EarthHack: Crowdsourcing the Solution to Climate Change

LONDON, May 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Is the solution to our biggest collective challenge, climate change, already out there, waiting to be discovered? This is exactly what the EarthHack, a new international competition launched on May 29^th in London, wants to achieve: to unleash the power of creative thinking on how existing technology can be re-purposed towards creating tomorrow's low carbon solutions.

The first EarthHack, powered by the Marblar platform in partnership with The Climate Group and the support of IKEA and Philips, will ask competitors to reimagine existing technology for a more sustainable home today and save 1M tons of CO2 per annum by 2020. These ideas can explore potential solutions for a myriad of different types of homes: from basic dwellings to towering apartment blocks and reimagine latent technology that creates or conserves energy.

Ben Ferrari, Director of Corporate Relations at The Climate Group, said: "To drive our Clean Revolution forward we need innovative companies and entrepreneurs that are able to transform markets and the technologies that we use in our everyday lives. EarthHack opens up the doors of innovation to people from all backgrounds, nationalities and education, allowing them to become engineers of the low carbon future."

The panel of the competition includes former Director General of CERN, current Director of Energy Research at Oxford University, Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith and the Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge University, Sir Richard Friend along with representatives from IKEA, Philips and other cleantech experts.

Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith said: "Nearly 30% of the world's primary energy is used in residential buildings which are therefore an excellent place to look for large energy savings. EarthHack will stimulate novel applications of existing technologies that will lower energy bills and decrease carbon emissions, thereby underwriting a better future for us and our descendants."

Håkan Nordkvist, Head of Sustainability Innovation, IKEA Group, said: "IKEA wants to have a positive impact on people and the planet - and that includes inspiring and enabling our customers to live a more sustainable life at home. We are delighted to support the first EarthHack challenge. By sharing experiences, working together and building on what we offer today, we can find even more innovative and affordable ways to help millions of people to save energy, water and waste at home in the future."

Harry Verhaar, Head of Global Public & Government Affairs at Philips Lighting, said: "Philips is delighted to support the EarthHack challenge. In order to achieve a sustainable low-carbon future and to maximise efficient use of resources, new ideas and innovations need to be developed and brought to market quickly. Challenges like the EarthHack can contribute to this process."

The EarthHack [sustainable homes] is a unique opportunity for creative people to:

• Share in a prize pot of $25,000
• Fly winner(s) to New York City to receive their award during Climate Week NYC 2013
• Work with 1000s of bright minds across the globe to create brand new applications
• Work on a tested, and truly global, crowdsourcing platform
• Get valuable feedback from experts at IKEA and Philips on the business potential of their idea

Marblar, conceived at Oxford University, is a platform crowdsourcing invention that has already found over 1000 market applications for existing technologies thought to be purposeless. The platform brings together bright, energetic, and creative technologists, graduates, designers, and business minds from over 100 countries across the world.

About The Climate Group
The Climate Group is an independent, not-for-profit organisation working to inspire and catalyse leadership for a 'Clean Revolution': a low carbon future that is smarter, better and more prosperous. For all.

• We work internationally with a coalition of companies, states, regions, cities and public figures.
• We inspire leaders by communicating a compelling narrative for change; we equip them by delivering evidence of success; and work in partnership with them in driving transformative change.
• Together with our partners, we are building a successful low carbon future of opportunity that boosts economies, creates jobs, enhances energy security, improves the quality of life of communities around the world, and averts the crippling impacts of runaway climate change.

Founded in 2004, The Climate Group has operations in Australia, China (Beijing and Hong Kong), Europe, India and North America.