Climate CoLab News

Finalists Announced– Vote for Popular Choice Winners!

July 5, 2016

Finalists Announced!

Climate CoLab is excited to announce 60 Finalists in 14 contests on innovative ways to address climate change. Expert judges have now evaluated the nearly 500 proposals submitted to the platform this spring, and earlier selected 173 as Semi-Finalists. From among them, 60 were identified as the most promising, and are today named as Finalists. We commend them for their strong work and accomplishments!

In addition, we extend our deep thanks to the volunteer Judges, Advisors, Fellows, and Catalysts who contributed their time to encouraging, evaluating, and providing feedback to proposal authors.

Public Voting Period Now Open!

Today, we announce the start of the public voting period, which runs from July 5, 12 p.m. Eastern, 2016, to July 31, 11:59 p.m. Eastern, 2016. During this time, anyone from around the globe is invited to cast their vote for their favorites!

The proposal with the greatest number of votes within each contest will be named its Popular Choice Award winner. Popular Choice winners, along with the Judges’ Choice winners (judges’ favorite in each contest), will be invited to present at the MIT Crowds & Climate Conference on September 28th & 29th in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a $10,000 Grand Prize will be awarded.

To vote:

Sign up or login to the Climate CoLab website;
Click one of the Finalists’ proposals to read their work; and
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 the deadline. “Supports” do not become “Votes”, so please make sure you vote for one proposal if you have supported multiple in a contest. All voting is subject to the Climate CoLab’s voting rules.

Share the #climatevote

Be part of the conversation by discussing & sharing your favorite proposals over social media, using the hashtag #climatevote in your posts, and tagging us @ClimateCoLab. For guidance on sharing proposals, and encouraging votes over social media, please see our Social Media Guide for more details.

Join Climate CoLab’s ThunderClap to support the Finalists & spread the word about the voting period!

Support our Thunderclap about the Finalists here!

2016 Finalists

Finalists are also displayed on each contest homepage. Click here to browse by contest.

Energy Supply

DARK SOLAR technology applications; infrared and ICE replacing FIRE and smoke! / enthalpiq
ICE and heat replacing FIRE and smoke; the application of concentrated SOLAR power technology and INVISIBLE light to reduce greenhouse gases

F ACILITATING ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH SOLAR IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGY / TAREO
To combat rural community’s vulnerability to climate change effects through adoption of solar irrigation and egg incubation technology.

Franchised Microgrids for the Developing World Based on Open Source Components / jlgula
Deploy microgrids to the developing world using a franchise business model based on open source hardware to reduce cost.

Insulator Slow Cooker Bags / marole
Insulator Bags that will enable people to cook boiled food slowly and save electricity, firewood and paraffins for the UNDERPREVILIGED.

The Collective Power Platform / roelofsmichiel and nikodem.bienia
The Collective Power Platform is a local peer to peer energy trading market for and by prosumers.

My Energy Xpert: a home and small business energy management solution / energyX Solutions
My Energy Xpert is a SMART energy audit and monitoring app empowering people to save time, money and lower their energy footprint.

Shifting Behaviors

Break climate conversation out of its shell! / Jumpstart Talk
Jumpstart talk of climate change in the media by injecting public voices asking climate related questions.

What is climate change and what do I have to do with it? / ENGAJAMUNDO
We seek to empower young Brazilians by showing them that we are part of the solution to overcome current problems caused by climate change.

Creating A New Culture Around Climate Change / Etho
How transforming fear, anger, and confusion into compassion, clarity, and hope will inspire environmental action.

Climatecoin 2016 / Dennis Peterson
To change attitudes, change incentives. Let’s make a digital currency that awards new coins to people who voluntarily offset carbon.

Low Carbon City Initiative: From Citizens To the World / Low Carbon City Team
A Citizen-led initiative for the collective construction of Low Carbon Cities

DearTomorrow, a promise to the future about climate change / deartomorrow.org
To shift behavior and broaden the climate culture, we invite people to send open letters about climate change to loved ones in the future.

MIT Mitigation

Building Cooling and Heating, with Solar Robotic Concentrated Thermal Collectors / Lighthouse Group
It is economically and practically feasible, to substitute 60% of the energy we use for cooling and heating our buildings with solar energy.

From engagement to implementation: SaveOhno focuses all of MIT on climate action / SaveOhno
SaveOhno’s proven gamification model will engage thousands of MIT students & alumni to leverage MIT’s technology and reduce campus emissions

100% Net Zero Carbon Plan, 60% NZ Effectively Free, Expert Team Ready! / Net Zero Foundation
100% Net Zero Carbon for all Buildings. MIT 60-80% NZ for free! #DivestTheCampus — Join the #NetZeroMovement to save the Planet!

Minimizing HVAC Energy Use Through Low-cost Software-based Airflow Optimization / mgevelber, yun, rpeters
Student project to identify campus wide HVAC efficiency opportunities and demonstration of new HVAC control architecture: 20-40% reductions.

Transportation

Mini Elevated cTrains (caterpillar trains) / terrautopia
A comprehensive solution-mass transit for all: MINI ELEVATED cTrains: seating room only – minimal height-width-length – visibly acceptable.

Adaptation

Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Strategies for Property and Community / Climate.IQ
Climate.IQ is a web tool that uses spatial and statistical analysis to conduct climate risk assessment for properties and communities.

Adapting Cultural Heritage to Climate Change / victoria.herrmann
Climate change adaptation isn’t just armoring infrastructure. It’s making cultures more resilient. We make sure community identity is saved.

Eco-Cassava / africa4green & bmarinob
Cassava, a climate-smart cash crop, can help build the adaptive capacity of rural women and community resilience in SubSahara Africa.

Management via Measurement: translating climate projections into actionable data / risQ
Developing a Physics Guided Statistical Model to provide actionable, probabilistic climate forecasts to the public and private sectors

Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines Project / Sustainable Shores
Sustainable Shorelines generates info about best shoreline management options preserving ecology through adapting to climate change impacts.

Build reefs to sustain oceans’ adaptation to a warmer world / DO CLIMA
Support a new generation of ocean fishermen, divers and sailors to adapt marine ecossystems to current climate change impacts

Unleashing the climate-smart potential of Africa’s forgotten rice / sririce
Combining eco-farming methods with ancient varieties, farmers can more efficiently use resources, improve yields, & preserve biodiversity.

Energy-Water Nexus

Infrastructure for a Livable Future / CRWA
Community Water and Energy Centers produce reliable, renewable and resilient energy and clean water while restoring the natural environment.

Distilled Water From Combusted Fossil Fuel / Sidel Systems USA
In every 1 million Btu’s of combusted natural gas are 5 gallons of recoverable ~ distilled water.

Aviation

Strategic Investment to Scale-up Aviation Biofuel / sunny1990 & vmthomas1
Focusing heavy investments from China to ramp up sustainable biofuel production can bring global costs down.

Cross Flow Air Turbine (CFAT) Auxiliary Power Unit / AirMach Innovations
Zero fuel Zero Emission replacement technology for aircraft’s Auxiliary Power Units (APUs).

Smart Cities

Interactive Business Energy and Emissions Dashboard for Cities / Climate Smart
create a dashboard that allows cities to understand their business emissions by sector, business size, emissions source, and track progress.

Industry

Solar Steam / sunflower
MIT solutions to global warming will bring affordable clean energy to billions of people, especially in the developing world.

25ºC (77ºF) / Kiri
Regulate industry globally so all new air conditioners have a minimum of 25ºC(77ºF). Reset existing equipment to comply this new standard.

Buildings

Cooperative Building / Kaenga
Let’s build more sustainable buildings by empowering people to design their homes and shape their communities.

Naturally heated homes for colder and poorer regions of the world / Javed Sultan
Teaching people to build low carbon footprint, energy efficient, and naturally heated homes in poorer and colder regions of the world

RentRocket.org – Bringing transparent energy data to rental housing markets / RentRocket.org
If we want to reverse climate change, we have to reach people who don’t think about it. Let’s make climate-friendly housing decisions easy.

willpower energy: Make your own fuel from CO2 at home / Gensoric
Make your own fuel at home from atmospheric CO2 – heat your home with the energy you produce and store yourself #UseNotReduce

Waste Management

Food Recovery Network: Fighting Waste, Feeding People / FoodRecoveryNetwork
Food Recovery Network: a student-driven grassroots movement promoting food recovery, a simple, sustainable solution to food waste and hunger

Recykle | A smart phone app to manage household waste responsibly / Kabadiwalla Connect
Develop a smart phone app that helps people segregate, compost, find their closest kabadiwalla and sign-up for local waste management events

Tycycler: An intuitive, non-motorized & affordable tire recycling technology. / Tycycler
The Tycycler is an intuitive, non-motorized and affordable device that helps informal waste workers to recycle waste tires across Africa.

e-co (easy collect): A simple collection system for textile recycling / e-collective
Easy-collect aims to prevent used clothes going to landfill and make them recycled / upcycled / reused.

Conscious textile reverse Logistics / Retalhar
Retalhar is a social business that promotes reverse logistics of corporate uniforms by disposing it in a socio-environmental friendly way.

Materials Matter

Boro / Danny and Friends
A Sustainable Label System for Conscious Consuming

Industry-backed voluntary sustainability pricing scheme / STAC
Establish an independent industry-backed authority that acts as the governing body of a voluntary sustainability pricing framework.

The Infinity Collection for Apparel Industry / MiKaSu
Our proposal will offer a revolutionary garment collection and app service as a plug-in on the already popular App such as NIKE plus running

Circular Textiles Close the Loop / REvolve
Our model for closed loop textiles reduces the impact of the apparel industry and brings new opportunities to emerging markets

Empowering designers roles in using better sustainable material options / Team Wonder
Sourceseed is a curated alternative material option platform that allows designers to co-buy fabrics with eachother at an affordable price.

Clean Cookstoves

Dry firewood needs seasoning, covered storage and a drying chimney / climaterescue
After careful seasoning and storing, use a simple drying chimney for firewood. Next generation cookstoves can also be carbon-positive!

Smokeless gas cylinder stove with wood drier / saadithya
Modifying old unused gas cylinder into a smokeless stove for cooking, heat radiated while using it is used for drying wood.

Land Use

Sustainable fish farming in Siekopai territory of the Ecuadorean Amazon region / lianas
Fish farming of native species, an environmentally sustainable activity as a source of food for the Siekopai in the Ecuadorean Amazon region

Unleashing the climate-smart potential of Africa’s forgotten rice / sririce
Combining eco-farming methods with ancient varieties, farmers can reduce CH4 emissions & water use, improve yields & preserve biodiversity.

Enhancing Cameroon’s intertidal forest dynamics following anthropogenic impacts / moudingo54cwcs
Concerted efforts are necessary to sustain mangrove ecosystem functions and benefits to climate change impacts (sea level rise).

Vertical and Micro-gardening(VMG) climate smart farming in Uganda / paulcastor
VMG is a CSA approach that uses the Vertical farming technology to convert 9 square feet into 36 square feet of farming space.

Green Cambridge Street Tree Biochar Pilot Study / Green Cambridge
Pilot study on the effectiveness of biochar based soil in improving the lifespan and health of urban trees and their carbon sequestration.

Honey Bees = Polination = crops = food Pollination = Photosynthesis = lower C02 / Kelvin Valley Honey
More bees increases pollination, increases crop yields, safeguard’s 35% of the World’s foods plus increses absorbtion of C02.

Land Use

Farmer-run seedling nurseries to meet Atlantic Forest restoration goals / yggbrasil
Linking smallholder economic development and climate change mitigation by providing funding and training for native tree seedling nurseries

Swami Vivekananda Fruit-Trees Expansion Mission for environment, peace, health / waghhm
Collect fruit seeds with students help, grow fruit trees everywhere, distribute fruits free, request to save seeds & use next year

Preservation + restoration of blue carbon ecosystems require immediate attention / MoorooducRH
Blue carbon ecosystems are complex, requiring a complex and sustainable restoration strategy, undertaken at the landscape level.

Native forests restoration to substitute illegal tropical forests logging / Bratus Nat. Cap.
Growing forests is the most effective nature based carbon capture and storage solution available and mitigate land use emissions.

Reducing methane emissions from rice farming / ClimateRe
Reducing Methane Emission While Enhancing Rice Farmers’ Resilience to Climate Change

Promoving sustainable development in natural protected areas buffer zone / AIDER team
Agroforestry systems: an alternative to degraded areas recovery, promoting biodiversity conservation in natural protected areas buffer zone

Sustainable fish farming in Siekopai territory of the Ecuadorean Amazon region / lianasFish farming of native species, an environmentally sustainable activity as a source of food for the Siekopai in the Ecuadorean Amazon region

Vertical and Micro-gardening(VMG) climate smart farming in Uganda / paulcastor

VMG is a CSA approach that uses the Vertical farming technology to convert 9 square feet into 36 square feet of farming space.

Agroforestry / hiraA system of land use in which harvestable trees or shrubs are grown among or around crops or on pastureland.

Unleashing the climate-smart potential of Africa’s forgotten rice / sririceCombining eco-farming methods with ancient varieties, farmers can reduce CH4 emissions & water use, improve yields & preserve biodiversity.

Efficient water and fertilizer use towards yield increases and mitigation of GHG / AIC Agro Instruments

By optimization through monitored agriculture we can raise yield, reduce pollution & GHGs, boost savings and conserve energy & labour.

Enhancing Cameroon’s intertidal forest dynamics following anthropogenic impacts / moudingo54cwcsConcerted efforts are necessary to sustain mangrove ecosystem functions and benefits to climate change impacts (sea level rise).

Green Cambridge Street Tree Biochar Pilot Study / Green Cambridge

Pilot study on the effectiveness of biochar based soil in improving the lifespan and health of urban trees and their carbon sequestration.

Perspective landuse planning & Crop Production Improvement Using GIS Technique / dineshkar Action plan preparation for conserving land degradation, management of water resources and improving agriculture productivity using GIS
Reducing Demand for Animal Consumption / Meat Climate ChangePlant-based diets can stop climate chaos! Even if the world went fossil free, increasing animal consumption will continue global warming.

Honey Bees = Polination = crops = food Pollination = Photosynthesis = lower C02 / Kelvin Valley Honey
More bees increases pollination, increases crop yields, safeguard’s 35% of the World’s foods plus increses absorbtion of C02.

By Annalyn Bachmann

Community News

Finalists Announced– Vote for Popular Choice Winners!

Finalists Announced!

Public Voting Period Now Open!

Share the #climatevote

Support our Thunderclap about the Finalists here!