Climathon Nuremberg: a twelve-hour idea marathon, a complete success
Our cities are the world’s largest energy consumers with about 80 percent and responsible for about 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. By 2030, our cities are to become climate-neutral so that the earth remains a livable planet for everyone.
To achieve this goal, the Climathon was founded as a marathon of ideas for innovative solutiions to urban climate problems and takes place annually on 6 continents, in around 60 countries and 100 cities.
The Audi Environmental Foundation supports this kind of events because we actively promote and develop new solutions to the challenges of climate change in cities.
That is why we have set the challenge for the Climathon Nuremberg 2021 in line with our projects:
How can the 2nd life use of batteries contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
The venue was the Ofenwerk in Nuremberg, whose atmosphere reflected the past through an Oldtimer exhibition and thus was just the right setting to think about the future.
To kick off the day, we were able to engage our project partner Prodip Chatterjee, co-founder of the start-up Nunam and Christoph Zitzelsberger, expert in sustainable product development at AUDI AG, for keynote presentations on 2nd-life approaches that have already been implemented. They provided best practices to open the mind for new ideas during the following Climathon.
Afterwards round about 30 participants developed a total of ten ideas in an interactive brainstorming session. Five of these ideas were developed and worked out in small and creative teams throughout the afternoon. Regarding the constellation of the teams, their heterogeneity was particularly noticeable: while the youngest participant was only 16, the oldest was at the beginning of 70; and different cultures also met. This heterogeneity greatly enriched the discussions and finally the quality of the ideas, because it allowed the teams a change of perspectives.
In the evening the teams presented their ideas in creative and very entertaining pitches: from the so-called “Kaffmobil” – a car-sharing offer in the countryside in which 2nd-life vehicles are used – to an incentive program with ecopoints for collecting used batteries, to the self-sufficient energy supply of a green fair with sustainable energy – the bandwidth of ideas was huge.
On October 29/30 2021, a digital Climathon will be held as a global 24-hour-idea-marathon for urban climate innovations in around 100 cities. Here, the teams from Climathon Nuremberg can participate, present their ideas and develop them together with like-minded people from all over the country in digital sessions.