Finalists Selected – Vote to select Popular Choice Winners!
August 3, 2015
The Judges have reviewed and evaluated nearly 400 proposals that were submitted to the Climate CoLab during its 2015 round of contests, and selected 109 as Semi-Finalists.The authors of these Semi-Finalist proposals were given the opportunity to revise their entries based on the feedback from the Judges and the community before undergoing a second round of judging to select 58 contest Finalists.
Today, the Climate CoLab announces the 2015 round of Finalist proposals, and opens the public voting period. Now is your chance to tell us which ideas you most want to see implemented in the world!
The Judges, Advisors, Fellows and Climate CoLab staff would like to acknowledge all the Semi-Finalists — and all members who contributed to their work — for the thought, passion and commitment that went into their proposals and their revisions. The Proposals selected as Finalists are bold, innovative, and exciting. Thank you to both our Semi-Finalists and Finalists!
Submit your vote!
From August 3 until September 12, 2015, Climate CoLab members and the public are invited to cast their votes for the one proposal in each contest that they would most like to see win. The author with the most votes in each contest will win the contest’s Popular Choice award and, along with the Judges’ Choice winners, will receive a special invitation to attend select sessions at MIT’s SOLVE Conference and present their proposals before key constituents at the MIT Crowds & Climate conference on October 6, where a $10,000 Grand Prize will be awarded.
Voting is easy!
- Login to the Climate CoLab website
- Click one of the Finalists below to read their proposal
- Select the “Vote for proposal” button
on the proposal page.
You are given one vote per contest, and may change your vote as many times as you wish until midnight Eastern Time on September 12, 2015. “Supports” do not become “Votes” so please make sure you vote for the proposals you supported. To avoid spam, your Climate CoLab account must have a valid email address for your vote to be counted. All voting is subject to the Climate CoLab’s voting rules. Please note that the regional and global contests are not in the voting phase and are still accepting proposals.
Share the #climatevote
Discuss, debate, select, and share your favorite proposals with the world. Be a part of the conversation by including the Twitter and Facebook hashtag #climatevote in your posts and tag us @ClimateCoLab. For guidance about sharing proposals over social media, check out our Social Media Guide.
2015 Finalists
Finalists are also displayed on each contest homepage. Click here to browse by contest.
Adaptation
Stopping Unstoppable Sea Level Rise / Manaugh&Majdi
Abundant resources are available to stop disastrous sea level rise resulting from melting glaciers.
Prefigurative Disaster Organizing / The Collective Story
In times of disaster communities organize for mutual aid. Lets create a narrative of mutual aid first to prefigure a world without disaster.
Sand Dams for Climate Change Adaptation in Ghana / G4CC
The project aims to build six sand dams in the Upper East region of Ghana to capture and store water for domestic and agricultural purposes.
Seeding Science Knowledge by engaging local experts / Geocitizens
Local prioritization and testing of adaptation practices supported by a collaborative mapping tool will out scale lessons learned globally.
Anticipating Climate Change in the Pamir Mountains
Linking Climate Information to Ecological Calendars: An Appointment With Drought / mattbarlow
Prepare for climate change and apply regional drought information in the Pamirs by linking climate science with human ecological calendars.
Recalibration of traditional calendars through participatory data collection / TedW
Traditional knowledge, participatory science, and modern data analytics to create climate-smart, farm-scale agricultural body calendars.
Biodiversity collections as tools for understanding changes in the Pamir Mtns / ellwood
Anticipate and adapt to changing phenological patterns in the Pamir Mtns through the use of historical and contemporary biodiversity data.
Generations working together: Elders, farmers, children and adaptation / lauriea
Adapting agriculture to changing and increasingly variable conditions requires engaging multiple generations in locally-focused learning.
Atypical Ideas for Carbon Neutrality
Just Green It – Purchasing Electricity from Renewable Sources for Somerville / IdeatingGreen
Harnessing the power of choice through community engagement to support green electricity.
Sustainable Urban Food Initiative (SUFI) for Climate Change Resilience / PlaneTiers
SUFI provides an integrated hub that sustainably manages the urban energy-water-food nexus in an era of climate change.
Urban Wood: Somerville’s Wood Construction Legacy and Future Carbon Neutrality / Team Urban Wood
Modify the building codes to allow wood construction for tall buildings and more use types to decrease Somerville’s carbon footprint.
CarbonGobbler – Engaging Citizens And Business In Lowering Carbon Emissions / CarbonGobbler
Manage and Control Carbon Emission biggies, energy use and transportation choices with CarbonGobbler. While saving money too.
The Loop Transit System / SomClimateAction
The Loop transit system is a fleet of fare-based passenger vehicles that travel planned routes within city limits on a continuous schedule.
Give Real-Time Feedback on Energy Use & Crowdsource the Hunt For Energy Leaks / kathoh
Want to cut carbon pollution? Start w/ buildings: give real-time feedback on energy consumption and crowdsource the hunt for energy leaks.
Residential street electric vehicle charging stations / adonn427
Allow residents without driveways to charge electrical vehicles on their streets.
Building
Passive NetZero SUPERHOMES Can Weather Storms, Save Lives and End Climate Change / Better Building Inst
Super-Energy-Efficient Houses Offer Free-Market Choice to Save Money, Homes and Lives WITHOUT Regulation or Fossil-Fuel Industry Resistance.
OpenControl Building / Group OpenControl
We will leverage the market for demand response to enable widespread adoption of home energy management systems.
3D Printing Hempcrete – The People will know what they want once they see it… / AFMPPA
Build a full size 3D Printed Hempcrete Structure to demonstrate Hemp/3D Printing as a sustainable alternative to traditional construction.
Window Insulating Plug & Play Solar Panel Retrofits – Save A/C make Clean energy / InSite Energy, LLC.
To make the first Window Insulating Plug&Play solar panel to save energy on Air-conditioning, while making clean energy. Anyone can install.
Energy Solutions for Latin America
Establish Local Energy Interaction Strategies (LEIS) as driver to GHG reductions / G4 Energía
Highly replicable solution for Latin America reality based on local energy interaction strategy to create a win-win network to GHG reduction.
Chile: The world’s green energy supplier / Valhalla
The greatest global challenge in transitioning to a clean energy matrix is to be able to store electricity at a low cost.
Electricity at the lowest societal cost: holistic optimization / EMERGE
Electricity at the lowest societal cost by optimizing techno-economic, environmental and health impacts of electricity infrastructure growth.
Energy Supply
Robotic Solar Armada / Helionauts
Synthetic fuel produced by solar harvesting ships can accelerate the transition to renewable energy by obviating an infrastructure overhaul.
Distributed Plug & Play Consumer Solar Panels – Add Capacity, Shed Carbon / InSite Energy, LLC.
Distribute Plug & Play solar panels to home owners, and apartment renters to make clean energy on site where you use it.
Energy-Water Nexus
Saving Hoover Dam / Majdi & Manaugh
Systems thinking leads to a plan to keep Hoover Dam as viable source of clean water and energy.
Tidal Pump / Robert Tulip
The Tidal Pump, now at proof of concept, aims to shift large volumes of liquid in the ocean at lowest possible cost using new technology.
Sustainable Urban Food Initiative (SUFI) for Climate Change Resilience / PlaneTiers
SUFI provides an integrated hub that sustainably manages the urban energy-water-food nexus in an era of climate change.
SunSaluter: a low-cost, passive solar tracker that produces clean water / SunSaluter
The SunSaluter is a low-cost solar panel rotator which boosts efficiency by 30% and produces four liters of clean drinking water each day!
Nualgi – Diatom Algae – Oxygen / Nualgi-Diatom Algae
Diatom Algae produce about 20 to 25% of all Oxygen in the world. All the oxygen required to treat sewage can be produced by Diatoms.
Industry
Utilizing Molecularly Imprinted Technology to Selectively Filter Pollutants / alexkrotz
Molecular Imprinted Polymers present a unique opportunity to make inexpensive materials that selectively bind to and filter pollutants.
United States Industrial Collaboration Agency (USICA) / SolarVibes
Removing inefficiencies of industrial innovation by facilitating collaborations and accelerating R&D solutions toward earlier adoption.
Land Use: Agriculture, Livestock & Forestry
Integrating REDD+ and Green Economic Growth for sustainable forest landscapes / charlesehrhart
Using green economic growth to create scalable, replicable financial incentives for the sustainable management of forest landscapes.
Supplementing forest sustainability certificates with fiscal instruments / Fiscal Forestry
A legally and economically viable mechanism to drastically increase the effectiveness of sustainability certificates for traded timber.
Bamboo Air Purification / Joseph5Chepsoi
Bamboo grows in most soils, environments, climate with minimal tillage, input, care and naturally purifies the air we breath.
Vertical Hydroponic Farms feed urban communities while reducing carbon emissions / Green Guys
Via numerous extremely efficient urban farms, community members gain access to local fresh food while reducing their carbon footprint.
An online management and finance platform for sustainable forestry projects. / OpenForests
An online platform for finance and forest management will be further developed to facilitate private investment into sustainable forestry.
Trees for Food Security / mfa
Improving sustainable productivity in farming systems and evergreen agriculture in Rombo District-Tanzania.
The Eyes of Virunga: From Poacher to Protector / Virunga Heroes
Come help us transform illegal charcoal makers into solar powered park rangers in the Virunga National Park in the DR Congo!
YES! / A. Semeniuc
On 2012, the Vorniceni Village Council, Moldova, approved a decision for the purpose of arranging of a square.
Shifting Attitudes & Behavior
Building solar through community, Building community through solar. / RE-volv
Empowering people to fight climate change by seeding a revolving fund for community-based solar energy through crowdfunding.
National campaign in India aimed to create a network of young Energy Ambassadors / Vijnana Bharati
National level campaign on energy conservation and renewable energy in Indian schools, aimed at building a network of Energy Ambassadors.
New Climate Magazine: Learning to live on a changing planet / New Climate Magazine
New Climate empowers the next wave of climate leaders. It engages them in learning and co-creating a new relationship to our world.
Unleash the energy of millions by making climate action simple, relevant and fun / Dylan H + Quentin P
It’s 2050 and your granddaughter, Ohno, is suffering. Your climate action today will change her world and transform her life for the better.
Rural Resillience
Midwest Rural Climate Dialogues / Jefferson Center
Engaging rural Midwestern communities to study, deliberate, and act to address the local impacts of a changing climate.
China’s rural-urban intensification. Envisioning the habitat of the future / tcatta
Design strategies to improve resilience of China’s rural towns. Envisioning harmonious relationship between the rural and urban environments.
Generation of Biogas energy from animal waste for use in rural areas / asigealex
The use of Biogas energy from animal waste is a sustainable source of energy to meet the domestic energy demands for cooking and lighting.
Transportation
An economically and legally viable mechanism for internalizing marine emissions / Ship-Emissions-Levy
Making polluters pay for climate damage caused by maritime emissions by overcoming avoidance, legal, data and global coordination issues.
Networking Rwanda’s Air Pollution Problem with Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors / langleydew
Establishing a low-cost air quality sensor network in Kigali, Rwanda with publicly accessible data empowering the public and policies.
Urban Energy Efficiency
District Level Electricity Production; Using Household Biogas / G4CC
The project looks at the various districts in Accra producing their own electricity by collecting biogas from households in the districts.
Making every watt count: An intelligent demand side management system on phones / Energy-Save (Esave)
A smart energy audit on consumers’ phones displaying their real time electricity consumption, wastage sources n tips to reduce energy use.
Pedal power / New Latin America
An initative thar reduce green house gases emissions; while you generate electricity, get a healthier life and reduce vehicular traffic.
U.S. Carbon Price
The Little Engine That Could: Revenue Neutral Carbon Fee and Dividend / CitizensClimateLobby
A revenue neutral, steadily rising fee on GHG emissions will steer the economy to a clean energy future and establish US climate leadership.
Sweeten the Carbon Deal / billferree
Build a climate fix coalition by cutting taxes on wages. This is the sugar. Medicine is the fee on carbon.
Novel Strategy On Private Sector’s Internal/”Shadow” Carbon Pricing / kathoh
Surprise: many companies already have internal/shadow carbon pricing! Here’s how to use leverage more carrots & sticks to make it universal.
Waste Management
fulFILL aims to combat the waste epidemic by revolutionizing the way we consume common household products.
Co-Composting to Reduce GHG Emissions from Confined Animal Feedlot Operations / monikaaroy
Creating opportunities to compost animal manure in combination with agricultural vegetable waste is a method that can reduce GHG emissions.
GHG Rescue; Buying Waste from Households and selling it to Recycle Companies / G4CC
The GHG Rescue Project seeks to buy segregated waste from households in Accra, Ghana and sell it to Recycling Companies.
Nualgi – Diatom Algae for Sewage Treatment / Nualgi-Diatom Algae
Using Nualgi to grow Diatoms is the most economical and sustainable solution to sewage treatment,growing fish and fuel and sequester carbon.