Israel seeks to tap into the gaseous emissions that result from anaerobic digestion of household waste to supply biogas directly back to the house for cooking or heating.

◊ Reel Tide Energy of Ireland has developed an energy generation solution that taps into the power of the ocean’s tidal systems to generate energy with a drag pod based system.

◊ FlushWave Start-up from Ukraine has developed a system that reuses greywater from other locations in a home for toilet flushing.

◊ EneStor of Lithuania has developed a solution that sits between wind farm operators and electric vehicle owners that aims to balance surplus wind farm electrical production with the massive distributed load that EV drivers represent.

For the more visually oriented out there, invest 2 quick minutes watching the video below to see what the 2017 Grand Final has in store for us this year.

Since the majority of you will not be able to attend the event in person, the event will be livestreamed, and presentations will be posted on YouTube within a few days of the event.

Check out the full list of finalists over on the Climate Launchpad site and stay tuned here on CleanTechnica to learn more about the 2017 finalists coming out of the Grand Final.

This post was sponsored by ClimateLaunchpad; images courtesy ClimateLaunchpad


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