Green business idea competition gains global impact

Innovation Birmingham’s ClimateLaunchpad programme kicks off the fourth edition of its green business idea competition! Now welcoming Serbia, Azerbaijan, France and Germany as new participating countries and with interest from Argentina, India, Kenya and Australia, ClimateLaunchpad is no longer a European affair with over 35 countries expected to join the 2017 edition.

The competition is set up to help aspiring entrepreneurs grow their green ideas into global businesses; with the domestic programme, application process and competition being delivered by the regional team at Innovation Birmingham Campus.

In all participating countries, the teams start with a two-day boot camp and six coaching sessions to prepare for their national finals. The top-three of all competing countries will battle the in the grand final in Cyprus in October 2017.

The competition is now open for applications from innovators in renewable energy, energy efficiency, food and agriculture, water, transportation, industrial technology or any other way to tackle climate change. The judging criteria are impact on climate change, business potential and skills within the team.

Frans Nauta, Founder of ClimateLaunchpad, said: “We have to fix climate change and we have one generation to fix it. All over the world there are so many great entrepreneurs working on ideas to tackle climate change. ClimateLaunchpad boosts those entrepreneurs to global success through training and giving them an international stage.”

The best ideas win access to Climate-KIC’s renowned Accelerator programme, focused at cleantech commercialisation. The overall winner of the grand final will also receive a cash prize of €10,000, the runner up gets €5,000 and the team that comes in third place €2,500. There are also five theme awards participants can win in the categories; urban transitions, sustainable land use, sustainable production services and decisions metrics.

ClimateLaunchpad is part of the entrepreneurship offerings of Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. The competition is supported by over 100 partners from all over Europe. They include companies like Accenture, Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Hellenic Bank, Microsoft, PwC, Sparebank, Volvo and World Wide Fund.