Local action can have global impact, and the upcoming Climathon Honolulu gives you a chance to do just that. The Climathon day of action will be held October 26 and 27, in partnership with Zero Waste Oahu. The event is an all-day climate design challenge hackathon (learn more about what, exactly, a hackathon is here) to help solve local issues. Find all current event details and full schedule here.
What is Climathon?
Climathon, a project of Climate-KIC and under the auspice of the European Union, has the official mission of empowering a global wave of change-makers and innovators to help humanity achieve zero emissions in 20 to 30 years. Last year the Global Climathon included 113 cities with over 5000 participants and 400+ solutions – and this year will be bigger than ever. This year, the Climathon team connected with Impact Hub Global, joining together these two organizations to build ongoing climate solutions.
In Honolulu, a diverse group of stakeholders convened to design the first Climathon for Honolulu. The group determined that reducing the human impact of tourism in Honolulu would be a great target area to start. Thus the question to tackle is: How do we reduce the human impact of tourism in Honolulu?
Using the hackathon format, groups will get together to create solutions to this question. These solutions can be high-tech, low-tech, policy driven, or other. We’re looking forward to hearing solutions from all types of participants: entrepreneurs, activists, families, government, non-profit, small business owners, and more! There will be a preliminary competition on Saturday, and on Sunday final decision will be made and prizes awarded.
Some of the cool solutions that other cities have created in previous Climathon events include:
- In Edinburgh, Scotland, they focused on building a circular economy around food, and improving food security. Their solutions included IntelliAD, an autonomous, ultra-small-scale organic waste digester for onsite waste recycling and a aquaponics solution to make more food in smaller spaces.
- The city of Leeds, in UK, proposed “Plants for Pollution,” which included vertical garden installations and moss framed billboards that would absorb pollution, beautify the city, enhance its reputation and improve wellbeing, making use of limited space to add green infrastructure to places in the city where space is a premium.
- Shanghai LinGang wants to create zero carbon “smart mobility” solutions for the new city, which has less population and less public transit opportunity than other parts of the city.
- In Washington DC, the solution was a furniture moving and repurposing business to reduce overall waste in the city.
These workshops include Project Drawdown, Sierra Club of Hawaii, and the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency. There will also be a film night showing Infected Earth, a documentary from a local documentarian, Dr. Darragh O’Carroll. All of these events are free and open to the public. Find all current event details and full schedule here. If you want to register a pitch at the Hackathon, sign up here.
