Climathon – Eco Centre South West

Climathon

Wednesday 26th April, Taunton, Somerset

Bringing together sustainability champions, innovators and influencers, from the business and non-commercial sectors and the community to collaborate and create inventive solutions for climate change challenges.

A Climathon is a one-day hackathon that brings people together from diverse backgrounds. Participants work in teams to develop solutions for climate-related problems such as pollution, energy, and waste. The aim is to generate new ideas for sustainable products, technologies and services, or other practical ways of helping us to live and work more sustainably. At the end of the day, teams will present their solutions to a panel of judges.

Programme

THEME: Climate change and sustainability in a time of a cost-of-living crisis.

There will be a specific focus on:

Energy – generation and saving.

Smarter consumption – waste minimisation, adapting usage/behaviour, re-use/recycling

Ticket information (includes refreshments and lunch):

Organisations £80 per person

Community Representatives and Individuals: Donation (recommended £25)

Places will be limited - participants will need to apply in advance.

Book now

We want your ideas. Tell us what to focus on at the Climathon

We want to understand the challenges and ideas within the theme that you think are a priority to address, and the Climathon could find a practical solution for.

It maybe something that’s close to your heart, or you may have the seeds of a potential solution that will benefit from wider input. You could think about:

What have you had to do differently in your day because of the impact of climate change, and what might improve that?

What have you seen a change in the environment that you're worried about?

What gaps do you think there are in services or facilities for sustainable living?

Please tell us your ideas by Friday 31st March. We will then put the ideas to a vote and the favourite ideas will be taken forward to the Climathon.

What is a Climathon?

Climathons (Climate Action Hackathons) are a proactive platform which facilitates collaboration and innovation. They work by bringing people together from diverse backgrounds with a range of experiences, knowledge, and perspectives to work in teams to ‘hack’. Their aim is to devise new solutions to the challenges of climate change and sustainability.

The variety of the people who attend brings diversity of thought, which is a key ingredient for driving creativity and developing new approaches, and as a result create unique and innovative ideas.

Importantly, Climathons are about action, and teams must work towards making solutions that are practical and actionable.

Each Climathon will focus on a broad theme, and within that theme teams will address a small number of sustainability challenges. This means participants can focus on the challenges and issues they care about and/or are affected by, or have expertise, ideas or resources to contribute to new solutions and approaches. In addition, each Climathon will have wild card topic selected by popular vote.

As a cross-sector event, a Climathon provides the ideal opportunity to explore issues and potential solutions that lie at the intersections of public involvement and consumer behaviour/uptake, and business and voluntary statutory sector interests. The challenges to be addressed will be those that would benefit from community/public insight and input from the other sectors.

Why Take Part

Have a positive impact on your lifestyle, your community, your business and the planet

Be part of a unique and exciting opportunity to champion solutions for the climate challenges we face, now and in the future

By taking part you will help shape the South West Climate Action Event Programme to ensure it remains relevant, innovative and responsive.

You get to spend a creative and collaborative day, building something you will be proud of in the end, and believe in.

An opportunity for personal development and to challenge yourself

It’s a learning opportunity. You will see how different sectors and individuals tackle issues and develop ideas. You will learn about different technologies, methodologies and learn from each other’s successes and failures

Climathons are time-sensitive, sometimes intense experiences. Your problem-solving skills will be stretched to the limit and you will need work fast and focus on what’s important to get the job done.

You will also learn to be adaptable and flexible in your approach, however pre-defined your ideas are before you attend.

Make positive connections

People often find that working together creates better results than working on your own, especially when innovating. You never know what external piece of knowledge or idea might spark a breakthrough.

It’s a great way to share knowledge. You can learn from others, but also teach what you know to others and pass on the benefit. There is potential to discover new talents, passions and skills.